Vow in Praise of Śākyamuni (99.1979.4.D.2)

Shotoku Taishi ScultureA vow written by a nun named Kenkai in homage to the historical buddha Śākyamuni pledges to aspire to Buddhist enlightenment no matter where she is reborn. Remarkably, this small piece of paper and brief text contain striking clues that help clarify the Shōtoku statue’s relationship to Eison (1201–1290), a seminal monk of the Kamakura period, and to the Shingon Ritsu community of lay and monastic devotees that flourished in Japan at the end of the thirteenth century.

The language of Kenkai’s vow is identical to one composed by Eison following the erection of a meditation hall at Saidaiji in 1246, not long after he re-established that temple as a headquarters for his new monastic order.1 Eison promoted his order through proselytization efforts in southern Kawachi Province (present-day Osaka), including the worship of Shōtoku.2 Just one month after building the meditation hall at Saidaiji he bestowed the bodhisattva precepts on 502 people at Shōtoku’s grave in southern Kawachi, and before year’s end he would also perform rites at the temple Dōmyōji,3 a site long associated with Shōtoku. Later documents refer to the 1246 vow as Eison’s “first vow,”4 and it may have been introduced to communities in Kawachi as a liturgical text that functioned in establishing a stronger sense of community among the new converts to the Saidaiji lineage. Kenkai’s inclusion in the Shōtoku statue of her own copy of Eison’s “first vow” may also suggest the talismanic qualities that the vow was understood to possess through its connection to its charismatic author.

References:

1) The full text of Eison’s 1246 vow is reproduced in Jikō 慈光, Saidaiji chokushi Kōshō bosatsu gyōjitsu nenpu 最大勅諡興正菩薩行實年譜, in Saidaiji Eison denki shūsei 西大寺叡尊伝記集成, ed. Nara Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo 奈良国立文化財研究所, pp. 107-206 (Kyoto, Hōzōkan, 1977), 130.

2) David Quinter, “Localizing Strategies: Eison and the Shōtoku Taishi Cult,” Monumenta Nipponica 69:2 (2014), 155.

3) Ibid., 170. Although still known as Hajidera 土師寺 when Eison first visited in 1246, it was later converted into a convent called Dōmyōji.

4) See, for example, the commemorative account of Eison’s life composed in 1300 in Kōshō bosatsu den 興正菩薩傳, in Saidaiji Eison denki shūsei, ed. Nara Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo, pp. 310-318 (Kyoto, Hōzōkan, 1977), 314; and the 1322 Kōshō Bosatsu kōshiki 興正菩薩講式 composed by Eison’s disciple A’ichi in A'ichi 阿一, Kōshō Bosatsu kōshiki 興正菩薩講式, in Saidaiji Eison denki shūsei, ed. Nara Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo, pp. 216-222 (Kyoto, Hōzōkan, 1977), 216.

Object Information

Object #:
99.1979.4.D.2

Title:
Religious Texts, Poems, Charms, etc.

Date:
Kamakura period, datable to circa 1292

Medium:
Single-sheet manuscripts of various sizes

Area of Focus

99.1979.4.d.2

View Object

99.1979.4.D.2
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Transcription

 

帰命釈迦尊  願我於未来  受生善悪處  不忘菩提心

比丘尼賢海

 

Translation

Praise to the Honorable Śākyamuni. My wish as for my future rebirths is that whether I am born in good or evil places, I will not forget my aspiration to achieve enlightenment (bodhi-wisdom / bodhicitta).

Bikuni Kenkai (there is a possibility that the "kai" may be a different character)

*Notes: This document also points toward Shingon Ritsu & Eison connections. So far the three examples I've found of this same prayer are from Risshu contexts with direct links to Eison:

1) A compilation of texts in the collection of Saidaiji called 最大勅諡興正菩薩行實年譜 contains a section compiled in the second month of the first year of Hōji 宝治元年 (1247) that begins with the transcription of a prayer offered by Eison in the first month of Kangen 寛元 4 (1246). The original prayer appears to also be in the collection of Saidaiji. The prayer is prefaced by the note that when the bodhisattva (Eison) was 49 years old, he built a meditation hall (僧堂) at Saidaiji and offered the following prayer:

帰命釈迦尊  願我於未来  受生善悪處  不忘菩提心 自然憶衆生 皆是我父母 設種々方便 漸々令離苦 自他行願満 共證無上道 

2) A text called 興正菩薩傳 composed in 1300 (正安2年7月四日), which seems to be a commemorative account or hagiographical record of the life of Eison (also known as Kōshō Bosatsu). The same prayer occurs toward the end of the account. It begins with the six characters 彼最初之願云 ("His [Eison's] first prayer said"), and is followed by the full prayer listed above in note #1, with only minor differences in the transcription of three characters (處->所, 設->沒, 無->无). The bulk of the text of the much longer document was written by a monk named 盛應量上人 of the 唐招提寺 中興堂, and concludes with "西大寺門徒僧衆中," suggesting the involvement of a larger group of Saidaiji affiliated monks.

3) In 1322, a disciple of Eison's named A'ichi 阿一 of the temple Kyōkōji 教興寺 composed a kōshiki for Eison called the Kōshō Bosatsu kōshiki that begins with a communal obeisance (sōrai 総礼) that is simply the above four verse prayer word for word (that is, the same as found in the Shōtoku statue). Kyōkōji is a temple in Kawachi that was also affiliated with Shōtoku Taishi (it claims to have been built by Hata no Kawakatsu on Shōtoku's orders following the battle with the Mononobe) that was revived in the 13th century by Eison as a branch temple of Saidaiji.