From outcasts to emperors : : Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī cult in medieval Japan / / by David Quinter.

• Superior document: Brill's Japanese Studies Library, Volume 50
• VerfasserIn: Quinter, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands ;, Boston, Massachusetts : : Brill,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Japanese studies library ; Volume 50.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (354 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In From Outcasts to Emperors , David Quinter illuminates the Shingon Ritsu movement founded by the charismatic monk Eison (1201–90) at Saidaiji in Nara, Japan. The book’s focus on Eison and his disciples’ involvement in the cult of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva reveals their innovative synthesis of Shingon esotericism, Buddhist discipline (Ritsu; Sk. vinaya ), icon and temple construction, and social welfare activities as the cult embraced a spectrum of supporters, from outcasts to warrior and imperial rulers. In so doing, the book redresses typical portrayals of “Kamakura Buddhism” that cast Eison and other Nara Buddhist leaders merely as conservative reformers, rather than creative innovators, amid the dynamic religious and social changes of medieval Japan.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Prologue -- Introduction -- 1 Living Bodhisattvas and Hijiri: Eison, Ninshō, and the Cults of Manjuśrī and Gyōki -- 2 Tradition and Transformation: Precedents for the Saidaiji Order Manjuśrī Assemblies -- 3 Discrimination and Empowerment: Hannyaji, Outcasts, and the Living Manjuśrī -- 4 Fundraising, Patronage, and the Hannyaji Manjuśrī: From Eison to Shinkū -- 5 Exoteric-Esoteric Lineage Construction and Manjuśrī: Dream-Visions in Eison’s and Myōe’s Lineages -- 6 Double Vision: The “Tachikawa” Monkan and Shingon/Ritsu -- Epilogue -- Documents: Annotated Translations -- References -- Index.