The Prince and the Monk: Shotoku Worship in Shinran's Buddhism

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Images of Shotoku in Medieval Japan During the medieval period, Prince Shotoku was portrayed and venerated as a Buddhist saint. Kamakura Buddhists believed that Shotoku was the first Japanese to fully experience the essence of Buddhism in Japan, so they tended to associate him with the glories of earlier Indian and Chinese Buddhism. Many legends typically identified Shotoku as a Japanese manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon, a reincarnation of the Buddhist queen Srimala of India, and Tendai Eshi (Ch. Nanyüeh Hui-ssu, 515–577) of China. With the movement of the capital from Nara to Heian and the newly established, imperially sponsored Buddhist centers at Mount Hiei and Mount Koya, the sangha developed an effective way to solidify their presence and continue their influence on Japanese society. Through the figure of Shotoku Taishi and the promotion of Prince Shotoku as a Buddhist divinity, the sangha found the ideal patron and perfect means for legitimizing their claims of authority at the newly established Buddhist centers at Heiankyo during medieval Japan. Just as earlier sources were compiled on Prince Shotoku—the Nihon shoki and Kojiki—to promote Prince Shotoku as imperial ancestor and kami in order for the imperial court to legitimize its rule through their claim of divine ancestry and authority of the emperor, the sangha also compiled Buddhist-originated sources that promoted Prince Shotoku’s Buddhist accomplishments, which also could be used as sources of legitimization to establish their authority at Heiankyo.Thus, during the Heian and Kamakura period, we notice a proliferation of Shotoku legends through various mediums—engis, iconographic representations, and Shotokucentered rituals, and ceremonies conducted at temples1 —whose underlying purpose was to promote Prince Shotoku as a Buddhist saint and divinity. 71 LEGITIMACY AND AUTHORITY: HONJI SUIJAKU THEORY In his article “Hagiography and History: The Image of Prince Shotoku” in the Religions of Japan in Practice, William Deal explains that the Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan), an imperially sanctioned account, portray Shotoku Taishi in order to validate the claims of the imperial family’s right to rule. Deal argues that the Nihon shoki places Shotoku within the larger context of the political and religious struggles occurring in early Japanese history, and that there is strong evidence that it is a compendium of historical, literary, legendary, religious, and other materials placed within the historical chronological framework. Deal cites another source, Jogu Shotoku hoo teisetsu (the Imperial Record of Shotoku, Dharma King of the Upper Palace), which shares similar features that portray Shotoku in both legendary and historical terms for the sake of legitimacy. Composed in the eighth century, the Jogu Shotoku hoo teisetsu also reveals the importance of Shotoku as both ruler and Buddhist. Unlike the account in the Nihon shoki, the Jogu Shotoku hoo teisetsu is primarily a Buddhist biography because it emphasizes Shotoku’s Buddhist activities, such as temple building and sutra study. Deal notes that since both texts were written about a hundred years after Shotoku’s death, one has to be careful to not confuse claims about historical fact with the valorization of the prince’s political and religious accomplishments. Nevertheless, a closer examination of these sources will help us learn what his image has meant in different historical periods, and how this image was utilized to promote religious practices and political agendas. In the Nihon shoki and the Jogu Shotoku hoo teisetsu biographies, Shotoku the statesman and Shotoku the Buddhist are interrelated images, since Buddhism and the state had become inextricably linked in early Japan. During Shotoku’s lifetime and after, aristocratic families like the powerful Soga family utilized Buddhism, at least in part, to legitimate and secure the power and authority of the imperial family. Deal explains that the rising popularity of Buddhism among some of the aristocracy necessitated imperial control over this powerful ideology, which was itself becoming a central part of the imperial family’s claim to the throne. In his work The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, the German sociologist Max Weber discussed the three types of legitimate authority, in which the validity of claims to legitimacy is based on rational grounds, traditional grounds, or charismatic grounds.2 Rational grounds rest on a belief in the “legality” of patterns of normative rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands. Traditional grounds rest on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of the status of those exercising authority under them. In the case of...