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25
befall the travelers—or so current beliefs would have it.
69
Kūkai’s own trip to China was fraught
with difficulties, with two of the four ships of the envoy blown back to Japan while the other two
(one being Kūkai’s ship) were separated and landed in different ports.
70
The members of the ship
were not allowed to disembark from their ship and enter Fuzhou until after the governor of the
area accepted a letter of supplication from Kūkai, whose Chinese skills exceeded those of the
officials traveling on the same ship. Kūkai wrote a petition to specially obtain
a permit to travel
with the rest of the envoy to the capital Chang’an. Once there, the Chinese court eventually
decided to allow him after the Japanese officials from his envoy departed to stay at Ximingsi,
one of the largest temples in Chang’an associated with Esotericism.
71
During his subsequent
study, Kūkai met the monk who would be his mentor, Huiguo. The exact date of this meeting is
unknown. Nor do we know when Kūkai began to officially study with Huiguo, but Kūkai wrote
of his initiation of the
taizō mandara (
胎蔵曼荼羅
, Womb Mandala) happening “earlier in the
sixth month [of 805].”
72
He received the second initiation of the
kongōkai mandara (
金剛界曼荼
羅,
Diamond World Mandala)
73
in the seventh month.
74
These two initiations are still important
aspects of Mikkyō
and were eventually paralleled in the process of a Mikkyō
monk’s Sanskrit
education
in Japanese, as I will discuss in the next chapter. Despite the uncertainty of specific
69
Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p. 65.
70
Some of these difficulties are described in Kūkai’s letter to the regional authorities of Fuzhou, the port where his
ship landed. Kūkai,
Seireishū, KZ, 3:266-71. As cited in Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p. 66. An English translation
of sections can be found also in Borgen, Robert. “The Japanese Mission to China, 801-806.”
Monumenta Nipponica
37, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 1-28. The other ship of the envoy carried the well-known monk Saichō, who established
Tendai Buddhism in Japan. Saichō’s ship landed in Mingzhou and he continued on to Mount Tiantai, the center for
study of Tendai Buddhism in China.
71
Kūkai,
Shōraimokuroku, KZ 1:69. As cited in Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p 69.
72
Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p. 70.
73
These two mandala are a pair now called the
ryōbu mandara, mentioned in the introduction of this thesis.
74
Kūkai.
Shōraimokuroku, KZ 1: 98-99. As cited in Abe,
Weaving, p. 123.
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dates, it is certain that Huiguo was Kūkai’s mentor and that he instructed Kūkai on various
esoteric practices such as mantras and mudras,
yogas, and Sanskrit writing.
75
Kūkai’s stipend was intended for
twenty years of study in China, but within just months
of beginning study with Huiguo he attained the rank of master of Esotericism. Huiguo died soon
after—also in 805—but before his death he instructed Kūkai to return to Japan to disseminate
Esoteric teachings. In 806, Kūkai returned to Japan from his intensive study with masters in
China. His return may have been problematic since he spent a stipend
that was meant for twenty
years within a period of merely two years (about six months of which he studied with Huiguo).
Kūkai seems to have spent much of this money on a collection of texts and objects with which he
returned to Japan. As was the required practice, Kūkai submitted an inventory to the Japanese
court of the goods he imported and sent the goods to the capital upon his return. The original
inventory, titled
Catalogue of Newly Imported Sutras and Other Items (Jp.:
上新請来經等目録
表
,
Joshin shōrai kyōtō mokuroku,
hereinafter referred to as the
Catalogue),
76
is no longer extant,
but two early copies of it survive.
77
The
Catalogue and the imported objects were sent to
Emperor Heizei (
平城天皇
, 773-824, r. 806-9) shortly after Kūkai’s return to Japan. One
possible indication of the imperial court’s displeasure with Kūkai’s premature return from China
is that these objects were not returned to him until three years later, in 809,
when he was called
to the capital.
78
Among the imported items were works in Sanskrit (42 works in 44 fascicles),
commentaries and essays on Esoteric doctrine, and Buddhist Icons (including a mandala using
75
Ibid. Also cited in Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p. 70.
76
Kūkai.
Shōraimokuroku, KZ 1.
77
Bogel,
With a Single Glance, p. 113. One copy is at Tōji and the other at Hōgonji.
78
The complexity of these events are discussed in more detail in Chapter Five of Bogel,
With a Single Glance, pp.
112-138. Here, Bogel discusses other equally important factors that impacted this course of events; however, in the
interest of time I will not elaborate on them.
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27
Sanskrit characters to depict the deities).
79
Such basic, but necessary, background information
contributes to a study of Sanskrit’s role in Japan—first within Mikkyō and then in a broader
context of Buddhism and culture. It also facilitates a brief exploration of the Mikkyō
rite called
the
a-ji kan.
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