Sanskrit Beyond Text: The Use of Bonji (Siddham) in Mandala
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| Introduction
This thesis features selected examples of Japanese art from the Heian period to the Kamakura period that carry within their artistic representation the use of Sanskrit characters. As such, it is about the dissemination of Sanskrit characters in Japan and their deployment in visual culture—an area of Japanese art history that has been, to date, understudied. This phenomenon began by the ninth century with the importation of both Esoteric Buddhist texts and objects with Sanskrit, evolved to include non-religious as well as Buddhist objects during the medieval era, and continued into modern times. My thesis explores shifts in the appearance, deployment and function of Sanskrit on non-textual religious objects which, while always illustrating the polysemy of the sign, spread from representing specific deities and doctrine in Esoteric Buddhism (seen in specialized mandala forms used in Esoteric Buddhist ritual and education) to additionally representing concepts that supported the dogmatic integration of Shinto and Buddhism that was already practically inherent in the culture of ancient and medieval Japan. 1 Although a foreign language, the primary use of Sanskrit through medieval times was in Esoteric Buddhism’s Shingon ( 真言 , literally “true word,” i.e., mantra ) sect imagery and practices; as such, its use in the Shingon sect became increasingly native and less foreign—part of doctrine and Shingon ritual. At the same time, it is also significant that the foreign associations carried by Sanskrit, although assimilated into praxis in many ways, continued to function at a multivalent level of language and image with non-native connotations yet within an increasingly localized syncretic visual culture. The Sanskrit character acting semiotically as the 1 As scholars have pointed out, to designate the term “Shinto” to indigenous deities is problematic as the term itself was introduced from China (Ch.: shendao, originally read in Japan as jindō) with pejorative connotations. It only developed into the new reading, Shinto, as a new “pure” term focusing on the kami in the fourteenth century. Teeuwen, Mark, and Fabio Rambelli. Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, p. 6. However, for ease of reading I use the term “Shinto” and “kami practices” throughout my thesis in reference to such native Japanese deities and practices that were originally outside the Buddhist pantheon. www.manaraa.com 2 sign of a Buddhist deity came to also have the potential to act as the sign for a Shinto kami ( 神 , Shinto deity) and, additionally, new world-concepts of a so-called (dogma) for the “amalgamation” of Shinto and Buddhism. The limitations imposed by the scope of the project do not allow me to answer all remaining questions (for example, those relating to Sanskrit’s very select dispersion to the secular). Even still, I hope this thesis presents a clearer picture of Sanskrit’s trajectory and transformation within Japanese culture (especially visual culture) through select examples. It also aims to identify through analyses of a few examples over time how Sanskrit in Japan, being a visual and ritual language rather than an ordinary system of language with normal grammatical structures and everyday use, differed from the Sanskrit ‘language’ in India. Today, Sanskrit in Japanese Buddhist visual culture is not a novel occurrence; however, the occurrence of Siddham (Sanskrit characters) 2 on or in non-textual objects was new in the ninth century, save but for a few examples. Siddham was a mainstay of the Buddhist teachings introduced to Japan by Kūkai (774-835 , 空海 ,alt: Kōbō Daishi, 弘法大師 ), known as the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, or Mikkyō ( 密教) literally, secret teachings). 3 Although we cannot know exactly the extent of the historical Buddhist clerics’ knowledge of Sanskrit in their undertaking of Esoteric rituals, studies to date that outline the process of such an education demonstrate that Sanskrit study focused on pronunciation and recognition without a goal of understanding Sanskrit as a non-religious communicable language. 4 Such an education can, in part, be seen as both the product and continued producer of an Esoteric Buddhist semiotic theory 2 For ease of reading and partly for aesthetic preference to not have multiple fonts in the text, I do not include the Sanskrit diacritics in the text. Please see the glossary for diacritics in the Sanskrit words. 3 As art historian Cynthea Bogel explains in her recent book (With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009), esoteric Buddhist elements existed in Japan prior to Kūkai’s introduction of Mikkyō; she uses ‘esoteric’ versus ‘Esoteric’ to distinguish between the elements that were already dispersed throughout Nara Buddhism and the organized theory and praxis that Kūkai brought back to Japan. 4 For example, the studies done by Robert van Gulik and Fabio Rambelli delve into this topic. I will discuss these two scholars in further detail later in this thesis. www.manaraa.com 3 (to put it in modern English terms) that accompanied an imported form of mandala depicting Sanskrit and emphasized the polysemy of the sign, which is indeed inherent in any object that is seen. 5 While the now commonly acknowledged polysemy of the sign was inherent even in early Sanskrit use in Japan—as exemplified by the efficacious power of Sanskrit mantras as early as the eighth century—in Mikkyō, polysemy came to have two levels. The first level is the more evident polysemic nature that connects the sign (the Sanskrit character) with specific signifieds (such as a specific deity, a specific mantra, a specific characteristic of Buddhist teachings). The second level of the polysemic nature of Sanskrit, reached only after extensive Mikkyō Sanskrit training, is the realization of endless polysemy. The sign has no specific signified, but rather endless signifieds. In essence, it is nondual. In syncretic Buddhism (an unfortunate but commonly used designation for a blend of Buddhist and native [Shinto, Daoist, other] practices), the polysemic nature of the sign is similar to Mikkyō’s first level of function. Rather than endless polysemy, the signifieds of a sign are limited to set deities, both Shinto and Buddhist, as well as to the concept of honji-suijaku ( 本地垂迹 , “original forms of deities and their local traces”). As noted above, however, at the ritual level mandala and other works were accepted as part and parcel of an imported Buddhist visual (and thus, ritual) culture that included, but was not limited to, Sanskrit as a foreign element. The works selected for this thesis are at once representative of the overall trajectory of Sanskrit deployment in Japanese visual culture through the fourteenth century and illustrative of these semiotic turns. There are many objects that depict Sanskrit on or within their formal expressions, but a comprehensive study of these forms would be far too broad for a master’s thesis. This thesis will 5 Polysemy refers to a sign’s capacity for multiple meanings (or signifieds). While such meanings can be cultural or religious, these meanings (or signifieds) can also be a result of more personal experiences due to humankind’s tendency to associate objects with ideas or experiences. www.manaraa.com 4 therefore explore Sanskrit in Japanese visual culture by focusing primarily on two very different types of mandala, the Sanskrit letter hō mandara ( 法曼荼羅 , Skt: Dharma mandala) and the topographic landscape of or relating to a shrine complex, the miya mandara ( 宮曼荼羅 , shrine mandala). 6 I will illustrate the diffusion of Sanskrit from objects in Mikkyō visual culture to objects in other areas of Buddhism and Japanese culture primarily through an analysis of these two objects, very different in time and shape; between them lies a huge valley of material to be explored by future research. Although the use of Sanskrit on non-textual objects appears to have been introduced to Japan by Kūkai, the concept of word as power was not new in the early ninth century. By this point in time, there was already a pre-existing belief in the talismanic power of Sanskrit mantras. The presence of the kotodama (言霊, literally “word spirit”) 7 concept is further evidence of a cultural belief of words as repositories of supernatural power. Despite its lack of use in Shingon texts (until the Edo period, 1615-1868), the first known textual appearance of kotodama dates to the eighth century—directly prior to Kūkai’s importation of Mikkyō. 8 Pre-existing beliefs and trends no doubt contributed at least in part to the rapid adoption of Kūkai’s new use of Sanskrit. 6 An esoteric Buddhist mandala is the paradigmatic mandala form, but in Japan, the term mandala (in Japanese tải về 3.51 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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