B. Ruppert
with the medieval mytho- history narratives collectively called Chūsei Nihongi (“medieval chron-
icles of Japan”) in modern scholarship.^39
Mark Teeuwen and Fabio Rambelli have drawn attention, like Japanese scholars dating to
Tsuji Zennosuke, to the specific Japanese application of terminology of “origin” and “trace”
(honji suijaku) traceable to Lotus sutra discussions originally, in connection with the developing
notion of Kami as traces of Buddhist divinities, and highlighted the increasing use of legendary
narratives of the founding of temples and shrines (engi) as a means to make such claims despite the
absence of any direct discussions in continental scriptures such as sutras.^40
Learning and performance, continental contexts, and the development
of trans- institutional religion (vernacular religion)
There was, moreover, increasing practice among sovereigns, the court, and monks to undertake
pilgrimages to the sites of this array of sacred beings. Such sites often included both kami and
Buddha veneration, which presumably reflected the fact that the court, the temple complexes,
and the warrior houses all seem to have seen kami and Buddhas as intimately connected and
approachable at such sites, which were most commonly on or near mountains. Fujiwara Michi-
naga’s pilgrimages undoubtedly provided an early example of a noble who undertook them, but
also female authors associated with the court increasingly wrote of their travels to shrines and
temples. Over the course of the late Heian period, sovereigns increasingly undertook pilgrimages
to shrines, especially those with a connection with Buddhist divinities or complexes such as
Kumano or with the developing twenty- two shrine system.^41
Scholars have increasingly connected these developments with a feature of religious belief and
practice which medieval texts describe as a focus on acquiring access to the “living body” (shōjin)
of divinities and deities, especially by means of pilgrimage, which may indeed be related to what
Satō Hiroo has characterized as a shift to a medieval worldview across the larger populace. This
medieval worldview, connected in part to the increasing prominence of belief in the Pure Land
(Jōdo) and the need for some kind of salvation from this “impure land” (edo) as well as that of the
absolute body of the Buddha (Skt. dharmakāya; J. hosshinbutsu), incorporated the Buddhist dis-
course of origin- trace (honji- suijaku) noted above along with developing notions of an original
deity (kongen- shin) at the root of existence, prototypically Amaterasu (Tenshō Daijin). In doing
so, this cosmological framework promised salvation conceived of as ultimately internal to one’s
being; hence the most common Buddhist terms were Buddha- nature (busshō) or original enlight-
enment (hongaku) and the most prominent ones associated with deities (shin, kami) were the
absolute- nature-deity (hosshōshin) or original- enlightenment-deity (hongakushin). As he has
emphasized, this new notion was expressed across a wide range of visual and narrative genres,
and often featured a particular historical figure or local image represented as a trace (manifesta-
tion) of the original nature.^42
In this connection, Satō and others have called attention to the broad range of arenas in which
earlier historical figures like Prince Shōtoku and Kūkai came to be seen as traces of enlightened
beings and trans- lineal in character. Although Kūkai’s hagiographies clearly developed in a
Shingon- lineage context, the legends concerning his life as well as his reputation as a scholar and
calligrapher were consolidated by the twelfth century, and the efforts of Tōji and other monas-
teries to promote his veneration furthered the process. The legends and visual images about
Shōtoku were particularly influential in the medieval era, when veneration of the prince became
broad and deep within the population.^43
Scholars such as Hori Ichirō claimed, particularly in the postwar era, that so- called “holy
ones” (hijiri, shōnin) who increasingly occupied the medieval landscape were largely independent