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had come to study in their late teens early twenties; from the age of
forty, they could become (nyūji );^5 from fifty to seventy, they
could attain the high rank of preceptor (ajari ). The most illus-
trious titles derived from monastic court ranks of the ritsuryō system
were reserved for those over seventy. Lower and mid-level temples
with land grants less than thirty-five koku could be staffed by young
clerics who had to continue their studies after their appointment, but
temples with more than thirty-five koku had to be staffed by clerics
who had completed at least two years of study at an academy. Famous
temples had to be staffed by clerics that had completed more than two
years of training and had attained the rank of nyūji (Shoshū kaikyū
1907, 1: 370–72).
The early modern Shingon Ritsu school was reinvigorated by Jōgon
(1639–1702), who founded Reiunji in 1691 with the patronage
of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, amid a growing interest in precept study in
all the Buddhist schools during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies.^6 According to regulations from 1802, the Shingon Ritsu school
led by Reiunji had its own educational and ranking systems that were
based on orthodox Buddhist precepts. Novices were called shami
(śrāmaṇera). Between the ages of seven to thirteen, they were known
as kūshami. The novices resided with other clerics without
taking any precepts. At the age of fourteen, they took the ten precepts,
donned monastic robes, and were given ritual implements, and were
known as ōbōshami. At the age of twenty, they took the two
hundred and fifty monastic precepts and were henceforth known as
biku (monk, bhiks ̣u).
Similar ranks existed for women practitioners. After making the
determination to become ordained, they did not take the precepts
for three years and were known as gakuhōnyo or shikisha-
mana ( śikṣamāṇā). Female novices were shamini
(śrāmaṇerikā) upon taking the ten precepts. Eventually, there were
nearly five hundred precepts required for full ordination as nuns
(Shoshū kaikyū 1907, 1: 287–88). Further research is needed to deter-
(^5) Nyūji also has the broader meaning of being appointed as an abbot of a temple.
In this context, however, the term has a special meaning as a monastic rank between
ajari 6 ( ācārya) and the lowest ranking monks (shūbun).
For a detailed discussion of the monastic precept revival within Shingon Bud-
dhism, see Shayne Clarke 2006.