714 ian astley
its attendant incantatory paraphernalia nenju kuyō gu.^18
In short, Saichō’s background and purpose differed significantly from
Kūkai’s, a fact underlined by subsequent, well-documented exchanges
between the two concerning the much richer and complete corpus of
esoteric materials that Kūkai brought back to Japan.
Although we do not have detailed accounts of the funds available
to him, we must assume that Kūkai used his government stipend for
study- and living-related expenses and, more important, to commis-
sion scribes to copy the two hundred and forty-seven fascicles that
comprise the one hundred and forty-two Buddhist sūtras, the forty-
four fascicles of the forty-two Sanskrit texts, and the one hundred and
seventy fascicles of the thirty-two scriptural commentaries he pre-
sented to the court. The Sanskrit items, more specifically the mantras
in Siddham script (bonji shingon ), while fewer in number,
constituted an ideologically significant part of his offering. Their nov-
elty, their appeal to the calligraphic bent of court society, and their
adumbration of an unfamiliar and mysterious path to enlightenment
would all have lent an unmistakable mystique to this new corpus, not
least because Kūkai announced them directly after the new Chinese
translations of sūtras that he was itemizing.^19 Further expenses would
have been the labor of the specialist craftsmen he employed to make
the five large-scale (and expensive) mandala images in polychrome
pigments on silk.
Less crucial to the doctrinal and ritual core of esoteric Buddhism,
but still of major significance to the corpus as an integrated whole,
were items such as portraits of the five patriarchs of the Zhenyan tra-
dition, nine ritual implements, and thirteen keepsakes that were pre-
sented to him by his Chinese mentor, Huiguo. Indeed, this list
affirms the sense of tradition—not least because eight of these items
actually belonged to Huiguo’s master, including a robe (an item that
often figures as proof of legitimization throughout the various schools
of East Asian Buddhism), ritual vessels fashioned of lapis lazuli and
amber, and ritual chopsticks. Prominent among Huiguo’s own contri-
bution were eighty grains of relics of the Buddha himself, ensconced
in a miniature stūpa, and a portable sandalwood shrine, along with
other paraphernalia, both esoteric and generic. Kūkai remained in the
(^18) This is borne out in his mention of the initiations, e.g., T. 2160, 55:1059c10–25.
(^19) Cf. Shōrai mokuroku, Teihon 1, p. 5.