. taimitsu 765
The Four Secret Taimitsu Rituals
Among the diverse besson liturgies, some more than others epitomize
the dynamics of ritual legitimization in Taimitsu: those constructed as
the most important and secret liturgies (daihihō ) of the Ten-
dai school. Later arranged in a set of four (shika daihō ),
these were in fact rituals performed only by the Sanmon lineages: the
shijōkōhō, the shichibutsu Yakushihō , the Fugen enmyōhō
, and the Anchinhō (Sanmon anōryū juhō shidai,
BZ 2: 248). The institution of these rituals goes back to Ennin, the
indisputably putative father of Taimitsu praxis. The rituals were (origi-
nally) concerned with the protection of the state and the well being of
the emperor and, except for the shijōkōhō , were first per-
formed at imperial residences. In this sense, they may be considered
mishihō that served to assert the Taimitsu lineages in their
“public” function of spiritual support to the government, and consoli-
date their place within the accepted paradigm of mutual interaction of
cultic and political power.
According to the Asabashō shimokuroku, an eighteenth-century
index to the Asabashō compiled in 1729 by Tenchū , the rites of
the seven Yakushi and of the blazing light were the uttermost secrets
of Taimitsu, transmitted only face-to-face, and therefore different
from other liturgies^ (Ōkubo 2001a). It is interesting to note that both
liturgies may be seen as star rituals, one related to the Big Dipper and
other to the Polar Star, and thus they exploited these Chinese symbols
of royal authority and control over the destiny of the country (Dolce
2006c).
The Shichibutsu Yakushihō amplified the centrality of the Buddha
Yakushi in the early Tendai school, but borrowed from Onmyō
notions in its identification of the seven manifestations of Yakushi
with the seven stars of the Big Dipper. According to the Asabashō,
Ennin first performed the rite for Emperor Ninmyō in 850 at
Seiryōden , the emperor’s quarters. He instructed that the rite
should be performed only by the zasu of Mt. Hiei, but the anthologies
record later instances of lower-rank clerics performing it. Also, while
originally the ritual was used against calamities, as were most star ritu-
als, it seems that by the medieval period its function had shifted to that
of a rite for increasing benefits (Asabashō TZ 8: 1066–1084).
The Shijōkōhō, too, was a liturgy that due to its inclusion of heavenly
bodies was thus deemed effective against disturbances and calamities