766 lucia dolcein the country. This ritual, however, carried more elaborate doctri-
nal connotations. The main deity of the liturgy was a golden-wheel
turning uṣṇīṣa buddha (kinrin butchō ), the “Us ṇ̣īsa of Blaz-̣
ing Light.” According to one of the canonical sources of the ritual,
this was Śākyamuni emitting innumerable rays of wisdom-producing
light (shijōkō), and thus able to preach the dharma to stars and other
celestial bodies (Foshuo chishengguang daweide xiaozai jixiang tuo-
luoni jing, T. 963.19:337–338). Liturgical manuals and oral transmis-
sions explicitly identified the Blazing Light Buddha with Ichiji Kinrin,
linking the ritual with a butchō-type of text, the Suxidi jing, whose
main figure was Ichiji Kinrin (Asabashō 58, “Shijōkō,” TZ 9: 26, 27).
The liturgy thus crystallized the Taimitsu distinctive interpretation of
tantrism and ritually enacted the notion of an usṇ̣īṣa-centered system
(Misaki 1988, 141–42).
The Shijōkōhō was performed in China to pray for the emperor’s
longevity. Ennin performed it for the first time in Japan in 850 for
the new emperor, Montoku , and presented it as a most effective
liturgy exclusively known to him and not to other esoteric lineages. A
hall was appositely constructed on Mt. Hiei to perform it, the Sōjiin
, clearly meant to match the Shingonin established by
Kūkai in 834 at the imperial palace. The arrangement of the Sōjiin
reflected the doctrinal apparatus distinctive of Taimitsu. According
to medieval sources, a three-storied pagoda facing south was at the
center, with a shijōkō hall in the west, enshrining the usṇ̣īsa Buddha, ̣
and a hall for Butsugen in the east. With this arrangement, the
correlation between Ichiji Kinrin and Butsugen predicated in the Yuqi
jing was accomplished spatially.
The mandala used for the shijōkōhō was a circular-type star mandala,
depicting the Ichiji Kinrin sitting at the center of an eight-petaled lotus
surrounded by anthropomorphic manifestations of the twelve zodiac
deities and the twenty-eight lunar mansions. In its logographic form
(hō mandara ), the mandala placed bhrūm ̣ (Jpn. boron
), the seed-syllable of the Ichiji Kinrin and the fundamental seed-
syllable in Taimitsu, at its center (Asabashō 58, TZ 9: 31). Enchin, for
instance, considered it to embody the three buddha bodies, as it was
composed of three syllables, bo/ro/n (Ichiji kinrinkyō ryaku gishaku).
Ritualists discussed the forms the mandala should take according to
the person for whom the ritual was to be performed (Gyōrinshō, T.
2409.74:93b), suggesting an expansion of its use beyond the impe-
rial family. In fact, historical records document that since the time of