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import, at least from the perspective of the Nara schools, was his inno-
vative taxonomy that clearly distinguished esoteric practices and texts
from exoteric ones. Moreover, studies of the Heian and Kamakura
(1185–1333) eras in particular have revealed the extensive degree to
which esotericism was creatively appropriated and adapted within
the Nara sects, which remained influential and powerful well into the
Muromachi era (ca. 1336–1573). So the conventional classification
of Nara Buddhism as “exoteric” is problematic on two counts—both
before the official introduction of esoteric thought/practice by Kūkai
and after the establishment of the Shingon and Tendai traditions dur-
ing the Heian era. This essay will examine the presence and adaptation
of esoteric thought and practice within the Nara establishment from
the Nara era onward.
Nara Esotericism, B.K. (Before Kūkai)
One need not look far to find proclamations of Kūkai as the trans-
mitter of esoteric thought and practice to Japan.^1 Virtually all of the
introductory texts mark Kūkai’s return from China in 806 C.E. as the
critical “esoteric turn” in Japanese religiosity. This narrative has been
further reinforced by the decidedly sectarian scholarship of the post-
Meiji period that featured hagiographic focus on Kūkai and Saichō
and the unique contributions of the Shingon and Tendai traditions.
The fact is, however, that numerous esoteric texts were already circu-
lating in Japan and practices such as dhāraṇī recitation and ostensibly
esoteric state-protecting rituals were practiced widely.
Ōmura Seigai, writing in the early twentieth century when Bud-
dhism was under attack for being superstitious, backward, and unsci-
entific, proposed two categories for distinguishing the esotericism
of the Nara period from that brought to Japan by Kūkai from Tang
China, the “Golden Age” of mikkyō on the mainland. Zōmitsu (
, miscellaneous esotericism) refers to the “mixed” tantric practices
prevalent within the Nara schools before and after Kūkai’s transmis-
sion; junmitsu ( , pure esotericism) refers, as the name suggests,
to the truly “pure” tantric thought and practice epitomized by Kūkai’s
(^1) For examples, see Earhart 2004, 86–87; Ellwood 2008, 92–93; Matsuo 2007, 36–37.
To be fair, Earhart does acknowledge the existence of esoteric elements and practices
in Japan before Kūkai’ s return from China, but he adopts Ōmura Seigai’s label of
“miscellaneous esoterism,” which perpetuates the inherent problems.