. exploring the esoteric in nara buddhism 783
beyond the parameters of this essay. With respect to religious uni-
fication, Kuroda focused particularly on the unification of Japanese
religion based on thaumaturgic rites performed for the pacification of
spirits, healing ceremonies, protection of the state, and so on.
Kuroda’s kenmitsu taisei bears on the topic of esoteric Buddhism
within the Nara schools because he established, beyond a doubt, that
an ideological mixture of esoteric and exoteric thought and practice,
worked out within the various schools and sects during the ninth
and tenth centuries, permeated all aspects of Buddhism during the
medieval period. Moreover, this ideological amalgamation was criti-
cal to the authority of the powerful temple complexes and schools of
the time. Esoteric ideology was the key ingredient in the overarching
episteme that informed much religious discourse during the medieval
era. Esoteric rituals, cultural currency as it were, attracted aristocratic
patronage and sustained the economic and political power of the
established temples.
Some critics argue that Kuroda’s kenmitsu rubric obscures impor-
tant doctrinal differences between the eight established schools of the
Heian era. The integration of esoteric praxis also varied considerably
between schools and institutions (see Adolphson 2000, 16; Sueki 1996,
457–58 and 1998, 50; Taira 1996, 442–43). To illustrate the different
ways in which esotericism was further and perhaps more explicitly
embraced by the Nara sects, I have chosen to highlight three promi-
nent scholar-monks of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries,
almost five centuries after Kūkai’s transmission of Shingon from China.
Each had strong connections with Hossō, Kegon, and Ritsu, the three
most prominent Nara schools by the end of the Heian era.
Myōe and the Mantra of Light
Myōe, one of the most well-known Nara scholar-monks of the early
Kamakura era, is particularly noteworthy for his training and profi-
ciency in both exoteric Kegon doctrine—for which he is known as a
significant reformer—and esoteric practice, particularly his promotion
of the mantra of light (kōmyō shingon ). In 1189, at the age
of sixteen, he received the monastic precepts at the ordination plat-
form at Tōdaiji and was later ordained into the Shingon lineage. The
fact that Myōe is most often associated with the Kegon school is, in
many respects, a function of the sometimes anachronistic imposition
of contemporary sectarian identity onto a period when this was not a
critical feature of Japanese Buddhism.