. looking back and leaping forward 817
yogic practices, on commonalities of understanding within specific
temple complexes, and on the demands of their clients.
Each of the six Hirosawa sub-lineages formed during the Insei period
stemmed from the esoteric ritual master Kanjo of Jōjuin ,
a major sub-temple within the imperial temple Ninnaji. One of these
sub-lineages, the Denbōin-ryū of Kakuban (1095–1143/4),
is important for our discussion of the later Shingi-Shingon tradition.
Kakuban was the son of a minor warrior family responsible for the
policing of a Jōjuin estate in Hizen province on the island of
Kyūshū. He caught the attention of Keishō , a monastic traveling
to various Jōjuin estates on behalf of their proprietor. Keishō, who was
a disciple of Kanjo, took Kakuban into his care and brought him at age
thirteen to Jōjuin in the Heian capital, where he began his monastic
training in earnest. Shortly after, Kakuban was sent to the temple com-
plexes in the former capital Nara to pursue his foundational studies in
the Hossō , Kusha , Sanron , and Kegon schools.^4
At the age of sixteen, in 1110, he returned to Jōjuin to take formal
tonsure, after which he resumed for a period his studies in Nara. Back
at Jōjuin in 1112, he commenced his formational training in esoteric
ritual and yogic practice. Kakuban later left the Heian capital to engage
in more concentrated yogic practice at Mt. Kōya, where he arrived on
the last day of the twelfth month of Eikyū 2 (January 1115).
Over the next decade Kakuban studied and practiced intensively,
gathering numerous esoteric transmissions and gaining contemplative
experience, and in this context he gradually formulated his vision for
the ritual and doctrinal revitalization of the founder Kūkai’s Dharma
transmission. These transmissions covered the range of Hirosawa and
Ono sub-lineages at Ninnaji, Tōji, Daigoji, and Kongōbuji (Mt. Kōya).
He also performed the challenging gumonjihō rite multiple
times under the guidance of Meijaku (d. 1124–1126), as well as
receiving from him Ono-ryū transmissions related to the key Shingon
goal of sokushin jōbutsu (becoming a buddha in this body
just as it is).^5
(^4) These were the scholastic philosophical traditions of Vijñānavāda, Abhidharmakośa,
Mādhyāmaka, and Avataṃsaka, respectively.
(^5) Tradition states that Meijaku received the sokushin jōbutsu oral transmission from
Ryōga (ca. 1102). The gumonji practice was a highly valued esoteric method for acquir-
ing noumenal knowledge and power. In addition, it would remove all defilements and
the attendant suffering. The performer of the rite gained the protection of all buddhas
and bodhisattvas; fulfilled all worthy aspirations; was prevented from falling into the