TRUE WORDS, SILENCE, AND THE ADAMANTINE DANCEShingon esoteric system and preexisting teachings, which he considered superfi-
cial and provisional. In this respect Kiikai reversed traditional hermeneutical cri-
teria,18 turning what was "evident" (ken ll\l, teachings that are clear and
self-evident without problems of interpretation) into something "superficial,"
and what was "hidden" or "not immediately evident" (mitsu '81:, teachings
related to a certain intention of the Buddha and therefore apparently unclear and
requiring interpretation) into something "profound and true."
Kiikai's understanding of the term kenmitsu came to be widely accepted, and
after the late Heian period was commonly used to designate the whole Buddhist
system (although Kiikai' s redistribution of doctrines and practices was rooted in
the old idea of the existence of a secret transmission of the true teachings and
rituals of the Buddha-an East Asian counterpart of the European hermetic mys-
teries). In this manner, Kiikai opened the way for a definition of the Mikkyo dis-
cursive field as comprising that which the other doctrines do not teach, that
which the other schools ignore and leave unsaid. The silence of the Buddha
marked the boundaries of Shingon intervention.
Mikkyo played another important role, functioning as a relay in the circuit
between center and margin. This made the kenmitsu system an important instru-
ment of power. By controlling and integrating negative forces that threatened the
cultural center from "outside" (KOMATSU and NAITO 1985) and by providing
central institutions with an efficacious cosmology and a distinctive epistemic
field, Mikkyo paradoxically became the dominant paradigm of Japanese
medieval culture.^19 Systematic Mikkyo, itself a product of a semantic reversal,
succeeded in reformulating on its own terms and from its own perspective-that
of systematic reversal-the main concepts and practices of Japanese culture.^20
Moreover, monks belonging to esoteric lineages were closely related to the
imperial court and the ruling lineages, so that the Tendai and Shingon schools
exerted a true hegemony (a hegemony that was economic as well).^21
It is, I believe, safe to assume that the real kenmitsu matrix of the Shingon
school emerged during the late Heian period with the appearance of a new liter-
ary genre: the treatises on the distinction between ken and mitsu by such great
scholars and religious figures as Saisen ili5i (1025-1115), Jitsuhan ~~
(?-1144), and Kakuban jtjf (1095-1143). Generally ignored by scholars today,
these men were directly responsible for the creation of medieval Mikkyo.
Contemporary events-such as the creation of the cult of Kobo Daishi or the
emergence of Koyasan as an object of popular faith connected with the quest for
immortality and rebirth in paradise-were closely related, on the one hand, to
the cultural mood of the time (the idea of mappo ¥ and the search for
methods to counter it), and, on the other, to the need of religious institutions to
gain new sources of income and wider social support. In this respect, it is inter-
esting that the collection and study of Kiikai' s works, as well as the attempt to
adapt Mikkyo to new religious needs and trends, began after the creation of new
forms of cult and religious "consumption."
Still, Mikkyo heterology never lost its formidable function of opposition,