986 regan murphy
intellectual historians have described this new and robust interest in
ancient Japanese language as a form of nativism that developed broadly
in response to shifts within Confucian studies, leaving Buddhism out
of the picture. The Buddhist study of Siddham in fact played a critical
role in this renaissance, but to date there has been little research on
the Buddhist contribution to the early modern study of language or
indeed of the transformation of Buddhist scholarship under the influ-
ence of new approaches to knowledge.
A focus on the study of Siddham during the early modern period^4
may help to fill this lacuna in previous scholarship. By looking at four
case studies (of two Sanskrit scholars, two of ancient Japanese), this
chapter aims to suggest future directions for research not only on the
transformation of esoteric Buddhism in the early modern period, but
also on the contribution of its ritual sciences to the development of
Japanese linguistics.
Born nearly eighty years apart, the two Sanskrit scholars introduced
here are Jōgon (1639–1702), who stood at the forefront, and Jiun
Sonja (1718–1804), who stood at the apex of the revitaliza-
tion of Sanskrit studies. Both represented the type of new “early mod-
ern” scholar-monk who combined a high level of scholarship with an
interest in the popularization of Buddhism among the laity through
publishing vernacular texts, conducting precept ceremonies, and
giving lectures.
Although sources on Jōgon are severely limited,^5 we know that he
entered Mt. Kōya, the headquarters of Shingon esoteric Buddhism, at
age ten and spent the next twenty-three years there, leaving only after
the death of several of his mentors and the failure of his efforts to
revitalize the study of Sanskrit on the mountain.^6 He is best known
(^4) Although quantitatively incomparable to Confucian studies, the study of Siddham
swelled in the Edo period, producing such scholar-monks as Jōgon (1639–1702),
Donjaku (1674–1742), Kōryū (1759–1842), Jakugon (1702–1771),
Jiun Sonja (1718–1804), Gyōchi (1778–1841), and Daijaku (1740–1821),
among others. See Takakusu 1918. 5
Jōgon’s compiled works are not available in publication. What is readily available
to the student of Jōgon are a few secondary works that tend toward hagiography and
a limited selection of his texts that have been published. See bibliography.
(^6) Jōgon described his efforts in the colophon of the Tozenin Shittanshō
, which he copied in the first month of Kanbun 11 (1671). He wrote (quoted in
Ueda Reijō 1979, 7):
[L]ast year in the southern mountain we revitalized the sermons on Siddham, but
at the time there was a person who opposed our efforts and it finally ended. Ah,