. the sea of esotericism is of one flavor 1039
marks a turning point in the attitude that established esoteric schools
have adopted toward the new religions. Before that tragic event and
the emphasis on the AUM movement’s relationships to Kōyasan and
the Shingon establishment in the press, Shingon scholars had pub-
lished articles claiming that the AUM movement had no Buddhist
esoteric component.
Since then, the traditional esoteric schools have been even more
cautious in their relationship to new religious movements. Any
attempts by new religions to establish temples on Kōyasan or close to
famous traditional esoteric centers have been severely condemned. In
this sense, the complex relationship between esoteric orthodoxy and
heterodoxy reflects the ambivalent attitude that contemporary Japan
has toward religion of any kind. Furthermore, this relationship might
mirror a growing difficulty for the center to deal with the problems of
the periphery, and it may also explain why movements such as Sōka
Gakkai that have no relationship to esoteric traditions are
growing very quickly, while movements related to esotericism are
slowly losing their influence.