. esoteric buddhism and the tantras in east asia 13
medieval Shintō. Thus we can talk about institutional esoteric Bud-
dhism and its penumbra. Indeed, the penumbra might, in many
settings, be the predominant phenomena.Disambiguating the Applications of “Tantra” and “Esoteric”
In order to further disambiguate our use of the terms tantra and eso-
teric Buddhism, it would be useful to distinguish different applications
of the terms—when in a sense they are used as adjectives that can be
applied to a variety of different subjects. The relevance and significance
of these terms will not be uniform across all of the different applica-
tions. For example, it is one thing to talk about Kōyasan as a tantric
or esoteric Buddhist center, and quite another to talk about Fudō as
a tantric deity appropriated into Shugendō. It seems that there are at
least eight different contextual applications, each with its own signifi-
cance, distinct from other such contextual applications. These eight are
institutions, ideology, doctrine, practice, praxis, art, architecture, and
material culture, pantheon, and texts.
- Institutions
There are large monastic institutions, which in Japan were usu-
ally complexes that included both Buddhist and Shintō shrines and
temples. The most prominent examples today are Kōyasan
and Hieizan , though there are other important monastic
complexes.^28 Although some of these continue into the present, several
were destroyed in the second half of the nineteenth century, though in
their own day they were very important. Some such institutions did
not adhere to a centralized, hierarchical authority.
There are also non-monastic, periodic or seasonal institutions, such
as, Shugendō. The Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) man-
dated a close affiliation between Shugendō and either Shingon or
Tendai, but now, as a result of postwar legal reforms, Shugendō is
independent. As a result of this long affiliation, however, esoteric Bud-
dhist influences can still be seen in the seasonal practices of austerities
in the mountains of Japan. One also finds local shrines and temples
with their own associations with esoteric Buddhism, a history of lineal
relations, or practices that derive from esoteric sources. And, there
(^28) For Tang dynasty complexes see Chen, “Esoteric Buddhism and Monastic Insti-
tutions,” in this volume.