686 athanasios drakakis
for a Buddhist priest to disrobe in order to become a member of
the Onmyōryō bureaucracy. An analogous distinction (Buddhist
as opposed to Daoist teachings) seems to have been applied also to
Jugondō, a system of protective rituals and exorcisms performed at
the Ten’yakuryō (Bureau of Medicine) by specialists known as
jugonji. According to the Nihonshoki , Jugondō
was introduced to Japan in the sixth century from Korea. After
the establishment of the Onmyōryō, Jugondō lost its raison d’être and
disappeared from state agencies.
During the Heian period, Onmyōdō was a de jure monopoly of the
Onmyōryō, but the activities of folk onmyōji are mentioned frequently
in contemporary sources. Toward the end of the Heian period, the
need for onmyōji increased because aristocrats began to demand exor-
cisms and divination for personal purposes. During the Nara and the
early Heian periods, Onmyōryō activities were mostly related to the
emperor. The Onmyōryō was also in charge of some exorcisms per-
formed by the Jingikan (Bureau for Kami Affairs), because
the latter was concerned about the possibility of acquiring impurity
(kegare ) through the performance of purification rituals.
Onmyōdō and Mikkyō
During the Nara period, onmyōji started to perform rituals in order
to pacify the spirits of the earth. These kinds of rituals were also com-
mon to Buddhism; in fact, such ritual activity can be considered the
first practical combination of Buddhism with Onmyōdō in Japan.
Furthermore, New Year protective rituals performed by onmyōji were
also common to mikkyō. Toward the beginning of the Heian period,
onmyōji began to perform rituals to ward off evil spirits (onryō
or goryō ) and natural calamities, again for individual aristocrats.
Thus, in a little more than a hundred years the onmyōji changed from
being scientists of a sort during the Nara period to magico-religious
figures. This transformation can actually be considered a return to
their original form, since Onmyōdō-related thought was originally
part of the knowledge of Buddhist monks. The role of onmyōji was
usually to detect the cause of abnormalities concerning natural phe-
nomena. Even though onmyōji also occasionally performed exorcism
rituals, exorcism was usually considered the job of esoteric Buddhist
priests. In any case, many esoteric Buddhist elements were absorbed
into Onmyōdō rituals, and many Onmyōdō-related philosophical
aspects were introduced into esoteric Buddhist rituals.