. looking back and leaping forward 819
seventh month of 1116. As Tōji’s chief abbot, Kanjo was also the chief
abbot of Kongōbuji, the temple complex on Mt. Kōya.^7
Kakuban’s practice of the gumonjihō revealed his desire to complete
his master Kanjo’s efforts at revitalizing the Shingon tradition, and
indicated that he possessed noumenal power (genriki ). Indeed,
all of Kakuban’s subsequent activities on Mt. Kōya, in the capital, and
later at Mt. Negoro pointed to this as well. However, there were a
number of challenges Kakuban faced in making this vision a reality.
From later complaints lodged by Kongōbuji’s scholar-monks to retired
Emperor Toba, it is clear that they viewed Kakuban as an outsider,
gairaisha (Shirai 2002, 167–73).
Within this context, the gairaisha designation had several layers of
meaning. First, Kakuban was from the “distant provinces.” The leader-
ship of Kongōbuji, on the other hand, came primarily from the local
elite families ( gōzoku ) in the wider vicinity of Mt. Kōya.
Second, when Kakuban arrived on the mountain he stayed in resi-
dences or sections of the mountain that were closely linked to visit-
ing or unaffiliated monastics (kyakusō /muen shūgakusha
), whose focus was on practice and obtaining noumenal power.
He received instruction and guidance from such monastics for his
own practice. Also dwelling in these “separate cloisters” (bessho )
were “support staff ” monastics ( gyōnin /hijiri ) skilled in main-
tenance, construction, and fundraising. Some generations before, these
kinds of monastics had begun organizing under the charismatic “out-
sider” monks Kishin Shōnin Jōyo and Odawara Hijiri Kyōkai
, both of whom were related to Kōfukuji in Nara
(Drummond 2007, 111–18).
Third, although Kakuban had received Dharma transmission con-
secration from Kanjo, he did not have an official position
within the monastic hierarchy of Mt. Kōya. He was, thus, an unaffili-
ated outsider.
Fourth, Kakuban was successful in gaining patronage from aristo-
cratic families. His reputation as a possessor of noumenal power gave
him entry into elite households, both within the capital and in the
regions surrounding Mt. Kōya. The Chūyūki diarist Fujiwara
no Munetada recorded several entries in which Kakuban is
(^7) The chief abbot (ichi no chōja) of Tōji had held the chief abbacy (zasu) of
Kongōbuji from the time of Kangen in 921.