. looking back and leaping forward 825
doctrine; 2) if the terminology was of established usage, the meaning
to which it referred always had to be fresh and “new”; 3) both “new”
terminology and meaning were requirements; and 4) if the terminol-
ogy and meaning were of established usage, they had to express the
content well (Kushida 1979, 241–44).
From the Tokugawa period on, tradition and scholars have often
closely associated Raiyu’s theory that the Dharma was preached by
the “empowerment body” of Dainichi Nyorai (kajishin seppō setsu
) with developments in Shingon esoteric doctrine by the
Mt. Negoro lineages. Thus, this theory was thought to be the source for
which the Negoro tradition merited the term Shingi (new/het-
erodox doctrine), in contrast to the Kogi (old/orthodox doctrine)
of other major Shingon centers such as Mt. Kōya, Mt. Daigo, Tōji,
and Ninnaji. These centers maintained the established position that
the Dharma was preached not by an emanation or subsidiary body but
by Dainichi Nyorai in his essential nature as the Dharma body ( jishō
hosshin ). However, according to Kushida Ryōkō, Ryūkei
and Shinnichi (scholastics of Mt. Kōya in the lineage of
Shinben) argued that Kakukai, a disciple and revitalizer of “orthodox”
Shingon, promoted the same doctrinal position as that of Raiyu with-
out being identified as “heterodox” or “new” (Kushida 1979, 210–11;
1964, 709; see also Matsunaga 1969, 237).^13 Thus, the term shingi did
not primarily express a “new heterodox” doctrinal position but had to
be located in other contexts.
Following the permanent departure of Raiyu and the Daidenbōin-
Mitsugoin’in monks to Mt. Negoro, the “new” center, completely
independent of Mt. Kōya and its capital overseer Tōji, grew in scho-
lastic stature, wealth, and influence throughout the medieval period. It
stressed its “new” style of argumentation and debate and, as a conse-
quence, the tradition of Negoroji was designated as Shingi-Shingon.
After the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi razed the Negoro complex
in 1585, two streams of Negoro lineage emerged to carry on the Shingi
tradition in the Chizan and Buzan branches. Following Hideyoshi, the
(^13) In Japan the issue of how Dainichi Nyorai as the Dharma body preached
(preaches) the Mahāvairocana sūtra/Dharma went back to the progenitor Kūkai in his
response to questions posed by the Hossō scholar Tokuitsu (Abé 1999, 204–35) and
continued throughout the premodern period. For detailed discussions of the debate
and of the nature of Dainichi Nyorai’s Dharma body, see Matsunaga 1973, 71–79;
Kiyota 1978, 63–80; van der Veere 2000, 66, 85–93; and Kushida 1979, 208–13.