826 donald drummond
Tokugawa shogunate began its own policies of consolidation and cen-
tralization of power, which from 1601 included efforts to extend its
reach over the temple-shrine complexes, first by insisting that they
systematize their internal regulations (hatto ). In fulfilling this
requirement, complexes sought to confirm their lineages and their
places within the overall tradition of which they were a part. This
applied to both esoteric and exoteric traditions alike (e.g., Shingon,
Tendai, Jōdo, Nichiren, Zen, and so on).
Within this process, as Shingon complexes staked their claims to
a place in the esoteric tradition, the issue of how Dainichi Nyorai
preached/preaches the Dharma took on a more pronounced emphasis
and became a doctrinal overlay onto the distinction of temple-shrine
complexes from each other, particularly Mt. Kōya and the Chizan and
Buzan heirs to Mt. Negoro. These distinctions became efforts to estab-
lish “brand names” of “Old Doctrine” Shingon and “New Doctrine”
Shingon beyond actual fundamental doctrinal and ritual differences.
The “newness” of Kakuban’s revival, the “newness” of expression and
meaning stressed in the ryūgi methodology for study and debate,
became the standard for the Mt. Negoro complex in the medieval
period. It was this “new form of study and doctrinal expression” that
was shingi and which permeated Negoro’s scholastic tradition, form-
ing the basis for the later Chizan and Buzan branches of Shingon
esoteric Buddhism (Matsunaga 1969, 258–63; Kushida 1979, 240–41,
480–81).