- the deity of miwa and tendai esoteric thought 857
have made to Miwa (ZGR (1936) 8, ge, scroll 205). Several references,
however, suggest that Saichō did indeed worship the deities of Ōbie,
Kasuga, Usa Hachiman, and Sumiyoshi (Dengyō daishi zenshū
2: 286–89, hereafter DDZ).
We can spot a significant shift in the perception of the Ōbie-Miwa
deity at Hie that started after the foundation of the Tendai temple.
The new origin narrative maintained that Ōbie had been transferred
from Mt. Miwa by Enryakuji’s founder. The Eizan daishi den and the
Dengyō daishi gōgyōki, written by Enchin (814–891), mention
the existence of a “meditation hall at the shrine dedicated to kami”
(jingū zen’in ) and a “shrine temple of Hiei” (Hiei jingūji
) as places where Saichō’s father worshiped the native deities
prior to Saichō’s birth (DDZ bekkan, ZGR 8, ge, 481).^6 It is possible
that at least some of the deities worshiped in the vicinity of Hieizan
before Saichō’s arrival and the establishment of Enryakuji were of con-
tinental origin; however, little is known about the period prior to the
compilation of the first official records in the eighth century.
The fact that the Tendai order fought to firmly establish itself as a
leading Buddhist institution in the early ninth century meant that it
could not possibly ignore the political importance of appropriating all
forms of kami worship on the mountain. Although the significance of
the Miwa deity as a former protective kami of the early Yamato rul-
ers had been long since put aside by the imperial family, the Tendai
lineages realized its importance from early on. There were some polit-
ical disputes, however. After Saichō’s death, each of the competing
branches at Enryakuji was trying to promote its own version of kami
worship. For example, the identity of the Ōmiya gongen , the
central deity of the Hie shrines , remained open to question.
There were at least two versions: one, supported by Enchin’s branch at
Miidera, was that the Ōmiya gongen was the reincarnation of the Miwa
deity; another, propagated by Eryō (801–859), maintained that
the Ōmiya gongen was actually the deity of the Lower Kamo shrine.^7
(^6) Cited in Sugahara 1992, 14. Another source mentioned by Sugahara, the Eigaku
yōki , refers to the kami worship facility as the Konpon jingūji
(GR 214: 517).
(^7) This version was built on local lore and ancestral legends of the Kamo lineage.
One legend, which in content is very close to the legends about Seyadatarahime and
the Miwa deity recorded in the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki, says that the deity of Lower
Kamo was struck by an arrow while washing her clothes and eventually gave birth to a
child, who turned into a dragon and flew into the sky. A similar story about the deity