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Fushidansekkyo-theme Pages News - my personal remarks in Japanese News - my personal remarks in English My Published Papers (1998 and 2001) in Japanese tr. My Published Papers in English Fushidansekkyo Written Material (Macaronic) Fushidansekkyo Audio Video Material in Japanese Fushidansekkyo Audio Video Material in English My Master's Thesis (1996) in Japanese tr. My Master's Thesis in English My Notes and Bibliography in Japanese tr. My Notes and Bibliography in English Good Websites to Visit (Macaronic) Glossary of Japanese Words and Names in English Macaronic: Both English letters and Japanese characters as Text are on the same page. (Without a font - get garbled) Hitomi Dever, "Fushidansekkyo ni Miru Rennyo ," Kokubungaku Kaishaku to Kansho, volume 63, number 10 (Japan: Shibundo, 1998). Hitomi Dever, "Kokan no Geinosei," Geino, journal sequential serial number 424, annually-issued journal number 7 (Japan: Geino Gakkai, 2001).

The appellation, "Jodo Shin shu Otani-ha" (the Jodo Shin Otani-ha denomination), that I had used in my original papers published in 1998 and 2001 ought to be corrected and replaced by "Shin shu Otani-ha" (the Shin Otani-ha denomination), for that appellation I used has proven to be a misnomer, while listening to Dr. Kazuo Sekiyama's discourse at the Society of Buddhist Literature on the 1st of June, 2002.

I have never majored in English literature, but I am setting out to have a faithful translation (a literal rendering) of my original Japanese papers with my English dictionaries. I can assert with probability that I may have committed many faults in English grammar. If you are kind enough to point out my grammatical mistakes and other English errors, I shall be most grateful to you. So, if yo do not dislike Japanese language, please read my original text written in Japanese, for I have full confidence in my grammatical abilities for Japanese as my native language. Rennyo Viewed in Fushidansekkyo, The Art of Kokan in Japanese

1. Whenever I find an English term which seems to be more appropriately equivalent to a Japanese term and an English expression which seems to capture the essential semantic content of a Japanese expression or to convey it, I will rewrite the place.
2. Supplementary explanations which were not described in my original papers when they were published in 1998 and 2001 are enclosed with brackets [ ] and displayed in gray font color or are displayed in gray font color without brackets.
3. Similarly, in the quoted texts, descriptions enclosed with brackets [ ] and displayed in gray font color are supplementary explanations by me, which were not described by the authors in their original articles that I quoted from.
4. I translate the Japanese titles of reference papers and books into English and write them down, enclosing them with brackets [ ]. But, when there is an author-specified or author-supplied English title for his or her Japanese article or book, I write that English title by the author as it is without brackets.
5. Notes the numbers of which are written in Roman numerals —such as (I), (II), and (III)— are additional notes.
6. I refer to Kyogyoshinsho in Hisao Inagaki tr., Kyogyoshinsho: On Teaching, Practice, Faith, And Enlightenment, Copytext: Taisho, Volume 83, Number 2646 (Berkeley, California: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2003).
7. I refer to Tannisho in Shojun Bando & Harold Stewart trs., Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith, Copytext: Taisho, Volume 83, Number 2661, and Ann T. Rogers & Minor L. Rogers trs., Rennyo Shonin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo, Copytext: Taisho, Volume 74, Number 2668, one volume (Berkeley, California: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996).

This is an English translation of my published paper, Hitomi Dever, "Fushidansekkyo ni Miru Rennyo —Sobue Shonen shi 'Kuden no Rennyo' wo megutte—" ["Rennyo Viewed in Fushidansekkyo: Centering upon 'Oral Tradition of Rennyo' preached by the Reverend Shonen Sobue"], Kokubungaku Kaishaku to Kansho [Japanese literature Interpretation and Appreciation], volume 63, number 10 (Japan: Shibundo, 1998).

• The appellation, "Jodo Shin shu" (the Jodo Shin denomination), that I had used in my original paper published in 1998 is replaced by "Shin Buddhism" in this rendering.

Rennyo Viewed in Fushidansekkyo: Centering upon "Oral Tradition of Rennyo" preached by the Reverend Shonen Sobue

Introduction

In the summoning voice of Tathagata that has never ceased calling for, Mon Po [hearing the Dharma] and Mon soku Shin [Hearing, that is, Entrusting] were the very attitudes which were running through the basis of all edifications [propagandism and preaching] of Shin Buddhism. In Fushidansekkyo , amidst a religious communication through a koo [a calling and response] that is reiteratedly carried on between a preacher and the congregation, a kokan [an inter-sympathetic response in a religious phenomenal or religious existential experience] emerges, holding those that arise from the greater frame of meaning which consist in the circumambience of thoughts and words from both a preacher and the congregation. This is to be ascribed to the fundamental attitudes of Mon Po and Mon soku Shin, yet that, as I conceive it, is concerned in the history of Fushidansekkyo to a great extent. It is the history that people had craved for words and expressions which would reach the people themselves, and, in the form meeting this need of theirs, Fushidansekkyo has been elaborated. Such a mechanism of responding that is traditional leads to a masterly piece of Fushidansekkyo, which is a corporate work or a collaboration by the preacher and the congregation, in an actual place of sermon.

Here to view Rennyo is not only to see a form of creation which a preacher has embodied. But it is to see an image of Rennyo, as a manifestation of the hearts and minds of the populace of their own insofar as they were able to express them, through which how deeply the people revered him and wished to praise his life, or with which how they took him as themselves, overlapping one another, and tried to pass their never-failing minds into posterity from mouth to mouth.

1. The Placement of the Birth of Rennyo

"Oral Tradition of Rennyo" (hereinafter abbreviated to Oral Tradition) is, citing the sixth paragraph in the last volume of Godensho, being begun to tell with the scene of the death of Shinran [1173-1262] (Also see An Abbreviated Chronological Table of Kamakura Period), Shin Buddhism's founder. On his deathbed, Shinran left his inscrutable words to Renni, his close attendant. That is to say, although the law of Buddha was then flourishing, yet it would not be long before the time would come when the flame of the Nembutsu was to be put out, hence, seizing the moment, he should come again to this world and propagate the Nembutsu. Having been a century and a half since Shinran breathed his last, Hokyo Shimoma, chief retainer of the head temple, comes to have a dream.

"On my soul, the icon of our founding father. The icon, why are you visiting such a sordid sleeping chamber of mine?" asked, and the icon, cracking a smile, says, "I, Shinran, who made a promise to your forefather Renni, I am ashamed to say, yet come again." "O comes eventually! So, what my ancestor Renni wrote and left was not a lie. Oh, thank our founder for all the troubles," while crying, (...) an errand arrived, telling him to come to the head temple at once because a baby boy was just born. When he called at the head temple in all haste, the face of a newborn baby is look-alike for the face of the icon before which he worshiped in the dream, and then reckons, "Ah, this is not an ordinary one, our founder has eventually come again to this world"...

That traditional perspective which Rennyo [1415-1499] is a genuine successor who has held Shinran's teachings as true with neither revision nor perversion,⁽¹⁾ on the very grounds that Rennyo is a reincarnation of Shinran, would be worthy of focusing into a perfect image in Oral Tradition. On reflection, however, as Egaku Maeda has exemplified,⁽²⁾ by way of advocating "Ren shi mae " [an enshrined place for Rennyo], with the fact that there is no regular place for Rennyo in the main halls of general temples, that the position of Rennyo is unsteady in the order of Hongwanji [Nishi Hongwanji or Hompa Hongwanji]. Furthermore, there are the modern history of the order that is "Rennyo banare " [the detachment from Rennyo] to which Shigeki Izumi has adverted and certain images of Rennyo in that where there is an orientation of the order ⁽³⁾ in each of the eras (for instance, an "aristocrat"), by contrast with them, an image of Rennyo on people's side will become more apparent. Apart from a transition of appraisement of Rennyo within the order, the warm sentiment of the people, to the point of obstinacy, towards Rennyo ought to be also viewed.

The eyes that look upon Rennyo as a rebirth of Shinran is too shown in the twelfth clause of Goichidaiki Kikigaki, yet there, excerpting the words from Hoonkoshiki, "Let us say, just like a tree [a stick] and a stone, having waited for a turn of fate, are ignited, a rubble and a debris, having been filed, become gems," is held by Kyomonbo that which is the restoration of Rennyo. Specifically, in accordance with the words that a withered tree will start a fire and a tile or a pebble will begin to sparkle, Zaikeshiju [the ordinary people pressed with their daily lives] in the latter age, who had to be saved by the Hongwan [Primal Vow of Amitabha Tathagata], whom the Hongwan was to save, turned into such beings as to emanate light through Rennyo's edification. That edification became a turn which caused the Ki [dormant nature or dormant being] of the Hongwan to be evoked. That is the meaning of what is Rennyo's revival.⁽⁴⁾

2. Rennyo's Grief and His Real Mother

Rennyo's real mother left him of six years. Although diverse oral traditions had appeared as to this mother, it is accepted that the core of those oral traditions lies in her lowly origin.⁽⁵⁾ In Oral Tradition, she is a woman from a province of the west whose birth is not made known, nor is her rank clearly told. It is also handed down that she was the incarnation of Avolokitesvara [Kanzeon Bosatsu] in Ishiyama, while Avalokitesvara becomes her symbol in Oral Tradition.

Later on, in front of Kanzeon Bosatsu in Ishiyama, this torn short-sleeved kimono made of dappled cloth was placed. Probably, "This little boy will do his very best to make the teaching of the Nembutsu, which are now coming to ruin, as prosperous as it was while our founder was on earth. Please, Kanzeon Bosatsu, help the boy, please do stand by the boy," she solicited the help...
...Uh, having nothing, cannot give, one cannot edify others, if his Shinjin is not Shoi [the true intent]. I wish to ask someone to check this Anjin [Settled Heart]. Having his long-held wish, he wondered who might be the one, who might be the one. But, like a flash, it was Kanzeon Bosatsu in Ishiyama that crossed his mind. Who was deeply related to his mother by fate, he thought, and he would ask this Kanzeon Bosatsu to check whether his Anjin is Shoi or not...

Those points which Oral Tradition puts emphasis upon are, first, the unbearable grief of Aibetsuriku [one of eight sufferings, the agony of separation from the loved] that is a severance from his real mother, second, as seen above, the waymark towards the revival of Shin Buddhism through his mother's wish and guiding. Natsufumi Sagae cites the third clause of Goichigoki that describes the scene of the separation in which Rennyo's mother is going out by the back door at dusk and, perceiving the sight to be seen there as a primal scene of Rennyo's mind, educes, "The reason why Rennyo is received by the populace with their absolute trust and sympathy is that he had lived, having kept the unstableness of dusk, isn't it?" and states, "For that leads to 'the sorrow of the people' which is common in all ages and is attended with a feeling of reality of living together." ⁽⁶⁾ In Oral Tradition that grief is, after it has been expressed in the first episode, "Parting in life which outdoes bereavement, the grief is such as to rend a bough from a live tree," recurred through Rennyo's mouth in the eighth episode, "Alas, this Rennyo, what sort of seeds have I sown in my previous life? When a boy, parting in life which outdoes being bereaved, in a way to rend a bough from a live tree, I had to be severed from my mother who gave birth to me."

Thus, Oral Tradition is that which is glittering in the phase of "the tragic ," and yet, on the other hand, it has a depiction which Rennyo might have realized his reunion with his real mother in Onomichi. This is, I should say, answering to such Rennyo's yearning for his mother as read in a passus of inquiry after her in the fourth clause of Goichigoki, owing to that the workings of the wishes of the people which they would have the two meet again by some means or other had extended.

3. Making Out Ofumi

In Oral Tradition the situations and tenors that Rennyo had constantly made out sheets of Ofumi [also called Gobunsho, the Letters of Rennyo] one after another, from "Shonin Ichiryu no ofumi [V:10 On Faith as Fundamental]" and other letters, such as "Mujojinjin no ofumi [V:13 On the Unsurpassed, Most Profound Virtues and Benefits]," "Shinjin Gyakutoku no ofumi [V:5 On Realizing Faith], "The eighth letter in the first fascicle no ofumi (Yoshizaki gobo) [I:8 On Building at Yoshizaki]," "Hakkotsu no ofumi [V:16 On White Ashes (Bones)]," "Ozaka Konryu no ofumi [IV:15 On Building at Ozaka (Osaka)]" and the like, are going to be recited. The one that was made out through the catechism, exchanging questions and answers, with Avolokitesvara in Ishiyama is "Shonin Ichiryu no ofumi" :

Having written this down on a paper, the more I read it, the more I appreciate. This is Shoi, this is the pit of our founder's stomach. He thought that, reading it, on that lengthy stone steps, also crying, he read it and cried, he read it and cried, and he was coming down. There, at the bottom of the stone steps, was his disciple Dosai. (...) That brand spanking new "Shonin Ichiryu no ofumi," he took it in hand and while reading it, "Ah! It is divine, it is gracious. (tune) This is the golden saying, this is the sacred teaching (end tune)." "Watch your mouth. The golden saying is the word that Buddha has told. The sacred teaching is the writing that a luminous high priest has written. It is profane to call what someone like Rennyo wrote a golden saying or a sacred teaching. From now on, no matter what Rennyo will write, simply call it a "fumi" ["letter"]. Here, the name "Ofumi" was assigned.

"Mujojinjin no ofumi" is said to have been written in appreciation for the barely, when Rennyo mowed barley with a view to having a peasant, Sakuji, hear the law of Buddha, and in repentance this man was given an edification and delivered all the barley to Rennyo. "Shinjin Gyakutoku no ofumi" is purported to have come to fail to use set opening phrases that are "sore" and "somosomo," because it was urgently written at the bedside of a dying devout, Kirokudayu in Kisyuizumigaura. "Hakkotsu no ofumi" is what was written in grief that Rennyo's third wife passed away after a long suffering in hard labor and, in addition to that, the baby who was born in the morning died in the evening on the same day, and so Mujo [Impermanence or Transience] is being told in Rennyo's own lauguage.

Thus, it is apprehended that Ofumi, as a new instrument and method for edification, telling in brief and in the concrete with words of the populace in current use of the time [the vernacular Japanese of the day], is the "never to be misread " version which has accomplished the modernization and rendition ⁽⁷⁾ of Shinran's teachings. With the words of Rennyo of his own that are living in his time, such as "tasuke tamae to tanomu " ["I entrust in Amitabha Tathagata to save me"], "gosho no ichidaiji " ["one great issue of the life to come"] or the like, it is what consistently exhorts that Shinjin [True Entrusting] is of vital importance and iteratively corroborates Shinjin and tells about "heart" and "figure" of Na Mu A Mi Da Butsu which is the body [the entity] of Shinjin. Hence, it comes to be said in Oral Tradition that "Just write Ofumi and those who rejoice to read Ofumi, amounting to ten persons and to twenty persons, and say, oh, it's a blessing, and so hundreds of Rennyo Shonin are to be made."

To call Rennyo "Rennyo-san" with an endearing familiarity and not "Rennyo Shonin " ["Honorable Rennyo, Master Rennyo"] is a sentiment of the people which would not have come into being without this Ofumi.⁽⁸⁾ Although Rennyo whose bilateral character of his deeds and works has been controversial among many scholars and researchers, yet Rennyo who was consigned to Oral Tradition is still "Rennyo-san" of the populace. Not so much Obo [the laws of a secular king] and Buppo [the laws of Buddha], in "lives" that are inevitable to the people, but rather the image of Rennyo is, which would take on even daily trivial matters, what keeps them feeling that they can go through life with an easy conscience. Rennyo in Oral Tradition is never such a being as to show his two-sided characteristic either in his way of life or in his edification.

4. Rennyo's Singular Personified Buddha

Kazuo Sekiyama, placing much value upon Rennyo's achievements in the history of Japanese Buddhist preaching, deduces, "It is Rennyo who formed the basis of preaching of the Shin denomination for the ages to come," and touches upon, "The method of preaching of the Shin denomination that uses the analogy comparing the relation between Amitabha Tathagata and all sentient beings to the relationship between a parent and children." ⁽⁹⁾ Hence, the articulations that treat Tathagata as a parent who is "attending and protecting a child evermore" appear throughout Oral Tradition as well. And although it is that which Chiken Kato has already pointed out ⁽¹⁰⁾ and it becomes a repetition thereof, yet Rennyo himself fairly personifiedly perceives Tathagata. In a word, there is an awareness that "Amitabha Tathagata Himself goes to a lot of trouble, so much so that we feel sorry, entirely for us." That will merge, being jugate, with the wish and guiding of Rennyo's real mother into one, in Oral Tradition, as the affection between parent and child.

Just right here, he put his hands on the doorsill of the golden paper sliding screen, being sobbingly grateful, "The icon of our founding father, (...) Thank you very much. I am, at your enshrined home, going to farewell to this world, nothing makes me happier than this." "Well, you must be tired. Please go to bed." "No, no, not yet. The icon says nothing, but, to my heart, 'It was nice of you to come. It's good to have you back. Having received a partisan wound, you protected me with your life, Oh, I appreciated that,' to my heart, I keenly feel that the icon is calling. Like an ancient saying, (tune) 'I do not know what resides here, yet my tears flow in gratitude' [a waka poem by Saigyo] (end tune), I cannot help crying." It is said to have been for one toki and a half from the old time measurement, so it would be three hours, in front of the icon...

What is viewed here are the "hearing" posture of Rennyo holding a dialogue through no intermediary and, in a symbolic facet, to "return to Shinran" who is the starting point and arriving point of Rennyo and the explicitness of the standpoint of a Nembutsu practitioner Rennyo, wherein from beginning to end he consistently depends upon Shin [Entrusting, Faith] in Shinran. Hence, this dialogue with the icon of Shinran can, as it is, be perceived as a dialogue between a singular personified Buddha and a myokonin Rennyo who was born of Mon Po.

Ryoen Minamoto expounds that the development of Rennyo's Rokuji Shaku [Rennyo's interpretation of the six-character Name as the relationship between the practitioner and the Dharma] had transformed the relation between Tathagata and all sentient beings into a personality relationship [personality-on-personality relationship] and brought about a dialogue between the two, and the coalescence of that renovated Rokuji Shaku with Kiho Ittai [denoting the Ki of sentient beings' entrusting themselves to Amida Buddha (Shin, True Entrusting) and the Ho of Amida's saving all sentient beings (Myogo, the Name), in a word, Oneness of the Receiver and the Dharma] made the relationship of the two more dynamic. Stated another way, in the dialogue between Tathagata and a devout that was generalized by the establishment of "Ich" and "Du" relationship, Tathagata will be "Tathagata-sama," "Tathagata-san" and "Oya-sama" ["my dear parent"] in the end. And "On their part, the inexhaustible dialogue with Tathagata leads them to the dialogue with themselves and makes them be forthright expressioners of that dialogue with 'one's own self' which Rennyo, as a headman of the order, has not revealed in an apparent expression." ⁽¹¹⁾ Then, being led by Rennyo's outright utterance viewed in Oral Tradition, what sort of expressioners may the people become? Rennyo will, on his deathbed,

"What shall we read, (...) Here's 'Matsudaimuchi no ofumi' [V:1 On Laymen and Laywomen Lacking Wisdom in the Last Dharma Age], I will read this." "Oh, Matsudaimuchi is edifying. Please read it." While that disciple was reciting, "(tune) Persons of ignorance, both male and female, in this latter age who are pressed with their daily lives, when they rely deeply and single-heartedly on Amida Buddha and entrust themselves only to Amida Buddha with singleness of mind without ever turning their minds in any other direction, and say, 'I entrust in Amida Tathagata to save me,' even if their karmic evils are deep and grave, are surely to be saved by Amida Tathagata. This is the essence of the Eighteenth Vow of birth in the Pure Land through the Nembutsu (end tune)," with every word the disciple had just read, he agreed, "It's reverend," "It's blessed." In the course of time, instead of saying that it was an ofumi he wrote and that it was an ofumi he made out, Rennyo-sama said, "Ohumi is Amida's direct Teaching. (tune) It is the calling voice of our great compassionate Parent who has been calling to us since ten kalpas ago (end tune). O how grateful we are. Read it again, please read it again"...

as seen above, tell what the way of being ought to be.

5. All Brethren of the Same Shin and Fellow-Travelers of the Same Path

It is well known that Rennyo, noting, "Shinran Shonin has said, 'Shinran, do not have even a single disciple. But all are fellow practicers" (Kuzenki) and "Our founder has, with deep reverence, called others 'Ondobo and Ondogyo [companions and fellow practicers],' how dare one neglects a devout?" (Jitsugokyuki), always received his followers and the people as his Ondobo and Ondogyo, with reverence, camaraderie and consideration for them, and met them knee to knee, sitting on the same level with them. This attitude of Rennyo towards his followers is that which several scholars and researchers dissert upon as the modality of the restoration of Shin Buddhism by Rennyo built on the Dobo spirit. That spirit is, in Oral Tradition, going to be conveyed in the tenth episode, "Goojo" ["Birth in the Pure Land"] :

When those five sons were seated at the bedside, from within his momently critical condition, (...) "Firmly, brothers, be sure to get along with each other. When there is Shinjin, it is only natural that brothers are good friends with each other. (tune) This is also beyond question, the teachings of our founding father Shinran Shonin is to prosper (end tune). Keep in with brothers. Without Shinjin, we cannot do good to others. With Shinjin, we can be good friends with others no matter who they are. We are all Ondobo, we are all Ondogyo. I'm telling you, where there is Shinjin, there will always be good friends, it's the way it's got to be, brothers are at unity with each other. That, as it stands, goes to the prosperity of the teachings of Shinran Shonin, the teaching of the Nembutsu, absolutely." Having heard them, the sons, while shedding tears, deep in their heart, surely embraced those words and, Ah, nodded. Rennyo-sama saw that and bowed his head...

Under this spirit, all communications will be sublimated into Existentielle Kommunikation. Looking up to Shinran and being bound in a self-consicous Dobo spirit with those who are to be his brethren of the same Entrusting and fellow-travelers of the same path, yet, of all things, Rennyo gazed foremost upon that which is the prosperity of Shin Buddhism in the world where he lived with conviction of Shin at which deep inside he himself had nodded.

End

If religion will, proclaiming that this is the study of Buddha and this is the study of God, excessively ideate and formulate its teachings as "On Buddha" and "On God," there are only to be drawn apart and diluted experiences and matters as "On Man." ⁽¹²⁾ Yet, even though such a situation is generated, man cannot, unless he is deprived of his sensitivity towards all the ritualistics, stand alone in a stupor. Man's interest in the ultimateness, seeking for his "real" name or what oneself is, impels us towards "expression." It is not merely to find a place where one can live with peace of mind in a shared value judgment and a common interpretation of the world. But it is an individual ritual, which appears at the end of the collective search and aggregation, for leaping to the ultimateness.

The calling uttered from the ultimateness that Rennyo hears is, in Oral Tradition, a bijective universe with Amitabha Tathagata in an individual and it is, when tracing back, the Hongwan of Amitabha Tathagata that was "for me, Shinran, alone!" (Tannisho) in Shinran. Within the world of Oral Tradition, human experience and human matter will concretely and directly manifest themselves, and the directionality of the power to grasp them is, with a transcendental criterion, going to emerge. This "Oral Tradition of Rennyo" is, however, not that which is completed. It is what is being created all the time and on its way to being completed. The people will, construing this "Oral Tradition of Rennyo" as each one's own expression or expressing oneself, be bringing it forth anew.⁽¹³⁾

Notes

(1) Stanley Weinstein, "Rennyoshiso niokeru Renzokusei to Henka" ["Continuity and Alteration in Rennyo Shonin"] in Otanidaigaku Shinshu Sogokenkyujuo ed., Rennyo no Sekai: Rennyo Shonin Gohyakunenki Kinen Ronshu [The World of Rennyo: the Collected Papers for The 500th Anniversary of Rennyo's Death] (Japan: Buneido, 1998). Hereinafter abbreviated to Rennyo no Sekai.
(2) Egaku Maeda, "Kyodankakuritsu no Kiso —Rennyo Shonin no Ichizuke—" ["The Foundation of Establishment of the Order: the Placement of Rennyo Shonin"] in Rennyo Shonin Kenkyukai ed., Rennyo Shonin Kenkyu [The Study of Rennyo Shonin] (Japan: Shibunkaku, 1998).
(3) Shigeki Izumi, "Rennyoseibo no Shutsuji no Densho nitsuite" ["As for Traditions of the Origin of Rennyo's Real Mother"] in Rennyo no Sekai.
(4) Shizuka Hirose, Ofumi Kikigaki dai 1 kan [Ofumi Kikigaki volume one] (Japan: Shinshu Otaniha Notokyoku, 1998).
(5) Izumi, op. cit.
(6) Natsufumi Sagae, "Rennyo Shonin Kokoro no Kiseki —Soshitsutaiken wo motoni—" ["The Trace of the Mind of Rennyo Shonin: through his Experience of Deprivation"] in Rennyo no Sekai, p. 761.
(7) Osamu Izumoji, "Ofumi no Seiritsu to sono Bunshohyogen" ["The Formation of Ofumi and the Style of Writing of Ofumi"] in Rennyo Shonin no Ayundamichi Rennyo Shonin ni manabu 1 (Japan: Shinshu Otaniha Shumusho, 1997).
(8) Osamu Hirano, "Shinshu Kyodan no Keisei (Ni) Symposium" ["The Formation of the Shinshu Order [2] Symposium"], in Rennyo Shonin no Ayundamichi Rennyo Shonin ni manabu 1 (Japan: Shinshu Otaniha Shumusho, 1997).
(9) Kazuo Sekiyama, Sekkyo no Rekishiteki Kenkyu [The Historical Study of Preaching] (Japan: Hozokan, 1973), p. 259 and p. 401.
(10) Chiken Kato, "Rennyo niokeru Kyoka no Tokushitsu" ["The Characteristic of Edification in Rennyo"] in Rennyo no Sekai.
(11) Ryoen Minamoto, "Koki Rennyo to Myokonin Akao no Doshu" ["Rennyo in His Late Stage and a Myokonin, Doshu in Akao"] in Rennyo no Sekai, p. 296.
(12) Kiyohiko Fujimoto, "Two Kyusai to Gedatsu Shukyokeiken toshiteno Seisei —Sekke heno Shiron" ["2 Erlosung and Gedatsu: an Assumption for Werden —Sekke As a Religious Experience"] in Shukyo no Tetsugaku [The Philosophy of Religion] (Japan: Hokujushuppan, 1989).
(13) Seiichi Yagi, "Shinran niokeru 'Shin no Konkyo' wo megutte" ["Centering on the 'Basis of Shin' in Shinran"], in Bukkyo tokushu= Shinran [Buddhism: specially featured Shinran], (Japan: Hozokan, 1988).

Subjoinder

"Rennyo Shonin Goichidaiki" cited in this paper is that which is from Reverend Shonen Sobue's "Kuden no Rennyo" (Fushidansekkyo "Rennyo Shonin Goichidaiki Kuden no Rennyo," his recorded sermons in five cassette tapes, Teichiku). Ms. Yoshino Sobue, a granddaughter of the late Reverend Shonen Sobue, has given me a teaching as to the image of Rennyo which the Reverend Shonen Sobue had imparted. Here I would like to express my gratitude to her.

(Hitomi Dever, Student of Performing Arts)

[My master's degree is in Study of Religion from Taisho University in Tokyo, Japan on the 15th of March, 1997. Thesis Adviser and Chief Examiner: Rev. Dr. Masao Fujii (Study of Religion). Thesis Adviser and Second Examiner: Rev. Prof. Daiji Yamanoi (Study of Religion). My BA is from Jissen Women's University in Tokyo, Japan. Thesis Adviser: Dr. Haruo Misumi (Study of Folk Performing Arts).]  About Me

This is an English translation of my published paper, Hitomi Dever, "Kokan no Geinosei —Fushidansekkyo wo megutte—" ["The Art of Kokan: Centering upon Fushidansekkyo"], Geino [Performing Arts], journal sequential serial number 424, annually-issued journal number 7 (Japan: Geino Gakkai [The Society of Performing Arts, The founder: Dr. Shinobu Orikuchi (d. 1953) ], 2001).

• The appellation, the Jodo Shin Otani-ha denomination (Jodo Shin shu Otani-ha), that I had used in my original paper published in 2001 is replaced by the Shin Otani-ha denomination (Shin shu Otani-ha) in this rendering.
• The Reverend Shonen Sobue's preaching as firsthand material is marred by my rendering.

The Art of Kokan: Centering upon Fushidansekkyo

Introduction

The Name (Myogo ) is the manifestation of the Primal Vow of Tathagata, the Ki [dormant nature or dormant being] of entrusting in Amida Buddha, and the Dharma of saving all sentient beings. The Name is also the command of the summoning from Tathagata and the figure of Shinjin [True Entrusting] that is opened up, having heard the command. "Tathagata is I. Yet I am not Tathagata. Tathagata becomes I and saves me." Shojun Bando perceives this Hogo [Dharma word] as that which penetrates the ultimate of the salvation by the Name.⁽¹⁾ To see the "Name" in place of Fushidansekkyo will, however, be to see the nonuniform figure and heart of "na mu a mi da butsu" of the people at a point which subtly diverges from the absolutized "Na Mu A Mi Da Butsu " under the pure doctrinal study .

One of that is uke nembutsu . It is a signal of the affect of life (inochi) in Fushidansekkyo that is said to be the "Preaching of Pathos," which is the effusion of mental and emotional energies of the people who live at the bottom of human society where agony prevails and which is to be called the fructification of ordinary people's sensitivities and sentiments with their living faith and wish in the background.

1. Fushidansekkyo by the Reverend Shonen Sobue

The Reverend Shonen Sobue, having been accepted such as "Going through all sorts of tribulations, his life is earnestly devoted to preaching" and "The legitimate preacher who still carries on Fushidansekkyo, which was traditional in Japanese Buddhism, in the modern age. His excellent expressiveness with his distinctive beautiful voice has, today, the enormous reputation of the best in Japan," ⁽²⁾ who lived a full life with his mission completed in January, 1996, is a genuine preacher of the Otani branch of the Shin denomination and a distinguished person of religion. The Reverend Shonen is never an entertainer. Yet that the reverend accurately hands down Fushidansekkyo that is the origin of Japanese oral performing arts (rakugo [Japanese sit-down comedy], kodan [historical narrative], rokyoku [recitation of stories with samisen] and so forth) to the present day and that his virtuoso preaching is premised on all the conditions as a traditional preacher and it is the emergence of a "true figure of Ho Gei Ichinyo " ⁽³⁾ [Literally speaking, that the "Dharma" and the "Art" become unity, and thereby amount to nothing less than the "Dharma" = the "Art"] possess high cultural-historical value and great significance in the history of the Japanese performing arts.

The preaching of the Reverend Shonen ⁽⁴⁾ starts off by getting a laugh out of the congregation, touching right upon a sore point of the nature of human matters. This laughter draws audiences, having them alternate between joy and grief, and is not going to come in and go out with a funny story, but is going to run in accordance with the Dharma.

[In my neighborhood, well, saying "I'd like to pop off," an old lady who has visited Pokkuri Temple three times in order to die suddenly without ailing, is now in bed, stricken with paralysis. (...) things on a daily basis are important, and yet been hard on a daughter-in-law, saying "I need not be looked after by that kind of daughter-in-law, because I will drop dead," but, that old lady, who is now lying in bed, stricken with paralysis, sobs everyday, why is that? Whenever her daughter-in-law changes her diaper, today's daughter-in-law is clever, a daughter-in-law of former days would smack on her mother-in-law's behind, that makes a sound, and that will become the talk of the neighborhood, today's daughter-in-law won't do such a silly thing, whenever she changes her mother-in-law's diaper, her hate accumulated on a daily basis, now is the time, finds vent, a sharp pinch, another sharp pinch, Good, because of being the orally-challenged, she neither speaks nor cries well, Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, and when a real daughter visited, "What are these black-and-blue things, my mom got?" "Oh, they must be sort of bedsores," things on a daily basis are important...]

The Reverend Shonen is, using everyday concerns familiar to people in their own backyard as subjects to talk about and bodying them forth, with a touch of humor, volubly talking to the congregation.⁽⁴⁾ While on the other hand, the congregation will respond to every point with a nod or a gasp and carry on roaring with laughter. A man and wife, a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law, illness, money issues, it may sound as if his talk is moving from one subject to another, whereas he is talking about the same thing and the focal point to which is led forward from these subjects is one. Then a story excerpted from the life of Shinran and the legenda starts being told, and as it is about get to the best allegorical-causal part ( hiyu innen dan), hearers will have eyes full of tears.

[Coming back on foot, Genemon looks back, "O, I am grateful for the Grace of Buddha, so merciful unto me, na mu a mi da butsu, na mu a mi da butsu," yet, when looking ahead, he doesn't know where to cast away his affection for his own son, "Even though for the great practice of responding with gratitude (Hosha), at a mere twenty-three years of age, that who did take his farewell to this world, my dear son... Alas, this is more than I can bear, Oh, that's right, I will try to read Wasan, therein reads, 'All the Bodhisattvas lay down: When we were in the causal stage, Even though all through countless kalpas We have performed the myriad good acts and practices, Affection for our beloved ones was ever so hard to sever, And Birth-and-death was ever so hard to exhaust accordingly, Only after having practiced the Nembutsu samadhi Could we annihilate sins and hindrances and liberate ourselves from Birth-and-death,' even those blessed Bodhisattvas had to say that rather than to go through all sorts of austerities, they were hard put to it to sever the feelings of Affection, and certainly, even more so for this ignorant, deluded person Genemon, looking at my son's body like this, I cannot help but cry, I love my son so much, can't be helped," he looks back and utters the Nembutsu and then looks ahead and is overwhelmed with his affection, and he totters on...]

As much as singing as talking, his "beautiful voice" gets clearer and gains cadence with increasing uplift of the story, and before one is aware, a talk becomes a tune (fushi ). It is the compelling part where the characteristics of the Japanese language is made the most of on the underlying rhythm in shichigocho [seven-and-five syllable meter (5-7-5)]. By due tenets held in the proper way and Hogo and Wasan [the classical Japanese hymns of Shinran] introduced ably, the Reverend Shonen is, with the exquisite tune of his "beautiful voice," going straight into congregation's heart. People themselves revel in the tune, being enchanted, and they are moved and grateful, and in that religious zeal, being overwhelmed with emotion, the Nembutsu flows out of their mouths. When this uke nembutsu erupts, there is the world of Kanno Doko wherein the Reverend Shonen and the congregation become one, illuminated with reflected light on one another, and amidst a dialogue through a koo the story will, having perforce to rise, unfold with a vital, growing spark. [One may argue that uke nembutsu has the antiphonal and responsorial character in a way.]

["Oh, Godensho (the independent text excerpted from the pictorial hagiography of Shinran) is a blessing, Godensho is precious," said one of brethren, so I asked, "Can you tell me what is so precious about Godensho?" and he answered, "That tune, that tune is precious beyond expression," well, there's someone who finds it blessing to hear the tune of Godensho...]

The exquisite tune of the Reverend Shonen stirs up people's hearts and minds. His preaching is not just what delivers the words, but an expression of such beautiful sounds as dwell in one's heart. Generally, in Japanese Buddhist preaching tempo and cadence play important roles to the extent that they have hearers get even a certain sense of urgency combined with the subject matter, yet that largely depends upon the receiving end as well as upon that which from the edifying side.

As for the articulation of the alternance of the attribute of utterance or the change of speech subjects, it is that which Muneyoshi Yanagi has already characterized as "Patternization" ⁽⁵⁾ and what Mikhail M. Bakhtin [in the Cyrillic alphabet] has already pointed out as "Intonation that isolates others' speech." ⁽⁶⁾ This is recognized in tunes of the Reverend Shonen as apparently seen in Fushidansekkyo Material 1-a [Japanese EUC] [The material distributed when I presented my paper at the meeting of Geino Gakkai (The Society of Performing Arts) for reading research papers on December 4, 1999]. In brief, when a talk becomes a tune, the voice which people hear there will be no longer a voice of a preacher, but that of a Buddha.

Tathagata's "alternative" has hearers be in raptures at experiencing inly that at this present moment their beings are also in the working of Amitabha Tathagata and borne by His Vow's directionality of the power to grasp them. What shares the significant role to play with a preacher is the "tune (fushi )" of Fushidansekkyo which reveals the Primal Vow or the voice of Tathagata, whichever is right there.

It is acknowledged as to the devouts of the Shin denomination that they are "first-class listeners." This is to be ascribed to the fundamental attitudes of Mon Po [hearing the Dharma] and Mon soku Shin [Hearing, that is, Entrusting]," yet that, as I conceive it, is concerned in the history of Fushidansekkyo to a great extent. Specifically, it is the history that people had craved for words and expressions which would reach out to the people themselves, and, in the form meeting this need of theirs, Fushidansekkyo has been elaborated. Such a mechanism of responding that is traditional leads to a masterly piece of Fushidansekkyo, which is a corporate work or a collaboration by a preacher and the congregation, in place of an actual sermon.

Now, the Reverend Shonen uses the term "hayasu " [to insert an interlude, interjection, to barrack].

[Among parishioners of my temple, there is an elderly lady named Haru Kato, (...) in the Hoonko Services at the Yurin Temple, "Would like to participate, but, the reverend, I am sad, because I won't be able to do so," rang me up and told me, "Why's that?" I asked and she answered, "Because I fail in any way to move, suffering from neuralgia," "Someone like you, who has a rare sickness, Oh, I feel sorry, you got neuralgia, well then, we have very little choice, uhm, at ten o'clock in the morning and at one o'clock in the afternoon, from your place, please utter and give a lively interjection,"... ]

To hayasu is reminded of Hayashi [a vocal accompaniment which calls to a solo ballad singer with certain words] in Japanese folk ballads and Hayashikata [those who give an accompaniment] in other Japanese folk performing arts. The term "hayasu" means, etymologically speaking, a division and proliferation of the soul, and by doing hayasu the power of the soul is to pervade whole.⁽⁷⁾ While Kazuo Sekiyama exemplifies the effectiveness of "ado wo utsu [making an off-the-cuff and supportive response in accordance with speaker's phrasing]," ⁽⁸⁾ in either case, the role that uke nembutsu which is people's nammandabu [na mu a mi da butsu] plays by the same token will be more vital.

Additional Audio Material U - An example of uke nembutsu
These are very short audio material files as an example of uke nembutsu.
- Additional audio material U AIFF - An example of uke nembutsu (Kind: AIFF Audio, Data Size: 396.2 K, Data Rate: 14.3 K bytes/sec, Duration: 00:00:27.18)
- Additional audio material U MP3 - An example of uke nembutsu (Kind: MP3 Audio, Data Size: 538.3 K, Data Rate: 19.4 K bytes/sec, Duration: 00:00:27.19)

2. A Kokan and a "Liminal Language"

When once a Dharmakara Bodhisattva, Amida Buddha had taken the Forty-eight Vows for the salvation of all sentient beings and pledged his word "May I not attain Shogaku [Perfect Enlightenment]" with the Vows unfulfilled ["If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name even ten times should not be born there, may I not attain perfect enlightenment"], and he had contemplated for five long kalpas. Finally, the Vows were realized and the Pure Land of the West where all sentient beings could be born into was created, and it is ten kalpas ago to the day that Dharmakara himself became a Buddha. From this story told in the Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Dai Muryoju kyo) the truth of the salvation by Amida Buddha has been taken into heart.

Fushidansekkyo is a language which tells a "myth" (the "story of the salvation by Amida Buddha"). In a place of the sermon, while the act of preaching in itself is also being the moment for the miraculous to surge,⁽⁹⁾ the emergence or Aktualisierung of the "myth" is brought about, and the "salvation" of people will be carried out. Hence, this "myth" is not that which is completed. It is what is to be open and in the making in the "here and now" where both the teller and hearers belong to.

In a place of Fushidansekkyo, to hear the "myth" is done by utilizing the five senses, yet, if hearers perceive something and wish to express it, it is not always required to remain still and silent within the "spectator-performer style" ^(I) edifice. By any of spoken languages or physical languages their communication can be established. They do not need to abide by the licitness of linguistic representation, and consequently by the rules of the structure of utterance.⁽¹⁰⁾ This external liberty enables them to own freedom and candor which are found on the threshold of the end of thought and language. Having liberated the consciousness from the current domination by the day-to-dayness in the public domain, to bring out a new world image of their own which won't be kept within any dominant structure and framework is the formation of "the thought and word of the people." Hearers are allowed to express the world as taken in or their outright expressions are urged, and so they participate in Fushidansekkyo. In this respect, Fushidansekkyo is a "festivity" of the people. For all that, the correct retrospectivity and order of the "myth" are still to be preserved with adamancy, putting it in the context of a "place of Mon Po," through standing firm in reception of the "Dharma," with a view to facilitating the emergence of Do Nyu Wa Go Kai [being united into one with the ocean water of wisdom] that a preacher and the congregation are one of single taste before the "Dharma" in place of the sermon.

The sense of solidarity that occurs when brethren get together and recite with one voice or the self-consciousness towards the strength that they are together, corroborating each other's belief, as adherents in the same persuasion is hands-on faith which differs from faith based on the study of doctrine. Furthermore, not only that which is due to being such a follower clustering, but also an immediate experience of "meeting" the transcendent other which won't confine man to the teachings in despite of its beginning with the teachings, namely, a kokan [an inter-sympathetic response] as a religious phenomenal or religious existential experience, emerges in Fushidansekkyo.

It is the advent of the opportunity to come into touch with the ultimate or to hold communion and is a holy hour of the people that will be enlivened by plunging into a state of great exaltation while the existence of the transcendent personality can be felt and firmly believed at that place. The calling uttered from the ultimateness that people hear is a bijective universe with Amitabha Tathagata in an individual and is, when tracing back, the Hongwan [Primal Vow] of Amitabha Tathagata that was "for me, Shinran, alone!" (Tannisho) in Shinran. It is, however, brought about by "people's way" to approach the ultimateness, which is, in a sense, to be called the "opened-up solemnity," that varies from "rite" which both a deity and a man who come to meet are conscious of a certain chasm in the form either of hierarchy or of confrontation between the two, the communion of which rests on a rigid form under tension.

A preacher and the congregation act in unison as if to play chords at one moment, at another moment they entertain the ultimate and perform a concerto towards it, with the grace of Buddha, the gratitude for Him, the repentance of the believers and their praise mingled. In the next breath, a koo is reiteratedly carried on between a preacher and the congregation which the congregation conversely become the expressioners and the preacher hears them, and then the preacher becomes the expressioner and the congregation hear him. This dialogue is that which has a function whereby to fling a preacher into a further state of exaltation, and the congregation distill the best (a more "tune") in preacher's expression. The preacher hears the "Name" recited by the congregation and perceives it.

In such a language as it ought to be as viewed in uke nembutsu, is it possible to find that which is linked in the underlying bottom layer to Japanese traditional belief that uttering a thought breathes life into it? Although Kunio Toyoda educes as to the Nembutsu that in chanting the Nembutsu people were replete with that traditional belief in the numen of the words (kotodama ) that they have inherited from their ancient predecessors,⁽¹¹⁾ yet I am unable to advert to it. All I can is to see that this modality of a language which may be connected with the "magic of language" is, in respect that it is what is presentizing the ultimate as well as representing the presence of the ultimate, that which is hard by the manifestation and expressive process of what "ritual" is. It is a "liminal language." ⁽¹²⁾ Then, where does such a word as this come from?

While responding to the calling of the other who has manifested himself upon the scene, concerning the two, the self and the other, the self consists concomitantly with accession of the other in the working of kokan. In other words, what is to sense and what is to be sensed, though they are not one but distinct two, are one in the way of being on the threshold. This is a sate of being on the border that the self is just about to start crossing and to step out of its previous framework, and, on that account, here a "liminal language" comes into being. At this moment, construing this "myth" as each one's own expression or expressing oneself, people are bringing it forth anew. Where this event of the "myth" takes place is always on the boundary between the self and the other and at the contact point where these two beings meet.

People look towards a single even horizon and seek one's own new position thereon and enter into a collective relationship, and they will engender a new abutting relation that is the inclusion of the other in the self. People also unify the highest and the lowest and unite the farthermost and the nearest. Amitabha Tathagata becomes "a dear parent who is attending and protecting a child evermore" and the Pure Land becomes one's "home where a dear parent is longing for child's homecoming." And a "liminal language" that is "a word which suddenly originates from 'outside' of a hierarchization or an immensity which reverses the hierarchy itself" ⁽¹³⁾ is able to exist as it is as begotten.

3. The Center and Periphery of Kokan

When a kokan emerges, a "liminal language" comes into being. According to the way what a "liminal language" should be, however, it transpires that it is not what is in the center of the time-space of kokan, but is what is marginal. For there has to be, antecedent to a "liminal language," the manifestation of "katarienu mono [the unspeakable]" that is the Dharma ( truth, tathata) of Amida Tathagata which transcends all thoughts.

As is noted as "the story of Brahma's imploration," Buddha's initial turning of the Wheel of the Law is said to have been the determination after the demur of Buddha who had tried to keep silence on it, having said "Tathagata wishes not to preach the Law." It is also purported that Buddha in His last extremity said "for forty-nine years I have not preached even one word." ⁽¹⁴⁾ The "Dharma" cannot be conveyed linguistically.

Takashi Nibuya infers, as to religion's denial of the language, that it is because the language in essence is the owning of the "world" and the "truth" by halves, and "Therein requires the 'truth,' that is, the 'silence' as the absolute 'owning.'" ⁽¹⁵⁾ (the term "truth" and the term "silence" are marked with Japanese emphatic sidedots by Nibuya in his original Japanese text.)

It should be realized that in a place of Fushidansekkyo the external languages such as the words, rhythm, ring of the tone and cadence or melody by successive stages trigger a kokan, and then the kokan that has arisen will raise the further external languages such as the expressions or act of expression of the people. And yet, nonetheless, the real center of that time-space of kokan is exclusively "katarienu mono" which is Amida's genuine "Dharma," that is to say, the space in which any language shall never have a place and which is "beyond all ideas and puts an end to all words" (Yuishinsho Moni). Put another way, what holds the truth of all words of Fushidansekkyo is "silence ," and, consequently, the language that Fushidansekkyo uses is what ought to continuously return into the "silence."

Hereupon, a "liminal language" becomes a means or instrument which is given to the people who try to preserve the world of their language, standing from under the "silence," on the threshold of the self and the other. While people are in awe of "katarienu mono," they cannot let it go that the world of their language, Fushidansekkyo, ceases to exist.

It is the Nineteenth Vow that has one's heart which feels a longing for the Pure Land and wishes to go to the yonder shore set on and promises Amida's coming to get one on the eve of his death and take him to the Pure Land. It is the Twentieth Vow that promises one's attaining Birth in the Pure Land through recitation of the Name (Shomyo Nembutsu) with singleness of mind to aspire for Birth in the Pure Land, having heard the Name. Yet Shinran's what is termed "Sangan Tennyu " [religious conversion through Amida's three Vows in Shinran] in the orthodox doctrine has abolished the Nineteenth Vow and the Twentieth Vow as not being true but being tentative, and has perceived remaining in them as a fallacy. It is also remarked that "It is not necessary to await one's dying hour, there is no need for leaning on Amida's coming," and the Nineteenth Vow and the Twentieth Vow are considered to be the provisional aspects.

With a penetrating self-abnegation, one lets himself go in an unwavering interpretation of the universe of the "myth," free of worry, and simply in silence hears and follows one great voice. This passive practice of "hearing" turns into at once the passive practice and the active practice due to the inner outbreak of what jolts oneself as there is something to put a word in and to be said right away. One wants to express that which is inexpressible. This is considered due to the needs of the people, towards the world where an "up-front" encounter with a personified Buddha, one's human response and Existentielle Kommunikation take place or where one yearns for the Pure Land and hopes for Amida's coming and at least the world where there are the ultimate form of the theophany and the name of Amida Buddha, that they want it to feel real and they want to own it for themselves. I should add that it is because through such an experience it will become possible to construe the "myth" as each one's own expression or expressing oneself and to bring it forth anew, and for the people need a "creation of identity," with the result that, to be done at those where their pathos and sentiment cast anchor.

Therewithal that is what shows a significance and dynamism of kokan to us. For the reason that even if what we see is whether a sensitivity or a receptivity, "to feel" is something that cannot be stopped on our own. It is an experience of sensation, as Satoru Kaneko adverts to,⁽¹⁶⁾ that has a bearing on "zero-order beliefs" which holds a basal position in the system of beliefs.

If religion will, proclaiming that this is the study of Buddha and this is the study of God, excessively ideate and formulate its teachings as "On Buddha" and "On God," there are only to be drawn apart and diluted experiences and matters as "On Man." Yet, even though such a situation is generated, man cannot, unless he is deprived of his sensitivity towards all the ritualistics, stand alone in a stupor. Man's interest in the ultimateness, seeking for his "real" name or what oneself is, impels us towards "expression." ⁽¹⁷⁾ Thus, setting to a further transcendental criterion, with one's own hands, in search of his rise, the suprarational symbolic act and the consummatory action are going to unfold in quite diverse forms.

By this man's desire that we cannot help but be oriented towards human expressivity, what hurtles with a loud noise is a "liminal language," in a boundary state almost on returning into the "silence" that is the space of "katarienu mono." When a kokan emerges and the events of the "myth" come about on the threshold, the more the "liminal language" which comes up from the people is large in number, the more it will be able to expand its space endlessly. Herein appears people's posture holding out against the "silence," I see the nature of the Art of kokan.

Despite the place of the sermon, what is expressed there would be essentially that which had been driven and come out by itself, so it did not necessarily take a single form and it must have appeared in diverse shapes. To have them becoming the language of religion, however, it was necessary to set up a prototypical case (a predefined pattern of conduct) with conditions and modes which were able to justify relevant doers and sanctify it [to put it simply, Legitimation] under the traditions, wasn't it? Uke nembutsu is what is recurred as an analogous experience of the representation of a word which has a separate yet universal modality. In doing so, that which is to be reiterant, as I conceive it, is a "ritual prayer (norito )" [or rather, jushi or yogoto ] ^(II) and a phase of "kakemakumokashikoki " ⁽¹⁸⁾ [In general, this word carries the connotation of "your name is held in such awe that I fear to so much as utter it, but allow me to say it"] or what is from a primal scene of a cetain mind which people's practices would subsequently follow. The primal scene is the image of life that is derived from Japanese indigenous animism ⁽¹⁹⁾ and it is the affect of life.

If that is so, the aspiration of the people for their rise of being is what gives life, as both the facet of Religion and the facet of Art, to a kokan. But for this emergence and working of kokan, Fushidansekkyo would become a mere facade and lose its life force and vital energy which extends to people's place to live.

End

The intensely exalting scene in Fushidansekkyo includes, on the one hand, asking for perfection on the ultimateness to get it, on the other hand, trying to stall the attainment of "silence" that is the center and the source of truth, that is to say, an ambivalent human discrepancy, which is rather holding out for the world of their language than getting at "katarienu mono," as well. Thus, Buddhism and the Art of kokan are, while advancing towards each other most closely in place of Fushidansekkyo, in the respect of the "silence," yet unable to integrate together in the end.

In that relation between the center and periphery of kokan, however, with neither renouncing nor eliminating the marginal, that which has gone on with its life on the non-dualism boundary as to whether inclining towards the sacred or towards the profane is uke nembutsu. It is the figure and heart of the people who come and go between the infinity and the finite, between the world with a singular Buddha and the world with gods and Buddhas and between the realm of "Onembutsu" (the Nembutsu as a Religion) and the realm of "nembutsu that was an incantatory talisman" (the nembutsu as a folk religion).⁽²⁰⁾

Notes

(1) Mina wo Tonaeru —Kirisutokyo to Bukkyo no Shomyo [The Invocation of the Name: Shomyo in Christianity and Buddhism] (Japan: Nomburu, 1988), p. 131.
(2) Kazuo Sekiyama, "Fushidansekkyo to Sobue Shonen shi" in Shonen Sobue, Fushidansekkyo Shichiju-nen ["Fushidansekkyo and the Reverend Shonen Sobue" in Fushidansekkyo 70 years] (Japan: Banseisha, 1985), p. 189 and p. 191.
(3) Sekiyama, Ibid.
(4) The Reverend Shonen's Fushidansekkyo is what takes the archetypal Godan-ho [five-phases method]. First, for Sandai , the passages from the canon of the Buddhist scriptures and Shinran's canon construction are impressively read out with modulation and rhythm, as the agenda to focus on for the subsequent duration of the sermon. Next, with expounding the meaning of the tenets of Sandai in somewhat plain terms, it is to be Hosetsu . And Hiyu is, in order to explain the meaning more clearly, what is inculcated, using as absorbing subjects as possible which are closely connected with what comes up in real life of the congregation. Furthermore, for Innen , although the cases that have established Sandai and Hosetsu are instantiated, yet, here, Shinran Shonin Goichidaiki and Rennyo Shonin Goichidaiki dominate the talk or the rede referred to Kyogyoshinsho [On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment], Tannisho [Passages Deploring Deviations] and Rennyo Shonin Ofumi [the Letters of Rennyo] becomes the main subject. And in Kekkan as a conclusion, it takes the form that Anjin is given to the congregation, and the essence of this sermon is uttered. The hearers will, it is more than probable, carrying on roaring with laughter in the talk of Hiyu and having eyes full of tears in that of Innen, by the time the sermon comes to a close, feel saved by Amida Buddha as "Here, your parent calls for you."

What the presence of the Reverend Shonen means to the congregation will be shown through the sight when his sermon is over. They say the Name, "na mu a mi da butsu," time and again, praying with their palms together before the Reverend Shonen on the koza [dais, pulpit]. They join their hands in prayer towards the reverend whether as an "alternative" of Amitabha Tathagata or as that of Shinran, and say the Name, having heard that Tathagata hands around and tenders a way of Birth in the Pure Land to them, so that they may express their gratitude.

There are not a few people who ask a sidesman to tape the Reverend Sonen's preaching on a cassette. An elderly lady tresures a cassette tape up, saying, "I had been unable to go to sleep. But I became able to sleep when listening to his preaching." A middle-aged lady says, "Well, because I can feel relieved." And those who say, "When I listen to the cassette tape, my jangled nerves are eased." These are the people who are looking forward to the regular meeting at the Yurin Temple and who cannot do without hearing the Reverend Shonen's sermon everyday, even if it may be only a cassetted one. For these people his Fushidansekkyo is at once what is their delight and what is the fructification of their sensitivities and sentiments with their living faith and wish in the background. Put another way, it is this missionary work which is lowered and undervalued for being performing-artified that saves people and comforts people's hearts and minds in the midst of people's real lives. And that is also to show the raw power which the original sources of Geino intrinsically have to us. [Geino are considered to be those which have become performing arts after what primordially did not assume any form of performing arts had become "behavioral traditions" in the course of the actions being recurring, and had been performing-artified. For example, as seen in the development of Mai [Japanese Dance] (Mai differs from Odori), one theory has it, the bodily movements in the peri-possession by a god or a spirit (as a religious phenomenon) and so forth, which were non-conscious and spontaneous movements, gradually came to attain a firmness in consciousness and became intentional ones (including imitative acts), and started giving form to a folk performing art in the end. Although there are those which were further developed into Geijutsu (fine art, high performing arts) from "folk art (folk performing arts)," yet they are not Geino, for Geijutsu lose touch with our real "lives," while Geino correspond to our real "lives." cf. Orikuchi Shinobu Zenshu 21 Nihon Geino-shi Rokko [The Collected Papers of Shinobu Orikuchi Vol. 21 The Six Lectures on the History of Japanese Performing Arts] (Japan: Chuokoron Sha, 1996), Orikuchi Shinobu Zenshu dai 12 kan (Japan: Chukobunko, 1976), Orikuchi Shinobu Zenshu dai 15 kan (Japan: Chukobunko, 1976) and Yanagita Kunio Zenshu 13 Senzo no Hanashi Nihon no Matsuri Shinto to Minzokugaku hoka [The Collected Papers of Kunio Yanagita Vol. 13 Talk on the Ancestry, Japanese Festival, Shinto and Folklore, etc.] (Japan: Chikumabunko, 1990).]

Although there is people's abiding wish, yet much time has passed since the negative attitude was formulated on Fushidansekkyo within the order of Shin Buddhism, such as criticisms against Fushidansekkyo and disdains for it, and consequently the drastic drop in the population of the keeper of Fushidansekkyo or the issue of the presence or absence of the successor is considerable.

(5) "Shinshu Sobyo" ["A Sketch of Shin Buddhism"], "Shinshu no Sekkyo" ["Shin Buddhism's Preaching"] in Yanagi Muneyoshi Myokoninronshu [Muneyoshi Yanagi Collected Papers on Myokonin] (Japan: Iwanami, 1991), p. 50 and p. 83.

Scholarly priests these days are apt to pour scorn on this tune [setting words to tune], but it is believed that there is a consequential, adequate reason for it having been developed. The congregation come to hear the blessed teaching of Buddha, and they would rather be exposed to a voice of Buddha, which is beyond a preacher and is objective, than to the subjectivity of the preacher. (p. 50)

On reflection, this tune is inevitably provoked when a matter becomes the official, not the private. Basically, it comes to take on not a personal way of talking, but an impersonal expression, when it is modalized and objectified. We refer to this as "Patternization" of language, yet, in fact, the world of cadence is at the urging of Patternization such as this. (p. 83)

(6) Seiji Kitaoka, Gendaishiso no Bokenshatachi 10 Bakhtin Taiwa to Carnival [Venturers of the Contemporary Thought 10 Bakhtin Dialogue and Carnival] (Japan: Kodansha, 1998), p. 212.
M. M. Bakhtin, Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986).

Intonation that isolates others' speech (in written speech, designated by quotation marks) is a special phenomenon: it is as through the change of speech subjects has been internalized. The boundaries created by this change are weakened here and of a special sort: the speaker's expression penetrates through these boundaries and spread to the other's speech, which is transmitted in ironic, indignant, sympathetic, or reverential tones (this expression is transmitted by means of expressive intonation—in written speech we guess and sense it precisely because of context that frames the other's speech, or by means of the extraverbal situation that suggests the appropriate expression). (pp. 92-93)

(7) "Okina no Hassei" [The Outset of Okina] in Orikuchi Shinobu Collected Papers dai 2 kan (Japan: Chukobunko, 1975), "Koshaku Manyoshu" [The Colloquial Interpretation of the Anthology of Myriad Leaves ] in Orikuchi Shinobu Collected Papers dai 29 kan (Japan: Chukobunko, 1976), Kojiro Nakai, Masahiro Nishitsunoi, Haruo Misumi eds., Minzoku Geino Jiten (Japan: Tokyodo Shuppan, 1981).
(8) Kazuo Sekiyama, Sekkyo no Rekishiteki Kenkyu [The Historical Study of Preaching] (Japan: Hozokan, 1973), p. 382 and p. 383. Kazuo Sekiyama deduces, citing the record read at the beginning of Engishiki [the code of laws (detailed enforcement regulations), started compiling by the Imperial order of Emperor Daigo in 905 and completed in 927], that "uke nembutsu" is a case which has the same effect as "ado wo utsu" shown therein.
(9) The anecdotes of miraculous efficacy of the two have been reported that when Choken of the Agui (1126-1203) attended Saishoko [the annual lectures on the Konkomyo-saishoo kyo (Sutra of Golden Splendour) given at the Imperial palace on five consecutive days in the fifth month] in May, 1174, he offered a prayer for rain in hyobyaku mon at Seiryoden Chamber, and there was a mystic efficacy ["Ryujin (a dragon god who governs the rain) gave ground to Choken's talking point and heaven and earth sympathized, and the dark clouds immediately rolled in and it began raining heavily. (...) Choken's sermon was of miraculous efficacy. Therefore, he should be raised in rank to quasi-Daisozu"] (Genpeijosuiki) and that Seikaku (1167-1235) cured Honen's illness by his preaching in August, 1205 [it is said that Seikaku was preaching before the portrait of Zendo (Shan-Tao) in this "magical" Buddhist sermon by means of which to cure the warawayami ailment] (Honen Shonin Denki, etc.). These descriptions are showing that preaching in itself is a polyhedron, that is, a "ritual-compound." Preaching is more than a deed as merely "the act of conveying" the religious truth with words.

(Honen Shonin Denki, Daigobon [Daigo version]. )

(I) Harvey Cox, Kosaku Nomura tr., The Seduction of the Spirit: The Use and Misuse of People's Religion (Japan: Shinkyo Shuppansha, 1978).
Harvey Cox, The Seduction Of The Spirit: The Use and Misuse of People's Religion (New York: A Touchstone Books, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1973), p.158.
(10) Language is a sign system and the fundamental unit of language is a sign [for example, we may define "language" as a system of vocal signs which is the most important sign system of human society], which is unsteadfast and which is resilient. For language is usually what is listener-directed and in that case it is not a single individual person that has a speech act, and is to be found as a product which is being made from within relations with the other person, that is, a listener who exists in some way regardless of whether the listener is visible or not. In such a "dialogue," a verbal act is a social interaction in which the ubiety of the subject is distinct. Furthermore, the "dialogue" includes an external speech act that is the act of speech-based linguistic representation and an internal speech act that is the act of linguistic activity which has not been put into one's output as a sound but is being deployed on his psychological internal aspect. And even in the latter, it is accepted that in a large proportion of cases it has the orientation that it goes for, in external-utterance-wise, being resolved into an ordinary communication.^(a) Among the internal utterances, however, in some cases, there appears what is formed by exclusively the subject and its experience. This is not that which is clearly generated on the foundations of the social norms and the coconscious, but is a mental experience as originated in the inner of oneself. In this instance, the further it becomes removed from the sociality of language, the harder it will be for it to be externalized as an external utterance owing to the repression by the public and social conscious.

A language when this which is within oneself is, in a particular situation, having been out from under the rules which the structure of the external utterance holds, on its way to being externalized, more specifically, a language at the moment that it is going into an external utterance, I have referred to as a "liminal language" in this paper. This "liminal" is, I should add, my Japanese counterword (in katakana) from "liminality" which Victor W. Turner has termed. And on my diverting, it is also from that Bakhtin perceives that the suppressed internal utterance, under specific circumstances, is to find itself in carnival and describes a language of the moment, characterizing the language as what liberates it from the hierarchical structure and prohibition of the external utterance, as the carnivalesque language, and is from that Yasushi Nagata calls individual imageries of carnival of Bakhtin as the people who belong to "liminality." ^(b)

Now, a "liminal language" is, it is true, essentially the "otherness" as described above, but is, in a specified situation, that is, under a non-quotidian circumstance, able to be externalized. Yet nevertheless, for the nature of it, for example, it is probably impossible to be replaced with another word and to express it using another representation or to grasp its matter by interpreting it into the meaning of the everyday world and it may well have to be externalized in its own terms. When I say, "a 'liminal language' is able to exist there as it is as begotten," I am referring to such a modality which it lives as a language itself.

(a) Yasushi Nagata, "Otosuru Bakhtin" [Bakhtin who heaves up] in Eureka tokushu= Gengo Kakumei, volume 17, number 6 (Japan: Seidosha, 1985). Minoru Hamaguchi, "Ishiki to Gengogenso Shingengokigensetsu he Mukete" [Conscious and Language Phenomenon: Towards a New Discourse on the Origin of Language], Ibid., p. 136. Julia Kristeva, Naoko Nishikawa tr., "Oto no Imi no Rhythm Mallarme niokeru Shiteki Gengo no Kakumei" [Le Dispositif semiotique du texte], Ibid., p. 84. Julia Kristeva, Eisuke Komatsu tr., "Shitekigengo no Shutai" [D'une identite l'autre] in Gendai Shiso sotokushu=Husserl Genshogakuundo no tenkai, volume 6, number 13 (Japan: Seidosha, 1978). Satoshi Banba, "Koe no Dekigoto Bakhtin Saidoku 2" [The Event of Voice: Bakhtin reread 2] in Gendaishiso tokushu=Shukyo no Yukue, volume 23, number 10 (Japan: Seidosha, 1995).
(b) Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, Kaori Kawabata tr., Francisci Rabelesi no Sakuhin to Chusei Renaissance no Minshubunka [Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaia kul´tura srednevekov´ia i renessansa (The work of Francois Rabelais and the Popular Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance)] (Japan: Serica Shobo, 1973). Nagata, op. cit.
(11) Nihonjin no Kotodama Shinko [Japanese Traditional Belief in the Power of Words], (Japan: Kodansha Gakujutsubunko, 1980).
(12) see (10).
(13) Nagata, op. cit., p. 166.
(14) Yanagi, "Shinshu no Sekkyo," op. cit., p. 74.
(15) "Nagesuteru Tsuchi" [The Soil to Cast Away] in Eureka tokushu= Gengo Kakumei volume 17, number 6 (Japan: Seidosha, 1985).
(16) Eisho Omura, Satoru Kaneko, Shoten Sasaki, Post Modern no Shinran Shinshushinko to Minzokushinko no Aida [Postmodern Shinran: Between Shin Buddhism Faith and Folk Religion Faith] (Japan: Dohosha, 1990).
There are various levels of belief. According to Satoru Kaneko (Eisho Omura, Satoru Kaneko, Shoten Sasaki, Ibid.), although the number of beliefs which constitute an individual's belief system varies, there are our most fundamental beliefs, which D. J. Bem [Daryl J. Bem] calls "zero-oeder beliefs" and which M. Rokeach [Milton Rokeach] calls "primitive beliefs [or deep-seated beliefs]," that are decisive in determining the significance of each belief. Satoru Kaneko refers to them as follows:

If we go on putting questions in this way, we shall find that the foundation of the certainty of all of our beliefs consists either in the individual's "inner sensory experience" or in the "external authority," or in both. (the term "inner sensory experience" and the term "external authority" are marked with Japanese emphatic sidedots by Kaneko in his original Japanese text.) Conversely, many a belief can be considered as a derivative from these fundamental beliefs. (...) To believe in the validity of our own sensory experience is the most important fundamental belief, and that is precisely why beliefs of this type are called "zero-oeder beliefs." It would be safe to say that they are the axioms, lying beneath the level of consciousness at which other beliefs are formed. We hold zero-oeder beliefs [as our authority] in matters of the authenticity of our senses, and, therefore, the beliefs which originate in immediate experiences can be justifiable. (p. 260)

(17) Hitomi Dever, "Fushidansekkyo ni miru Rennyo —Sobue Shonen shi 'Kuden no Rennyo' wo megutte—" in Kokubungaku Kaishaku to Kansho, volume 63, number 10 (Japan: Shibundo, 1998).
(II) Shinobu Orikuchi, "Yamatojidai no Bungaku" [The Literary of Yamato Period] in Orikuchi Shinobu Collected Papers dai 8 kan, (Japan: Chukobunko, 1976).

In this light, there are seen among the "magic words" those which emerged on the echo of the "son of Heaven" in the differentiation of the "top-down command" and "in-group conveyance" outside of the large partition of what ought to fall into the category of "divine words" or "divine commands" hereafter. And the words of response when a "magic word" was gotten were subsequently generated. The enhanced form of these is "yogoto." (p. 98)
"Yogoto" had been developed as the words of "bottom-up praise" and had become present, and then its appellation was lost. The primordial belief of this "upward blessing" was to give one's [utterer's] tutelary anima to his superior. In doing so, one [the utterer] could pledge his allegiance and obedience to the superior being, and become increasingly able to receive the aid and grace from that superior being. (p. 99)

Minoru Shibata, "Kodai no Yogoto" [Yogoto of the Ancients] in Nihon Shomin Shinkoshi Volume of Shinto, Shibata Minoru Collected Edition 3, (Japan: Hozokan, 1984).

As can be seen from any of the yogoto exemplified above [Shibata is referring to "Kamuyogoto of Izumo no Kunimiyakko" in Engishiki volume 8 and "Yogoto of Nakatomi" in the separate entry in Taiki], it can be interpreted that it is not that an utterer was invoking "divine aid and favor" upon an object being [the person who was the object of his praise] as in the case of occidental Christianity, but rather that the utterer was looking to and believing in that his wills and wishes could directly be realized and fulfilled by uttering the yogoto in which they were expressed. It is, I should say, a belief in the working of yogoto in itself and its power, and it corresponds to kotodama belief that has been noted by people from old times. (p. 79)

(18) "Kodai niokeru Gengodensho no Suii" ["Transition of Linguistic Patrimony in Ancient Times"] in Orikuchi Shinobu Collected Papers dai 3 kan, (Japan: Chukobunko, 1975), p. 444.

This kami is a god of Incantation who is called yagokoroomoikane no kami. (...) This kami is the god that started saying a word with several meanings [a polysemous word]. Though we take the word "think" in an "inner" sense, it seems to have had the meaning of uttering a prayer in days of old. The word "kakemakumokashikoki" carries the meanings of "utterance" and "thought."

(19) For example, every time a woodsman cuts a tree, he prays to the spirit of the tree and apologizes to the spirit of forest, as in the feelings of "okagesama" which was the sentiments of living of the people who were directly depend upon the blessings bestowed by nature, it is the image of life that inheres in everything of Nature.
(20) Omura, Kaneko, Sasaki, op. cit.