Fourteenth-century Japan witnessed a fundamental political and intellectual conflict about the nature of power and society, a conflict that was expressed through the rituals and institutions of two rival courts. Rather than understanding the collapse of Japan's first warrior government (the Kamakura bakufu) and the onset of a chaotic period of civil war as the manipulation of rival courts by powerful warrior factions, this study argues that the crucial ideological and intellectual conflict of the fourteenth century was between the conservative forces of ritual precedent and the ritual determinists steeped in Shingon Buddhism. Members of the monastic nobility who came to dominate the court used the language of Buddhist ritual, including incantations (mantras), gestures (mudras), and "cosmograms" (mandalas projected onto the geography of Japan) to uphold their bids for power. Sacred places that were ritual centers became the targets of military capture precisely because they were ritual centers. Ritual was not simply symbolic; rather, ritual became the orchestration, or actual dynamic, of power in itself. This study undermines the conventional wisdom that Zen ideals linked to the samurai were responsible for the manner in which power was conceptualized in medieval Japan, and instead argues that Shingon ritual specialists prolonged the conflict and enforced the new notion that loyal service trumped the merit of those who simply requested compensation for their acts. Ultimately, Shingon mimetic ideals enhanced warrior power and enabled Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, rather than the reigning emperor, to assert sovereign authority in Japan.
0 有用 Aki 2020-11-01 04:04:08
很有意思的讨论。在一个朝廷分裂、武家盛行的年代里,前例瓦解,王权没落。同样作为正统的象征,圣器似乎远不及真言仪式。但决定结果的,究竟是所谓正统,还是正统名义之下的武力和政治?
0 有用 Aki 2020-11-01 04:04:08
很有意思的讨论。在一个朝廷分裂、武家盛行的年代里,前例瓦解,王权没落。同样作为正统的象征,圣器似乎远不及真言仪式。但决定结果的,究竟是所谓正统,还是正统名义之下的武力和政治?