{"title":"The Doctrinal Origins of Embryology in the Shingon School","authors":"T. Kameyama","doi":"10.18874/jjrs.47.1.2020.85-102","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I discuss the significance of embryological knowledge, such as the red and white drops and the five developmental stages of the embryo, in medieval Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Specifically, I examine the writings of Kakuban, an eminent Shingon Buddhist monk in early medieval Japan, and point out that, according to Kakuban, embryological knowledge was connected with the six elements, which were fundamental to Shingon conceptions of ontology. In other words, by constructing embryological theories, medieval Shingon monks such as Kakuban attempted to make a correlation between abstract and distant cosmologies and the life and death realities of their daily lives.","PeriodicalId":44102,"journal":{"name":"JAPANESE JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JAPANESE JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18874/jjrs.47.1.2020.85-102","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this article, I discuss the significance of embryological knowledge, such as the red and white drops and the five developmental stages of the embryo, in medieval Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Specifically, I examine the writings of Kakuban, an eminent Shingon Buddhist monk in early medieval Japan, and point out that, according to Kakuban, embryological knowledge was connected with the six elements, which were fundamental to Shingon conceptions of ontology. In other words, by constructing embryological theories, medieval Shingon monks such as Kakuban attempted to make a correlation between abstract and distant cosmologies and the life and death realities of their daily lives.
期刊介绍:
The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies is a peer-reviewed journal registered as an Open Access Journal with all content freely downloadable. The journal began in 1960 as Contemporary Religions in Japan, which was changed to the JJRS in 1974. It has been published by the Nanzan Institute since 1981. The JJRS aims for a multidisciplinary approach to the study of religion in Japan, and submissions are welcomed from scholars in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. To submit a manuscript or inquiry about publishing in our journal, please contact us at the address below.