Armed priests
Our travel journal visiting Hieizan Enryaku-ji temple (birthplace of armed priests). The gist is as follows:
1. Historical assesment of peculiar priests
( "Armed priests" who were called "Sou-hei").
2. Buildings and atmosphere inside Hieizan Enryaku-ji temple,
one of World Heritage Sites in Japan.
3. Hiyoshi-taisha shrine which was deeply connected with Hieizan.
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| To-do |
In some periods, "Armed priests" who were called "Sou-hei" had keys of destiny of Japan. Typical armed priests who became famous firstly were active near Kyoto, an old capital of Japan, and threatened Imperial government there.
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| Shaka-do |
Then the second faze of their activity was carried not only near Kyoto but also all around Japan. And they gathered in temples, and organized huge scales of armies. These temples sometimes took a share of the struggles for regional ruling power and overwhelmed them. In the Sengoku period, some temples had power as big as the Sengoku lords.
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| Nyoho-do |
They were at the governors' side sometimes and used their knowledge to support the ruling.
However, in sometimes, they disobeyed governors and helped the ordinary people directly. So, they stood on each side and the important thing was that they used their knowledge but force. The rubrics were ended after the appearance of Sou-hei, because they used their force to push through their own claims. When this activity started and why?
Who was Sou-hei?
What kind of people Sou-hei was? Generally speaking, they were priests belonged large-scale temples and who used weapons instead of studying religions. In the Sengoku period, not only large-scale temples around Kyoto but also regional temples armed and had a huge amount of armed priests with.
Because this period ordered self defence of the exsistence of temples rather than studying religions. However, the birth of Sou-hei was further earlier time than the Sengoku period. It was approximately 500 years before it, and there is talk that Sou-hei was born at Hieizan Enryaku-ji temple in 966.
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| Sou-hei written in a drawing |
By the top priest of Enryaku-ji temple at that time, the idea of Sou-hei was born. The priest insisted his priority against governmental orders and other temples' arguments. But it was very difficult to persuade others, so, he began to have a little radical thought. By his idea, the temple needed the force to get its way, because it couldn't get even though its teachings were right during the degenerate world. "We have great difficulty to get our enlightenment, if we cannot use force in this degenerate world," was his word. In spite of the top priests but rowdy people, he insisted the idea. So, there was a significant impact at that time.
The person who produced Sou-hei believed that promotion of the idea of his sect that would save people. Because many of the Japanese around 1000 AD worried that their world would collapse soon, and they couldn't look to the future with hope. When he produced this armed priests, he gave priority to the promotion of his sect's purpose against the violence that their practical ways caused around Japan. He also believed his practical ways were right no matter how radical and enforced as long as the idea of his sect was right.
The purpose of Sou-hei was ?
1. To provide for safety to the temple's territory by the armed force.
2. To dominate other sects using the armed force.
3. To secure donation smoothly on the back of the armed force.
4. To use monks academically talentless.
What an arrogant idea! If he was a boss of gangsters, it was just like him to think that. However, he was the top priest of Enryaku-ji, a large-scale temple where the Tendai sect had been born. Furthermore, several other famous sects also were born there. It's unbelievable the chief executive of such important place said these words. Is that true he had prior to armed conflict, domination by the armed power, extortion and discrimination academically talented and talentless.
Fashion of Sou-hei
Sou-hei wore a unique costume and acted in a group. Roughly speaking, his costume was an armor only around the stomach and above that, he wore a vestment for Japanese monks. And looping a stole around his head, wearing Japanese skirt especially tied up, putting on close-fitting trousers. In his legs, wooden clogs, and he armed by sword and Japanese halberd. The armor on his stomach was called "Do-maru" which had been invented as a lower class soldier's armor around 1000 AD.
We think there was a reason that they wore the same costumes and acted in a group. That was because to fight battles advantageously when they had to fight other strong people. Wearing the same costumes connected with Buddhist vestments made others feel that they had unknown extra power of Buddhism from the costumes.
People at that time didn't know Buddhism well, so they were afraid that the mysterious Buddhism power might cause evil consequences. They avoided Sou-hei for an unavoidable situation. Thinking from Sou-hei's side, there would be very few who excelled in martial arts. And many of them were ex-learner of religion, so they were not good at violence. Wearing the same costumes made them look strong and possible to avoid unnecessary battles.
Sou-hei of Hieizan used the same tactics of carrying portable shrines to force authorities do something the Sou-hei hoped very often. They carried out Omikoshi (portable shrines) from the Hiyoshi-taisha shrine, and walked around inside Kyoto city where authorities lived. We think this tactics were contradiction theoretically. Why they used portable shrines of Hiyoshi-taisya shrine even though they were Buddhists? There was a complicated relationship between the Hieizan Enryaku-ji temple and the Hiyoshi-taisya shrine.
However, we don't have willing to study more about the relationship between the temple and the shrine in this paragraph. And we want to indicate it was nonsense to punctuate the evil consequences of Shinto deities as the mysterious Buddhist formulas. We suppose people at that time couldn't separate Shinto deities and Buddhist formulas. Both Sou-hei who carried out portable shrines and authorities who were threatened misunderstood what they did.
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| Omikoshi (Portable Shrine) of Hiyoshi-taisha |
They threatened authorities with unfamiliar evil consequences of Buddhism and the power of Japanese deities. These mysterious attack bothered authorities very much. At that time, influence of mysterious power was not clear, so authorities were overstated severe damage of their political situation. Furthermore, Sou-hei took advantage of authorities ignorance and they continued unreasonable behavior. This conduct of Sou-hei became a serious social problem.
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They played their active role during 1000 to 1200 AD. In this period, the center of politics was in Kyoto and Sou-hei's base was at the top of Hieizan mountain which was located very near of Kyoto. After moving of the center of politics, their influence became to fade. However, time that temples hired many Sou-hei soldiers came back again during the Sengoku period.
At the Sengoku period, they were used for governing territories of temples and for a military force of security. They didn't play active roles at the scene such as driving things of sectional conflict and negotiating against authorities.
Furthermore, at the end of the Sengoku period, powerful Sengoku Lords attacked their temples territories for invasion. Sou-hei was only a soldier in this situation.
The birthplace of Sou-hei
What's the birthplace of Sou-hei, Hieizan Enryaku-ji temple?
The approximate location is east of Kyoto city and in the steep mountain sandwiched between the biggest lake in Japan, Biwa Lake and Kyoto city. We knew for the first time experiencing on this trip that we were able to look at Biwa Lake from Enryaku-ji territories. We suppose trainee monks trained in the scenery and they had the experience to look down the big lake at the feet of them. They might misunderstand they had the superior situation than others.
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| To Amida-do |
Many buildings of Enryaku-ji were built locating narrow flat places in the steep mountain area. Moreover, there aren't suitable places in one area, so the buildings were scattered to the 3 districts around the top of Hieizan mountain. These areas are called Tou-do, Sai-to and Yokawa. And one more thing, all the originals were destroyed at the Eizan-yakiuchi incident in the end of the Sengoku period. So, the oldest was built in the beginning of the Edo period.
Tou-do area is the center of Enryaku-ji, and the most temples gathered in this area. Konpon-cyudo, Tou-do, Amida-do, Monjyu-ro, Dai-koudo are famous.
However, these are scattered in relatively wide direction. We had to walk up and down paths from one building to another.
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Konpon-chudo |
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| Dai-koudo |
In Sai-to area, Jyodo-in, Ninai-do, Syaka-do are the most popular.
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| Ninai-do |
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| Jodo-in |
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| Shaka-do |
In Yokawa area, Yokawa-cyudo, Ganzandaishi-do are typical.
We needed to hustle in these areas too.
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| Yokawa-chudo |
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| Ganzandaishi-do |
Traffic from Osaka to Hieizan is a little tough. As we mentioned, Heizan is situated in the east of Kyoto. Usually, we aim Kyoto first and climb the steep slope using several public transportation to the Enryaku-ji temple. And there is an another route which is aiming to Otsu city, east of Hieizan and from this city, there is transportation climbing the west slope. These model routes are as follow:
The route through Kyoto to Hieizan
1. Osaka(Yodoyabasi)⇒(Keihan-super-express)⇒Kyoto(Demachiyanagi)
2. Demachiyanagi⇒(Eizan-densha)⇒Yase-hieizanguchi
3. Yase-hieizanguchi⇒(walk)⇒Cable Yase 2 to 3 minutes by walk
4. Cable Yase⇒(Eizan Cable)⇒Cable Hiei
5. Rope Hiei⇒(Hiei Ropeway)⇒Hiei-sancho
6. Shuttle-bus
Average time would be 3 hours from Osaka to To-do (entrance of Enryaku-ji)
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| Eizan-densha |
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| Eizan Cable |
The route through Othu to Hieizan
1. Osaka⇒(JR-rapid)⇒Othu
2. Othu⇒(walk)⇒Biwako-hamaothu 20minutes by walk
3. Biwako-hamaothu⇒(Keihan-densha)⇒Sakamoto-hieiguchi
4. Hieizankuchi⇒(bus)⇒Cable Sakamoto ... 15minites by walk
5. Cable Sakamoto⇒(Sakamoto Cable)⇒Cable Enryaku-ji
6. Cable Enryaku-ji⇒(walk)⇒To-do(entrance of Enryaku-ji) 20minutes by walk
7. Shuttle-bus
Average time would be 3 hours (same as previous route)
If you want to visit three districts, you would choose the shuttle bus as one possibility. If you believe you are a hardy hiker, you can travel on foot. Because these districts were connected with narrow paths. Paths are used for training of trainee monks, so, they are in good condition. However, you should remember the possibility to lose your way. In conclusion, using a rent-a-car and going Hieizan-driveway toll road are the most convenient.
Hiyoshi-taisha shrine
Talking about Sou-hei of Hieizan, we can't ignore the existence of Hiyoshi-taisha. Because Sou-hei carried out the portable shrines of it to negotiate with the imperial government in Kyoto. We need to understand the relationship with Hiyoshi-taisha and Hieizan Enryaku-ji.
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| Higashi Hongu |
Furthermore, Japanese people didn't differ all the deities in Japan and the gods from the continent. And also, we integrated Buddhism symbols such as 'Nyorai', 'Bosatsu', 'Myo-ou' and so on. If we use a technical word of music, this is "fusion". Japanese have tolerance and don't pay attention to the difference.
So sometimes we consider 'Shinto' and 'Buddhism' as 'heads or tails of the subject'.
Hiyoshi-taisha shrine was built long before the arrival of Buddhism. So, it existed first. And it had patronage by a powerful influential family from overseas at a very early time. According to this situation, its teachings changed from the original Japanese, and it became easy to be influenced before the arrival of the new religion. Then, Saicho (one of Japanese Buddihsm leaders) appeared and made Enryaku-ji on Hieizan mountain. He made it the center of the Tendai sect of Buddhism at a very near place of Hiyoshi-taisha shrine. Then Hiyoshi-taisha shrine was placed under the influence of Enryaku-ji.
These strange teachings are not only in Hiyoshi-taisha shrine. This idea was called "Syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism." The older the origin of shrines and temples, the deeper the level of fusion. Long after the beginning of them, in detail, soon after the Meiji restoration, a new idea was lauded all over Japan. This idea taught that Shinto was right and other religions such like Buddhism were wrong. By the influence of this idea, some people insisted Shinto and Buddhism in Japan were completely different. But nowadays, we became to study without affection of biased thinking and the existence of "Syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism" became to be studied.
Then you would understand why Sou-hei of Hieizan carried out portable shrines of Hiyoshi-taisha. They had the idea of syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism.
There are the Nishi-hongu and the Higashi-hongu and many shrines in Hiyoshi-taisha shrine.
