The true history of Shido temple.(Report)

SHIDOJI [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], a Shingon temple dedicated to Eleven-Headed Kannon [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]--[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], faces Shido Bay about fifteen kilometers east of Takamatsu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], at the northeast corner of Shikoku. It is the eighty-sixth station on the great pilgrimage circuit of eighty-eight temples sacred to Kannon, and it owns a remarkable body of fourteenth-century literature and art. The literature consists of seven engi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("true histories") (1) that narrate legends of the founding and repeated rebuilding of the temple. Six paintings of exceptionally high quality illustrate all but one of these engi (UMEZU 1955) and once served to support oral telling (etoki [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) of the legends that the engi writers recorded, or perhaps in some cases invented.

The first of these engi claims that Shidoji was founded in the reign of Empress Suiko (592-628). Another temple document mentions the year 693 and, in agreement with the second engi, associates the founding with the famous Gyoki Bosatsu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (668-749); but the temple's layout actually suggests a ninth-century origin. Azuma kagami [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (thirteenth century) mentions the Taira taking refuge there after their defeat at nearby Yashima [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in 1185 (KAGAWA-KEN NO CHIMEI 1989, "Shidoji"). The temple seems then to have been a center for Shugendo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ascetic practice, since a devotional song included in Ryojin hisho [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (ca. 1190) cites it among seven of the most holy such places in Japan (HOSHINO 1979, 313). Clearly prosperous in the time of the engi, Shidoji continued to flourish in the fifteenth century under the patronage of the powerful Hosokawa [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] line of warlords. After that, however, its fortunes varied.

No doubt maintenance costs could be high, and Shidoji, like many other temples, suffered now and again from major fires. The fire that destroyed it in 1479 was the sixth to have done so since its founding, according to a record dated 1482 (NISHINO 1991, 11). The purpose of the etoki performances just mentioned must therefore have been above all to raise funds for building and repair. Sure enough, four of the engi tell how a poor but devout man (different each time) died, went down to the underworld, and appeared before King Enma [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the judge of the dead, only to be returned by Enma to the world with the mission of rebuilding Shidoji. Originally, the leader of the fund-raising drive (kanjin hijiri [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) may even have represented himself as the man charged with this sacred mission and risen from the dead to accomplish it (WADA 1967, 221-22). In order to emphasize King Enma's consuming interest in the temple's welfare, the engi repeatedly state that Shidoji was none other than his own ancestral temple (ujidera [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).

Five of the seven engi of Shidoji are translated below from the texts published in WADA 1967. The last two (omitted) repeat the "return from the underworld" motif (meido sosei tan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), common in medieval times, that is prominent already in two earlier ones. The seven, each with its time setting, are as follows.

Misogi no engi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "The True History of the Buddha-Tree" (reign of Suiko, 592-628).

Sanshu Shido Dojo engi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], The True History of Shido Temple in Sanuki Province" (late seventh century).

Shiratsue Doji engi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "The True History of the White-Staff Youth" (reign of Kanmu, 781-806, or just after).