Kim Sujung - Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian Mediterranean

2020 University of Hawaii Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

25 24 23 22 21 20 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kim, Sujung, author.

Title: Shinra Myjin and Buddhist networks of the East Asian Mediterranean / Sujung Kim.

Description: Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019010538 | ISBN 9780824877996 (cloth; alk. paper), Amazon Kindle 9780824881757, EPUB 9780824881740, PDF 9780824881733

Subjects: LCSH: Shinra Myjin (Buddhist deity) | BuddhismJapanHistory11851600. | BuddhismKoreaHistory.

Classification: LCC BQ4890.S55 K56 2020 | DDC 294.3/42113dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019010538

University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.

Cover art: Shinra Myjin, thirteenth c., colors on silk. Onjji, Shiga Prefecture.

Shinra Myjin in the East Asian Mediterranean Network

One day in 858 CE, a boat traveling the maritime expanse that stretched from China to Japan found itself battered by angry waves and on the verge of capsizing. Enchin (814891), a Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk aboard the ship, sensed that his life was in great danger. He was returning to Japan after having completed five years of study of Buddhism in China. In desperation, he prayed to the gods for protection. As Enchin began to pray, an old man suddenly appeared above the boat and declared: I am a deity of the Silla Kingdom (Shinra Myjin ). I will protect your practice of Buddhism until the Buddha Maitreya comes into this world. Having said this, the old man vanished.

This legend illustrates the connection between Shinra Myjin and Enchin. Enchin is best known for reviving Onjji temple in mi , which eventually became the headquarters of the Tendai Jimon tradition. The Tendai Jimon, along with the Sanmon tradition, which is headquartered in the temple Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei, are the two major branches of Japanese Tendai Buddhism.

This book is about Shinra Myjin. However, its focus is not limited to this single figure, but addresses the sociocultural and mythological networks within which this deity was embedded. My overarching question is this: Why did a deity whose name clearly refers to the Korean kingdom of Silla become the protector deity of a Japanese Buddhist sect? The answer to this question, laid out in the pages that follow, challenges the delimitation of research topics according to modern-day national borders and identities. Rather than treating Shinra Myjin as a Korean deity, a Japanese deity, or something in between, this study locates Shinra Myjin within a network that includes and also transcends those borders and identities.

I call this network the East Asian Mediterranean. Within it we find Sillan immigrant communities in Japan and China, communities that were able to retain their cultural identity and religious practices for at least a few generations post-emigration. Official mercantile ties between Silla and Japan were terminated in the late ninth century, but through memories, imagination, and reinterpretation, this network of people, cultic practices, and ideas continued into Japans medieval period. In this book, I argue that we cannot fully understand the development of Shinra Myjin in medieval Japan unless we look beyond the Japanese archipelago and consider the networks that linked Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and other parts of mainland East Asia.