or is a folk belief in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

with

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

origins, influenced by

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and other local beliefs. An event related to the belief is called , held on the Kōshin days that occur every 60 days in accordance with the Chinese sexagenary cycle. On this day some believers stay awake to prevent , entities believed to live inside the bodies of believers, from leaving during that night in order to report the deeds of believers to the god Tentei. It is not known when this belief arrived in Japan, but it was widespread among the nobles of the imperial court by some time in the 9th century. The Japanese monk

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and ...

, visiting

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

in 838, wrote that "This night no one sleeps. It is the same as New Year's Eve and the nights of ''Kōshin'' in our country." In the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimo ...

started to write about Kōshin and spread the belief to a wider public. Numerous monuments or pillars called (or also ) were erected all over the country, and the belief remained very popular during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. However, after the Meiji government issued the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order in 1872, Kōshin and other folk beliefs were officially rejected as superstitions. Belief in Kōshin survives, although it is far less popular than it once was. Many Kōshin-tō have been moved inside Buddhist temples or private homes, but many remain alongside roads and there are still some well-maintained (Kōshin halls) either attached to Buddhist temples or standing alone.

Deities and customs

The most ancient Kōshin custom is that of staying awake one special night every sixty days. This night is called ''Kōshin-Machi'' (庚申待 - Kōshin Waiting). The main Kōshin belief is the concept that Three Corpses, or ''Sanshi'' (三尸), live in every human body. The Sanshi keep track of the deeds of the person they inhabit. On the night called Kōshin-Machi, the ''Sanshis'' leave the body and go to Tentei (天帝), the Heavenly God, to report the deeds of that person. Tentei then punishes bad people, making them ill, shortening their lifespans or, in extreme cases, ending their lives. Believers in Kōshin try to live without performing bad deeds, but those who believe that they have reason to fear try to stay awake during Kōshin nights, as the only way to prevent the Sanshi from reporting to Tentei. In the

, Kōshin-Machi became more popular among commoners, leading to a proliferation of festivities and cultic activities. Many of these practices centered on the worship of specific deities. These deities were visualized in

hanging scroll A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit East Asian painting and calligraphy. They are different from handscrolls, which are narrower and designed to be viewed flat on a table. Hanging scrolls are generally i ...

s, icons, and stone carvings, many of which continue to dot the rural landscape of Japan today. One specially prominent god in the Kōshin cult was Shōmen-Kongō (Blue-Faced Vajra-Yakṣa), a fearsome deity with many arms. The first scriptures that established his connection with Kōshin were produced in the context of esoteric Buddhist rituals performed at the temple known as or . Another temple crucial in the early development of this cult was Shitennō-ji. Shōmen-Kongō became Kōshin-san when people expected this deity to make the Sanshis themselves ill and prevent them from going to Tentei.

References and further reading

* Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, ''The Monkey as Mirror: Symbolic Transformations in Japanese History and Ritual (Asian Studies/Anthropology)'', Princeton University Press, 1989, * Kubo, Noritada (窪徳忠) ''Kōshin Shinkō no Kenkyū: Nitchū Shūkyō Bunka Kōshō-shi (庚申信仰の研究―日中宗教文化交渉史)'' (Research on Belief in Kōshin - A History of Cultural-Religious Exchange, Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkō-kai, 1961. * Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, ''Illness and Culture in Contemporary Japan: An Anthropological View'', Cambridge University Press, 1984, * Lafcadio Hearn, ''Japan's Religions: Shinto and Buddhism'', Kessinger Publishing Co, 2003, * Ichiro Hori, ''Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change'', University of Chicago Press, 1974, * Livia Kohn, ''Daoism and Chinese Culture'', Three Pines Press, 2005, * Richard Bowring, ''The Religious Traditions of Japan'', Cambridge University Press, 2005,
Three-Monkeys site with related research and information

External links

The koshin belief, The Iroha Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koshin Japanese folk religion Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō

Deities and customs

See also

References and further reading

External links