The is a Japanese ''

setsuwa Setsuwa (, ja, 説話, setsu wa) is an East Asian literary genre. It consists of myths, legends, folktales, and anecdotes. ''Setsuwa'' means "spoken story". As one of the vaguest forms of literature, setsuwa is believed to have been passed down ...

'' collection in ten volumes, believed to date from the

Nanboku-chō period The Nanboku-chō period (南北朝時代, ''Nanboku-chō jidai'', "North and South court period", also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period), spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Mur ...

(1336–1392).Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version It illustrates with tales about various shrines the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

honji suijaku The term in Japanese religious terminology refers to a theory widely accepted until the Meiji period according to which Indian Buddhist deities choose to appear in Japan as native ''kami'' to more easily convert and save the Japanese.Breen and Te ...

'' theory, according to which Japanese ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' were simply local manifestations of the Indian gods of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

. This theory, created and developed mostly by

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

monks, was never systematized, but was nonetheless very pervasive and very influential.* The book had thereafter great influence over literature and the arts.

History

The book is believed to have been written during the late Nanboku-chō period, either during the

Bunna , also romanized as Bunwa, was a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', lit. year name) of the Northern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after ''Kannō'' and before ''Enbun.'' This period spanned the years from September 1352N ...

or the Enbun era. It carries the note but who exactly wrote it is unclear. Divided in ten volumes and 50 chapters, it supports the Tendai and Ise Shinto ''

'' theory according to which Japanese ''

'' were simply local manifestations of the Indian gods of

. This theory was never systematized, but became nonetheless the most important tool through which foreign Buddhism was reconciled with local ''kami'' beliefs. The book illustrates it through tales dedicated to various shrines and to the Buddhist gods which are the true nature of the ''kami'' they enshrine. It deals mostly with shrines located west of Tonegawa in

Kōzuke province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

(like Akagi Daimyōjin, Ikaho Daimyōjin and Komochiyama Daimyōjin), the

Kumano Sanzan A is a type of Shinto shrine which enshrines the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi [].Encyclopedia of ShintoKumano Shinkō accessed on October 6, 2008 There are more than 3,000 Kumano shrines in Japan, and each has received its k ...

and other Kantō shrines, explaining the reason for their ''kami's'' rebirths, and telling tales about their previous lives. The common point of the tales is that, before being reborn as a tutelary ''kami'' of an area, a person has first to be born and suffer there as a human being. The suffering is mostly caused by relationships with relatives, especially wives or husbands. The book had a great impact on the literature and arts of the following centuries.

References

Works cited

* Shinbutsu shūgō Shinto texts Japanese Buddhist texts Muromachi-period works {{Shinto-stub