A , literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a

buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

in the form of an indigenous

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 ...

, an entity who had come to guide the people to

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

, during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan.Encyclopedia of Shinto
''Gongen''
accessed on October 5, 2008Tamura (2000:87) The words and are synonyms for gongen. is the term for belief in the existence of gongen. The gongen concept is the cornerstone of the

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 Buddhist deities choose to appear to the Japanese as native kami in order to save them, which is based on the

Mahayana Buddhist ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...

notion of

upaya Upaya (Sanskrit: उपाय, , ''expedient means'', ''pedagogy'') is a term used in Buddhism to refer to an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist paths to liberation where a conscious, voluntary action "is driven by an incomplete reasoning" a ...

, "expedient means".

History

It is sometimes assumed that the word ''gongen'' derives from

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

's posthumous name (Tōshō Daigongen). However, the term was created and started being used in the middle of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

in an effort to harmonize Buddhism and indigenous religious practice in what is called shinbutsu-shūgō or " syncretism of kami and buddhas".Tamura (2000:87) At that time, the assumption that Japanese ''kami'' and buddhas were essentially the same evolved into a theory called , which held that native kami were manifestations or avatars of buddhas,

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

s and other Buddhist deities. The theory gradually spread around the country and the concept of gongen, a dual entity composed of a buddha and a kami, evolved. Under the influence of Tendai Buddhism and

Shugendō is a highly syncretic religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local f ...

, the gongen concept was adapted to religious beliefs tied to Mount Iwaki, a volcano, so that female kami Kuniyasutamahime became associated with

Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...

''ekadaśamukha'' (Jūichimen Kannon Bosatsu, "Eleven-Faced

Guanyin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

"),

Ōkuninushi Ōkuninushi ( historical orthography: ''Ohokuninushi''), also known as Ō(a)namuchi (''Oho(a)namuchi'') or Ō(a)namochi (''Oho(a)namochi'') among other variants, is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology. He is one of the central deities in the cycle ...

with Bhaisajyaguru (Yakushi Nyōrai) and

Kuninotokotachi In Shinto faith, Kuninotokotachi is one of the two gods born from "something like a reed that arose from the soil" when the Earth was chaotic. In the '' Nihon Shoki'', he is the first of the first three divinities born after Heaven and Earth we ...

with Amitābha (Amida Nyōrai). The title "gongen" started being attached to the names of kami and shrines were built within the premises of large Buddhist temples to enshrine their tutelary kami.Tamura (2000:87) During the Japanese Middle Ages, shrines started being called with the name gongen to underline their ties to Buddhism.Encyclopedia of Shinto
Gongen shinkō
accessed on October 5, 2008 For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many

Mount Haku , or Mount Hakusan (commonly referred to as simply Hakusan), is a dormant stratovolcano in Japan. It is located on the borders of Gifu and Ishikawa, on the island of Honshu. Mount Haku is thought to have first been active 300,000 to 400,000 yea ...

shrines where the shrine itself is called either gongen or jinja. Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to native kami, the use of the term was legally abolished in the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

with the and shrines began to be called ''jinja''.

Gongen of Japan

* , also called "Izuna Myōjin" and enshrined in Izuna Shrine in

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, is similar to a

tengu are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion (Shinto). They are considered a type of '' yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey and ...

and represents the kami of

Mount Iizuna , also written as 飯綱山 (Iizuna-yama), is a mountain located ten kilometers north-northwest of the heart of Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The mountain straddles the city of Nagano and Iizuna town in Kamiminochi District, Nagano. Togeth ...

. * or is the spirit of a hot spring on Izusan, a hill in Shizuoka Prefecture, enshrined in the

Izusan Jinja is a Shinto shrine in the city of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The shrine has been known by many names in its long history, including . The shrine’s main festival is held annually on April 15. Enshrined ''kami'' The primary ''kami'' ...

* , also known as .Encyclopedia of Shinto
Kumano Shinkō
accessed on October 6, 2008 The kami enshrined in the three Kumano Sanzan Grand Shrines and worshipped in

Kumano shrine 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 ...

s are the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi. * was enshrined in

Jingo-ji is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. It stands on Mount Takao to the northwest of the center of the city. The temple adheres to Shingon Buddhism. Its principal image is a statue of Bhaisajyaguru (''Yakushi Nyorai''), the Buddha of Healing or "Medicin ...

in Takao as the tutelary kami of

Shingon Buddhism Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Kn ...

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon se ...

. * is one of the most famous examples of gongen, representing

posthumously enshrined in so-called

Tōshō-gū is any Shinto shrine in which Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) is enshrined. Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), which is the third and last of the shogunal governments in Japanese history. He was deified with the name , ...

shrines present all over Japan. The original one is

Nikkō Tōshō-gū is a Tōshō-gū Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Together with Futarasan Shrine and Rinnō-ji, it forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 42 structures of the shrine included in t ...

in Nikkō, Tochigi. * or is a deity worshiped in

. * or is a guardian deity worshiped in

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 ...

spread from

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei b ...

''Gongen-zukuri''

is the name of a complex Shinto shrine structure in which the ''

haiden Haiden may refer to: *A Gewürztraminer wine * Haiden (Shinto), the hall of worship of a Shinto shrine See also * Heiden (disambiguation) {{disambig ...

'', or worship hall, and the honden, or main sanctuary, are interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H.Encyclopedia of Shinto
''Gongen-zukuri''
accessed on October 5, 2008For details about these terms, see the article Shinto shrine. One of the oldest examples of ''gongen-zukuri'' is Kitano Tenmangū in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

. The name comes from Nikkō Tōshō-gū in Nikkō because it enshrines the Tōshō Daigongen and adopts this structure.Jaanus
Gongen-zukuri
accessed on October 5, 2008

Notes

References

* * {{Commons category, Gongen Buddhist deities Buddhism in Japan Shinto terminology Shinbutsu shūgō Shugendō