{Inter} Cultural Japan

Yugyoji stands on the fringe of the old Tokaido post station Fujisawa (the town that also has Enoshima within its borders). The grounds are spacious, dominated by the huge main hall and its steep roof, and adorned by a magnificent 700 year old gingko tree. It is a fitting site for the head temple of a Buddhist sect, for Yugyoji stands at the pinnacle of Jishu Buddhism. This splendor, however, goes back to a small emaciated man, a wandering beggar monk called Ippen, who, far from founding a temple, did not even have a roof about his head.

There is a statue of Ippen in the grounds, but even better is the portrait of him in the temple’s Treasure House. He is barefoot and his only dress is a gray monk’s robe and overrobe of undyed, roughly woven fiber (the same Treasure House has a sample of such a robe from the Muromachi period, now falling apart, but still eloquent in its soberness). Ippen carries a rosary and a sheaf of paper amulets. He is darkened with travel, and looks unshaven, even haggard. It is a powerful image that shows him as he must have been. Not for nothing he was known as the Sute Hijiri, “The Holy Man who Abandoned Everything.” All Ippen needed in life was the Nembutsu, the recitation of the Name of Amida Buddha.

A Life of Abandonment
Ippen was born in a prominent samurai family on Shikoku (Ehime Prefecture) in 1239. His mother died when he was only ten years old and at this time he first became a monk. He studied at the fountain of medieval Buddhism, the great Enryakuji monastery on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto, but was not satisfied with the teaching. We next find him in Dazaifu, in Kyushu, where he became a disciple of a Jodo priest. He changed his name to Chishin and put his heart in the Pure Land teachings.

He returned to his native place in 1263, at the death of his father, and may have led a secular life for several years. In 1271, however, he again renounced the world and started a series of remote pilgrimages. His religious thought deepened in these years. He found that by putting one’s faith in Amida and by simply uttering the Name, all contradictions could be resolved and sublimated into the Pure Land of Bliss.

In 1274, when he traveled to the Main Shrine of Kumano trailed by a small group of followers, the god appeared to him in a vision, in the form of a yamabushi monk. The Kumano god confirmed Ippen in his belief in the Name and entrusted him with a mission: to distribute to all people a promise of salvation: a slip of paper (fuda) with the Name of Amida block-printed on it. And so Ippen spent the final 15 years of life tramping trough Japan, handing out his amulets. He abandoned the institutions of the church and of warrior society. He threw everything away, except the Name and his mission to bring it to others. His wandering was like a walking meditation. With a small, ragged band of followers, he braved hunger, cold, and bandits.

In the manner of the Heian monk Kuya, Ippen also started the “Dancing Nembutsu:” a sort of ecstatic dance, that accompanied the singing of the Nembutsu. The dance may have resembled present-day O-bon dances, but was fiercer. This element won him many followers in the villages and towns through which he traveled (although he was not always welcome: the authorities refused this suspiciously looking group of beggars entry into the bakufu capital Kamakura!). So a new sect was born, based on the recitation of the Name, the handing out of Name slips, the dancing Nembutsu. The sect also made up registers of followers, where they were entered with their religious names (often containing the element “Amida”) - entry in such a register was a proof of salvation (a copy can be seen in the temple museum).

Institutionalization
Still, the sect would have gone down with Ippen when he finally succumbed to illness and fatigue in 1289, had not Ippen’s first and foremost disciple Shinkyo (also known as Shokai; he was either Ippen’s younger brother or his nephew) established an institutional order around the principles and practices of Ippen. From then on, temples were founded, abandonment was no longer the core, but belief in the Name remained supreme. Even itinerancy was kept as a characteristic, albeit in modified form: the head priest of the sect would still travel around Japan, handing out amulets of salvation, but these trips would be increasingly comfortable, supported by local lords, accompanied by hordes of monks carrying supplies. This is, by the way, the origin of the name of the present temple: ‘Yugyo’ means ‘wandering,’ and the sect was first known as ‘Yugyo-ha.’ Later it took the name Jishu (’Time’ Buddhism). It could not have been otherwise: the sect would not have survived if it had not adapted to society.

Ippen’s message was popular with the samurai of Eastern Japan and with the Ashikaga shoguns. Priests of the sect would often function as battlefield chaplains to the warring barons in the Muromachi period, providing solace and salvation at the last moment. But we prefer the early, original Ippen, the Ippen we find in the beautiful scrolls of the Ippen Shonin Den Emaki (also called Ippen Hijiri E). These works of art have been split up between the present temple, another important Jishu temple in Kyoto (Kangikoji, founded by Shokai), and the Tokyo National Museum. In the temple museum, only a copy is on view, but it serves to give a good impression. The scroll was painted by En’I, the text is by the above mentioned Shokai. Completion was in 1299, ten years after Ippen’s death.

A vivid image
The scroll shows Ippen and his band wandering through Japan, where he visits famous temples and shrines. We see him in the Mishima Shrine, of course in the Kumano Main Shrine, at the foot of Mt. Fuji, etc. The landscapes are forcefully drawn, interesting is the detail with which contemporary buildings and people have been depicted. Thus the scroll becomes an important source for knowledge about daily life in medieval Japan. The scroll has been painted on silk instead of the usual paper, pointing at a wealthy donor.

In total, there are twelve scrolls, each comprising about four scenes. To name a few: second renunciation of householding life, where we see Ippen and a group of followers walking along the coast of northern Shikoku on his way to his teacher Shodatsu in Kyushu; a meditation retreat in the craggy mountains of Shikoku; a visit to Shitennoji Temple in Osaka, where Ippen stands outside the West Gate that according to popular tradition provided access to the Pure Land; the vision at the Kumano Shrine complex; a scene of dancing Nembutsu; the attempt to enter Kamakura, etc. In all these scenes, the scrolls provides a detailed depiction of Ippen’s life and travels, focusing on his propagation among ordinary people. We travel in his steps to important shrines and temples, and get a brilliant glimpse of medieval Japan as it was.

But above all, we get a good picture of Ippen, his determination and his mission and it is with him that we travel for a while.

Address: 1-8-1 Nishitomi, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa-ken.
Tel. 0466-22-2063
Access: 15-min. walk from Fujisawa Station on the Tokaido Line.
Admission: Grounds free. Treasure house 300 yen.
Treasure House: 10:00-16:00, ONLY OPEN ON SUNDAYS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS (ask at temple office).
Travel tip: Fujisawa is close to Kamakura (use the Enoden line that starts in Fujisawa). On the way is Enoshima, a curious island with a Benzaiten Shrine.
Resources: No Abode, The Record of Ippen, by Dennis Hirota (translation of all Ippen’s writings); Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan, by S.A. Thornton (study of the formation of the Yugyo-ha from 1300 to 1700).