著者

岡田 文弘

出版者

東京大学大学院人文社会系研究科・文学部インド哲学仏教学研究室

雑誌

インド哲学仏教学研究 (ISSN:09197907)

巻号頁・発行日

no.21, pp.105-117, 2014-03

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The Dai Nihonkoku Hokekyō Genki (大日本国法華経験記), is an eleventh-century collection of Buddhist tales written by the monk Chingen (鎮源). In this Genki, there are many stories concerning non-human beings (called irui, 異類), and this study is aims to examine how such beings are depicted in this work. Specifically, it focuses on the story of "Iga o kuni hō'on zennan" (伊賀国報恩善男, Episode no. 106). This tale depicts a beggar-monk who by elucidates the fate of a woman had been reborn as a cow, and by doing so, saves her. In this paper, I discuss how non-human beings feature in Genki episode 106, and show how these unique features may have arisen from Chingen's Lotus Sūtra-inspired thought. Chingen wrote this tale based on one of the stories in the Nihon-ryōiki (日本霊異記, vol. 2, story no. 15) and the Sanbō-ekotoba (三宝絵詞, vol. 2, story no. 11). Furthermore, a version of this story appears later in the Konjaku Monogatari shū (今昔物語集, vol. 14, story no. 13). By comparing these four tales, this research aims to find what elements are original to Chingen's Genki. For example, we find that Chingen cut out a description of the miraculousness of the Heart Sūtra (Hannya-Shingyō, 般若心経) and replaced it with text in praise of a monk (i.e. zanbun, 賛文), based on a section of the Lotus Sūtra (Hoke-kyō, 法華 経). Next, I considered what meaning these unique aspects of episode 106 of Chingen's Genki would have had in context, with respect to his specific audience. In other variations of the story, the merit gained from copying the Lotus Sūtra by the son of the woman who had been reborn as cow, is combined with the merit from the hannya darani (般若陀羅尼) said by the monk, and given to the cow. That is to say, the one who is saved (the cow-woman), and the ones who do the salvific act (the monk and the cow-womans son) are depicted in simple contradistinction. However, in the Genki, the monk is regarded to have received the power of the Lotus Sūtra, and advanced from a common human being to a saint, and as a result, both the cowwoman and the monk have come to be arranged in parallel as subjects who receive the Lotus Sūtra's power. That is to say, in the Genki, the one who does the saving (the monk) and one who is saved (the cow-woman) are not in a simple contradistinction as above, but are dependent on each other for salvation by the power of the Lotus Sūtra. Furthermore, I suggest that the "ten worlds theory" (jūkkai-setsu, 十界説) which Chingen refers to in the preface, is one background factor that may have influenced how these special features of Genki no.106 came about.