著者

小林 信彦 Nobuhiko Kobayashi 桃山学院大学文学部(元)

雑誌

桃山学院大学人間科学 = HUMAN SCIENCES REVIEW, St. Andrew's University (ISSN:09170227)

巻号頁・発行日

no.32, pp.1-51, 2006-11-30

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In ancient Japan, the government ordered priests to perform kekwa 悔過 when a drought occurred or an emperor fell into a critical condition. Although the Chinese word hu-gu 悔過 meant repentance for an error," no participant in this Japanese rite repented. The Japanese conceived the idea of this rite on their own in accordance with their cultural tradition, borrowing only its name from Chinese. Chinese emperors of the sixth century took upon themselves wrongs done by their subjects and repented on behalf of them before the image of Yosh 藥師 the f 佛(buddha). By repenting so, they intended to nullify the wrongs so that disasters that might result would also be nullified: The emperors wished to prevent disasters from happening to their subjects. It took seven days at a minimum and one year at a maximum for the repenting emperors to satisfy Yosh and to be freed from the assumed sins. On the other hand,the Japanese performed their kekwa without repenting. They intended to mitigate disasters which had already happened, not to prevent those which were to happen in the future. And their wishes were granted at once. Chinese Yosh was naturalized in Japan to become Yakushi and joined the pantheon of Japanese kami 神, who had the habit of not demanding repentance from human beings and of being quick to respond to their wishes. The Japanese flattered the kami called Yakushi in order to stop present disasters immediately.