Transcript Temple Monks and Hijiri: The People Who Supported the

Temple Monks and Hijiri: The People
Who Supported the Management of
Temple Landholdings
Nagamura Makoto
Japan Women’s University
Introduction
• Primary support for medieval temples was
provided by temple-owned estates
• Temples collaborated with local
administrators to manage estates
• Kamakura-era Tôdaiji estates managed by:
– Regular temple monks
– Kanjin hijiri under direction of Chôgen
– Example: Ôbe estate
Regular monks at Tôdaiji
• Scholar-monks
• Lower-ranking service monks
• Both belonged to monastic order & had
rights & duties accordingly
• Performed ritual chanting, presented
offerings during services, helped to
maintain temple
Monastic offices
• Director (bettô)
• Chief priest (shikyô) & 3 deans （sangô）:
managed Tôdaiji itself
• Custodians (azukaridokoro) & rent collection
officials (jôtsukai & kyûshu) who managed
temple landholdings
• Scholar-monks also involved in temple
management as well as study, & sometimes
traveled to Tôdaiji estates
Hijiri
• Monks who abandoned their position at
a temple OR
• Unofficial religious practitioners who:
– Built temples
– Made images
– Copied sutras
Tôdaiji Restoration: Kanjin
• Kamakura period: Tôdaiji was rebuilt after it
was burned down
• Chôgen (at left) headed group that collected
donations (kanjin) for the project
• Kanjin hijiri like Chôgen respected for integrity
• Chôgen’s provincial temples stimulated
temple-estate economy
Estate Management
• Chôgen was entrusted
with Ôbe estate
management
• He willed this post to
the Tônan’in head monk
• (Chôgen distrusted the
main temple, Tôdaiji)
• Ôbe estate & Suô
public lands provided
resources for Tôdaiji
reconstruction
• Todaiji office for
collecting donations
(kanjinjô) inherited
functions from Chôgen
& his kanjin hijiri group:
• Functions included
construction & repair of
temple buildings
Management: from Hijiri to
Temple Monks
• By willing Ôbe
estate management
to Tônan’in head
monks, Chôgen
handed it over from
hijiri to regular
temple monks
• Rents were
designated for
rituals at Tôdaiji
• Autonomous
temples (Jôdoji on
Ôbe estate, Amidaji
in Suô) served
religious needs of
residents -->
• Hijiri used both
coercive power as
estate managers
and influence based
on religious beliefs
Conclusion
• Temple monks: estate
management not
religious act but a way
to guarantee temple
resources
• Hijiri: Estate
management: linked to
temple building repair,
religious services-->
virtuous acts that
formed ties with the
dharma
• Hijiri: with fewer
restraints they could
use their abilities for
estate management
during the
reconstruction period
• Temple monks:
assumed estate
management after
reconstruction was
finished