3:4 About the Legends of Mount Ômine
translated by Yoshiko Dykstra
A Shingon monk once said, "Like Mount Yudono of the northeastern region, Mount Ōmine embraces both the Diamond and the Womb Worlds1. Since the mountain is very high and has many trees and branches, hardly any sunlight reaches it."
1 The two major teachings of Shingon doctrine.
2 The fouder of shugendo in the Nara period (710-784).
3 The general headquarters of the Shingon sect presently located in Fushimi-Daigo in Kyoto, and founded by Priest Shōhō (832-909).
Since En'nogyōja2 opened the mountain in olden times, no one visited it because of its poisonous snakes and demons. By the Engi era [901-923], it had become a demonic world, and people only talked about it but never visited it.
When Shōhō of Daigoji Temple3, an accomplished ascetic with miraculous powers, heard about it, he lamented that the mountain had lost its miraculous powers owing to the demonic snakes. Using his strong determination, Shôhô one day climbed the mountain, and when he saw a poisonous serpent lying across the path and blocking his way, he nonchalantly stepped on it with his iron shoes. The serpent instantly turned into pieces of white bones which are said to be still kept in Daigoji Temple. While climbing the mountain, Shōhō encountered various demonic creatures, including the tengu4 who came out to meet him. Shōhō completely ignored them as he chanted the secret darani spells5. Finally the demonic beings were exhausted, and they asked him for forgiveness and promised to be the protectors of the mountain, and then they disappeared.
4 A mystical creature in Japanese folklore who usually appears with a long nose and beak, dressed in the robes of shugenja, mountain ascetics.
5 The darani in Japanese refers to the eighty-seven invocations in the Sonshôdaranikyo. Darani, as well as mantra or Shingon, are mystic syllables which sustain the faith of their reciters.
6 A younger brother of Miyoshi Kiyoyuki (847-918), an accomplished scholar of Chinese studies.
7 One of the major practice sites of the shugendo ascetics, located southwest of Mount Omine.
Later, Priest Nichizō6 went deep into the mountain and confined himself in a rock cave called Shô no Iwaya7. There with the protection of deity Zaō Gongen he practiced the Way and ate neither grains nor salt. It is said that when Nichizō was still a young novice, he was often annoyed by snakes and almost lost his life. When snakes chase somebody, they usually emit a bad smell or fishy breath, and this is so hot and strong that the victim loses his sight and sense of direction. So people advised anybody being chased by a snake should cover his nose.
Now Nichizō lived in a place difficult for ordinary ascetics to reach. Led by Deity Shitsukongō, Nichizō went before deity Zaō and received a gold tablet inscribed with eight characters, Nichi-zō-ku-ku-nen-getsu-yō-go. But Nichizō was at a loss as he did not understand the meaning of these eight characters. Meanwhile, the Great Holy Deity Tenmangû descended from the western sky and sat next to Zaō.
When Nichizō asked the Great Holy Deity the meaning of these characters, the deity replied, "Nichi means the Great Sun Buddha [of the Shingon doctrine], while zō signifies the Womb World. Ku-ku [nine times nine] means months and years, and yō-go protection. So [your name] Nichizō sounds too grand. If you change your name, you will live for ku-ku eighty-one years. If you don't, then you will have a short life of only eighty-one months. If you change your name immediately, you will have Zaō's yō-go, protection, for eighty-one years."
Nichizō was overwhelmed, and wiping his tears away, he changed his name to Dôken on the spot. This was a wonderful event and the story appears in the Genkō Shakusho, and with more detail in Ōmine no Engi.
8 Miyako no Yoshika (834-879), a poet and a scholar of Chinese studies.
9 Gyoson (1057-1135), a great grandson of Emperor Sanjo, was a poet and an imperial priest of the Heian court.
10 The headquarters of the Jimon School of the Tendai Sect, located in present Otsu City.
Ryōkyô8 practiced the Way in another rock cave and acquired his cultic powers of a recluse. There were some more dwellings of recluses, and strange-looking ascetics were often noticed in the locality. Hardly any visitors, except those from the mountains of Kumano and Yoshino, ever came there. Since it was in a secret place in a remote region of the mountain, hardly anyone approached and even birds could not live there. Leaves were piled up several feet high, and sometimes even ten feet high, and no bugs and insects could survive there. Only the mountain wind sounded among the tree branches. It was truly a mysterious place, and only unusual recluses dwelt there.
At one time, Abbot Gyōson9, the head priest of Enyūin Temple10, came to a remote place in the mountain in the fourth month and gazed at the cherry blossoms in bloom. He recited this poem:
Moro tomo ni
Aware to omoe
Yamazakura
Hana yori hito mo
Shiruyoshi mo nashi
Mountain cherry blossoms,
Have a pity on me,
Only you know me
In this remote
Mountain village
Someone from the Nijō family [known for waka poetry] said that the true meaning of this poem could be understood only by people who had been in the mountain.
Lately, many people have gone into the mountain, but most of them reached only halfway up, and then returned talking about various things as if they had actually seen them all. This was especially true of the casual local mountain ascetics who were heard to brag before their masters about what they had seen in the mountain. But in reality, people said they had returned only from the foot of the mountain. They say there was a rule forbidding anyone to speak about the mountain. Before climbing it, both laymen and priests were obliged to vow not to repeat what they had seen there.
~~~ The End ~~~
©2006 by Yoshiko Dyskstra