Memorial for Prince Shotoku (574-622)

Today is the memorial day of Prince Shotoku.

After the passing of Prince Shotoku,
Those who seek to spread Sakyamuni
Tathagata’s teaching
And save sentient beings
Should be worshiped as the
Prince’s manifestation.”
(Shotoku Hosan)

See my post from last year and also this one.

 

The Prince and the Monk

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. In a couple of weeks though I’ll be attending the Hoonko Otorikoshi ceremonies at my home temple so will have lots to write about then.

I’ve just been reading The Prince and the Monk by Kenneth Doo Young Lee which sadly I found rather disappointing. The book promises to explore the place of legendary Prince Shotoku in Shinran’s thought but is largely based on other peoples’ research and thinks that it is more contentious than it really is. For people interested in Prince Shotoku there is quite a lot of interesting material; covering the evidence for and against his historical existence and also outlining the development of the Shotoku cult. However when it comes to Shinran’s attitude towards Prince Shotoku Lee produces no new sources and also fails to back up many of his assertions with much in the way of evidence.

The essence of Lee’s argument is that Shinran was actually quite conservative in his veneration of Shotoku and like his contemporaries made usage of the Shotoku cultus in order to locate his movement within the prevailing religious milieu. (Though he perhaps differed from preceding leaders in focusing more heavily on Shotoku as Kannon Bosatsu, rather than Shotoku as Cakkravartin (enlightened ruler)). He also suggests that the Honganji have overstated Shinran’s opposition to kami worship, and that the Honganji, under the influence of Kakunyo, has tended to play down the status of Shotoku as a Bodhisattva, and to instead deify Shinran. I don’t necessarily disagree with either of these latter points but I do think that Lee greatly overstates his case and draws unconstructive conclusions.

In my experience Prince Shotoku is deeply revered within the Honganji, and the fact that Shinran perceived him as Kannon Bosatsu is never concealed. Furthermore the tradition has always had an ambiguous attitude to the kami (neither revering nor defaming) which is highlighted openly every week in Shin temples via the reading of Rennyo’s letters.

As to Lee’s conclusions he seems to impute a sort of dishonesty to the Honganji in its supposed downgrading of the status of Shotoku but provides little real evidence for this, nor considers the effects of such a move. Regardless of the Honganji’s original intentions, for modern devotees the placing of Shinran above Shotoku in the tradition makes sense because the latter - as a (historically documented) deeply honest and self-reflective person - is in many ways an ‘everyman’ figure, whereas Shotoku is a mythological symbol of nationalism and aristocracy.

As Lee points out Shinran’s veneration of Shotoku was almost certainly reflective of the religious environment at his time, one very different from our own, but we can still respect Shotoku - as seen through Shinran’s eyes - as a dynamic symbol of the spirit of Jishin Kyoninshin (attaining faith and sharing it with others).

 

Memorial of Prince Shotoku (22nd February)

Today is the memorial of Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi) who was a very important figure for Master Shinran. This was primarily for two reasons: namely the fact that Shotoku was regarded as a pivotal figure in the spread of Buddhism in Japan, and secondly because Shotoku was associated with the cult of Kannon Bosatsu located at the Rokkakudo shrine where Shinran received an important vision that shaped his whole life and teaching.

“Shotoku (574-622) was a regent and a politician of the Imperial Court in Japan; born as the son of Emperor Yōmei and Empress Hashihito no Himemiko and nephew of Emperor Shushull. His parents were children of Emperor Kimmei by different mothers. When the first reigning empress, Empress Suiko, took the throne, he was named as her servant and assisted the empress … According to the Nihon Shoki, Shotoku succeeded in establishing a centralized government during his reign. In 603, he established the twelve official ranks at court. The Seventeen-article constitution was promulgated, and is often attributed to Prince Shōtoku, though some scholars today doubt if he wrote this constitution, because of style. In 607, he sent a mission led by Ono no Imoko to the Sui Dynasty. He was a proponent of Buddhism, and commissioned the Shitennoji Temple in Naniwa province (present day Osaka). He was interested in mainland Asian cultures, particularly the Chinese culture.” (Source)

According to some scholars the fact that Shinran was a devotee of the popular Shotoku-Kannon cultus also helped to aid the spread of his nembutsu teaching. In his Hymns on Prince Shotoku (Shutoku Hosan) Shinran views Shotoku as one historical manifestation of a certain stream of Bodhisattvic activity that has been seen in the world on many other occasions, and will be again:

After the passing of Prince Shotoku,
Those who seek to spread Sakyamuni
Tathagata’s teaching
And save sentient beings
Should be worshiped as the
Prince’s manifestation.

To commemorate Prince Shotoku’s great work in promoting Buddhism in Japan, Shogyoji - the parent temple of Three Wheels - holds a special meeting in his honour at one of its branches in Japan; Hinosato-dojo. A guest speaker is invited every year to speak on the subject of social welfare.

Namuamidabutsu.