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theses

This thesis aims to carefully examine the origins of Daishi shinkō 大師信仰, the cult of Kūkai, as it developed on Mt. Kōya, gradually spreading throughout all of the eighty-eight sacred sights of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, assisted in part by the dissemination of a body of literature known as Kōbō densetsu 弘法伝説. Kōbō densetsu are folk legends that feature the deified Kūkai and his interactions with the laity and pilgrims, appearing as the bodhisattva Kōbō Daishi who is the central figure of veneration in a Pure Land branch of Shingon Buddhism known as Daishi shinkō. Specifically, this thesis will dissect two versions of the Emon Saburō densetsu, the founding legend of the Shikoku Pilgrimage. The first of these texts is the temple founding legend of Ishite Temple石手寺 dating from the late Muromachi era. The second text is a version of the legend as it was recorded by Chōzen澄禅in the Shikoku henro niiki四国遍路日記 (1653) an account of his Shikoku pilgrimage composed almost one hundred years later during the Edo era. Examining the development of the Emon Saburō densetsu by analyzing its content, it becomes possible to trace the expansion of the cult of Kūkai at Ishite Temple.
This thesis proposes that in the context of medieval Japanese religion, densetsu 伝説 (legends) and setsuwa 説話 (folk stories) may be viewed as a form of textual technology that, when linked to the physical world through the pilgrimage ritual, transform and assimilate local religious customs, establishing and influencing the way religious practitioners interact with sacred spaces in the physical world.

ETD_9778

M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-rtcj-wt75

ETD graduate

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