5. Concluding remarks: Roots of Japanese temple guardians

Various guardians that I saw in temples in Java urged me to observe ornaments attached to temple buildings in Japan.

    As a result, I have found that:

    (1) The face of ogre was first adopted in the ridge-end tiles in Todaiji Temple and subsequently in many other temples,

    (2) Shibis and Shachis were placed above the ridge of Toshodaiji and other temples,

    (3) Demons were used as the strut in Horyuji and other temples and at later times as the feet of incense burners in Todaiji Temple and those of fire-house of Nikko Chuzenji Temple,

    (4) Niou statues were first placed at Horyuji Temple and later in many other temples.

    With reference to the literature and my own consideration, I became convinced that these ornaments had their roots in (i) Kirtimukha, (ii) Makara, (iii) Atlas and (iv) Hercules in Gandhara or ancient India, respectively.

 Among priests whom I asked about this conviction, a high priest in Toshodaiji Temple in particular gave me an answer such that “You may be probably right. For instance, the culture as well as sutras of Gandhara had been brought by Rev. Xuanzang (玄奘) over Himalayas to Xian (西安) in China, where Rev. Jianzhen (鑑眞), the founder of this temple, had studied. The culture of India was introduced into Japan from time to time also via sea routs. Japanese people had the ethos to take up foreign culture ever since ancient time.” Then, I remembered that among fellow student of Rev. Kukai (空海) in Xian was a monk named Rev. Bianhong (辨弘) form Keling, Java, and imagined that the Japanese monk must have learnt about things of southern counties from the latter.

    The chief priest of Daihoji Temple near Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, listened to me and commented that “Although Japan was an isolated ‘land of eight million indigenous gods’, many cultural things including temple guardians are the kind of things which were imported from abroad.”

Note:

After the Edo Period (or Tokugawa Period) that started in the early 17th Century, human-like figures which support the upper structure of buldings appeared. These are assumed to have been modelled after the Greek Atlas depicteed on the Meercator’s map book.

    It has no bearing to the subject but I have long queried whether the popular saying in Japan that “If three people get together, they can produce a wisdom which is comparable to that of Manjusri” is true. I learnt about a clause in an ancient stone inscription of Java which said, “King Indra gave an order to construct a sacred Buddhist temple to house the statue of Manjusri who held the wisdom of Buddha, dharma [law] and sangha [priests]]”. Probably you need to put the knowledge of three treasures (Buddha, dharma and sangha) together if you wish to attain the Manjusri ‘s wisdom..

    When I asked about this question to a young priest at Jokoji Temple, Seto, near Nagoya, the Zen scholar and theoretical physicist gave a clear interpretation to me saying “Manjusri’s wisdom is a sort of trinity. If in physics, for instance, an atom can be a complete entity with a certain number of protons, neutrons and electrons”.

    When I asked about this question to a young priest at Jokoji Temple, Seto, near Nagoya, the Zen scholar and theoretical physicist gave a clear interpretation to me saying “Manjusri’s wisdom is a sort of trinity. If in physics, for instance, an atom can be a complete entity with a certain number of protons, neutrons and electrons”.