"when he died it was as though a bright light had gone out in the midst of a black night."
"namudaishi." (trans. by arthur lloyd.)
the "namudaishi"
kobo daishi[1] ("glory to the great teacher"), who was born a.d. 774, was the most holy and most famous of the japanese buddhist saints. he founded the shingon-shu, a buddhist sect remarkable for its magical formulæ and for its abstruse and esoteric teachings, and he is also said to have invented the hiragana syllabary, a form of running script. in the namudaishi, which is a japanese poem on the life of this great saint, we are informed that kobo daishi brought back with him from china a millstone and some seeds of the tea-plant, and thus revived the drinking of this beverage, which had fallen into disuse. we are also told in the same poem that it was kobo daishi who "demonstrated to the world the use of coal." he was renowned as a great preacher, but was not less famous as a calligraphist, painter, sculptor, and traveller.
"a divine prodigy"
kobo daishi, however, is essentially famous for the extraordinary miracles which he performed, and numerous are the legends associated with him. his conception was miraculous, for when he was born in the baron's hall, on the shore of byobu, a bright light shone, and he came into the world with his hands folded as if in prayer. when but five years of age he would sit[pg 235] among the lotuses and converse with buddhas, and he kept secret all the wisdom he thus obtained. his heart was troubled by the sorrow and pain of humanity. while on mount shashin he sought to sacrifice his own life by way of propitiation, but he was prevented from doing so by a number of angels who would not allow this ardent soul to suffer death until he had fulfilled his destiny. his very games were of a religious nature. on one occasion he built a clay pagoda, and he was immediately surrounded by the four heavenly kings (originally hindu deities). the imperial messenger, who happened to pass by when this miracle took place, was utterly amazed, and described the young kobo daishi as "a divine prodigy." while at muroto, in tosa, performing his devotions, we are told in the namu-daishi that a bright star fell from heaven and entered his mouth, while at midnight an evil dragon came forth against him, "but he spat upon it, and with his saliva he killed it."
in his nineteenth year he wore the black silk robes of a buddhist priest, and with a zeal that never failed him sought for enlightenment. "many are the ways," he said; "but buddhism is the best of all." during his mystical studies he came across a book containing the shingon doctrine, a doctrine that closely resembles the old egyptian speculations. the book was so abstruse that even kobo daishi failed to master it; but, nothing daunted, he received permission from the emperor to visit china, where he ultimately unravelled its profound mysteries, and attained to that degree of saintship associated with the miraculous.
gohitsu-osho
when kobo daishi was in china the emperor, hearing of his fame, sent for him and bade him rewrite the[pg 236] name of a certain room in the royal palace, a name that had become obliterated by the effacing finger of time. kobo daishi, with a brush in each hand, another in his mouth, and two others between the toes, wrote the characters required upon the wall, and for this extraordinary performance the emperor named him gohitsu-osho ("the priest who writes with five brushes").
writing on sky and water
while still in china kobo daishi met a boy standing by the side of a river. "if you be kobo daishi," said he, "be honourably pleased to write upon the sky, for i have heard that no wonder is beyond your power."
kobo daishi raised his brush; it moved quickly in the air, and writing appeared in the blue sky, characters that were perfectly formed and wonderfully beautiful.
when the boy had also written upon the sky with no less skill, he said to kobo daishi: "we have both written upon the sky. now i beg that you will write upon this flowing river."
kobo daishi readily complied. once again his brush moved, and this time a poem appeared on the water, a poem written in praise of that particular river. the letters lingered for a moment, and then were carried away by the swift current.
there seems to have been a contest in magical power between these two workers of marvels, for no sooner had the letters passed out of sight than the boy also wrote upon the running water the character of the dragon, and it remained stationary.
kobo daishi, who was a great scholar, at once perceived that the boy had omitted the ten, a dot which rightly belonged to this character. when kobo daishi pointed out the error, the boy told him that he had forgotten to insert the ten, and begged that the famous[pg 237] saint would put it in for him. no sooner had kobo daishi done so than the dragon character became a dragon. its tail lashed the waters, thunder-clouds sped across the sky, and lightning flashed. in another moment the dragon arose from the water and ascended to heaven.
though kobo daishi's powers of magic excelled those of the boy, he inquired who this youth might be, and the boy replied: "i am monju bosatsu, the lord of wisdom." having spoken these words, he became illumined by a radiant light; the beauty of the gods shone upon his countenance, and, like the dragon, he ascended into heaven.
how kobo daishi painted the ten
on one occasion kobo daishi omitted the ten on a tablet placed above one of the gates of the emperor's palace.[2] the emperor commanded that ladders should be brought; but kobo daishi, without making use of them, stood upon the ground, and threw up his brush, which, after making the ten, fell into his hand.
kino momoye and onomo toku
kino momoye once ridiculed some of kobo daishi's characters, and said that one of them resembled a conceited wrestler. on the night he made this foolish jest momoye dreamed that a wrestler struck him blow upon blow—moreover, that his antagonist leapt upon his body, causing him considerable pain. momoye awoke, and cried aloud in his agony, and as he cried he saw the wrestler suddenly change into the character he had so unwisely jeered at. it rose into the air, and went back to the tablet from whence it had come.
[pg 238]
momoye was not the only man who imprudently scoffed at the great kobo daishi's work. legend records that one named onomo toku said that the saint's character shu was far more like the character "rice." that night onomo toku had good reason to regret his folly, for in a dream the character shu took bodily form and became a rice-cleaner, who moved up and down the offender's body after the manner of hammers that were used in beating this grain. when onomo toku awoke it was to find that his body was covered with bruises and that his flesh was bleeding in many places.
kobo daishi's return
when kobo daishi was about to leave china and return to his own country he went down to the seashore and threw his vajra[3] across the ocean waves, and it was afterwards found hanging on the branch of a pine-tree at takano, in japan.
we are not told anything about kobo daishi's voyage to his own land; but directly he arrived in japan he gave thanks for the divine protection he had received during his travels. on the naked mountain he offered incantations of so powerful a nature that the once barren mountain became covered with flowers and trees.
kobo daishi, as time advanced, became still more holy. during a religious discussion the divine light streamed from him, and he continued to perform many great marvels. he made brackish water pure, raised the dead to life, and continued to commune with certain gods. on one occasion inari,[4] the god of rice,[pg 239] appeared on mount fushimé and took from the great saint the sacrifice he offered. "together, you and i," said kobo daishi, "we will protect this people."
the death of kobo daishi
in a.d. 834 this remarkable saint died, and we are told that a very great gathering, both lay and priestly, wept at the graveyard of okunoin, in koya, where he was buried. his death, however, by no means meant a sudden cessation of miracles on his part, for when the emperor saga died "his coffin was mysteriously borne through the air to koya, and kobo himself, coming forth from his grave, performed the funeral obsequies." nor did the wonders cease with this incident, for the emperor uda received from kobo daishi the sacred baptism. when the imperial messenger to the temple where kobo daishi was worshipped was unable to see the face of this great saint, kobo "guided the worshipper's hand to touch his knee. never, as long as he lived, did the messenger forget that feeling!"
a miraculous image
at kawasaki there is a temple dedicated to kobo daishi. "local legend attributes the sanctity of this place to an image of kobo daishi carved by that saint himself while in china, and consigned by him to the waves. it floated to this coast, where it was caught in a fisherman's net, and, being conveyed ashore, performed numerous miracles. the trees in the temple grounds, trained in the shape of junks under sail, attest the devotion paid to this holy image by the seafaring folk."[5]
[pg 240]
nichiren
nichiren was the founder of the buddhist sect which bears his name. his name means sun lotus, and was given to him because his mother dreamt that the sun rested on a lotus when she conceived him. nichiren was an iconoclast of very marked character. he received, by revelation, a complete knowledge of buddhist mysteries, though in reading the story of his life one would have supposed that he acquired his remarkable religious wisdom through arduous study. during his lifetime japan was visited by a terrible earthquake, followed by a destructive hurricane, pestilence, and famine. so great were these calamities that men prayed to die rather than live amidst such universal misery. nichiren saw in these great disasters the hand of fate. he saw that religion and politics had become corrupt, and that nature had rebelled against the numerous evils that existed at that time. nichiren realised that buddhism was no longer the simple teaching of the lord buddha. in the various buddhist sects he had studied so diligently he found that the priests had neglected shaka muni (the buddha), and worshipped amida, a manifestation of the lord buddha, instead. nor did their heresy end there, for he found that priests and people also worshipped kwannon and other divinities. nichiren desired to sweep these deities aside and to restore buddhism to its old purity and singleness of purpose. he cried in one of his sermons: "awake, men, awake! awake and look around you. no man is born with two fathers or two mothers. look at the heavens above you: there are no two suns in the sky. look at the earth at your feet: no two kings can rule a country." in other words, he implied that no one can serve two masters, and the only master he found to be worthy of service[pg 241] and worship was buddha himself. with this belief he sought to replace the ordinary mantra, namu amida butsu, by namu myoho renge kyo ("oh, the scripture of the lotus of the wonderful law!").
nichiren wrote rissho ankoku ron ("book to tranquillise the country"), which contained the prediction of a mongol invasion and many bitter attacks against the other buddhist sects. at length hojo tokiyori was compelled to exile him to ito for thirty years. he escaped, however, and renewed his heated attacks upon the rival sects. nichiren's enemies sought assistance from the regent tokimune, who decided to have the monk beheaded, and the vindictive nichiren was finally sent to the beach of koshigoye to be executed. while awaiting the fatal stroke nichiren prayed to buddha, and the sword broke as it touched his neck. nor was this the only miracle, for immediately after the breaking of the sword a flash of lightning struck the palace at kamakura, and a heavenly light surrounded the saintly nichiren. the official entrusted with the deed of execution was considerably impressed by these supernatural events, and he sent a messenger, to the regent for a reprieve. tokimune, however, had sent a horseman bearing a pardon, and the two men met at a river now called yukiai ("place of meeting.")
nichiren's miraculous escape was followed by an even more vigorous attack on those whom he considered were not of the true religion. he was again exiled, and finally took up his abode on mount minobu. it is said that a beautiful woman came to this mountain whilst nichiren was praying. when the great saint saw her, he said: "resume your natural state." after the woman had drunk water she changed into a snake nearly twenty feet long, with iron teeth and golden scales.
[pg 242]
shodo shonin
shodo shonin was the founder of the first buddhist temple at nikko, and the following legend is supposed to have led to the construction of the sacred bridge of nikko. one day, while shodo shonin was on a journey, he saw four strange-looking clouds rise from the earth to the sky. he pressed forward in order to see them more clearly, but could not go far, for he found that his road was barred by a wild torrent. while he was praying for some means to continue his journey a gigantic figure appeared before him, clad in blue and black robes, with a necklace of skulls. the mysterious being cried to him from the opposite bank, saying: "i will help you as i once helped hiuen." having uttered these words, the deity threw two blue and green snakes across the river, and on this bridge of snakes the priest was able to cross the torrent. when shodo shonin had reached the other bank the god and his blue and green snakes disappeared.
[1] the saint's name when living was kukai. kobo daishi was a posthumous title, and it is by this title that he is generally known.
[2] hence the japanese proverb: "even kobo daishi sometimes wrote wrong."
[3] an instrument of incantation somewhat resembling a thunder-bolt.
[4] at a later period inari was known as the fox god. see chapter v.
[5] murray's handbook for japan, by b. h. chamberlain and w. b. mason.
