RT Article
T1 True Words, Silence, and the Adamantine Dance: On Japanese Mikkyō and the Formation of the Shingon Discourse
JF Japanese journal of religious studies
VO 21
IS 4
SP 373
OP 405
A1 Rambelli, Fabio 1963-
LA English
PB Nanzan Institute
YR 1994
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1726573133
AB This paper deals with Japanese esoteric Buddhism (Mikkyō), in particular the Shingon tradition, as it relates to the emergence of new and peculiar epistemological concerns. Through a discussion of the kenmitsu system outlined by Kuroda Toshio, the paper first situates Mikkyo within the religious and institutional framework of medieval Japan, underlining its liminal and heterological nature as both an institutionalized discourse and a reservoir of oppositional possibilities. The paper then analyzes the formation of Shingon orthodoxy as an attempt to systematize the Tantric field in Japan through a re-organization of preexisting religious doctrines and practices. Special attention is given to the actual articulation of the kenmitsu episteme and its orders of significance. Finally, the paper outlines some fundamental epistemological tenets of Mikkyō discourse. Though it focuses on Shingon discourse and orthodoxy, this paper confronts basic epistemic assumptions and discursive practices common to the multifarious forms of esoteric Buddhism in Japan.
K1 Buddhism
K1 Discourse
K1 Funerary rituals
K1 Japanese culture
K1 Orthodoxy
K1 Religious rituals
K1 Religious Studies
K1 Semiotic signs