Japanese Bhikkhuni Sangha History

Study notes from books and articles in the Un Mun Sa library and conversations with Un Mu n Sas leading elder bhikkhuni teachers and visiting scholars and lecturers, compiled by Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni (Yeo Kwang Sunim) at Un Mun Sangha College, 2002- 2003

JAPAN 6th CE ~ Although there is mention of Buddhism to a limited degree already being in private practice there, in the 6th Century, during the reign of the Emperor Kimmei, Buddhist scriptures were introduced to Japan from the Kingdoms of Koguryo and Baekche. The first Koguryo monk to travel to Japan was Hye Pyeon Sunim, who taught the Japanese Minister Soga-no-umako and ordained the first three Japanese Buddhist nuns, the Venerables Eshin, Zenshin and Zenro. Hyeja Sunim also went to Japan and taught the famous regent of Japan, Prince Shogaku. The Korean Paekche King Widok is recorded as having sent a bhikkhuni delegation, along with other assorted religious implements to Japan. The Korean Bhikkhuni Beop Myeong Sunim also went to Japan where she was known to have cured the sick through her recitation of the Sutras. The nun Zenshin travelled to Paekche to study the Vinaya and ordination procedures for three years before returning as Bhikkhuni Sangha proper to Japan. Famous for the Edo period drama "Sugawara" in which the Abbess Kakuju appears, the ancient Domyo-ji (Lighting the Way Temple) in the suburbs of Osaka traces its history to this time. The Prince Shotoku (574-622), son of Emperor Yomei, began to study the Buddhist writings and inspired by a vision of a community of faith including monastic and lay disciples alike, embracing all of humanity, he became Japan's first imperial patron of Buddhism. The Taika Reform of 645 CE helped to implement many of Prince Shotoku's ideas. Nara and the Six Schools In 710 a new capital was located at Nara, where temples were constructed, the arts flourished and the Buddhist Schools welcomed in the emperial court. During the reign of Emporer Kotoku, the Administrator of Monks Kanroku introduced the Sanron (Madhyamika Three Treatise) and Jojitsu (Satyasiddhi) Schools from the Kingdom of Shilla to Japan. The Emperor Shomu (r.724-748), with great aspirations for the unity of the nation, consolidated power and utilized the Buddhist religion as a tool to create a commonality among the Japanese people. He wanted to bring a teacher to Japan from China who would convey a deep and thorough knowledge of the rules of the Vinaya discipline to Japanese monks and nuns. The Chinese Bhikkhu Ganjin (Ch. Chien Chen) of the Southern Mountain Vinaya School or "Ritsu-shu" was brought to Japan in 754, and the emperor had a special monastery built for him with an ordination hall attached. Following the lead of the emperor, aristocrats lavished great sums on the Buddhist temples and monasteries and six schools of Buddhism flourished on mutually supportive and amicable terms. The six schools included the Hinayana Ritsu, Jojitsu and Kusha (Abhidharma) Schools; the Mahayana: the Sanron, Hosso (Vijnanavada) and Kegon (Avatamsaka) Schools. The Ritsu-shu at Todai-ji (Great Eastern Temple) was granted authority for the ordination of the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis of all schools. By the end of the eighth century, the six schools of Nara had provided a firm foundation in Buddhist thought but the support and encouragement from the throne and aristocracy made the schools elitist.

Saicho, Tendai, and the Renunciation of Hinayana Vinaya Monasticism Saicho, whose father was such a devoted Buddhist that he converted the family home to a temple, was ordained as a samanera at the age of thirteen and as a bhikkhu at the age of twenty at Todai-ji in Nara. Barely three months after his ordination, Saicho left Nara for the ascetic hermitages of the mountains where he studied the texts of the Tien-Tai School of Chi-i, but kept in contact with the emperor. At the same time, Emperor Kammu began to feel that his authority was being usurped by the Buddhist orders which increasingly dominated court life, thus prompting him to move the court to Nagaoka. It was Saicho who he asked to purify the ground of the new capitol, and was appointed imperial court priest and chief Dharma lecturer. Saicho travelled to China to learn more of the TienTai and Shingon (Mantrayana) and returned with 450 volumes of such Buddhist texts. Finding the emperor in failing health upon his return, he rushed to perform a successful healing ceremony. In gratitude, the emperor granted official status to the Tendai-shu (Tien-Tai School). Saicho sought to achieve a balance between monastic and lay, aristocracy and general population and reformulated the ideal of the Sangha. In 818, under the Emperor Saga, he took a bold step in renouncing the 250 precepts of his bhikkhu ordination and requested the emperor to permit the founding of an independent Mahayana Precepts Platform retaining only the smaller set of Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmajala Sutra. He also advocated the elimination of all imperial control of the Buddhist orders. The emperor was sympathetic to Saicho, but Nara exploded in petitions from the Buddhist orders there to deny the request, starting a lively debate. When Saicho passed away at the early age of fiftysix, within a week, the emperor gave permission for the new Precepts Platform, posthumously granting him the title of "Daishi" (Great Master). This step taken by the Tendai School was to be followed later by the Jodo and Zen Schools. By the tenth century, most of the monastics of the Tendai and Shingon had adopted the new Ordination structure, followed later by the emerging Zen Schools. Nuns Transmission and Teaching Lineages in the Vinaya and Zen Schools Early Soto Zen attracted nuns in large numbers, some documents suggesting the nuns may have even outnumbered the monks. Female patrons sponsored the construction of the earliest Zen temple in Japanese history: Danrinji (824), followed by Kosho-ji near Kyoto, Daiji-ji in Kyushu, Yoko-ji in Kaga, and Soji-ji in Noto - sometimes the female patrons becoming nuns and abbesses at the temples they helped establish. Soto lineage master Keizan Jokin (1264-1325) and his immediate disciples each certified a number of nuns as Zen Masters, giving them full authority to administer ordinations and perform other important community functions. Several of these female Zen Masters controlled their own convents (niji) and founded their own lineages within the Soto order. The Soto nuns lineages were not to last as long though as the Five Mountain Rinzai Convent Association (below). Despite the movement away from Vinaya monasticism, the eleventh century however bears witness to eminent bhikkhunis such as the nun Hoyaku of Mt. Koya (1113) and a large number of nunneries associated with the Ritsu-shu came into being during the medieval period from the 13th through the 16th centuries. The Ritsu-shu Bhikkhuni Shinnyoni and the Zen nun Mugai Nyodai were prominent religious leaders along with nuns Myogyo and Fujumon of Zenmyo-ji (Light of Virtue Temple) with its lineage of ten great Bhikkhuni Abbesses, and the nun Ryomyo of the Ekeizu Tradition. Mugai Nyodai is best known for her being the first female Japanese Zen Master, and she may have been the first woman to receive transmission of the Zen lineage in its history. Mugai Nyodai studied Rinzai Zen under the guidance of her teacher Wu-hsueh Tsu-yuan (J. Mugaku Sogen), whose own records mention her clearly as both his disciple and spiritual heir. As an abbess she founded Keiai-ji Convent, the head temple complex of the Five Mountain Rinzai Zen Convent Association of Kyoto and Kamakura. The Princess Masushi, daughter of the Emperor Fushimi and younger sister of the Emperors Kogon
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and Komyo, ordained in 1356 at the age of twenty-two with the religious name Jihongakko, and built the temple Kosho-in. At the age of 33 she received teaching certification in four Buddhist Schools: the Tendia, Zen, Ritsu and Jodo and was granted the purple robes making Kosho-in a place of study of the Four Schools and ordaining her own disciples. Eizon's order of the Ritsu-shu was centered around the Saidai-ji temple in Nara, and the monastics there and in its many associated temples, both male and female, were strongly dedicated to upholding the Vinaya. Eizon's own personal precept's records indicate that he acted as Upadhyaya, or Main Preceptor in the ordinations of 784 bhikkhus, 442 bhikkhunis, 250 samaneras, 100 siksamanas, and 118 samaneris. Although the official monks (kanso) of other main Nara temples such as Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji, and Enryaku-ji did not confer teaching transmission to bhikkhunis, Eizon, conducted the ceremony of "denpo kanjo" for bhikkhunis, six of whom upon the title of Acarya was conferred. The title of Upadhyaya or Preceptor was also granted to eight bhikkhunis at Saidai-ji, among whom the Bhikkhuni Shinnyobo who restored the Chugu-ji Temple, and Bhikkhuni Bunkyobo who worked on the restoration of Hokke-ji where considered foremost. After Eizon's death the bhikkhunis of this tradition continued to be made Acarya. The Myoe and Echin enkan Schools also contructed nunneries and passed on the transmission of the denpo kanjo as well. Considering the nuns of the Zen, Ritsu, Myoe and Echin Schools, the Japanese medieval period may be considered an age in which great female religious leaders appeared in large numbers in Japan. This may be related to the birth of the "New Buddhism" of the Kamakura period that ensued. The Imperial Convents of the Medieval Period Later records from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries list the names and lineages of tonsured nuns at each imperial convent, a large number of them women of the royal family of the Emperor Gomino-o (1565-1680), many of whom became abbesses and either established or reestablished convents. Nine of the daughters of the Emperor Gomizuno ordained including the nuns: Bunchi of Ensho-ji, Risho of Hokyo-ji, Genyo of Einkyu-ji, Gensho of Daisho-ji, Socho of Reikan-ji, Reichu of Hokyo-ji, sona of Kosho-in and Ensho-ji, and Eikyo of Daisho-ji. This continued through the Genroku era (1688-1704) but began declining shortly thereafter. Around the time of the Horeki era (1751-64), the convents seem to have been revitalized. Emporer Kokaku (r.1779-1817) is remembered by the nuns as the last emperor whose reign contributed to the fostering of convent culture before the Meiji Restoration. Meiji Restoration Following the establishment of the Tokugawa regime, Buddhism became part of the political framework under an oppressive bureaucracy. Government financial support of Buddhist Schools had enabled them to develop gigantic ecclesiastical superstructures (the Mahasangha), and towards the end of the Tokugawa period, the priests' financial dependence on the government led many priests to a decadent and corrupt life style. The Buddhist Schools owned large portions of property and had extensive networks of the faithful which caused the fledgling Meiji government a most urgent concern to remove this threat. Seeking to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a Shinto state much like the state of 1,000 years earlier. In the wake of the imperial restoration in 1868 the government embarked on an ambitious program of restructuring state religious policy. To eliminate Buddhism as a political force, "separation" laws were enacted in an attempt to separate Buddhism from Shinto. In the name of modernization and naturalization, all status privileges for Buddhist priests were eliminated, and the Vinaya prohibitions against eating meat, drinking alcohol, marriage and personal ownership of property abolished. Many temples were destroyed, thousands of priests were forced to laicize and countless temple artifacts and sutras were burned. Temple lands were
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returned to the government, making redistribution possible. Shinto was released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored.