The Tachikawa lineage has long been considered synonymous with “heresy” in Japanese, and especially in Shingon Buddhism. Texts from the 13th century onwards describe this group as practicing strange rituals, where literal interpretations of the Tantric sexual symbolism were blended with necromancy. However, recent research has shown that significant portions of these discourses have been fabricated, and elaborated upon to create a conceptual category, linking several different lineages, rituals and doctrinal positions into a single group labeled as “deviant” — all subsumed under the “Tachikawa” name.

During the 16th century, such ideas reinforced the Japanese understanding of religious “otherness,” as Christians were depicted using methods very similar as those who criticized the alleged Tachikawa lineage. The Edo period also saw the development of what can be called a literature of “heresiology,” where the idea of heresy was systematized and blended with a tradition of textual critique.

This panel will analyze the construction of the Tachikawa lineage as a conceptual label in the course of the history of Japanese Buddhism. In doing so, it will shed new light not only on the history of the interpretation of sexual discourses in Shingon Buddhism, but also how the idea of the Tachikawa lineage grew beyond its initial scale to enter other schools, such as the Jōdo Shinshū. Each individual contribution concentrates on one step of this process. Further, the panel will provide a new and global view of an important — and currently frequently discussed — topic in the history of religions in Japan.

The Question of “Perverse Teachings” (jakyō) in Medieval Shingon Discourse: Focusing on Sexual Symbolisms in the Daigo and Ono Lineages

Steven Trenson (Ryukoku University)

The Tachikawa lineage is notorious in the history of Shingon esoteric Buddhism as a “heterodox” tradition spreading “perverse teachings”, that is, sexual doctrines and practices. Established in the early twelfth century, the Tachikawa lineage is said to have spread to various places. The general idea in traditional scholarship, thus, is that the lineage in the course of its diffusion may have “infected” orthodox Shingon traditions and therefore have caused the emergence of similar “perverse teachings” within these traditions. The fact is, however, that medieval Shingon discourse abounds with sexual imageries. Hence, if the Tachikawa lineage was indeed responsible for the proliferation of these imageries, one could think that it did not merely “infected” the mainstream but actually completely overtook it. Naturally, this can hardly be the actual historical situation. Recent scholarship has already revealed that the Tachikawa lineage’s infamous reputation is largely the result of later unjustified accusations, but questions of what was considered a “perverse teaching,” where sexual doctrines originated from, and what their connection was to the Tachikawa lineage have not yet been clearly examined.

This paper, therefore, will focus on Shingon doctrines involving sexual symbolisms which circulated in the “orthodox” Daigo and Ono lineages and argue that their origin should be found in doctrinal speculations developed within these lineages themselves and not in the external influence of any so-called heterodox school. In so doing, the paper adds support to the growing scholarly consensus that a sexual Shingon doctrine should not immediately be labeled as “Tachikawa”.

Thickly Describing the Heresy: Multiplicity of the Tachikawa Lineage (Tachikawa ryū) in Japanese Buddhist Culture

Takahiko Kameyama (Nagoya University)

Many scholars of Japanese Buddhism still consider the Tachikawa lineage (tachikawa ryū) as a unified heretical sect within Shingon Buddhist tradition, which attempted to literally interpret the Tantric sexual symbolism and blend it with necromancy. On the other hand, however, the scholars such as Ryōkō Kushida, Stefan Köck, and Nobumi Iyanaga have carefully investigated the contents of texts which criticize the Tachikawa lineage, and clearly pointed out the arbitrary and fanciful nature of their designation as heretic. I follow the critical perspective and method of Kushida, Köck, and Iyanaga, and discuss the “multiplicity” of the lineage as a conceptual label within Japanese Buddhism.

I will specifically focus on multiple manuscripts written by such Shingon Buddhist monks during the Kamakura time period, such as Raiyu (1226-1304), Gahō (Year of birth unknown-1317), and Gōhō (1306-1362), and examine their multilayered recognitions and interpretations of the Tachikawa lineage. The main point of a discussion will be the semiotic network which constitutes the Tachikawa lineage, through a blend of sexual and embryological symbolism, Esoteric Buddhist doctrine and ritual, inter-school arguments, and miscellaneous worship and myth in medieval Japanese Buddhism.

In this paper, my main aim will be to locate the Tachikawa lineage within a medieval Japanese Buddhist “culture”, defining it as a “system of concepts” (Geertz). In doing so, I will attempt to “thickly describe” the Tachikawa lineage, the main “heresy” in Japanese Buddhism.

The Root of All Heresies? The Tachikawa Lineage in the Isshū gyōgi shō, an Apocryphon Attributed to Shinran

Gaétan Rappo (Nagoya University)

The Isshūgyōgishō is a text attributed to Shinran (1173-1263), the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school. However, it is in fact an apocryphon, written during the late Kamakura period at the earliest. This text criticizes “radical Amidism,” a very influential interpretation of Shinran’s thought, which rejected all religious practice besides chanting the Nenbutsu.

Concretely, the text gives a new reading of a defining moment of the history of Pure Land schools in Japan: the exile of Hōnen and his disciples, along with the execution of four of them, in 1207. The Isshūgyōgishō says that this unfortunate event—in fact a consequence of sectarian rivalries and courtly politics—actually happened because two of the executed monks were in fact disciples of a member of the Tachikawa lineage, and thus introduced heresies in the Pure Land movement.

This presentation will demonstrate how this argument actually associates the reasons given by the authorities for executing the monks—mainly their lack of morality and sexual probity — with the rhetoric used by Shingon monks against the Tachikawa lineage, in order to criticize radical members of the Jōdo Shinshū school.

During the Edo period, Shingon monks would even quote this story to further criticize the Tachikawa lineage and the Pure Land schools. This shows that the Tachikawa lineage—rather than an authentic heretical group—not only became a symbol of sexual heresies in the Shingon school, but also came to be depicted as the root of all heresies in Japanese Buddhism itself.