Obaku
- Japanese/Chinese: 黄檗 (Oubaku, Huángbò)
Ôbaku is a sect of Zen Buddhism introduced to Japan in the Edo period and long associated (even more strongly than other sects of Buddhism) with Ming dynasty China. Though initially introduced to Japan by Ming monk Yinyuan Longqi, who established the Kôfuku-ji in Nagasaki in 1624 and then the Manpuku-ji in Uji (near Kyoto) in 1661, and having some notable prominence through the Edo period, Ôbaku was only officially recognized as a separate sect in 1876.[1]
The first Ôbaku temple established in Japan was the Kôfuku-ji in Nagasaki, in 1624. Another temple known as Sôfuku-ji was then established, also in Nagasaki, shortly afterwards, in order to serve the Chinese (and in particular Fujianese) community there.
In 1661, the Konoe family of court nobles granted Yinyuan Longqi - chief priest of the Wanfu-si (J: Manpuku-ji) temple on Mt. Huangbo (J: Ôbaku) in Fujian province - land in Uji on which to build a new temple.[2] Manpuku-ji would then become the chief center of Ôbaku Zen in Japan, as well as a major center of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese tea practices, and Ming culture otherwise. Up until 1740, the chief priests (abbots) of Manpuku-ji were always ethnic Chinese; after that, they alternated with Japanese priests. The Tokugawa shoguns regularly called upon these abbots to be seen in audience at Edo castle; whatever these ceremonies may have meant for the monks, the shogunate used such audiences as a tool for enhancing Tokugawa legitimacy - with the Chinese monks of Manpuku-ji as ostensible representatives of the (fallen) Ming dynasty, the shogunate was able to construct a discourse of highly cultivated, refined, representatives of Ming culture paying respects to, and recognizing the authority of, the Tokugawa shoguns.[3]
Monks of the Manpuku-ji also played a prominent role in teaching vernacular Chinese, classical Chinese, and other Chinese cultural forms to daimyô such as Shimazu Shigehide and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, among others, whether being called to Edo, or being visited at Manpuku-ji by such figures.
References
- ↑ Rebeckah Clements, "Speaking in Tongues? Daimyo, Zen Monks, and Spoken Chinese in Japan, 1661–1711," The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 76, No. 3 (August) 2017: 609.
- ↑ Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 55-56.
- ↑ Jiang Wu, Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia, Oxford University Press, 2014.
