The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity (Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies Book 98)

In this annotated translation and study of an early fourteenth-century Japanese devotional picture scroll set, Royall Tyler illuminates the complex relationships between medieval Japanese religion and politics, text, and art. The Kasuga Gongen genki ("The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity") mingles text and painting on silk to tell the tale of miraculous events at the Kasuga shrine in Nara, a site favored by the dominant Fujiwara clan for centuries. The work's values are aristocratic, but the text sheds light on the syncretic nature of the era's religious practices, allowing Tyler to collapse the distinction between high and low forms of medieval Japanese religion. Tyler provides a detailed examination of the scrolls, the shrine, and their history and political role. He also elucidates the scrolls' relationship to literary genre and religious practice, including the interaction between Shintoism and Buddhism. His copious annotations describe the work's historical context, as well as its religious and cultural influences. This study is essential for scholars of religion, art historians, and cultural historians alike. "Near the ancient capital of Nara in central Japan stands the Kasuga Shrine of the old court nobility. The Kasuga Gongen genki ("Miracles of the Kasuga Deity") is a magnificent set of twenty illustrated handscrolls that in 1309 were presented to the Shrine by the leading nobles. These scrolls are known for their paintings, but the accompanying text has never before been translated into another language, and the cult which they represent has never previously been properly examined."--Jacket In this peerless study of the Kasuga Gongen genki, twenty fourteenth-century picture scrolls illuminating the sacred powers of the Kasuga Shrine on Mount Miyama, Royall Tyler collapses the distinction between high and low forms of medieval Japanese religious practice and argues for reading in the scrolls critical reflections of developments in Japanese history, society, culture, literature, and religion