Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture

Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry: Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval
Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural
Author(s): R. Keller Kimbrough
Source: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2005), pp. 1-33
Published by: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233775
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JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies32/1: 1-33

@2005 NanzanInstitutefor Religionand Culture

R. Keller KIMBROUGH

Readingthe MiraculousPowersof JapanesePoetry

Spells,TruthActs,anda Medieval
BuddhistPoeticsof the Supernatural

Thesupernaturalpowersof Japanesepoetryarewidelydocumentedin the literatureof Heianand medievalJapan.Twentieth-century

scholarshavetended
to follow OrikuchiShinobuin interpretingand discussingmiraculousverses
in termsof ancient(arguablypre-Buddhistand pre-historical)beliefsin kotodama "-, "themagic spirit power of special words"'In this paper,I argue
for the applicationof a more contemporaneoushermeneuticalapproachto
the miraculouspoem-stories of late-Heianand medieval Japan:thirteenthcentury Japanese"dharanitheory,"according to which Japanesepoetry is
capableof supernaturaleffectsbecause, as the dharaniof Japan,it contains
"reason"or "truth"(kotowari)in a semanticsuperabundance.In the firstsection of this articleI discuss"dharanitheory"as it is articulatedin a numberof
Kamakura-and Muromachi-periodsources;in the second, I applythat theory to severalHeian and medievalrainmakingpoem-tales;and in the third,
I arguefor a possible connection between the magico-religioustechnology
of Indian"TruthActs"(saccakiriya,satyakriyd),importedto Japanin various
sutrasand sutracommentaries,and some of the miraculouspoems of the lateHeianand medievalperiods.

waka - dharani- kotodama- katokusetsuwa- rainmaking- TruthAct

- saccakiriyd,satyakriya
KEYWORDS:

R. Keller Kimbrough is an Assistant Professor of Japaneseat Colby College. In the 20052006 academicyear,he will be a Visiting ResearchFellowat the Nanzan Institutefor Religion

and Culture.
1

T SOMETIMEin or around the fifth year of the Engi era (905), the Japanese court poet Ki no Tsurayukiwrote in his introductionto the antholT
ogy Kokinwakashfui-JcM(Collection of Poems, Past and Present)
that Japanesepoetry has the power to "move heaven and earth, stir feeling in
unseen demons and gods, soften relationsbetween men and women, and soothe
the hearts of fierce warriors."'His words are well-founded, for the literatureof
premodern Japanabounds in tales of poets who have used poetry to a varietyof
ends, including to inspire love, cure illness, end droughts,exorcise demons, and
sometimes even raise the dead. Contemporaryscholars refer to such stories as
katokusetsuwa
, "talesof the wondrous benefits of poetry"'2Entiresecand thirteenth-century tale anthologies have been devoted to
tions of twelfth- ffaIti,
the genre,3and the accountsthemselves,frequentlyfantastic,arecited in numerous premodernworks as evidence of the truth of Tsurayuki'swords.
Despite the largenumber of such stories survivingfrom the Heian and medieval periods (ninth through sixteenth centuries),modern scholarshave devoted
relativelylittle attention to katokusetsuwa as a whole. What researchhas been
done has tended to focus on the boundariesand origins of the genre, ratherthan
the theory or mechanics of the poems themselves.4To some extent,investigation
*An earlier version of this paper was presented for the panel "Worldsof Wonder:Setsuwa and
the Configurationof Belief in Heian and Medieval Japan"at the 2001 meeting of the Association for
Asian Studies.The authorwould like to thank the SainsburyInstitutefor the Studyof JapaneseArts
and Culturesfor its generous support during the composition of this work.
1. SNKBT
5: 4. Tsurayuki'sassertion is modeled on a passage in the Shijing
Major Preface
(first century CE), translated in McCULLOUGH 1985a, pp. 304-5. In writing about., Japanese poetry,
Tsurayukiuses the term waka T'i1,"Japanesesong.' In this article,I employ the term waka to refer
Japanesepoems composed in a more-or-less thirty-one-syllableformat.
specificallyto tanka W-Ot,
2. Setsuwais a genre of anecdotalliterature,usually short and often didactic. The term katokuis
based upon the phrase uta no toku kQa)Pt
("thebenefits of poetry"),which dates from the late Heian
[twelfthor
period (Toshiyorizuin6 j~R aN[ca. 1115;NKBZ50: 82]; Kohon setsuwa shfiu e
thirteenth century; 1: 7, SNKBT42: 414]). As WATANABESh6ichi (1974, p. 11o) explains, the toku V in

katoku Rt signifies "marvelousbenefit,"in the sense of kudokuT)2JJand go-riyakuaftr]L, rather

than "morality"or "virtue,"as in d6toku i~ft. For definitions of katokuand katokusetsuwa,see, for
example, KUBOTA1974, pp. 26-27; MORIYAMA1975, p. 1; IZUMI1986, pp. 258-59.
3. Fukuroz6shi RiVA (ca. 1157-1158) contains a section titled "Poems Provoking Responses in

Buddhas and Deities"within the chapter"Kitaino uta" ft 0)Q'iR,

29:
"ExtraordinaryPoems"(SNKBT
155-59); Shasekishu 0;JU (ca. 1280) contains a section titled "Deities who were Moved by Poems
and Came to People's Aid" (NKBT85: 226-27).
4. Major studies include OGAWA1995 and 1999; WATANABE 1988; KAMIOKA1986; MORIYAMA
1974, 1975, 1976, 1977; and NISHIMURA1966. Among these, Nishimura is unusual in that he follows

the folklorist and ethnologist YanagitaKunio in referring to miraculous poem-stories as uta no

reigendan i R R ,,"talesof the divine powers of poems,"ratherthan katokusetsuwa.

KIMBROUGH:MIRACULOUSPOWERSOF JAPANESEPOETRY

has been hamperedby the theoreticalapparatusmost commonly applied to the

interpretationof the poems and their tales. As OgawaToyo'ohas observed, studies have tended to founder in the "nebulousworld of ancient kotodamafaith"the politicized and largelyprehistoricalJapanesebelief in "themagic spiritpower
of special words;' as first fully articulated by the twentieth-century critic and
ethnologist Orikuchi Shinobu and his followers.5In recent years, a few scholars
have contested the relevanceof kotodamatheory to the miraculouspoem-stories
of the late-Heian and medieval periods. WatanabeSh6go, for one, has argued
that concepts of kotodamaexpressed in the poetic anthology Man'yoshfi7JiY
(Collection of Ten ThousandLeaves;compiled in the eighth century) are too far
removed in time from the katokusetsuwa of the twelfth and later centuries to
be appropriatelyemployed in their interpretation.6While Watanabemay have
overstatedhis case-kotodama theory certainly has its uses, both in illuminating ritual contexts and in explaining poetic syntactic conventions traceableto
Man'yopoetic practice-as a hermeneuticaldevice, it has been of relativelylimited benefit in analyzing magical poems and understanding the ways in which
those poems may have been perceivedto have functioned by the poets and commentators of the medieval period (ca. 1185-16oo).

In the thirteenth century,radicalnew notions of poetry (some of which were

based upon imported principles of Chinese music theory, and others upon esoteric Buddhist thought) came to be articulated in a number of Buddhist and
poetic commentaries.7One of these ideas-that waka (Japanesepoems) achieve
their supernaturaleffectsbecause they are the dharani(magical Buddhistincantations) of Japan-went on to enjoy widespread currency in the late medieval
period, so much so that it was repeated,axiomatically,in works of popular fiction from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.8Surprisingly,modern
5. OGAWA
1995,PP. 55-56. The definition of kotodamaas "magicspirit power of special words"is
from EBERSOLE
1989,p. 14.As a nativist ideology, kotodamatheory is politicized in that it posits a
recognition, among the ancient peoples of Japan,of the superiorityof the Japaneselanguage to the
languages of foreign lands. For discussions of kotodama in English, see BOOT1996; PLUTSCHOW
1990, pp. 11-13 and 75-87; EBERSOLE1989, pp. 19-23; KONISHI1986, pp. 111-20, and 1984, pp. loo-lo
and 203-12; and MILLER1977. Also see NISHIMURA1966, pp. 16 and 32-37; ORIKUCHI1937 (PP. 13436), 1943 (pp. 245-52), 1947 (pp. 116-18), 1950 (pp. 268-71), and 1957 (2: 169-170). PLUTSCHOW(1990),
KONISHI(1984), MORIYAMA(1974), and NISHIMURA(1966) all identify themselves with either Ori-

kuchi or his thought.

6. WATANABE1988, pp. 6-7. KAMIOKAYiiji (1986) and OGAWAToyo'o (1995) have similarly

turned away from kotodama theory in their discussions of katoku setsuwa. Kamioka posits that
the poem-stories proliferatedunder the influence of the Japaneseand Chinese Kokinshfiprefaces;
Ogawa arguesthat they emerged in response to a perceived decline in the status of waka in the late
Heian period.
7.Notions of waka and music theory are advanced in the Buddhist poetic commentary Nomori
no kagami
(1347), and various other
(1295), KitabatakeChikafusa'sKokinshfichfi N-L
3,ikM
sources. See OGAWA
1999, pp. 252-63. On waka and esoteric Buddhism,see KLEIN2002.
8. See, for example,KamiyoKomachi fkJII e (MJMT
3: 473b) and MurasakiShikibuno maki
2: 243a).
(in IshiyamamonogatariEa
Pie
~ % ,MJMT
,

Journal
Studies 32/1(2005)
ofReligious
I Japanese

scholarshave given little considerationto "dharanitheory,"as it might be called,

in their investigations of katokusetsuwa. However, as an alternativeto ancient
and modern kotodamathought,9this medieval theoretical approachoffersnew
opportunities for insights into both the miraculous poems of Japan,and interAsian influence in the realms of magico-religiouspractice and belief.
Waka-DharaniTheory
Early-medieval poetics, unlike that of the ancient age, tended to be grounded
in the principles of Buddhist metaphysics. By the twelfth century, under the
influence of the Tendai concept of non-duality, many priests, poets and commentators had begun to equate the Way of Poetry with the Way of Buddhism.
In his poetic treatiseKoraiffiteisho(Notes on Styles, Past to Present;completed
in 1197),Fujiwarano Toshinari(Shunzei) asserted the concord of waka and the
ThreeTruthsof TendaiBuddhism;in its subtletyand profundity,Shunzei maintained, the contemplation of poetry was equivalent to the practice of meditation.10From around this time, Buddhist-Shintosyncretism (also fundamentally
based on the principle of non-duality) led to a new understandingof the powers
of verse. Medieval syncretic philosophy maintained that Japanesedeities were
native manifestations, or "traces;'of original Buddhist divinities. Within this
ontological paradigm, waka came to be seen as the dharani of Japan,evincing
all of the magical attributesthat such an equation would imply."1
Variously referred to as darani RriE ("dharani"), shingon A: ("true
words"), my6oH ("light"),ju PR("spells"),s6ji
("all-encompassing
4~,i~/.P
were well-known and
[verses]"),and mitsugo i"I("secretlanguage"),dharani
widely employed in Japanas supernaturalincantations from at least the early
eighth century.12In the exoteric Mahaydnasutras,dharaniaremost often represented as mnemonic devices for memorizing scripturalpassages and as charms
for the protection of those who recite the sutras.They often contain indecipherable phonic fragments, and in Chinese translations of the scriptures, they are
invariably transliterated (rather than translated) from their original Sanskrit
9. Roy Andrew MILLER (1977) follows Ito Haku in drawing distinctions

between pre-histori-

cal, eighth-century,Tokugawa-period,and modern kotodamathought;W. J.BooT (1996) discusses

kotodamaconcepts with a similarlyhistorical precision.
10. NKBZ50: 274-75; LAFLEUR 1983, pp. 90-97; STONE 1999, PP. 43-44. In addition to Korai
41 0 L
, the commentaries Sangoki _EKE (ca. 1312-1317) and Sasamegoto
(1463-1464) report that the poet-priest Saigy6o~i (1118-1190) also maintained that the practice of
poetry is a form of Buddhist meditation (NKT4: 341; NKBT66: 182).
11.KIKUCHI1995; YAMADA1967. Kikuchi argues that the philosophical foundations of the waka-

fioteisho -We

dharani association are traceable to the work of Jien AnR (1155-1225),a Tendai poet-priest best
known for his authorshipof Gukansh6
. Yamadadiscusses records of actual uses of waka as
,EAW and sixteenth centuries.
dharaniin religious ceremonies in the fifteenth
12.The Ritsuryocode of 718,for example,permits the chanting of dharanifor medical purposes.
INOUE1976, p. 216; ABE 1999, pp. 161-62.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

forms. Their resulting incomprehensibility (for the Chinese and Japanese, in

particular) may have lent them an aura of mystery and depth. According to
many esoteric sutras and sutra commentaries, the recitation of dharani is an
effective means of expunging sin and achieving enlightenment, but for Japanese of the Nara, Heian, and medieval periods, dharani-like waka-were often
employed for more mundane purposes, including healing, rainmaking,divination, and the like.13
In the poetic commentaryMumyoshP~fVst (NamelessNotes; from between
1211and 1216), the poet-priest Kamo no Ch6mei explains that unlike prose, a

poem "possessesthe power to move heaven and earth,to calm demons and gods,"
because, among other attributes,"itcontains many truths in a single word"(hito
kotoba ni 6ku no kotowari wo kome).14Ch6mei's explanation is similar to the
priest Kfikai's,some four hundredyears earlier,regardingthe natureof dharani.
In Hizoki (Record of the Secret Treasury;ca. 805), Kfikai-founder of the esoteric (Shingon) sect of JapaneseBuddhism-notes that "dharani,as the speech of
the Tathagatas,contains only truth (shinjitsuAi)'" In Hokekyoshaku(Interpretation of the Lotus Sutra;834), Kfikaiwrites: "Theexoteric is to consume many
words to denote one meaning. The esoteric is to unleash countless meanings
from within each letter of a word. This is the secret function of dharani."'5
Poetry
4:2A
13.NihonryoikiFB

shfi
(ca.787),Konjaku
monogatari

'Itft

(earlytwelfthcentury),

i Mf (late twelfth century), and Shasekishfi,among others, contain numerous referHMbutsushf

ences to the use of dharani to cure illness, ward off snakes and demons, extend life, pacify spirits,
and enact other miracles (SAKAIDAand WADA 1943, p. 667; also see footnote 29, below). The author

of Nihon rybikicites a passage from the sutra Senjuky6ZfVf to the effect that dharani"canbring

SNKBT
branches,blossoms,andfruitevento a deadtree"(trans.by KyokoNakamura;
30:149and

P (ca. 1111;GR 27: 551b-52a) contains accounts of four

priestswho performedrainmakingceremonies accordingto the method prescribedin the sutraDaiunrin seiuky6
Mori which includes the chanting of dharani (TSD19 [9891:484-92; KAMATA
1998,p. 290). Furtherreferencesto Daiunrin seiuky6are contained in Konjakumonogatarishfi 14:41
(SNKBT 35: 359); Kojidan -_t(1219; GR
206 (ca. 1215; KOBAYASHI 1981,1:221); Zoku kojidan
n
272; NAKAMURA1973, p. 241). G6dansh6oEIi3

tc'F (fourteenthcentury;NKBT
27:642b);andTaiheiki
34:434;McCULLOUGH
1959,p.378).
14.NKBT65:88. The largerMumy6sh6passage reads:

In whatwaydoesa poemsurpassordinarylanguage?
Becauseit containsmanytruthsin
a singleword,becauseit exhausts,withoutrevealing,deepestintent,becauseit summons
forthunseenagesbeforeoureyes,becauseit employsthe ignobleto expressthe superior,
andbecauseit manifests,
in seemingfoolishness,
mostmysterious
truth-becauseof this,
whenthe heartcannotreachandwordsareinsufficient,
if one shouldexpressoneselfin
verse,the merethirty-onecharacters[of a poem]willpossessthepowerto moveheaven
andearth,to calmdemonsandgods.
of bothexcerptsby RyuichiAbe.HizikitJEI andHokeky6
shaku'ASMP, in
15.Translation

KosB DAISHI CHOSAKUKENKYUKAI1991, 5: 138 and 4: 199; ABE 1999, p. 264. In Hannya shingy6

hiken
the sermonsof theTathagata,
there
(818or 834),Kfikaisimilarlywrites:"Among
REL4,,49,,
are two
kinds. One is the exoteric;the other,the esoteric. For those of exoteric caliberhe preached
lengthy sermons containing many clauses, but for those of esoteric caliber, he preached the
dharanis,the words that embracemanifold meanings"(translationby Hakeda).KobB DAISHICHOSAKUKENKYiJKAI1991, 3: 11;HAKEDA1972, p. 274.

I JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1(2005)

is to prose, in Chomei'sunderstanding,as the esoteric (dharani)is to the exoteric

in Kutkai's.Ryuichi Abe explains that Kfikaiattached great significance to the
abilityof dharanito "condensethe meanings of a sutra'sprose lines into a small
number of phrases,'and that it was from this "semanticsuperabundance"-what
Abe elsewhereterms a "supereconomyof signification"--thatKftkaibelieved the
powers of dharaniwere derived (ABE 1999,pp. 264, 6, and 271).Japanesepoetry,
with its use of puns, pivot-words, pillow-phrases, and various associative and
allusive techniques, is characterized by a similar semantic economy. Ch6mei
seems to have thus equated the origins of waka'smiraculouspowers with those
of dharanias formulatedby Kakaiin the earlyninth century.
Although Kamo no Ch6mei does not explicitly equate waka with dharani,
the unknown authorof the Buddhistand poetic commentaryNomori no kagami
(Mirror of the Watchmanof the Fields; 1295),who reiteratesKfikai's(and later
Chomei's)theory of semantic economy, does.16Writing some eighty years after
Ch6mei, the Nomori no kagamiauthor explains:
Dharani are words selected from the heart of the teachings of the various
Buddhas;they arethe ultimatedistillationof the true principle(kotowari)of
immediatesalvationof sentient beings. This is why althoughtheir lines are
few, their effects are great.The words of poetry are also many,but the poet
chooses from amongthem in orderto compose a verse in thirty-onecharacters. The same as a dharani,the verse expressesthe truth (makoto ~__L) of
the poet'sintent.
(NKT 4: 87)
In his setsuwa anthology Shasekisha(A Collection of Sand and Pebbles;ca.
1280), the priest Mujfi Ichien professes the identity of waka and dharani in
terms of medieval syncretic philosophy. His argument, as Kikuchi Hitoshi has
observed, shows the influence of both Tendaiand Shingon Buddhistthought:17
To fathomthe Wayof Poetryis to still the disorderedtremblingof a restless
heart.It is to achievetranquilityand peace. Thewordsof a poem arefew,but
meaning is containedtherein. This is the way of all-encompassingversesthatwhich we call dharani.
Thegods of our countryarethe tracesof Buddhasand Bodhisattvas.They
areeachbut one of manyexpedientmanifestations.Withhis "eight-foldfence
16. The identity of the Nomori no kagami author remains uncertain. However, Ogawa Toyo'o
has recently and persuasively argued that he was a priest by the name of Kujin
, a disciple of
sutra chanting (OGAWA
in the Gy6zan
school of sh6my6 IH
K6kaku
1999,pp. 264-70).
,.[If,
On Nomori no kagamiand the
conflation of waka and Buddhist thought, see KIMBROUGH
2003.
17.KIKUCHI
1995,p. 220. The Tendaiand Shingon influence is not readilyapparentin the following translatedpassage,because I have not quoted it in full. Although Shasekishfihas a complicated
textual history, it is not relevant in this particular case. For an alternate translation,see MORRELL
1985, pp. 163-64. Gary EBERSOLE(1983, p. 61) and KONISHIJin'ichi(1986, p. 117) have discussed this
passage as well.

bt

&

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

of Izumo,"Susanoo-no-mikotooriginatedthe compositionof verse in thirtyone syllables.'8It was no differentthan the wordsof the Buddha.The dharani
of Indiaaresimplyin the languageof thatcountry'speople.Usingthe language
of India,the Buddhaexpoundeddharani.Thisis why MeditationMasterYixing wrote in his Commentaryon the Dainichi Sutrathat "thewordsof the
If the Buddhawere to appearin our country,
variouslands areall dharani."'19
he would surelyexpound dharaniin Japanese.Fundamentally,dharanihave
no words;they areexpressedin words.
(NKBT 85: 222-23)
According to Mujf's linguistic relativism, dharani transcend the spoken or
written idiom of any particularpeople. Languageis simply the medium through
which they are conveyed. The concept is Benjaminian,one might say,in its suggestion of a Pure Language-an "ultimateessence"within the "linguisticflux"lurking both beyond and within the multitudinous languages of humankind.20
Mujfulaterwrites:
Thethirty-onechaptersof the DainichiSutranaturallycorrespondto thethirtyone syllablesof waka.Becausewakaencompassthe naturaltruths(doriiFl)
of lay andmonasticlife in thirty-onesyllables,they provokeresponsesin Buddhasandbodhisattvasandmovegods andhumansalike.Althoughdharaniare
composedin the Indianvernacular,they havethe powerto expiatetransgressions and eliminatesufferingin those who takethem up. Japanesewaka,too,
arecomposedin the ordinarylanguageof the land,but if one shouldexpress
one'sfeelingsin waka,thereis sureto be a response.Furthermore,in thatthey
contain the essence of the Dharma,there is no doubt that they are dharani.
(NKBT 85: 223)

To saythatwakaarecapableof miraculouseffectsbecausetheyarethe dharaniof Japanis not entirelycorrect(accordingto Mujfi'sexplanation),

although
this tendedto be the mannerin whichthe powersof poetrywereunderstood
in the medievalperiod.Becausewakaand dharaniarethe same,to say that
wakaworkbecausetheyaredharaniis to saythatwakaworkbecausethey are
waka.Rather,as Mujfiwouldhaveus understand,wakaareeffectivebecause,as

truth"
thattranscends
humanlanguage.
Inthat
dharani,
theyexpressa "natural
18.According to Kojiki(712),the deity Susano'o-no-mikotocomposed the very first waka when
he built a palace for his bride (translationslightly modified from BORGEN
and URY199o, p. 81):
yakumo tatsu
Izumo yaegaki
tsumagomi ni
yaegaki tsukuru
sono yaegaki wo

Eight clouds arisethe eight-fold fence of Izumo,

to dwell with my wife
I make an eight-fold fence;
oh, that eight-fold fence!

H fIMRL,
19. Dainichiky6sho kfB
by Yixing Chanshi --PTii

(Ichigy6 Zenji;683-727).
20. BENJAMIN
1970, pp. 69-82 ("Ultimate essence" and "linguistic flux"are from pages 79 and
80). RegardingMujfi's(and others')linguistic relativism,see KIKUCHI
1995,pp. 218-21.

JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies

32/1 (2005)

they necessarilyexpressthat truth in "thirty-onesyllables"-- the standardwaka

format-their power resultsfrom both their content and their form.
In explaining the miraculous powers of poetry, Mujfi Ichien, Kamo no
Ch6mei, and the unknown author of Nomori no kagamiuse the terms kotowari
h ("reason;'"truth:'"universalprinciple"),dori ~~i ("naturaltruth;'"rightfulness";a synonym of kotowari),21and makoto / ("truth,""thatwhich is real";
a synonym of shinjitsu A , which Kfikaiuses to describe dharani). Rytifuku
Yoshitomohas observedthat from aroundthe second half of the twelfthcentury,
the concept of "reason,"as expressed in the words kotowariand dori, came to
replace "precedence"as a guiding philosophical principle in the minds of the
aristocratic classes (RYUFUKU 1995, p. 13, cited in OGAWA1999, p. 249). Reason

seems to have been identified with poetry from around this time as well. Kamo
no Ch6mei, for example, asserts in his Buddhist tale anthology Hosshinshci
(Accounts of Awakenings to Faith; compiled previous to 1216)that "waka is
the way of kotowariin its purest form."22Likewise, in judging a poetry contest
in 1247,Fujiwarano Tameiewrites that "in the past and today, Japanesepoetry
The
springs from the human heart and expresses the kotowariof the world."'23
locating of the miraculous powers of waka in this kotowari-a truth that is
expressed, dharani-like,in the semantic superabundanceof the Japanesepoetic
form-is the essence of thirteenth-centurywaka-dharanithought.
In the early sixteenth century,the Tendaischolar-priestSonshun 1* (14511514),author of the Lotus Sutra commentary Hokekyojurin shfiyosho (Gathered Leavesof the Lotus Sutrafrom a Grove on Eagle Peak), described the link
between waka and dharani in much the way that Muja did some two hundred
and thirty yearsbefore.24One of severalfifteenth- and sixteenth-centuryjikidan
("straighttalk")-typeLotus Sutracommentaries (so named for their self-stated
aims of explaining the Lotus Sutra in an unambiguous, straightforwardmanner),25Jurinshfuyosh is notable for its pervasive use of waka to explicate passages and ideas from the Lotus Sutra.In the "Dharani"(Darani-hon MitQau"a)
chapter of the work, Sonshun explains that "dharaniare the sacred words of
21. An inter-linear note in Hosokawa Yfisai's l)llt*i poetic commentary Kokin wakash0
(1574;quoted in KAMIOKA1986, p. 189) defines kotowarias d3ri.
kikigaki
6: 9, in MIKI1976,p. 276. IwasakiReitar6argues (unconvincingly) that for
22. Hosshinsha
,RL the kotowariof Tendai Truth (concerning the empty,provisional, and
Ch6mei, kotowari signified
in which Ch6mei uses
non-dual natureof all phenomena). He identifies five instances in Mumy6shW
the term (two occur within the quoted passage in footnote 14,above).IWASAKI
1978,pp. 51-63.
23. Cited in OGAWA
1999,p. 245. Tameiemakes similar statements in his Kokinshf2commentary,
Kokinjosh6
fT-T' (1264). See OGAWA1999, pp. 242-46, and 250.
in Hitachi Province in or
was completed at Senmy6ji
24. Jurin shfyosho
,J work, the priest Jikkai U (a+af4,I
,~~ to the
around 1512.In his prologue
contemporary of Sonshun) gives
the year 1510,while in the woodblock-printed manuscriptof 1650,Sonshun gives the years 1511and
1512.Sonshun was a native of Tomobe in the central region of Hitachi.
25. On the jikidan-type Lotus Sutracommentaries,see Kimbrough,forthcoming (chapter5).

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

the various Buddhas.For this reason, if one chants them as instructed, one will
Sonshun laterwrites:
receive benefits without limit."'26
Wakaarethe dharaniof Japan.As MasterJichinexplains,"WakaareJapanese
dharani.When Buddhasappearin this country,naturallythey expounddharanias waka.Thethirty-onechaptersof the DainichiSutra,too, takethe form
of the thirty-onecharactersof waka."27
LordTsunenoburelates,"Wakaarethe
source of magicalpowers;they are seeds drawingus to enlightenment.The
EightyThousandHoly Teachingsarecontainedwithin their thirty-onecharIt is thus thatwe chantpoems,both in our Buddhistpracticesandto
acters.'28
entertainthe gods. The sutrasextol the Buddhas'virtuesin verse,and among
the thirty-sevendeitiesof the ShingonDiamondWorld[Mandala],Kabosatsu
of the Ki,Man,Ka,and Bu [Bodhisattvas]manifestsas a deityof poetry.
(Jurinshfiyosh 4: 459)
Like the poet-priests of the thirteenth century,Sonshun assertsthat Japanese
poetry expressesa multiplicityof meanings greaterthan the sum of its individual
words; like dharani,he explains, (mis)quoting Minamoto no Tsunenobu,waka
contain within their few syllables the entirety of the Buddhist teachings. Sonshun supports his explanation by citing poems attributedto Kfikaiand Saich6,
progenitors of the JapaneseShingon and Tendai sects, and he recounts a story
about how Saich6 once pacifiedtwo demons with a poem. Unlike waka,dharani
were widely known in the Heian and medieval periods for their ability to ward
off demons,29and it was perhaps for this reason that Sonshun chose to include
the Saicho story in his discussion of the identity of waka and dharani:
26. Jurinshfy6sh6 1991,4: 453.The chaptersof Jurinshy6dsh6are titled afterthe chaptersof the
Lotus Sutra.
F (1155-1225). KIKUCHIHitoshi (1995, p. 225)
27. JichinVq is the posthumous name of Jien ~M
R
argues that Jien has been confused here (and in a related passage in Wakashinpisho flM."hM
[1493])with MujfiIchien.
{ (1016-1097) is the traditionally (and wrongly) attributed
28. Minamoto no Tsunenobu
author of Wakachikensha f:RUfM .IP(ca. 1265),which contains similar remarksin its opening lines
(KATAGIRI1969, pp. 97 and 199). Comparable statements are attributedto Tsunenobu in Sangoki
(NKT4: 341) and Sasamegoto (NKBT66: 182). On the history and dating of Waka chikenshfi,see
to an unrelatedstoryin Fukuroz6shi
KLEIN 2002, pp. 108 and 212-25. According
(SNKBT 29: 157),
Tsunenobu once composed a poem that magically added years to EmperorShirakawa'slife.
29. Fujiwarano Tsuneyuki ORMT (836-875), for example, is reported in various sources to
have been saved from demons by the power of the Sonsh6dharani
(Konjakumonogatari
-W*,MVJ
about Fujiwarano Morosuke
she 14:42; Kohonsetsuwa shA2: 51,and so on). A similar story is told
WOaIsM(908-960) in Okagami kSt (ca. 1085-1125; NKBT 21: 127-28; MCCULLOUGH1980, p. 136),
and about Fujiwarano Takafuji W S (838-900) in G6dansh6 (GR 27: 577b-578a). In this same
chapter of Jurin shfiy6sh6,Sonshun tells a story of an imperial envoy who drove off demons with
a waka,in this case by invoking the authorityof the Emperor (translatedin footnote 52,below). In
Maigetsush6b ,T (dated 1219),the poet Fujiwarano Teika includes the "demon-crushing style"
among his ten styles of poetic composition, but he has little to say about it other than that it is
difficult to learn. See NKBT65: 127; NKBZ50: 514-15; BROWERand MINER 1961, pp. 247-48.

10

I JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (2005)

At the time of his foundingof [the Templeon] MountHiei,the Mastersought

out timber to construct the [statue of] Yakushiin the CentralHall. In the
north-east,he cameupon a camphortreeemittinglightfromits trunk.Thinking this strange,he approachedto have a look. Two demons were standing
guard.TheMasterintoned:
YouBuddhas
anokutara
sanmyakusanbodaino of Most Perfect
hotoketachi
EnlightenedWisdomni
tatsu
soma
bestow
yoursilentprotection
waga
on this forestthat I fell!
my6gaarasetamae
"Wehave been guardingthis tree since the time of KurusonBuddha,"'30
the
in
the
of
the
Imitated
demons said. "Wewere told that
ShakyamuniAge
Teacherof Men would come to this mounDharma,a Mahayana-spreading
tain,andthatwe shouldgivethe treeto him. Thismustbe you."Speakingthus,
they immediatelyset off towardthe north-east.TheMastercut down the tree
and reverentlycarvedan imageof YakushiNyorai.He madethis the Principal
Imageof the CentralHall.31As his benedictionhe chanted,"Forhavingshown
his mercy to sentientbeings at the dawn of the Age of the ImitatedDharma,
he is called Yakushi,LapisLazuliBuddhaof Light,'TheMasterthus paid his
respects,whereuponthe wooden Yakushinodded in plain reply.32Peoplesay
that even now, if you encountersomethingfrighteningas you travelthe road
at night,chantthis poem threetimes and demon spiritswill do you no harm.
(Jurin shfyosh6 4: 460-61)

The poem that Saich6 uses to appease the demons is a famous one.33 It
resembles a dharani not only in its reported effects, both for Saich6 and for
later travelerswho chant it as a spell at night, but also in its incorporation of a
transliteratedSanskritphrase (anokutarasanmyakusanbodai,"PerfectUltimate
Enlightenment"), rather than a Chinese or Japanesetranslation. Insofar as it
comprises thirty-eight syllables,however,Saicho'spoem pushes the boundaries
of the traditionallythirty-one syllablewaka form. By comparison,a characterin
Ki no Tsurayuki'sTosanikki (The Tosa Diary; ca. 935) is said to have composed
30. Krakucchandha,the fourth of six Buddhasto appearin the world before Shakyamuni.
31.Traditionalaccounts maintain that Saich6 dedicated the image in 788. GRONER1984, pp. 30
and 133,note 93.
(an encyclopedia of 1446, revised and enlarged in
32. According to Jinten ainoshW i
1532), Saich6 recited his benediction (identical to the one quoted here) every time he swung his
hatchet. Upon completion, the image nodded whenever it was revered.BussHo KANK)KAI
1912,P.
TiiYAYLis another name for YakushiNyoraiX-OmA .
413a (17:4). YakushiRuri K6butsu
i Aiifa
602, Shinkokin wakashu
1920, and
.33. The poem is Wakan roeishuf
F-Tin
It
is
also
e
(SNKBT
29:
152),
(NKBZ
565.
KoraiftiteishW
reproduced
Fukurozoshi
RyOjinhisho
,ATJV
50: 286), Toshiyorizuin6 (NKBZ50:69), Ogish6kLABY
(NKT1: 223), etc. According to these works,
Saich6 composed it when he built the CentralHall on Mt. Hiei.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

11

an impromptupoem with thirty-seven syllables-a slightly lesser offense-and

to have been ridiculed as a result.34
In his poetic treatise Ogish6 (Observations on Deepest Principles;ca. 11351144),Fujiwarano Kiyosukewrites:
The syllablesof a Japanesepoem havebeen set at thirty-onesince [Susano'ono-mikoto's]"EightClouds of Izumo."Nevertheless,a verse may be longer
when its intent is not easily expressed,and a verse may be shorterwhen its
wordsarenot enough.
(NKT1:222)
As Kiyosuke explains, the thirty-one-syllable form is an ideal, not a requirement. Many poems comprise thirty-two syllables,and some, thirty-three.Nevertheless, the length of Saich6'sverse is extraordinary.Although it would seem
to transgressthe necessary linguistic condensation from which its power supposedly derives (accordingto dharanitheory, that is), the poem simultaneously
suggests that the enlightenment of Buddhasis too vast, even in name, to be contained within a standardthirty-one syllable waka. It is perhaps this truth-the
kotowariof the Buddhas'limitless enlightenment, expressed in the purity of its
Sanskritdesignation-that lends Saich6'spoem its strength,revealinghim to be
the rightful recipientof the marvelous camphor.
RainmakingPoems and the Powersof Reason
Miraculouspoems--specifically those reportedto have been efficaciousin moving demons and deities-can generallybe divided into two categories:those that
function spontaneously, independent of the poet's wishes, and those that are
reportedto have been craftedby the poet with an intent to produce a supernatural result.Of poems in the formercategory,most are representedas havingbeen
effective because of the emotional response that they inspire: a deity, inadvertently moved by the grief or longing of the poet, typicallyexercisesits powers on
the poet's behalf.35Poems in the latter category tend to employ a variety of approaches:while manyappealto sentiment,othersarecomposed to flatter,threaten,
blackmail, and possibly even confuse.36In some cases, simply the presentation
34. SNKBT24: 16; McCULLOUGH1985b, p. 276. I am grateful to Gus Heldt for bringing this exam-

ple to my attention.
35. The dying Koshikibu no Naishi (998?-1o25), for example, is reported to have composed a
poem so moving that it convinced a deity to save her life. See Jikkinsh6 tJ+Rl 10: 14 (1252; SNKBZ51:
182 (1254; NKBT84: 167-68), Shasekishii (NKBT85: 227), and so on.
401), Kokon chomonjai
]i
There is an
account of how Izumi
one

Shikibu (in
version of the story, Sei
36.
Edo-period
Shonagon) quieted the Naruto Maelstrom with a poem containing a pun on the name "Naruto."
YanagitaKunio suggests that since the poem is so difficult to understand, it may have succeeded
by bewildering
286-87).

the deity into submission

(YANAGITA1962b, p. 419; see also YANAGITA1962a, pp.

12

Journalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (2005)

Japanese

of a requestin the form of a wakaat a particulartemple or shrinehas been known

to provoke a divine response.37
Among the various miraculous poem-stories of Heian and medieval Japan,
many pertain to the ability of famous poets to conjure rain. Few concerns are
more fundamental to an agriculturalsociety-indeed, to any society-than the
absence or overabundance of rainfall, and in centuries of setsuwa anthologies
and related sources, outstanding priests, poets and musicians have been attributed with either the power to summon the rain or else to make it stop.38In
the poetic commentary Kokinshfichfi (Commentaryon the Kokinsha;ca. 1347),
Kitabatake Chikafusa writes that "when [Ki no Tsurayuki] speaks of effortlessly moving heaven and earth, stirring feeling in unseen demons and gods,
he speaks of the powers of poetry. It is by such powers that we move all deities,
One poet who is said to have concausing rain to fall and droughts to cease."'39
jured rain is Ono no Komachi (fl. ca. 833-857);the following verse is from her
personal poetic anthology:40
Composedwhen she was commandedto producea rainmakingpoem during
a drought:41
chihayaburu
kamimo mimasaba
tachisawagi
amano togawano
higuchiaketamae

Almightygods,
if you too can see,
then rise up shouting
and castopen
Heaven'sRiver'sgates!

Accordingto the tale anthology Tsukino karumosha (A Collection of Duckweed

Harvestedby the Moon; ca. 1630),the rain fell without cease for three days.42
37. Akazome Emon (fl. ca. 976-1041) is widely reported to have saved her ailing son by
presenting a poem at Sumiyoshi Shrine requesting to exchange her own life for his. See Akazome
Emon shfu

543, Konjaku monogatari shfi 24: 51, Jikkinsho 10: 15, and other sources.

,I,-lfA9%
JVAJ(1689),for example,contains stories of three poets who
itoku monogatari
fl
38. Waka
pffari
conjured rain and three poets who caused it to abate (TACHIBANA 1980, pp. 18-22). Priestsare attributed with the power to make it rain in Konjakumonogatarishi 7: 11and 14:41, Uji shfi monogatari
1fE 5: 9 (1407-1446; IKEGAMI1982,
1 :20, Kokon chomonjfi 60 (NKBT84: 96), and Sangoku denki
vol.1, pp. 265-66). Kokonchomonjfi250 and 17are accounts of people who produced rain by playing
music and by means of an imperial decree (NKBT84: 204 and 58).
39. ZGR 16:2:544; the passage is quoted in MORIYAMA 1974, P. 3, and in KAMIOKA 1986, pp. 185-86.
40. Komachi sha 'N9l
(Heian Period); SKT3: 22b, poem 69.
,
, the drought occurred during
41.According to the JingfiBunko recension of Komachishi /J',
the reign of EmperorDaigo (r. 897-930). YokotaYukiya,who believes that the poem is by Komachi,
dates its composition to the drought of 898 (YOKOTA1974, PP. 173-74). KATAGIRI Y6ichi (1975) and
TANAKAKimiharu (1984) argue that the poem is not by Komachi at all.
42. ZGR 33:1:47b. The absence of a statement in Komachishfi concerning the poem'seffect should

not be taken as proof that it was not believed in the Heian and Kamakuraperiods to have produced
rain. As MORIYAMA
Shigeru observes in cases of katoku setsuwa poems included in imperiallysponsored poetic anthologies, the miraculous effects of the poems are usually not described
(1976, pp. 6-9).

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

13

The circumstances of Komachi's purported recitation of her poem are

unknown; with its straightforwardsyntax, it constitutes little more than a ritualized demand. How, then, might it be understood to have achieved its effect?
Ritual/kotodamatheory (in one of its twentieth-century articulations) would
suggest that because of waka'sinherent order (comprised as waka usually are of
five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables [in this case 5, 7, 5, 7, 8]), such poems are capable,
when appropriatelyinveighed, of restoringorderto a disruptednaturalenvironment (PLUTSCHOW 1990, pp. 31-32). In considering kotodamatheory,we might
also look to the word chihayaburu("almighty"),a pillow-word (makurakotoba)
modifying kami ("gods").Konishi Jin'ichihas arguedthat pillow-words(makura
kotoba) and prefaces (jo), both of which he describes as "guidephrases;'were
employed in ancient Japanesepoetry for their apparentlymystical powers. He
writes that "the kotodama possessed by the guide phrase could be transmitted into the essence of the poem;43 which, in the case of the preceding verse,
might account for its success. Medieval dharanitheory, on the other hand, begs
the question, "what is the kotowari within the waka that allows it its effect?"
The answer may lie in the poem's conditional construction: if the gods can see
the drought below, then how, in truth, can they not make it rain? Continued
drought would fly in the face of reason.
In Jurinshfiyosho,Sonshun-our sixteenth-century advocate of thirteenthcentury waka-dharani theory-cites two rainmaking stories concerning the
Heian woman poet Izumi Shikibu,who in several late-medieval sources is said
to have been of the "lineage"of Komachi.44Following his account of Saich6's
anokutara poem in the "Dharani"chapter of the work, Sonshun writes that
As his second example,he cites
"poemsarealso used to achieveprayer-requests."
the following account of Izumi Shikibu'ssalvation of the land from a drought.
Her technique is one of manipulationby shame:
Again,at thattime [in the past]therewas once a droughtthroughoutthe land.
Izumi Shikibujourneyedto Kitano[Shrine],whereshe composed:
hazukashiya
igakino ume mo
karenikeri

How shameful!
Eventhe plum at the sacredfence
is withered.

43. KONISHI
1984,p. 211.Konishi follows Orikuchiin his conception of makurakotoba.See ORIKUCHI1946,pp. 174and 191.
A served in the salon of Empress Sh6shi in the court of Emperor
44. Izumi Shikibu U7~k
Ichijo (r. 986-1011ll).She is known today primarily for her poetry and poetic diary,Izumi Shikibu
nikki.According to Koshikibu
a work of fiction from around the sixteenth century,she was
/J,4-%, and Ono no Komachi
of the line of Sotoorihime, Lady
forthcomIse,
(MJMT5: 21;KIMBROUGH,
ing). According to Todengyihitsu tiWJAt3 (mid fifteenth century), the ghost of Ono no Komachi
bestowed her poetic powers on Izumi Shikibu for having rescued her skull from a field (ICHIKO
1992,pp. 197-98; KIMBROUGH,
forthcoming [chapter1]).

14

JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (20o5)

How can we callyou
amano kamito wa
ikadeiubeki
a god of the heavens-a god of rain?
Peoplesaythatthe sky suddenlycloudedoverand it pouredwith rain.45

Calling attention to the withered plum tree at the deity's shrine fence and
punning on the phrase ama no kami (in this case both "godof the heavens"and
"god of rain"),Izumi Shikibu questions the deity's provenance in the absence
of rainfall. Ratherthan simply invoking a name (ama no kami), Izumi Shikibu
uses a pun-producing a dharani-likemultiplicityof meaning-to challengethe
validity of the god's appellation. How, in reason, can it allow a drought if it is
a god of the heavens/a god of rain? Confronted with Izumi Shikibu'ssemantic
manipulation and its own dying tree, the deity is compelled to make it rain.46
Although Sonshun providesno explanationfor how he understoodthis particular poem to have worked, in an account in his "MedicineKing"(Yaku6Bosatsu
) chapter in which an imperial envoy is said to have
honji-hon ~i~i 1
composed a similar sort of verse and thereby caused a wooden image of Jiz6 to
smile, Sonshun remarksthat "it is interestinghow [the poet] employed truth [to
make the statue grin]" (makotoo motteomoshironari).47
Because she is a poet, it is naturalthat Izumi Shikibubeseeches the deity with
a poem. For many others, however,waka was not preferred.In the fifteenthcentury,the monks of K6fukujiin Nararecited sutrasand conducted lecturesfor the
sake of rain, while lay people danced, prayed,and even put on performancesof
sarugaku,noh, and sumo wrestlingto bring an end to their droughts.48Although
45.Jurinshiy6shd 1991,4: 461.A similar story is contained in the Lotus SutracommentaryIchijo
shiigyokush6--*
t4& (Gathered Jewels of the Single Vehicle; 1488), according to which Izumi
Shikiburapped on the shrine fence before reciting her poem. Ichij6shfigyokush61998,p. 723.
46. Incidentally, because puns tend to be specific to individual languages, they are usually
untranslatable.In its use of wordplayto establish a coercive kotowari,Izumi Shikibu'spoem relies
upon the particularhomonymic possibilities of the Japaneselanguage.It would thus seem to contradict Mujfi'sassertion that the powers of waka and dharani stem from statements of "natural
truth"that transcend the languagesin which they are expressed.
47.Jurinshfiydsh61991,4: 257-58. The envoy is said to have taken shelter from the rain in a small
Buddha hall near the Sunomatariver in Mino Province. He was told that the Jiz6 image there had
been carved from an old wooden bridge-pillardredgedup from the riverbed. The envoy composed
the following verse, whereupon the Jiz6 image smiled:
The bridge pillar
kuchinokoru
half-rotted
masago no shita no
beneath the sand
hashi hashira
has again changed its form,
mata sama kaete
still leading to the Other Shore.
hito watasu nari
The poem is similar to Izumi Shikibu'srainmakingverse insofaras it uses a pun (in this case, on
the verb watasu,"to convey [acrossthe river]"and "to convey [to enlightenment]")to state a truthful observation regarding the nature of its referent (the bridge pillar/Jiz6 image). The story is also
contained in Hokekyojikidansh6 (ca. 1546;in JikidanshW
1979,3: 361-62).
48. MORISUE
1941,PP. 429-34. On the ritual aspects of sumo, particularlyas kami-asobi (entertainment for the gods), see PLUTSCHOW
1990,p. 59. On the history of JapaneseBuddhistrainmaking,
see RUPPERT2002.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

15

Izumi Shikibu'spoem is abrasive-it reads as if it were composed in an attempt

to provokethe deitybyhumiliatingit-comparedto otherrainmaking

practices,
it is not exceptionally so. Desperate times call for desperatemeasures, which is
why the ancient Japanesearebelieved to have thrown animal carcassesand other
polluting matter into sacred springs and ponds as a means of arousing resident
water deities.49Even the eminent poet and statesman Sugawarano Michizane
(845-902) is reported to have thwarted a drought in 888 by threateninga deity
with abandonment if it did not produce rain (NKBT 72: 534-35; BORGEN1986, pp.

165-66).
The second Jurinshufy6shbIzumi Shikibu rainmakingaccount is one of several rainmakingtales cited in the "Parableof Medicinal Herbs"(Yakusoyu-hon
Ml6iRaN)chapter of Sonshun's work (Jurin shuiydsho 1991, 2: 472-74). In one of
these stories, the Sui priest Jizang
(Kichiz6; 549-623) is said to have conjured rain by reciting the "Parableof Medicinal Herbs" chapter of the Lotus
Sutra; Kfikai,by presenting food offerings and beseeching a dragon deity at
Shinsennen Pond; the priest Ch6ken (in the fourth month of 1174),by reciting a
formal prayer-proclamation;and Izumi Shikibu,by composing a waka:
Duringthe reignof EmperorMurakami,IzumiShikibuwas once commanded
to composea poem prayingfor rain:
hi no moto no
Thoughsurelyit shines
in accordwith our namena ni ou tote ya
terasuran
"Japan:
Originof the Sun"if it does not rain,how arewe
furazarabamata
"beneaththe heavens-beneath the rain"?
ame ga shitaka wa
According to the commentary Hokekyojikidanshd (StraightTalk on the Lotus
Sutra; ca. 1546), when Izumi Shikibu finished reciting her poem, "the sky
clouded over and rain suddenly began to fall."0
Similarto her previous verse, Izumi Shikibu'spoem puns on the phrase ame
ga shita, "beneaththe heavens"and "beneaththe rain."The conceit is not original to her,51but its effect is clear.Unlike her earlierpoem, directed at a specific
deity at a particularshrine, this one is addressedto the universe at large. Izumi
Shikibuproposes that because the name Japan(Nihon HB1) is written with the
characters"originof the sun,"it is natural that the sun would shine. However,
as Japanis "beneaththe heavens,"it must also-by a coincidence of sound-be
1986,p. 46c; HERBERT
49. TYLER
1992,p. 1o8;NAKAMURA
1967,p. 483.Tylerpoints to a reference
in Kojidan358 (ca. 1212;KOBAYASHI
1981,2: 93-94) to a rainmakingdragonwho was relocatedin the
Nara period (710-784) from one pond to another by throwing a dead body into its waters.
1998,p. 193.Also see the relatedaccountin Ichij6shfigyokushW,
50.Jikidansho1979,2:233;NAKANO
cited in NAKANO1998, p. 194.

attributed to Otomo no Yakamochi (71851.Man'y6shuf7HA 4122,a rainmaking ch6ka ARTN

785), contains an analogous use of the phrase ame no shita. See the translationin DOE1982,p. 182.

16 1 JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (2005)

"beneaththe rain."In its success, her poem thus representsa triumph of reason.
Moreover,it suggeststhat the medieval Japaneseuniverse (as representedwithin
the Lotus SutracommentaryJurinshufy6sh6)was an inherentlyrationalplace;if
it were not, it would not have been swayedby the logic of her wordplay.52
The context of the Izumi Shikibu poem-story-the manner of its citation
within the "Parableof Medicinal Herbs"chapter of Sonshun'scommentarylends it more significancethan one might at first suppose. Accordingto the central metaphorof the correspondingLotus Sutrachapter,the Buddhabestows his
beneficence on all sentient beings, regardlessof their stations or abilities,much
in the way that the rain falls equally on all plants-lowly grasses and mighty
trees alike. The rain represents the beneficence of the Buddha, both within
the Lotus Sutra and (sometimes) within the literature of Heian and medieval
Japan.53Within Jurinshfiydsh6,Izumi Shikibu'spoem has a metaphoric effect
52. Helen McCullough has rightly observed that the "reasoningtechnique"is a characteristicof
the Chinese Six Dynasties and ninth-century JapaneseKokinshi poetic styles
1985,
(McCULLOUGH
pp. 68 and 71). Nevertheless, it should be noted that while most poems that employ reasoning are
not said to have produced miraculous effects, many purportedly miraculous waka do employ the
technique. Jurin shfiy6sh6,for example, contains an additional verse in its "Dharani"chapter that
employs logic (a kind of kotowari)to achieve its desired result:
In the past, there were demons on Mount Suzuka in Ise Province. They were forever
abducting and eating people, causing terrible grief. An imperial envoy approached the
mountain and recited,
kusa mo ki mo
Even the grasses
and trees
waga 6kimi no
kuni nareba
are within our Emperor'srealmizuku ka oni no
where, then,
sumika narubeki ought demons to make their home?
The demons immediately departedand the land was safe.
(Jurin shfiyash6 1991, 4: 461-62)

The poet's question is rhetorical.Since all the land is ruled by the Emperor,there is no place for
demons to call their own. According to a version of the tale cited in the poetic commentary Kokin
wakashzjo kikigakisanryash
f
(ca. 1286),the demons served the renegade
TI-RIN---ii
general Fujiwarano Chikata *Jq,{f in his defiance of the Emperor.The imperial envoy (Ki no
Tomo'oC~#f ) reasoned that because "demons and gods are exceptionally forthright"(kiwamete
jiki naru mono), they can be moved if shown the error of their ways. Indeed, upon hearing the
poem,"the demons realizedthe evil of Chikata'sdeeds, abandonedhim and disappeared."Quoted in
KAMIOKA 1986, pp. 194-95, and in TOKUDA
1988, p. 448. The story is contained in numerous sources,
including at least six medieval Kokinshficommentaries,Taiheiki,the Kei6 UniversityLibrarymanu1986, pp. 195-96; NKBT35: 167-68;
script of Shuten D6ji, and Waka itoku monogatari (KAMIOKA
1980,pp. 42-43, respectively).
MIMT3: 144b-45a;and TACHIBANA
53. Konjaku monogatari shii 1: 2 (SNKBT33: 7), for example, explains that when the Buddha
Shakyamuni appeared in this world, he "causedthe rain of the Dharma to fall, extinguishing the
fires of hell and granting sentient beings the joys of peace and tranquility"Accordingto Ippenhijiri
e - -M~i, an illustratedbiographyof the priest Ippen composed in 1299,a "Dharmarain"fell upon
the MandalaHall of TaimaTempleduring an attackby the Taira(in the Jish6 * era [1177-1180]),
SHOTENHENSHIUBU
saving it from fire while all the surrounding buildings burned. KADOKAWA
1960,p. 75b.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

17

far greaterthan that of simply ending a drought:it calls forth the non-discriminatory compassion of the Buddha, leading all beings to enlightenment. That it
should do so is to be expected, perhaps, considering that waka, according to
Sonshun, contain within their thirty-one syllables the entirety of the Buddhist
teachings.
One of the most frequently cited rainmaking poem-stories in Heian and
medieval literatureconcerns the poet-priest Ndin H6shi (988-1050?).The following version is from the twelfth-century poetic anthology Kinyo wakashi
(Golden Leavesof Waka;1127):54
When NMinaccompaniedLordNorikuni to Iyo Province,it had not rained
a drop in the three or four months since the new year.Unableto preparethe
rice-seedlingbeds, the people raised a clamor.Theirmany prayershad not
the least effect,and the situationbecamedifficultto bear.Thegovernorasked
Noin to compose a poem andvisit the leadingshrineto pray.Noin visitedthe
shrineand composed:
amano gawa
nawashiromizu ni
sekikudase
amakudarimasu
kaminarabakami

If indeedyou area god

come down fromheavena god who givesus rainthen dam up Heaven'sRiver
to waterour rice-seedlingbeds!

The deity was moved and a greatrain fell. As we can see from Noin'sprivate
anthology,the raindid not ceasefor threedaysand threenights.
Like Izumi Shikibu,NMinuses wordplay (the phrase ama kudarimasukami,
both "agod come down from heaven"and "agod who gives us rain")to oblige
the deity to make it rain.55Throughlinking the truth of the deity'sorigins (that
it is a god come down from heaven) with the conjecture that it is a deity who
28: 433,
9: 184-85, poem 625. The story is also contained in NMinshaiP[
(SNKBT
54. SNKBT
29: 157), Toshiyorizuin6 (NKBZ50: 75-76), Jikkinsh 10o:1O
poem 211),Fukurozishi (SNKBT
(SNKBZ
51:397), Kokon chomonjfi171(NKBT84: 158), TMsaizuihitsu AjilaRM(KUBOTA
1979,p. 198), Waka
itoku monogatari(TACHIBANA
1980,pp. 19-20), and at least four medieval Kokinshficommentaries
(KAMIOKA1986, pp. 182 and 192-93).

51:162) contains a poem that similarlyinvokes the kotowariof a deity's

55.Jikkinsho4: 6 (SNKBZ
nature (although without wordplay) in order to effect a result. The priest Ninshun 4P--iis said to
have recited it at Kitano Shrine as a means of clearinghis name of a malicious slander:
awareto mo

Pity you must feel,

if gods you be,
for one whose path
a stranger
would disrupt.
The opening lines, aware to mo kamigami naraba omouramu ("pityyou must feel, if gods you
be"), are not unlike the final lines of Noin's verse, ama kudarimasukami naraba kami ("if indeed
you are a god come down from heaven/a god who gives us rain").
kamigami naraba
omouramu
hito koso hito no
michi tatsu to mo

18

JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies

32/1 (2005)

bestows rain, N6in createsa situation in which the deity cannot deny N6in'sone
statement without denying the other. Thus, because it is indeed a deity from
heaven, it is bound by the kotowariof N6in'sverse to produce rain. While kotodama theory might locate the poem's power in its ritual recitation at a shrine
(or in the use of the words ama kudarimasuas a kind of rain-inducing pillowphrase for kami), dharani theory suggests that it was the poem's expression
of reason, within the semantic superabundanceof the waka form, that gave it
its effect. Simply put, in the way that Izumi Shikibu manipulates the universe
through the logic of her previous poem, N6in coerces the god by punning on a
statement of truth.
Indian TruthActs and JapanesePowerPoetry
Among the various miracle-producingtechniques ascribedto the poets of Heian
and medieval Japan,one of the most common seems to have been the composition of waka (like N6in's rainmaking poem) that either contain or themselves
constitute declarationsof truth. According to this method, the poet constructs
a statement of logic so compelling that it forces supernaturalbeings to act on
the poet's request. The procedure,which is often achieved through clever uses
of wordplay,is not unlike that of the ancient Indian "TruthAct" (saccakiriyal
satyakriya),a ritual declarationof fact of such profunditythat it is imbued with
the power to overcome naturallaws.56As we have seen, an intrinsic characteristic of dharani (and of waka, according to some thirteenth-century commentators) is that they express truth. The Truth Act, like the dharani,was a potent
instrument in the magico-religious technology of Indian Buddhism, and it
seems to have been adopted-albeit in somewhat condensed form-for use in a
number of the miraculous poems of Japan.
TruthActs are exceedingly common in the Pali and SanskritBuddhistcanon,
especially in the jataka tales of the former lives of Shakyamuni,transmittedto
Japanin a variety of sutras and Buddhist commentaries.57Men, women, and
56. E.W.BURLINGAME
(1917,p. 429) defines the TruthAct as "aformal declarationof fact,accompanied by a command or resolution or prayerthat the purpose of the agent shall be accomplished"
W. Norman BROWN (1968, 1963, 1940) cites several early examples from the Rig Veda, composed

from around 1500 BCE,and he notes that TruthActs are"commonin post-Vedic literature,whether
Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain"(BROWN1963,p. 8). Burlingame argues that the Pali term saccakiriya,a
compound of sacca ("truth")and kiriyd("anykind of act, operation or performance")is preferable
to the Sanskrit satyakriya,which he says does not actually occur in Sanskrit texts (BURLINGAME
1917,pp. 433-34). Bruce Sullivan maintains that the Sanskritterm is in fact employed in Buddhist
(although not Hindu) literature in Sanskrit (personal communication, June 2003). Nakamura
within his second definition of jitsugo
Hajime includes "sacca-kiriyd"
, which he describes as a
vow of truth"(tV ~) and a synonym of dharani (W-I4t ~kb nR~). NAKAMURA1975,1: 597c.
57. The jatakas were widely known in Japanthrough such sutras as Rokudojufkkyo~AI4 ~,
Shoky5 Et9,Bussetsu bosatsu hongyaky6~LJ\
Daihobenbutsuhoongy6k
and the commentary Daichidoron tkINUA . Jataka stories from these works were reproduced
i)l9,E ,,,in

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

19

animals are reportedin these accounts to have performedActs of Truthto bring

rain, calm storms, heal wounds, turn back fires,prove guilt or innocence, restore
severed limbs, cause a river to flow backward, enact sexual transformation,
obtain release from captivity,and even attain Buddhahood (BURLINGAME
1917,
Act
in
the
tale
of
A
Truth
is
recounted
439-61).
jdtaka
King
paradigmatic
pp.
Sibi, who, having given both of his eyes to a blind beggar,has his sight restored
by pronouncing a statement of truth. The king vows: "Whatsoeversort or kind
of beggar comes to me is dear to my heart. If this be true, let one of my eyes be
restored."Upon speaking these words, one of his eyes is restored.The king then
makes a second, similar vow, and his other eye is healed as well.58It is because
the gods-the very universe-cannot abide the promulgation of an untruth in
this ritualizedcontext that the king'sdeclarationhas its effect.
The Truth Act, which Peter Khoroche describes as "something between an
oath and a magicalcharm,"59
consists of a vow pronouncedupon a declarationof
fact. In the "MedicineKing"chapterof the Lotus Sutra,for example,the bodhisattva "GladlySeen by All Living Beings" performs a Truth Act to restore his
scorched arms when he proclaims,"Ihave cast awayboth my arms. I am certain
to attain the golden body of a Buddha. If this is true and not false, then may
my two arms become as they were before!"60In Japan,a saintly young nun by
the name of Chfjohime is also said to have invoked the certitude of her future
enlightenment--much like Gladly Seen by All Living Beings-as her means of
performing a Truth Act. In a work of late-medieval fiction titled Chfij6himeno
honji (Chfij6himein Her OriginalForm), Chfjohime'sTruthAct is identifiedas
"Ifit is true that I am to attain rebirth
a "greatprayer-vow"(daiseigan '3_4I):
in the Pure Land,then within seven days I shall veneratethe living Amida Buddha before my very eyes. If I do not, then from this day forwardI shall never set
Sanb6e E~i

(984), Konjakumonogatarishfi, Uji shtii monogatari,and a number of other Heian

and medieval sources (KAMATA1998, pp. 41C and 868; NAKAMURA1975,1: 504b). Konjaku monoga-

tari shfi reproducesat least two jatakas containing explicit Acts of Truth.In the first (Konjaku5:7),
a prince heals himself by declaringthe fact of his future enlightenment and proclaiming,"IfI speak
falsely about this, then my body shall not be cured. But if I speak the truth,my body will be as it was
before"'In the second (Konjaku5:9), a king saves himself by announcing his unwaveringdesire for
enlightenment and vowing,"Ifmy words be untrue-if they mislead Taishaku-then may my thousand lacerationsnever heal. But if they are true, then may my blood become milk and my thousand
wounds, cured." SNKBT33: 415 and 420; DYKSTRA1986, pp. 191 and 195.
58. BURLINGAME1917,p. 430; KHOROCHE1989, pp. 10-17. Translation of the vow by Burlingame.

The story of King Sibi was known in Japanthrough the sutra

Senjfuhyakuenkyoa aM-IR(TSD4
[200]: 218). A different tale of King Sibi is contained in Sanb6e 1:1, and in that, too, the king performs a Truth Act based upon his perfection of generosity (SNKBT31: 13; KAMENS1988, p. 108).
59. KHOROCHE1989, p. 258, note 6. For a further discussion of the Truth Act, see THOMPSON
1998,125-53, and PAUL1985, pp. 176-78.
60. Translation by Burton Watson. TSD 9 [262]: 54a; WATSON1993, p. 285; HURVITZ 1976, pp.
297-98.

20

JapaneseJournal of Religious Studies 32/1 (2005)

foot outside these temple gates!"As the tale is told, on the sixth evening, Amida
appearedbefore her as an apparitionalnun.61
The similaritybetween Indian TruthActs and the miraculouspoems of Japan
is most conspicuous in the case of waka that begin with the phrase kotowari
ya, "trueindeed."62One such verse is attributedto Ono no Komachi in a rainmaking account within the farcical"Narihiramochi" (Narihira'sStickyRice;ca.
1605), a kyagenplay about the ninth-century poet Ariwarano Narihira and his
shameless attemptto eat mochifor free:
One yeartherewas a droughtthroughoutthe land. Not a drop of rainwould
fall.Thepeasantslost theirplantingseed, so they wereparticularlydistressed.
Hearingof the situation,the Emperorspoketo his nobles,andhe commanded
the finest and most distinguishedof prieststo conductprayerservices.However, they did not have the least effect. The Emperorsummoned Ono no
Komachi,daughterof Ono no Yoshizaneand a poet of worldrenown,and he
orderedher to composea rainmakingsong. Shetraveledto ShinsennenPond,
whereshe intoned:
kotowariya
hi no moto nareba
teri mo seme
sari tote wa mata

Trueindeed
that the sun should shine,
this being "Japan:Origin of the Sun."
Yetare we not also

amega shitakawa

"beneaththe heavens-beneaththe rain?"

By the power of her poem rain immediatelybegan to fall. The crops were
spared,and the peopleweremarvelouslysaved.63
In its overallconception and wordplay,Ono no Komachi'spoem is nearlyidentical to the earlierrainmakingverse attributedto Izumi Shikibuin the "Parable
61.MJMT9: 282a and 295b;translation(by Kimbrough)in SHIRANE
2005. The TruthAct is most
often described in premodern Japanesesources as a "vow"(chikai N), or "prayer-vow"(seigan N
NO).Like Chij6Ohime,a blind priest in Seiry6jiengiAVAT&4#4(ca. 1515)is said to have performed a
Truth Act during the reign of Emperor Horikawa (r. 1086-1107) based upon the fact of his future
rebirth in the Pure Land, thus compelling the Seiry6ji Shakyamunito restore his sight (ZGR27: 1:
403b-4o4a). In the Buddhist setsuwa anthology Sangokudenki (Tales of ThreeCountries;ca. 14071446), the poet-priest Saigy6 (1118-1190)is said to have performed an Act of Truth concerning the
spiritual significance of poetry. He declares:"If it be true that by the Wayof Poetry one may attain
release from the cycle of birth and death,then I shall meet the venerable [poet] Hitomaro.However,
if poetry is of no benefit-if it is but a meaningless discourse of fanciful words-then I shall not."
Saigy6 is reported to have later encountered the ghost of Hitomaro (fl. ca. 680-700) in the guise of
a white-haired old man. Sangokudenki 6: 21 ("How the Priest Saigy6 Met Hitomaro"),in IKEGAMI
1982,1:339.
62. The combination of kotowariand the emphatic particleya might also be translated,"itindeed
stands to reason,"or "reasonableindeed."SonjaArntzen translates,"Howtrue it is!"in a kotowariya
1997,p. 317).
poem in Kager6nikkiOWDE1~E(late tenth century;ARNTZEN
63. NKBT 43: 437.In Tsukino karu moshif J
(ca. 1630), the poem is attributed to Izumi
Shikibu.ZGR33:1 : 47b.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

ra

21

-ar

o~

\'C

'1

Komachi composing her poem at Shinsennen pond,

from Wakaitoku monogatari(1689). Reproduced with kind
permissionfrom KotenBunko.

FIGURE 1:Ono no

of Medicinal Herbs"chapter of Jurinshfiyosh6.However,by its initial declaration ("Trueindeed!"),it explicitly affirmsits own kotowari(that in a land called
"Originof the Sun,"the sun should shine), formalizing its function as a seemingly abbreviated,poetic Act of Truth.Having establishedthat by the fact of its
name, Japanis prone to sunshine, Komachi questions the meaning of ame ga
shita, "beneaththe heavens"and "beneaththe rain."'The gods, confronted with
the contradictionraisedin her verse, are obliged to make it rain. The ceremonial

22

JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (2005)

context of Komachi'ssupplicationis moreover significant,for in that she recites

her poem before Shinsennen Pond, where Kfikaihimself is said to have summoned rain,64her feat is reminiscent, in its formality, of the ritual Truth Acts
described in the Pali and Sanskritliteratureof India.
Kotowariya-type poems are relatively rare in Japaneseliterature,but their
effects are frequently profound. In Koshikibu,a work of late-medieval fiction,
Izumi Shikibu'sdaughter Koshikibu no Naishi is said to have brought a dying
tree back to life with a kotowariya poem.65Accordingto Kohonsetsuwashfi (An
Old Anthology of Tales;twelfth or thirteenth century), Izumi Shikibuonce used
a kotowariya poem to convince her second husband,Fujiwarano Yasumasa,to
call off a hunt and therebysave the life of a deer:
When Izumi Shikibu had accompanied Yasumasato Tango Province, she
once heardthattherewas to be a hunt on the followingday.A deercriedpitifullyin the nightwhilethe hunterswereassembling."Ah,how sad,'IzumiShiYasumasa
kibu lamented."Itcriesout so becauseit will surelydie tomorrow."
replied:"Ifthat is what you think, then I'll call off the hunt. Now give me a
good poem."[IzumiShikibucomposed:]
kotowariya
ikadeka shikano
nakazaran

In honest truth,
how mightthe deer
not cry out,

64. Accounts of Kfikaiproducing rain at Shinsennen Pond (in the second month of 824, according to Kojidan) are contained in Konjaku monogatari shfi 14: 41 (SNKBT35: 359-60), GodanshW (GR
27: 551b), Kojidan (KOBAYASHI1981, 1: 221-22), Taiheiki (NKBT34: 420-24; McCULLOUGH 1959, pp.

374-79), and other sources. Kfikaiis said to have followed the method described in the sutra Daiunrin seiuky&,which includes the chanting of dharani (see footnote 13,above). Rainmaking ceremonies were commonly held at Shinsennen Pond in the Heian and medieval periods; according
to Zoku kojidan (GR27: 642b), a two-story gate at the southern end of the pond once collapsed as a
result of a ceremony performed there.
5: 37a;KIMBROUGH,
65. MJMT
forthcoming. The account is also contained in Wakaitokumonogatari (1689; TACHIBANA1980, pp. 77-78). The Koshikibu passage reads:

One of the Emperor'sbeloved young pines suddenly withered,and His Majestywas filled
with deepest sorrow."Evengods and plants bend to the Wayof Poetry,"he declared."Send
for Izumi Shikibu and have her compose a poem in prayer for my tree!"But as Izumi
Shikibuwas in the province of Tango,which was very far away,Koshikibuno Naishi suggested that she first compose a poem instead."Verywell then, do it quickly,"the Emperor
agreed,and Koshikibuintoned:
How right that
kotowari ya
karete wa ika ni
you should wither,
himekomatsu
you dear little pine,
if you think to leave His Highness
chiyo wo ba kimi ni
yuzuru to omoeba
your one thousand years!
The pine trembledviolently,and within moments it was thriving again.The Emperorwas
deeply impressed,and he granted Koshikibunumerous robes.

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

koyoibakarino
inochi to omoeba

23

knowingthattonight
will be its last?

Thusthe huntwas cancelled.66

Although Izumi Shikibu'spoem has no particularly miraculous effect-it
merely helps to persuade her husband to call off the hunt-according to a version of the story cited in Soga monogatari(The Tale of the Soga; ca. fourteenth
century) it provokes a wondrous, spontaneous spiritualawakeningin Yasumasa
and his men. "Swayedby the truth (kotowari)of her poem,"the Soga monogatari narratorexplains, "adesire for Buddhahood sprang up within Yasumasa.
His three hundred retainers'hearts were also turned to the Way [of the Buddha].'67 The metaphorical effect of Izumi Shikibu's rainmaking poem in the
"Parableof Medicinal Herbs"chapter of Jurin shfiyoshois here literalized. By
the emphatic invocation of the kotowariof her verse-that the deer ought to cry
out, this night being its last (which in turn suggests a far deeper truth:the tragic
impermanence of all sentient beings)-Izumi Shikibu calls down the figurative
rain of the Buddha'sbeneficence, causing Yasumasaand all his three hundred
men to turn to Buddhism. As MujufIchien explains in Shasekishft,"it is because
waka comes from a pure heart, has few words, and contains kotowari that it
awakensin us the desire for Buddhahood.'68
Conclusion
The eighteenth-century nativist scholar Moto'oriNorinaga wrote in his Ashiwake obune1)4,a4' (A Small Boat Throughthe Reeds;ca. 1759)that Japanese
poetry is sometimes capableof miraculouseffectsbecause it appropriatelycombines literary craftsmanshipand honesty of intent. Sincerity (jitsuj6 'M, literally "truefeeling")is itself a kind of truth, and Norinaga'sexplanationthat some
poems are effectivebecause they balance sincerity with poetic artifice--content
with form-is not unlike Mujfi'sexplanation in Shasekishzfthat waka are effective because they "encompassthe naturaltruths of lay and monastic life (content) in thirty-one syllables (form)."69Employing a question-and-answer-type
format, Norinaga writes:

:V

66. SNKBT42: 413. The poem is also contained in the poetic anthology Goshtiiwakashif i MfRU
(compiled in lo86), SNKBT8: 322, poem 999.
67. NKBT88: 209-210; COGAN 1987, p. 124. The account is also contained in Waka itoku monoga-

tari (TACHIBANA1980, pp. 91-92).

68. NKBT85: 222; MORRELL(1985) provides a summary of this passage on p. 163.

69. See above. Norinaga'sidentification of honesty and artifice as the two essential aspects of
miraculous poems is reminiscentof Ki no Tsurayuki'sdistinction in Kokinwakashzfbetween kokoro
and kotoba(content and form), and the traditionalzhilwen dichotomy in Shijingand other Chinese
sources. McCULLOUGH1985, pp. 303 and 314.

24 1 JapaneseJournal of Religious Studies 32/1

(2005)

Question:
In the compositionof poetry,if one shouldput asidetruth(makoto"Z)and
concentratesolely on the craftingof ornate language,is it not the case that
howeverfinea poem one mightproduce,thatpoem will failto stiremotion in
demons and gods?
Answer:
To move heavenand earth and stir emotion in demons and gods requires
both deep feeling and good poetry. Howeverdeep one'sfeelings might be,
if one should write, "How sad, how sad,"demons and gods are not likely
to be moved. But if a poem is born of an earnest heart and is but skillfully
wrought,supernaturalbeingsaresureto be moved of theirown accord.Likewise, howeverelegantthe languageof a poem, shouldthat poem lackfeeling,
demons and gods are unlikelyto respond.Butwhen people heara poem that
is both profoundin sentiment and gracefullycrafted,their heartsare naturallytouched.So too heavenand earthare moved and demons and gods are
affected.
Takefor exampleKomachi'spoem,
kotowariya
hi no moto nareba
teri mo seme
sari tote mo mata
ame ga shitato wa

Trueindeed
thatthe sun shouldshine,
this being "Japan:
Originof the Sun."
Yetarewe not also
"beneaththe heavens-beneath the rain"?

In terms of sentiment, it is not entirely sincere, for although the readeris

not such a child as to believe that ame, "rain,"is the same as ame, "heaven,"
upon reading ame ga shita, "beneathheaven,"the readerperceivesame ga
shita, "beneaththe rain."This is a resultof artifice.Such is the poem'sintent,
however,and the gods were moved and it rained. In the case of N6in'sama
no gawa nawashiro mizu ni sekikudase, "dam up Heaven's River to water our

rice-seedlingbeds,"althoughthe poet knew therewas no waterin the "River

of Heaven"(the MilkyWay),he still said "giveus some rain."Thistoo is artifice, but it moved heavenand causedrain to fall. Neitherof these poems are
absolutelysincere,but as they werecomposedin earnestlongingfor rain,one
should understandthat heaven was naturallystirred. The poem that Lord
Tsurayukipresentedto the deityof Arid6shiShrinewas composedin the honheart,so althoughhis languageshowsaffectation,the deity
esty of Tsurayuki's
was moved. His poem is interestingin the part that readsari to hoshi wo ba
("Aridoshi"/"the
presenceof stars"),but his wordsarenot entirelysincere.70
(NKT7: 243)
70. The personal poetic anthology of Ki no Tsurayuki(fl. ca. 901-945) contains the following
poem and explanatoryaccount (SKT3: 71-72, poem 830):

KIMBROUGH: MIRACULOUS POWERS OF JAPANESE POETRY

25

Norinaga was not alone in the eighteenth century in his belief in the importance of sincerityto the composition of miraculousverse.In the poetic commentary Shirinshuiyo(GatheredLeavesfrom a Groveof Words;1739),the poet-priest
Jiunwrites of a woman who used a poem to clear her name aftershe was falsely
accused of stealing a robe. "Herpoem is nothing special,"Jiun explains, "but
because it contains true feeling (fitsuj6d'i), there is no doubt that it moved the
gods.''71Sincerity was considered an important factor in prayer in earlier centuries as well. The author of Kohonsetsuwa shi (twelfth or thirteenth century)
notes that "whetherreverentor base, people'sprayersareeffectivewhen they are
most heartfelt.'72As these disparatesources suggest, it is through an emotional
truth that poems and prayersmay achieve their effect.
As a scholar of so-called "nationallearning,"Norinagarejectedthe prevailing
Shinto-Buddhistsyncretismof the medieval period, accordingto which miraculous poems "work"because they are the dharaniof Japan.In his refusalto privilege content over form, however,Norinaga'swords echo the Tendaiprinciple of
non-duality, the foundational concept upon which medieval syncretic thought
was based. Norinaga may have disagreedwith Kamo no Ch6mei, Muj i Ichien,
Sonshun, and others as to why or how Ono no Komachi'sand N6in's rainmaking poems conjured rain, but in emphasizing the importance of earnestnessWhen Ki no Tsurayukiwas on his way back to the capital from Kii Province,his horse fell
suddenly ill as if to die. Some passing travelers stopped and spoke: "The deity here must have
done this. There hasn't been a shrine or a markerhere for years, but he's an extremely terrible
god, and he used to make people sick like this before. You had better pray." Tsurayuki had
nothing to offer,so there was little he could do. He washed his hands and knelt facing the deity's
mountain, deserted though it appeared.
"Now,who is this god?"he inquired.
"He'scalled the Aritohoshi (Arid6shi) Deity,"someone said.
Takingin these words, Tsurayukiofferedthe following verse. His horse was cured as a result:
kakikumori
Covered by clouds,
the sky was lost to my eyes.
ayame mo shiranu
Still,I ought to have recalled
6zora ni
the presence of starsari to hoshi o ba
omoubeshi ya wa
the presence of Arid6shi.
Tsurayuki'spoem contains a pun on the name of the deity,"Aridoshi"("Aritohoshi")and ari to
hoshi (hoshi ari), "the presence of stars'."
Tsurayuki'swordplayis not entirely successful;in order to
make sense of the double meaning, one would need to change the word order from "6zorani ari to
hoshi o ba omoubeshi"to "5zorani hoshi [o ba] ari to omoubeshi.' NISHIMURA
T6ru has suggested
that Tsurayuki'sverse is not a particularlygood one, and that if the deity found it moving, "it did
not have much of an eye for poetry" (1966, pp. 7-8). Drawing upon kotodama theory, Nishimura
proposes that it was Tsurayuki'sincorporation of the deity's name within the poem that gave it its
power,and he cites further examples of poets said to have bid responses from deities by revealingor
simply articulatingtheir names (1966,pp. 8-11).
71. NKT 6: 429. Shirin shfiuyX
(1739) is based upon the oral instruction that Jiun WVk
in 1713.
(1673-1753) received from Mushanok6jiSanekage~
72. SNKBT
42: 463."Hito no inori wa, toutoki mo kitanaki mo, tada yoku kokoroni iritaruga gen
aru narn.

26

JapaneseJournalof ReligiousStudies 32/1 (2005)

truthful intent-his views are in accord with those of the medieval Buddhist
scholars.And in that many of Japan'smiraculouspoems do indeed resemblethe
magico-religious formulas of ancient India (whether in their "semanticsuperabundance,'or their seemingly ritual invocations of truth), in statingthat waka
are the dharani of Japan,the thirteenth-century poet-priests do not appear to
have been far off the mark.

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