The Mystic Monk, En No Gyouja
The Founder of Shugendo, the Father of Ninjutsu
En no Gyouja, also known as En no Ozunu, En no Shoukaku, and En no Ubasoku was a 7th Century semi-legendary holy man, an ascetic priest, sorcerer and mystic, said to have possessed supernatural powers and abilities. He is believed to be the founder of Shugendo, a blend of Buddhism and mountain worship, in which practitioners train their bodies, mind and soul through stoic lifestyles and mountain training, practices that are said to have been a major influence on the shinobi, guerrilla warriors of Iga and Koka, better known today as ninja.
The exact dates of En no Gyouja’s birth and death are unknown, but he is believed to have been born in Kayahara-go, Katsuragami-gun, Yamato Province in 634 (present-day Kayahara, Gosho City, Nara Prefecture). His father was Okaku, and according to legends, his mother was Hakusenjo, also known as Tora-no-Jo. The Kikkoso-ji Temple is said to have been built at the place of his birth. He is thought to have died in 701.
He is usually depicted wearing a white hooded robe and a pair of Tengu-geta, traditional Japanese wooden clogs, but having one support instead of the usual two. He holds Buddhist prayer beads and a staff in his hands and is seated on a rock base or throne like chair and accompanied by two demons, standing to either side. The items depicted in his hands are often esoteric Buddhist tools, and there are differences depending on the temple sect that displays them.
Mentioned in early extant Japanese texts, the Nihon Ryouiki 日本霊異記, and the Shoku-Nihonkgi続日本紀 as having supernatural powers that enable him to cast spells, and command demons, he is also said to have had two demon attendants who protected him and gathered his firewood and water. The stories related to En no Gyouja in the Nihon Ryoiki became the prototype image of the man that was popularised in later generations. As this is a collection of Buddhist tales with many fanciful stories, it cannot be accepted as historical fact, but it is thought to have been based on stories circulating at the time, rather than being a complete creation of the authors. The Nihon Ryoiki was written during the Kounin period (810 - 824), but the tales themselves were probably created after 768, 67 years after his death.
The Life of En no Gyouja
At the age of just 16, he founded the Shimei-in Temple in Yamashiro Province, in 650. The following year aged 17, he learnt the incantation of the wrathful deity, Fudo Myoo, remover of obstacles and destroyer of evil, at Genko-ji Temple. Before undertaking rigorous mountain asceticism practices on Mount Katsuragi (today's Mount Kongo and Mount Yamato Katsuragi) He continued to practise asceticism in the mountains of Kumano and Omine, and is said to have realised his doctrine on Mount Kinpu in Yoshino, laying the foundations of Shugendo. Shugendo is a syncretic religious order which combined elements of ancient pre-Buddhist worship of mountains sangaku shinkou with the doctrines and rituals of Esoteric Buddhism. Practitioners are called Shugenja and are also known as Yamabushi. The Shugendō practitioners expose themselves to hardships while hoping to attain supernatural powers to save themselves and the population by conducting religious training through steep mountain ranges. He excelled in spellcraft and advocated harmony between gods and Buddha. Legend has it he healed politician and aristocrat Fujiwara Kamatari of an illness while in his 20s.
Seiryu-ji Temple in Gotemba City at the foot of Mt Fuji is said to have been built by En no Gyouja. He is also said to have practised asceticism on Mount Izu, in the eastern part of Atami City, and to have discovered the source of the Izuyama Hot Springs, known as Hashiri-yu.
The Road to Shugendo
According to the legend, En no Gyouja's mother, Tora-jo had been ill. One summer she went to Suteshino Shrine in Yamato, Takada City, where white lotuses bloomed. A golden frog sitting on the lotus leaves was croaking, and to silence it, the young En no Gyouja threw a stick at the frog, hitting it in one of its eyes, blinding it, and sending it deep into the waters. The frog soon floated to the surface, dead. At that moment, the pond’s white lotus flowers promptly disappeared. His mother, Tora-jo suddenly became very ill from remorse and died at the age of 42. After his mother's death, En no Gyouja was inspired to follow the path of asceticism and entered Mount Yoshino, where he worshipped the deity Yoshinoyama Zao Gongen. He held memorial services for the frog and mourned his mother's death. To this day, every summer, mountain ascetics came to Yoshino to offer incense and flowers at the Gyouja Hall and the grave of Tora-jo. They cut 180 lotus plants from the pond and offer them to the shrine hall, and make offerings to the frogs.
En no Gyouja visited the nation’s highest mountains and is thought to have made his way around the rough coastline of Shikoku, in effect forming the famed Shikoku Pilgrimage. It was the tradition of ascetic practices on Shikoku pioneered by En no Gyouja that paved the way for the monk Gyouki and the Buddhist saint Kukai to form their pilgrimage routes. Many of the Shikoku 88 temples were originally bases established by En no Gyouja’s followers. Statues of En no Gyouja can be seen all over Shikoku, particularly at the bottom and the top of the mountain of Ishizuchi Shrine, and at Negoro-ji Temple in Kagawa.
As part of the En no Gyouja faith, some 36 temples and shrines in Osaka, Nara, Shiga, Kyoto, Wakayama and Mie prefectures are associated with En no Gyoja and are designated as En no Gyoja Sacred Sites. Shinhen Daibosatsu is a title used for En no Gyoja, and is sometimes used as the name of the temples enshrining statues of En no Gyouja, with votive banners stating 'Nanmu Shinhen Daibosatsu'.
Iga Connection
En no Gyouja had travelled through what is now Mie Prefecture, and brought his religion to the Iga area where it caught on with the people of the region. Their acceptance and training in the doctrines, and their guerrilla tactics are said to have evolved into what we now know as ninjutsu.
Despite the objections of the government, he continued his wanderings around western Japan, preaching his version of the Buddhist scriptures to the common people. Through this, his asceticism, his healing powers and supposed magical abilities, En no Gyouja gained a considerable following. This too concerned the authorities, who prohibited such actions as a means of ensuring control over the Buddhist religion, which was generally seen as a form of power. As such, Buddhists priests in those days were ordered to limit their activities to studying in monasteries, and leading services and rituals for aristocrats and the imperial family.
In 699 he was accused by the Imperial Court of deception and fraudulent behaviour, and convicted of having misled people, was expelled to Izu but was pardoned three years later in 701. He returned to Kayahara, but in the summer of that year, he died at Tenjogatake, in the inner sanctuary of Minozan Takian-ji Temple in Mino City, Osaka Prefecture. A mausoleum was built on the summit of the mountain.
In the Middle Ages, especially in the Muromachi period (1336-1573) doctrinal texts containing the traditions of En no Gyouja were established on various mountains, including Mt. Kinpusan and Mount Kumano. there was even a biography produced called the Yaku Gyoja Honki, which is apparently more detailed than the account in the Shoku-nihon-ki. Along with the publication of these books, various picture scrolls, statues and images of En no Gyouja were produced, many of which have been handed down to the present day.
In 1799, Emperor Kougaku was presented with a report on the 1,100th anniversary of the death of En no Gyouja. That year, Emperor Kougaku sent Karasuma Dainōn as an imperial envoy to Shougou-in temple presented En no Gyouja with the posthumous title of Jimben Daibosatsu (Great Goddess of Mercy). The entire imperial inscription is in Emperor Kougaku's own handwriting and remains as a treasure of Shougou-in Temple.
1,300 years after his death, the mysterious monk, En no Gyouja remains best known as the founder of Shugendo, and to a degree, the father of what the Western world knows as ninjutsu, the arts of the Ninja.