The Religious Novel of KūkaiY. S. Hakeda

Excerpt

The religious novel Indications to the Three Teachings, or Sangō-shīki, is the first major work written by Kūkai (774-835). Kūkai, more popularly known as Kōbō-daishi, is of the early cultural leaders of Japan and the founder of Shingon Buddhism. The book is the earliest example of the novel in Japanese literature that has come down to us today, and also a work of considerable literary merit.

Born in Shikoku of aristocratic lineage and educated in the highest Confucian scholarship of the day, Kūkai seemed destined for a distinguished career as a scholar and government official. As a young student, however, he began to turn away from both the social and intellectual environment of his youth and to devote himself increasingly to the study of Buddhism. During this early period he also began to develop a literary talent and wrote two works–or perhaps two versions of a single work–the Indications to the Deaf and Blind (Rōko-shīki), and the Indications to the Three Teachings, expressing in novelistic form the religious ideas that were occupying his mind at that time. Finally, in the face of severe opposition from relatives and friends, he determined to become a Buddhist monk. His later career was marked by a variety of achievements. He was known not only as a religious teacher, but also as a poet, lexicographer, the founder of the first public school in Japan, and one of the three greatest calligraphers of all time. The culmination of his life came in the founding of Shingon Buddhism.