Japanese Court Culture
Buddhism and the Court
The move to Kyoto (Heian-kyo) in 794 marks a strengthening of secular power.
The court maintained Buddhism as its religion, but tried to separate it physically from the court.
Two great Buddhist leaders appeared, Saicho (767-822) and Kukai.
Saicho went to China in 804, returned in 805 and founded the Tendai sect of Buddhism. Tendai tended to synthesize various beliefs and practices and became the source of the various popular sects that appeared later. Its negative aspect was its attempt to influence policy by sending its priests into Kyoto to demonstrate against policies it did not like.
Kukai (774-835), often referred to as Kobo Daishi, introduced Shingon (Tantricism) into Japan. After studying in China from 804 to 806 he returned to Japan and in 816 made his headquarters on Mt. Koya near present-day Osaka.
Tantric Buddhism was of greater influence at the court. Tantricism emphasizes secret teachings, incantations, spells and magic.
Kukai is regarded as one of the major figures of Japanese cultural history. Kukai is often credited with inventing kana, the syllabic script derived from Chinese characters used in the writing of Japanese. His studies of Sanskrit in China are said to have played a role in his work on Japanese – particularly in a system of ordering the syllabic symbols.
Shingon believed in a fixed hierarchy of deities. The top being Dainichi. The name is written with the Chinese characters for “Great Sun.” This led to identification with the Sun Goddess and thus with the throne. Also the gods of Shingon came to be seen as manifestations of previously existing Shinto gods.
The secret and hierarchical nature of Shingon appealed to the courtiers. This religion became an object accessible only to the elite. This fact reflects the nature of the Heian court now was formed almost exclusively of an elite based on family. Any earlier reforms based on Chinese ideas of merit were pretty well dead.
A great family came to dominate the politics of the court. Fujiwara Michinaga (966-1027) consolidated his family’s power by marrying his daughters into the imperial line. Thereby his grandsons became emperors.
As the emperors often assumed the throne as children, the Fujiwara father-in-law acted as regents, in effect ruling in the emperor’s name.
This system of regents remained in effect until 1868. Because of the predominance of the Fujiwara family, the Heian Period is often also referred to as the Fujiwara Period.
Japan had previously attempted to adopt a Chinese system recognizing merit in choosing administrators This broke down into a system of rank and office determined largely by membership in the aristocratic families. Certain posts were reserved to members of only the most powerful families.
A new culture develops with the move to the Heian capital. The direct observation and recording of nature in earlier poetry gives way to observation controlled by an intervening courtly sensitivity.
This change has been described as the action of “observing nature from the veranda as opposed to being a part of it.” It is more than this. The attitude is called miyabi, “courtly refinement.” It is characterized by quiet enjoyment of subdued colors, fine perfumes, good handwriting, and well-wrought poetry.
Another important term is aware or mono no aware. Mono no aware is often translated as “the sadness of things.” It indicates a sensitivity to the fleeting nature of beauty as seen, for example, in plum (later cherry) blossoms.
The Tale of Genji written by a woman author, Murasaki no Shikibu, around 1000 is usually seen as the great expression of aware in Japanese literature. Regarded as the world’s first novel, it is the story of the life of the ultimate paragon of Heian accomplishment and taste. The hero, Genji, is a great lover, poet, artist, and calligrapher and possesses impeccable taste. He is the ultimate expression of miyabi and the unhappy circumstances of his life and the descriptive passages the definitive examples of aware.
Another important aesthetic concept of the Heian Period is okashi. Okashi finds amusement or happiness in beauty. The great example in Japanese literature is The Pillow Book (ca. 1000) by another woman, Sei Shonagon.
It is remarkable that Japan’s most important prose work was written by a woman in a society dominated by men. The Tale of Genji is universally recognized as the great work of Japanese literature. Many people hold that The Pillow Book is the second. Most of the remaining prose written in Japanese during Heian times is also by women.
Men wrote in Chinese. Women were discouraged from learning Chinese.
Writing fiction was seen as a low pastime. Confucianism regarded it as frivolous; Buddhism as deception making bad karma.
By this time a set system of writing Japanese had evolved, but it was mainly reserved for writing poetry.
Poetry was seen as uplifting and as a pursuit natural (essential) to the cultivated man.
A major poet of the Heian era says, “The poetry of Japan has its root in the human heart and flourishes in the countless leaves of words…. Hearing the warbler sing among the blossoms and the frog in his fresh waters – is there any living being not given to song?” I.e., poetry is the spontaneous and irrepressible response to beauty and nature.
Even so, poetry must be expressed with decorum-- words well chosen and emotion under control.
Chinese poetry remained the most prestigious form through the 9th century. However, Japanese poetry was much written and in 905 the first imperial collection, Kokinshu (The Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems) was compiled. This is a collection composed mainly of short verse, 31 syllables in a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern.
In the Heian period the ability to compose these verses known as waka could determine a man’s position at court and form the basis of how anyone’s character was judged. Poetry was said to “move the gods, soften relations between men and women and calm the hearts of fierce warriors.”
Its most important role was probably in courtship. Poems were exchanged at the beginning of an affair. The quality of the initial poem, the reply, the handwriting, the quality and color of paper on which it was written could make or break the affair.
Very little is known of the daily life of the people outside the court. Those who could write were the clergy and the aristocrats. The clergy appear to have confined most of their writing to religious matters. The aristocrats seem to have regarded the peasants as subhuman and they appear in fiction mainly as objects of ridicule.