源翁心昭 Gennō Shinshō (1329-1400)

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源翁和尚坐像　－　那須烏山市指定有形文化財
Statue of Genno at Nasu, Karasuyama town

aka 心昭空外 Shinshō Kugai

Gennō Shinshō 源翁心昭
http://darumapedia-persons.blogspot.com/2015/03/genno-shinsho.html

A monk of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism.

(1329 - 1400)
（ 1329 年 3 月 20 日） - 応永 7 年 1 月 7 日（ 1400 年 2 月 2 日））

Born in Echigo no Kuni 越後国.

In 1333 at five years old he entered the temple 国上寺 Kokujo-Ji at his own will and begun his strict religious training, with an unwavering heart and mind 一心不乱.

In 1344 at age 16 he became an ordained priest.

In 1346 he became the disciple of Zen priest Gasan Jooseki, Gasan Jōseki 峨山韶碩 Gasan Joseki (1275 - 1366) at the temple 能登 / 總持寺 Soji-Ji in Noto.

From 1352 to 1358, he searched for his own way and walked around in Japan.

At the temple 永泉寺 Yosen-Ji in 出羽国 Dewa, Yamagata, Mogami 最上市, there is one of the seven wonderous stories about him:
「一つ、開山 / 源翁和尚が、今も毎夜山境を巡り不思議の威徳を現す」姿見池の蛙は開山源翁の誡により鳴かない。
Once priest Genno did an exorcism to queten a frog and since that time no voice of a frog his heard in the pond Sugatami no Ike 姿見の池 / 姿見池 of the temple compound.

In 1357 at age 29 he founded 伯耆国 Hoki (Tottori) - 退休寺 Taikyu-Ji
At the 源翁寺 Genno-Ji in Hoki there was once a fire. The head priest of that time painted a water dragon, said to be from the Chinese temple Kinzan-Ji 金山寺, to appease the flames and let the painting float in a barrel. Then he used the water to extinguish the flames

In 1358 at age 30 a large old cedar tree in the temple compound fell to the ground and from there a hot spring began to flow. So the name of the temple was changed from 雲泉寺 to Onsen-Ji 温泉寺 "Temple of the Hot Spring". He took the stem of the old cedar tree and carved a statue of his teacher, Gasan Joseki.

In 1360 at age 32 on the invitation of the Daimyo, he came to 下野国 Shimotsuke (Tochigi) and founded temple Senkei-Ji 泉渓寺.

In 1364 at age 36 he came back to Echigo and the "Hot Spring Temple".

In 1367 at age 39 he settled in Aizu at a small retreat in the compound of the temple Keitoku-Ji 慶徳寺. Soon the Lord became aware of his great powers, but he could not keep him for long.

In 1369 at age 41 in Shimosa no Kuni 下総国 he founded Annon-Ji 安穏寺 and stayed there fro 4 years.

In 1375 at age 47 he begun to live at temple Jigen-Ji 護法山示現寺 in Fukushima.
One year later, invited by the Lord of Shirakawa, he founded Jozai-In 常在院.
From there we have the legend of the fox with nine tails and the "murder stone" 殺生石.
One of the splinters from the rock fell down and now there is the rock Hoseki Inari 法石稲荷 in the back of the temple.
The actual event was supposed to have been in August 1385.

smashing the "murder rock" - fox legend -

PDF: “Where Is Buddhism?”
In: Mourning the unborn dead: a Buddhist ritual comes to America
by Jeff Wilson. Oxford University Press, 2009, Postscript: pp. 193-197.

About Gennō Shinshō

by Bernard Faure

Faure fr/en ch. 3.
La Vision immédiate : Nature, éveil et tradition selon le Shōbōgenzō de Dōgen, Le Mail, 1987.

Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism
Chapter 3: Imagining Power, pp. 78 ff.

The connections between Sōtō Zen and ritual purification include the fact that the most famous of all legends of fox exorcism performed by Buddhists involves Gennō Shinshō, a disciple of Gasan Jōseki, the main descendant of Keizan and abbot of Sōjiji temple, whose followers are credited with the tremendous regional expansion of the medieval sect by subduing and converting local spirits. According to legends recorded in Sōtō texts and popular literature, in 1389 Gennō exorcised one of the most demonic of vulpine forms, the infamous, malevolent nine-tailed fox (kyūbi kitsune) that took possession of a killing stone (sesshō seki) from which it was murdering people and other living things. A famous floating world print (ukiyo-e) by Kuniyoshi, known for his compelling fox paintings, depicts a musha-e (picture representing a fight or struggle) of the wicked nine-tailed fox fleeing from the palace of King Pan-Tsu of India. According to this cycle, which appears in other East Asian cultures, including Vietnam, the nine-tailed fox stayed with the Indian king for years as his mistress before revealing its true nature and then fleeing to China and finally to Japan and elsewhere in the twelfth century, where it c ontinued to work its evil magic. (See Foulk, “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice.”)

by Steven Heine

According to one version of the origin of this anti-shrine, the fox spirit dwelling in the stone located in a moor near Mt. Nasu north of Nikko was originally expelled from India and took the guise of a woman, who married an emperor in Japan. When the emperor recognized her vulpine status, the fox spirit turned itself into this noxious stone. 53 The stone is actually volcanic rock emitting poisonous gases. Bashō, traveling in this area on the way to see Saigyō's weeping willow at Ashino, as recorded in Oku no hosomichi, reported that the “stone's poisonous vapors were as yet unspent, and bees and moths lay dead all around in such heaps that one could not see the color of the sand beneath.” 54 Legends record that yin-yang master Abe no Yasunari, featured in numerous setsuwa tales and a Noh drama (Figure 3.10), had already expelled the demon from the capital and into the provinces. There it was subdued by Gennō's use of a purification stick and his chant based on one of the bestknown phrases of Dōgen (1200–1253), “genjōkōan [everyday realization] is the great matter.” 55 This legend highlights the twofold approach-avoidance, embracing-rejecting relation between Zen and folk beliefs.

In: Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up? by Steven Heine, Oxford University Press. New York. 2008. pp. 102-103.

松尾芭蕉 Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) két haikuja
Terebess Gábor fordításában

石の香や夏草赤く露暑し

ishi no ka ya / natsu kusa akaku / tsuyu atsushi
(1689 ~ nyár)

a kő bűzétől
vöröslő nyári füvön
forró a harmat

* címe: A Gyilkos szikla (殺生石 Szessó-szeki), „ A Gyilkos kő épp azon a helyen van, ahol egy hőforrás tör fel a földből. A gáz, amely a kövek alól tör elő, tele van méreggel. Oly sok elpusztult méh, pillangó, s más efféle hevert a földön halomban, hogy nehéz lett volna megmondani, milyen színű a homok alattuk. ” (Macuo Basó: Észak keskeny ösvényein, Kolozsy-Kiss Eszter fordítása)

野を横に馬牽きむけよほととぎす

no o yoko ni / uma hiki mukeyo / hototogisu
(Észak keskeny ösvényein)
(1689 ~ nyár)

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