Buddhist Temple Networks in Medieval Japan

The intellectual links between medieval esoteric temples and localized Shingon movements are still far from being well understood. Although a part of education at major monastic complexes such as Daigoji and Mt. Koya, transmissions of esoteric theories were not uniform and varied depending on their recipients' social status. A comparative reading of the Yugikyo transmissions imparted by the abbot Jikken of Kongooin to his official disciple Dohan and a lesser-known semi-itinerant priest, Rendobii Hokya, from a local training hall at Mt. Miwa in Nara Prefecture shows that during the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries non-elite practitioners in medieval Japan, such as those associated with the local Miwa lineage, did not simply study the Yugikyo teachings but were actively involved in their dissemination. They used theories associated with this sutra as key parts of their own religious capital and transported them from large esoteric temples further afield to Japan's countryside.