<論説>仁寿殿観音供と二間御本尊 : 天皇の私的仏事の変貌

Abstract

仁寿殿観音供とは「御本尊」と呼ばれる天皇の観音像に毎月十八日に真言僧が奉仕する仏事である。その由緒や内容は明確ではなく、諸説が存在している。混乱の要因は、清涼殿二間に安置された「御本尊」の存在と、十二世紀以降に残された、真言僧らの言説にある。二間の仏像は、内裏燃亡・里内裏への頻繁な移動が続く十一世紀後半以降に見え始める為、真言僧の管理下へ移された仁寿殿観音像にかわる存在として登場した可能性が高い。十一世紀、護持僧の重要性を認識し、天皇護持における真言僧の役割を主張した仁海は、観音供についても活動を残しており、以降真言僧側からこの天皇の観音像・観音供の意義付けを行おうとする積極的な動きが見られる。その為、天皇護持の仏事と位置づけられ、実態とは乖離した教説的解釈が諸派で形成され、その中で天照大神と大日如来の習合、如意宝珠による観音と諸尊の習合など、天皇の仏教的位置付けが述べられていった。

The Jijuden Kannon-ku is the name of a Buddhist ritual that was conducted by Shingon priests on the eighteenth day of each month before the emperor's statue of Kannon, which is referred to as go honzon. The origins and content of the ritual are obscure, and there are various theories accounting for them. The sources of the confusion are the existence of another go honzon, which had been enshrined in the futama (two-bay room) of the Seiryoden, the emperor's private residence, and the varying explanations of Shingon priests from the 12th century onward. Because the first mention of the Buddhist statues in the futama was recorded in the second-half of the 11th century, when the palace was frequently burned down and the court was forced to relocate to sato dairi, temporary palaces, it is highly likely that the management of the statues was transferred to Shingon priests at that time and the Kannon statue in Jijuden futama took the place of the original. In the 11th century, the recognition of the importance of the gojiso, protector priests, increased, and the Shingon prelate Ninkai who promoted the role of Shingon priests in protecting the emperor, set the precedent of taking an active in the Kannon-ku. This legacy was reflected thereafter in the activities of Shingon priests to establish the significance of the Kannon statute and the ritual. For this reason, the ritual was positioned as a rite for the protection of the emperor and various theological explanations, removed from actual circumstances, were created by various Buddhist schools. Among these theories were those of the unity of Dainichi and Amaterasu-omikami and the unity of Kannon with various deities by means of the nyoi hoju (wish-fulfilling jewel) that expressed the Buddhist position of the emperor.