<論説>近世園城寺と他宗派寺院の統属関係 --時宗荘厳寺・真宗顕証寺を事例として--

Abstract

本稿では、園城寺とその朱印地配当を受けた他宗派寺院である荘厳寺・顕証寺の関係を検討した。中世に園城寺別所寺院として成立した両寺は、近世に至り新仏教系が宗派として自立していく中で、それぞれ宗派教団に編成されていく。しかし、豊臣政権による園城寺の寺領安堵を契機として、園城寺の一山組織が固定化されたことで、以降も両寺の園城寺朱印地の配当を受ける立場と役負担が継続した。この関係から園城寺と宗派教団の間で争論が発生し、その過程で両寺は園城寺の支配から一部自立性が認められていく。一方で、両寺領の「別朱印」化は認可されず、園城寺からの役賦課も継続された。園城寺と荘厳寺・顕証寺は、朱印状に担保される国制レベルの論理で正当化され、形を変えながらも中世以来の統属関係を継続させた。近年、寺院間統属関係の多様性が指摘されるが、その中で朱印地の配当と役負担という関係も、一つの論理として機能していたと評価できる。

The religious order in early modern Japan is said to have had clear boundaries between Buddhist sects and that this clear separation made joint scholarship and cooperation impossible. In postwar research on the history of Buddhism in the early modern period, the Edo shogunate' s method of religious control has been discussed with emphasis placed on the submission of registers showing adherents and main and branch temples of each sect, along with the religious power structure based on the relationship between the main and branch temples. However, progress in the study of the organizational structure of denominations central to sectarian denominations of considerable size has revealed that the organization of temples in the early modern period was characterized by various types of subordinate relationships under the main temple. Furthermore, in recent years, the analysis of peripheral and smaller denominations has pointed out that the sectarian boundaries of such denominations were not clear. In some cases large-scale Buddhist temples that had been organized under the main-and-branch temple system 一山組織 within the medieval exoteric-esoteric system 顕密体制, which included new Buddhist sects and folk religions on the periphery, retained this older form into the early modern period. However, in regard to the intersectarian relationships among temples in the main-and-branch temple system, there has been no progress in examining what sort of legitimacy they had in the early modern period or how they intersected in the formation of sectarian denominations. Examining the development of the relatinship of temple affiliations in relation to the head-and-branch temple system of medieval times and their institutionalization in the later shogunal system is important in understanding the process of the transformation of religious order during the Middle and Early Modern periods. This examination will also be a source for discovering heretofore difficult to discern inter-temple relationships beyond aspects of the formation of denominations. In this paper, I focus on the distribution of the red-seal land 朱印地 as one element that could ensure legitimacy, and examine the relationship between Onjōji 園城寺 Temple, which is the main temple of the Tendai Jimon 寺門Buddhist school, and the Jishū temple Shōgonji 荘厳寺 and the Shinshū temple Kenshōji 顕証寺 that belonged to different sects but received distribution of its red-seal land. In the Middle Ages, the two temples were established as besshojiin 別所寺院, separate subordinate temples, within the territory at the foot of Onjōji, but they became independent temples under the new Buddhist system and were organized into sectarian denominations in the early modern period. However, with the confirmation of Onjōji' s territory by the Toyotomi regime, their position was fixed as recipients of red-seal land of Onjōji, and it was stipulated that they were organized into the structure of the main temple, Onjōji. As a result, their roles performing in regular Onjōji rites and assemblies was legitimized from the early modern period onward, and their subordinate affiliation with Onjōji continued. This situation led to a dispute between Onjōji and the sectarian denominations, and in the process, both temples were granted some independence from the control of the temple, but a “separate red seal” 別朱印 for their territories was not approved, and the imposition of duties from Onjōji continued. As seen above, the subordinate affiliation of temples of other sects that had been established on the periphery of large temples under the older Buddhist system since the Middle Ages was sometimes continued, albeit in a different form. In particular, the relationship of subordination based on the distribution of red seal land was the ruling logic tied to the core of the early modern feudal system, had the potential to override other subordinate affiliations, and was a legitimatizing factor throughout the early modern period. It was only after the Meiji period Jōchi Decree 上知 令, when the land ownership system of temples and shrines was dismantled, that such relations were completely dissolved. In the early modern period, the relationship of inter-temple affiliations has been discussed mainly in terms of sectarian denominations that developed nationwide, but large temples, on the other hand, which existed independently of these denominations, formed main-and-branch temple organizations based on a different logic and sometimes created affiliations that transcended sectarian boundaries. It is necessary to expand the discussion in the future, taking into account the fact that temple organization has been overlooked in the past when considering intertemple relations.