Tenjin no Honji
Tenjin no Honji is a Japanese otogi-zōshi in two scrolls, likely composed at the end of the Muromachi period.
Plot
In the reign of the Engi Emperor, there was a minister by the name of Sugawara who was of low birth but had tremendous favour and influence with the emperor. There was at this time also a minister named Tokihira whose skill and influence were less than the Sugawara Minister's. Jealous of the Sugawara Minister, Tokihira set a fire inside the palace grounds, and cast the blame on his rival. The emperor commanded Tokihira to arrest the Sugawara Minister, and Tokihira obliged, capturing and tying up his rival.The Sugawara Minister climbed Mount Hiei and bid a tearful farewell to his teacher before travelling by sea into exile in the Dazai-fu. His servants were murdered by Tokihira after seeing their master off. The Sugawara Minister bemoaned his lonely exile in poetry, but then the miracle of the occurred, and when he prayed to Bonten and Taishaku proclaiming his innocence, with a crack of lightning a slip of paper fell from the sky proclaiming Namu taisei itoku tenman dai-jizai tenjin, and he died.
Kan Shōjō appeared to Hōshōbō on Mount Hiei and told him not to interfere with his revenge. The apparition ate a pomegranate before blowing down the door and bursting into flames. In a single night, Kan Shōjō, in the form of a white-haired figure, attacked the palace with lightning, and Tokihira was kicked to death. The emperor, terrified, summoned Hōshōbō to court. Hōshōbō descended from the mountain, crosses the Kamo River as it flooded and surged with waves, and arrived at the palace. The monk prayed, causing Kan Shōjō to rise up to heaven.
From this point on, Kan Shōjō was worshipped as.
Genre and date
Tenjin no Honji is a work of the otogi-zōshi genre, a short prose narrative written in Japan's medieval period; specifically it is a honjimono, a work describing the deeds of a divinity during their human lifetime and the origin of one or more religious sites associated with them. Literary scholar Manabu Murakami, in his article on the work for the Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten, dates it to "perhaps the end of the Muromachi period".Textual tradition
Tenjin no Honji is in two scrolls, although it survives in numerous copies of different formats. A two-scroll copy traditionally attributed to Ichijō Kanefuyu is in the holdings of the Tenri Central Library, which also possesses a one-scroll emaki edition, a damaged one-scroll miniature emaki edition, and a two-volume Nara-ehon edition. A one-scroll emaki edition is in the possession of Toyoko Takasu. The Kyoto University School of Letters holds a one-volume Nara-ehon edition, whose ending is missing, and there is a two-volume printed edition dating to Keian 1.Modern editions
Facsimiles
- Tenri Toshokan Zenpon Sōsho ''Ko-Nara-ehon
- Otogi-zōshi Emaki''