Masuga - Zouga

Japanese: 増賀 - ぞうが

Year of death: 6/9/1003 (7/10/1003)
Year of birth: Enki 17 (917)
A Tendai Buddhist monk in the mid-Heian period. Son of Tachibana Kohei. Known for disliking fame and having retired to Mount Tabun (Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture), he was later considered the ideal recluse or posthumous person, and his various eccentricities were praised as unworldly. Many of the legends about Masuga are embellished and difficult to believe, but one theory is that at the age of 10, he ascended to Mount Hiei and became a disciple of Ryogen, where he studied the practices of esoteric and esoteric Buddhism while never ceasing to recite the Lotus Sutra. However, in July 963 (Owa 3), at the urging of the monk Nyokaku (Fujiwara Takamitsu), he entered Mount Tabun and established a hermitage called Ichijo-bo and lived there in seclusion. While he imparted teachings to Senman, Nyokaku, Taizen and others, in 964 he lectured on "Maka Shikan" and in 965 he preached the Lotus Sutra phrases, and from 973 to 985 he performed Lotus Sutra Samadhi for 37 days every season, and in 985 he wrote "Hokke Gengisho." On the other hand, in 990 he performed Fudo-ku and manifested his own immovable form, and during his summer retreat (a retreat in which he practiced in one room from April 15 to July 15 of the lunar calendar) in 996 he never neglected reciting the Lotus Sutra and is said to have demonstrated the mystical ability to perceive Kannon and Manjusri. After his retirement he avoided contact with people as much as possible. The anecdote about him dropping filth on the palace grounds is handed down in many collections of tales as eccentric behavior, but it is a sign of how much he rejected the secular world, and for recluses and those who prayed to be reborn in the Pure Land from ancient times to the Middle Ages, this was considered the ideal image of a saint. <References> Hirabayashi Moritoku, "Before and After His Retirement at Mount Tono in Masuga" (Historical Study of Saints and Stories)

(Ohara Jin)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：長保5.6.9(1003.7.10)
生年：延喜17(917)
平安中期の天台宗の僧。橘恒平の子。名聞を厭い多武峯(奈良県桜井市)に隠棲したことで知られており,後世,遁世者や往生者の理想とされ,さまざまな奇行が非世俗的行為として称賛された。種々の増賀伝は潤色が多くにわかには信じがたいものがあるが,一説によれば,10歳のとき,比叡山に上って良源の弟子となり,法華経の読誦を怠らず顕密の行法を学んだという。しかるに応和3(963)年7月,入道如覚(藤原高光)の勧めにより多武峯に入り草庵一乗房を結んで籠居した。千満,如覚,泰善などに教法を授ける一方,康保1(964)年には『摩訶止観』を講じ,同2年には法華文句を説き,康保1年から天延1年(973)にかけては毎季37日の法華三昧を修し,寛和1(985)年には『法華玄義鈔』を著した。他方,正暦1(990)年には不動供を修して自ら不動形を現じ,長徳2(996)年の夏安居(陰暦4月15日から7月15日まで一室にこもり修行すること)には法華経読誦を怠らず,観音,文殊を感得するという神秘を示したという。隠棲以後は人との交わりを極力避けた。宮中に汚物を落とすといった逸話が奇矯な振る舞いとして多くの説話集に語り伝えられているが,それは彼がいかに俗世を拒否したかの現れであり,古代から中世にかけての遁世者や浄土願生者にとっては,それこそが聖の理想像と考えられたのである。<参考文献>平林盛得「増賀の多武峯隠棲前後」(『聖と説話の史的研究』)

(小原仁)

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