Dōngdàsì jiètányuàn shòujièshì 東大寺戒壇院受戒式
Ordination Ceremony at the Tōdaiji Ordination-Platform Cloister by 實範 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle early-12th-century ordination ceremony at the Tōdaiji Kaidan-in 東大寺戒檀院, composed by Jippan 實範 (also known as Nakagawa Daitoku 中川大徳; “Lesser-General Shōnin” 少將上人; “Nakagawa Risshi” 中川律師) on the 4th day of the 8th month of Hōan 3 = 1122 CE. The work is a revision and updating of the earlier Hōshin tradition (KR6t0046) for the mid-Heian institutional setting, and represents the principal mid-Heian Japanese Vinaya-school ordination manual.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The terminal colophon is unambiguous: “Hōan 3 (= 1122), 8th month, 4th day, recorded.” A transmission note then specifies: “This procedure was made under the reign of Emperor Toba (74th sovereign) in Hōan 3, rényín — by Nakagawa Daitoku Jippan. In the middle period of the Vinaya transmission, he is the famous master of his name.” Later copies are dated Hōreki 10 = 1760 (by Seikō 成杲, “Three-Treatise [school] Acting Daisōzu”) and Tenpō 6 = 1835 (by Eirin 永倫, “Dharma-rank graduate”).
Jippan 實範 (DILA A001616; death dated 1144–1145 per the Bukkyō daijiten) was a Kyōto-born monk of the Nakagawa Vinaya tradition (Nakagawa-ritsu 中川律) and a founder of the Mid-river (Nakagawa) Vinaya school. He was also a Shingon Esoteric practitioner and one of the principal Mid-period Pure Land (中世淨土) reformers, eventually counted among the six great patriarchs of medieval Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. The composition is precisely dated: notBefore = 1122, notAfter = 1122.
Doctrinal-procedural content: the work is structured around the arrangement and decoration of the ordination platform (kaidan jōgon 戒壇莊嚴). Chapter 1 details the fasting and altar arrangements: incense, flowers, lamps on the platform; śrāmaṇera-bestower and karman-master seats facing north before the stūpa; the empty seat at the southwest corner of the platform with two ranked seats — one elevated, one ceremonial-cushion-style — for the Yí-jiào jīng lecturer; the ten-master seats on the north and west sides; and so on through the entire spatial-ritual arrangement. The closing sections preserve specific personal-name conventions for the ordination tally-cards.
The text closes with a meta-procedural reflection: “It is not that I am following my own foolish thoughts. Rather, the practice of the latter age must be simplified at the root, the branches must be abbreviated… Even though this has some slight novelty, it is not without precedent. Still I fear that the later age will invite the censure of those without consideration. As the Kaidan-zukyō says: ‘This is the practice ritual practised by the sages. Once it has long been obscured, those entrenched in custom will say it is novel ritual.’ These words are true. At the time of Hōan 3, 8th month, 4th day, I have recorded it.”
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Paul Groner and the modern Japanese Vinaya-school scholarship treat Jippan as the foundational mid-Heian Vinaya-Esoteric synthesist.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Jippan 實範 and Tōdaiji kaidan-in jukai-shiki 東大寺戒壇院受戒式.
Other points of interest
Jippan is a key figure in the Nakagawa Vinaya tradition of mid-Heian Japan — a movement that combined Vinaya scholarship with Shingon Esoteric practice and Pure Land devotion. He is conventionally counted among the six patriarchs of medieval Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. The work is the principal medieval Japanese kaidan procedure preserved in the Taishō canon and the model for all later Kamakura-Edo ordination manuals.