Sìdù shòufǎ rìjì 四度授法日記
Diary of the Four-Stage Dharma-Transmission
(compiled by Gengō 源豪)
About the work
A four-fascicle personal diary-record of Tendai esoteric Dharma-transmission, recorded by Gengō 源豪 (the diary explicitly opens “Recorded by Gengō” 源豪記) over the four traditional initiations of the medieval Tendai-esoteric shidō kegyō 四度加行 (“Four-Stage Preparatory Practice”): (1) Garbhadhātu kanjō, (2) Vajradhātu kanjō, (3) Gōhō / shien protective rites, and (4) culminating denpō kanjō 傳法灌頂 (Dharma-transmission consecration). The work is a primary documentary source for late-medieval Tendai kanjō practice.
Abstract
Authorship. The catalog meta records no author. The opening line of the Taishō edition is explicit: “Garbhadhātu Record. Begun on Mintoku 2 (明德二, 1391) third-month twenty-fourth day. Recorded by Gengō.” 授法日記胎記明徳二辛未三月二十四始之 源豪記. Since Gengō’s name appears only in the diary itself and not in the catalog meta, it is given in the prose body and not in the frontmatter persons: list, per project convention.
Date. Begun Mintoku 2 / 1391-3-24 (recorded in the opening line). The four fascicles span the duration of the four-stage transmission, conventionally 100 days plus interstitial study periods, so the diary terminus ante quem is c. 1391–1392.
Content. The work proceeds as a chronological practical diary, with each fascicle covering one of the four traditional stages:
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Fascicle 1: Tāizō-ki 胎記 — the Garbhadhātu kanjō preparation and execution. The opening fascicle is the most extensive, covering: (a) the etymology and significance of the term tāizō 胎藏 (he traces it to the Sanskrit garbha-kośa — “[as] the garbha is what the Tathāgata first arises from… the garbha is the principal-nature [理性], the kośa is the inclusive-meaning [包含義]…”); (b) procedural prescriptions for the platform, vessels, and offerings; (c) the master’s kuden on each ritual segment.
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Fascicle 2: Kongō-ki 金記 — the Vajradhātu kanjō.
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Fascicle 3: Sotsu-ki / Shi-en-ki — protective rites of the shien (護身, body-protection).
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Fascicle 4: Denpō-ki 傳法記 — the culminating Dharma-transmission consecration.
Significance. Diaries of this kind — recorded by kanjō-recipients during their actual practice rather than retrospectively compiled — are rare in the medieval Tendai-esoteric corpus and provide the most direct documentary evidence for the medieval shidō kegyō curriculum and procedure. The work is a key supplementary witness for the procedural-ritual material preserved in KR6t0109 Xínglín chāo and KR6t0110 Keiran-shūyōshū.
Author identification. Gengō 源豪 is sparsely attested in the standard biographical sources, and the diary itself is the principal documentation for his identity. He was a Tendai-esoteric initiate of the late Nanboku-chō period (1391 = Mintoku 2 under the Northern Court reign-period reckoning).
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Sōbunsha, 1988) — for the procedural-curricular framework.
- Tsuda Tetsuei 津田徹英, Chūsei Tendai mikkyō no kenkyū (Sankibō, 2000).