Yù jì 御記
The Imperial Record by 守覺親王 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle bedside diary by Shukaku Shinnō 守覺親王 (1150–1202), written in his final illness in early 1202. Together with KR6t0197 Yòu jì (Right-Side Record) and KR6t0198 Zuǒ jì (Left-Side Record), it completes the personal trilogy of the late Ninnaji Omuro at the Northern-Bamboo retreat. The work is the most intimate document Shukaku left: a record of his sickroom, his daily devotional practice, his attending disciples, and his moral testament to the future generations of his school.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: the work is dated with exceptional precision. The opening line — “The Compendium of Essentials, recorded as memory permits, so events are out of sequence; if I recover, I will revise it later” (拾要集任思得記之故。事事似失次第。若有病愈者後可再調之) — is followed immediately by: “This year the eastern barbarians and the northern foreigners have risen together; the heavens-and-the-four-directions are all unsettled”, referring to a contemporary political crisis. The text further dates itself: “Since last winter, due to bat-illness (蝙痾 = paralytic stroke?), I have been bedridden”. Shukaku died on the 26th day of the 6th month of Kennin 2 (= July 23, 1202); the entries here describe his last months. notBefore = notAfter = 1202 is exact. A colophon-note records: “The three booklets of these Right, Left, and Imperial Records are the compositions of the Omuro Hokuchiku [= Shukaku at the Northern Bamboo retreat]. They were copied at someone’s request; most surely to be cherished as secret treasures. Kan’ei 15 (1638), 3rd month, 21st day, recorded by Kanzai 寛濟, small-monk of the Mikasa subordinate of Daigo.”
Doctrinal content: the work begins with a vivid description of Shukaku’s sickroom configuration:
My pillow-side is to the north, my head facing north; on the western wall a single hanging-scroll of the syllable [a] is displayed. Beside my couch a cord-couch is positioned facing the syllable [a]. To dispel old-karmic obscurations and to take up contemplation, a three-tiered shelf stands beside the pillow; on it an armrest, a Tang-made hand-bell, a white whisk, etc. Water-bowl, tea-set, medicine-cups, etc., are at hand (other things omitted). A relic-jar and a sūtra-bag hang at the pillow-wall. Daily, three times a homa altar — at one of those times a kuyō altar; with Amitābha as the chief deity, I have occasionally invited Chōkaku 澄覺 to perform; or I perform myself. At the kuyō altar’s site, at the noon hour I perform a circumambulation and the sūtra-recitation duty; recite the Amitābhasamādhi.
He then lists the attendant disciples: “From among my followers, Chōkaku, Kameyaka, and others, eight or nine in all, attend me; each has lodging close to the sickroom. Since my move to this retreat, daily records have not lapsed; Kameyaka is the right-hand chronicler. Various of my long-standing acquaintances, both robed and laymen, come at dawn and depart at dusk; from among them two or three Confucian scholars commonly visit — truly because they have not forgotten the studious nights of the past when we collected fireflies, nor the sufferings of the days when I lay sick like a rabbit in its burrow.” The work then proceeds to record his moral testament to the school, set out in numbered articles, beginning: “Those who enter this gate-room: the heart should take harmony for heart; the body should take quietude for body. Advancing without…” (the rest of the precepts then follow).
The text is the closing literary statement of one of the most influential figures of late-Heian imperial Buddhism — composed at the level of makura-no-sōshi personal essayism within the doctrinal framework of Shingon devotional practice. Its historical detail on the layout and life of an imperial-prince sickbed is unique among the documents of medieval Japanese Buddhism.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Shukaku’s last writings are treated in Brian Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes (2000); Heian jiten s.v. Shukaku Shinnō; Robert Borgen and other studies of Heian aristocratic Buddhism.