Shíguī chāo 實歸鈔
Compendium of the Return-to-the-Real by 深賢 (集)
About the work
A single-fascicle Shingon ritual compendium by Jingen 深賢 (also read Jinken; fl. early-to-mid 13th c.), a Kamakura-period master of the Daigo-ji / Tōji transmission line. CANWWW records the compilation-role as 集 (“collected”). The work draws together specialised bessen-hō materials from across the principal late-Heian and early-Kamakura masters, with particular attention to the orally-transmitted variants distinguishing the different ryū.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: Jingen (CANWWW AUT01126) is recorded as a senior disciple in the early-13th-century Daigo tradition; composition window ca. 1200–1262. Two Edo-period copyists’ colophons preserve the manuscript history: Kan’ei 3 (1626), 2nd month, an auspicious day, copied by Arichika 有以 — “the master’s autograph having been laboured upon by another hand”; and Kyōhō 7 (1722), 8th month, last day, copied by Vajra Buddha-disciple Chōei 長詠 (age 33). An earlier internal colophon notes: “Heard from the dharma-mouth, transmitted into the inner-treasury intention — passing through the various schools” (殊口授聞奧藏意樂傳諸流而已), signed “Saifu Taii 西阜泰畏 (age 38).”
Doctrinal content: the table of contents covers over fifty individual rituals across the standard Shingon pantheon: from the principal Buddhas (Amitābha, Mahā-Buddhoṣṇīṣa, Aparimitāyus, the Six-syllable Sūtra, the Cintāmaṇi-cakra) and the Vidyārājas and vajra-deities, through the protector-deva rites (Vaiśravaṇa / Tamonten, Daikoku-ten, Śrīmahādevī, Gaṇeśa, Twelve Devas, Varuṇa, Fifteen-Child-Sūtra, Ucchuṣma), to highly specialised procedures (the Karaṇḍa-mudrā Sūtra, the Mahā-Maṅgala relic-rite, the Snake-Liberation method, the Five-Esoteric contemplation, the Five-Ākāśagarbha, the preta-feeding rite, the Hidden Treasury method, the Water-Joy offering). The work concludes with general-procedure topics — separation from karmic activity (離作業), small-altar venue (小壇所), dwelling-stabilization (鎭壇), various empowerments (諸加持), two-realm presentation procedures (兩界等授).
The text is a typical mid-Kamakura specialist’s working compendium and reflects the increasingly fragmented and kuden-dependent nature of post-Hōgen Shingon scholarship.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Links
- CBETA: T78n2497
- DILA authority: A001126 (深賢)