Shòu Bǎoxìngyuàn Yòukuài jì 授寶性院宥快記
Record of [Transmission] to Hōshō-in Yūkai by 興雅 (記)
About the work
A single-fascicle transmission-record documenting the conferral, by the Kōyasan Chū’in-ryū master Kōga 興雅, of the school’s abhiṣeka and full ritual transmission upon his disciple Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416) — the founder of Hōshō-in 寶性院 and the dominant figure of mid-Muromachi Kōyasan Shingon. The colophon dates the work to Eiwa 3 (= 1377), 5th month, 8th day, making it a contemporary witness to Yūkai’s reception of the Chū’in-ryū transmission and its full kuden.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: the work bears the signature “Kōga 興雅, recorded.” The composition is dated to Eiwa 3 (1377), 5th month, 8th day, when Jōshin-in Hōin Kōshin 光信 arrived at Kōga’s quarters with a single Kōyasan resident-monk for the Chinjūgū shrine pilgrimage. notBefore = notAfter = 1377 is exact. A later transmission-record dates a copyist transmission to Kyōhō 14 (1729), 6th month, 28th day, copied from the Shōchi-in 正智院 scripture-treasury manuscript by Jakugei 寂猊**, the manuscript having been transmitted: Mokujiki Chōi → Dōi → Ryōi → Sōzu Yūchi → wood-eater Chōi of Yamato Province → seeker-of-dharma Dōi → from Ācārya Dōi → Ryōi → Sōzu Yūchi → finally Jakugei.
Doctrinal content: the work opens with a personal note: “On the day later when he came again and stayed several days at the temple, I transmitted to him the great-matter abhiṣeka of this school, leaving nothing unfinished.” The personal addressee is then identified: Kōga (the master), addressing himself to the transmission of one school and one branch fully completed — most felicitous. A further note: “Although this transmission-record is at the very beginning [of his career], I am moved by his fitness as a vessel of dharma and his earnest persistence; also, due to my illness I cannot expect later days — I have transmitted the final-and-utmost matters in full. There is to be no slightest carelessness in this. Kōga, recorded.”
The body of the work then sets out the Chū’in-ryū transmission procedure: Yūkai received the abhiṣeka on the date noted, with the full daiji-kanjō (great-matter abhiṣeka) procedure, and through this transmission became the legitimate inheritor of the Chū’in-ryū at Hōshō-in. This event is one of the most important moments in late-medieval Kōyasan history: it inaugurates Yūkai’s ascendancy, which would result in his later codifications KR6t0210 Chū’in-ryū shido kuden and KR6t0211–KR6t0212 (recorded by his disciple Jōyū).
The work is a primary documentary witness to medieval Kōyasan transmission practice and a moving personal record of an aging master passing his lineage to his most promising disciple in the knowledge that his own time is short.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Yūkai and the late-medieval Hōshō-in are treated in the Mikkyō daijiten s.v. Yūkai 宥快; Kōyasan-shi.