Mì chāo wèndá 祕鈔問答
Question-and-Answer on the Secret Notes by 頼瑜 (撰)
About the work
A massive twenty-two fascicle question-and-answer compilation by 頼瑜 Raiyu (1226–1304) — together with KR6t0241 Usu-zōshi kuketsu the largest of his ritual-scholastic compilations. The work is also known as 白表紙 (Shiro-byōshi, “White-Cover Booklets”) and according to the colophon-tradition originates with the Kakudō-in Sōjō Shōken 覺洞院勝賢僧正 (the Daigo-ji Sanbō-in master Kashō-in Shōken) who composed it for transmission to the Ninna-ji Kita-in Imperial Retreat (仁和寺喜多院御室). The CANWWW catalogue records a related text at KR6t0489 (T78n2489) — the Hizōshō 祕藏鈔 to which the present Mìchāo is keyed.
Abstract
Opening Q&A on the title-etymology: “Why is this work called Shiro-byōshi (White-Cover)?” Answer (Master’s oral-instruction from the Hōon-in Sōjō): “The Kakudō-in Sōjō Shōken composed this work for transmission to the Ninna-ji Kita-in Imperial Retreat. After the imperial retreat had received the transmission of that text, the Sōjō wrote out his oral-instructions, and after revision sent the only copy to the Sōjō with a request for his sealed approval. The original was a scroll of approximately seven-inch height, with mica-paper as the cover-binding; hence ‘White-Cover’ (Shiro-byōshi).”
Editorial history: the work has been transmitted in four successive recensions of increasing scope: the first recension contained fifteen fascicles; the second seventeen; the third seventeen with the original Henchi-in Sōjō Jōken (遍智院僧正成賢) detailed back-of-page notes; the fourth recension was fully recorded by Ninna-ji Zenkaku 仁和寺禪覺 in fifty fascicles. Raiyu’s present Mìchāo wèndá — the twenty-two fascicle version — represents his late-Kamakura systematic question-and-answer treatment of this multi-recension transmission.
Method: a comprehensive ritual-scholastic Q&A, organized by ritual-deity and ritual-stage, treating the entire range of Shingon ritual practice. The opening Q&A on the work’s history is followed by sustained doctrinal-and-ritual examination of mudrā, mantra, visualisation, and ritual-purpose for each rite.
Significance: with KR6t0241 Usu-zōshi kuketsu, the principal Raiyu witness to the late-Kamakura Daigo Sanbō-in Hō’on-in ritual scholasticism. Together the two works represent the most extensive single oral-transmission compilation of medieval Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual learning.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For the late-Kamakura Shingon scholastic-ritual tradition: Kushida Ryōkō, Zoku Shingon Mikkyō seiritsu katei no kenkyū (1979); Tomabechi Seiichi 苫米地誠一, Daigo-ji Sanbō-in monzeki to chūsei mikkyō 醍醐寺三寶院門跡と中世密教 (Tokyo: Hōzōkan, 2005).