Tenjin no Honji (天神の本地) is a Japanese otogi-zōshi in two scrolls, likely composed at the end of the Muromachi period.
Plot
In the reign of the Engi Emperor (延喜帝),[a] there was a minister by the name of Sugawara who was of low birth but had tremendous favour and influence with the emperor.[1] There was at this time also a minister named Tokihira whose skill and influence were less than the Sugawara Minister's.[1] Jealous of the Sugawara Minister, Tokihira set a fire inside the palace grounds, and cast the blame on his rival.[1] The emperor commanded Tokihira to arrest the Sugawara Minister, and Tokihira obliged, capturing and tying up his rival.[1]
The Sugawara Minister climbed Mount Hiei and bid a tearful farewell to his teacher Hōshōbō [ja] before travelling by sea into exile in the Dazai-fu.[1] His servants were murdered by Tokihira after seeing their master off.[1] The Sugawara Minister bemoaned his lonely exile in poetry, but then the miracle of the tobi-ume [ja] occurred, and when he prayed to Bonten and Taishaku proclaiming his innocence, with a crack of lightning a slip of paper fell from the sky proclaiming Namu taisei itoku tenman dai-jizai tenjin (南無大聖威徳天満大自在天神), and he passed away.[1]
Kan Shōjō[b] appeared to Hōshōbō on Mount Hiei and told him not to interfere with his revenge.[1] The apparition ate a pomegranate before blowing down the door and bursting into flames.[1] In a single night, Kan Shōjō, in the form of a white-haired figure, attacked the palace with lightning, and Tokihira was kicked to death.[1] The emperor, terrified, summoned Hōshōbō to court.[1] Hōshōbō descended from the mountain, crosses the Kamo River as it flooded and surged with waves, and arrived at the palace.[1] The monk prayed, causing Kan Shōjō to rise up to heaven.[1]
The work is clearly based on the Kitano Tenjin Engi, in particular those texts in the Anrakuji-bon manuscript line,[1] and transforms the religious text describing the origin of the god Tenjin into a narrative tale.[1] Compared to the Engi, Tenjin no Honji includes a lot more waka (poetry in classical Japanese) and fewer kanshi (poetry in classical Chinese).[4]
The Kitano Tenjin Shrine was an important focus for the religious practices of the people of Kyoto in the middle ages (the twelfth to sixteenth centuries),[1] and per Murakami this work seems to reflect that popular religious sentiment.[5] Murakami further speculates that it may also have been created on commission from a temple.[6]
Textual tradition
Tenjin no Honji is in two scrolls,[1] although it survives in numerous copies of different formats.[6] A two-scroll copy traditionally attributed to Ichijō Kanefuyu is in the holdings of the Tenri Central Library,[6] which also possesses a one-scroll emaki edition,[6] a damaged one-scroll miniature emaki edition,[6] and a two-volume Nara-ehon edition.[6] A one-scroll emaki edition is in the possession of Toyoko Takasu (鷹巣豊子).[6] The Kyoto UniversitySchool of Letters holds a one-volume Nara-ehon edition, whose ending is missing,[6] and there is a two-volume printed edition dating to Keian 1 (1648).[6]
Modern editions
Facsimiles
Tenri Toshokan Zenpon Sōsho (天理図書館善本叢書) Ko-Nara-ehon (I) (古奈良絵本集（一）; based on the one-scroll Tenri University text)[6]
Otogi-zōshi Emaki (御伽草子絵巻; edited by Hideo Okuhira [ja] and published in 1982; based on the Takasu text; also includes printed text)[6]
Critical printed editions
The work was printed in volume one of the Muromachi-jidai Monogatari Taisei (室町時代物語大成) based on the emaki formally in the holdings of the Shōkōkan [ja], the Nara-ehon formerly in the holdings of Ken Sasano [ja] and the Keian edition.[6] It also appeared in volume one of the Shintō Monogatari Shū (神道物語集), part of the Denshō Bungaku Shiryō-shū (伝承文学資料集), based on the two-scroll Tenri University text,[6] the 1961 Shintō Monogatari Shū (神道物語集) edited by Shigeru Yokoyama [ja], based on the one-scroll text in the holdings of the Akagi Archives (赤木文庫 Akagi-bunko),[6] and volume ten of the Muromachi-jidai Monogatari Taisei based on the one-scroll Tenri University text, the emaki in the holdings of Ōsaka Tenmangū, and Keian edition.[6]
Murakami, Manabu (June 1966). "Otogi-zōshi Tenjin no Honji Nōto (I): Honmon Keitō Suitei Sagyō Hōkoku" お伽草子「天神本地」ノート（一）―本文系統推定作業報告―. Nagoya University Journal of Japanese Language and Literature (in Japanese). 18. Nagoya University: 25–44.
Murakami, Manabu (November 1967). "Otogi-zōshi Tenjin no Honji Nōto (II)" お伽草子「天神本地」ノート（二）. Nagoya University Journal of Japanese Language and Literature (in Japanese). 21. Nagoya University: 43–51.
