Abstract/Sommario: From the end of the Heian period, a number of texts began to investigate cosmogonic issues, namely the process of creation of the universe and the manifestations of the first deities: "the age of the gods". Indeed, pervasive interest in cosmogony is one of the most significant aspects of the medieval Japanese intellectual arena. The exploration of cosmogony led medieval authors to concentrate on events that lay on Buddhism's 'outside', exploring non-Buddhist sources, concepts and repre ...; [Leggi tutto...]
From the end of the Heian period, a number of texts began to investigate cosmogonic issues, namely the process of creation of the universe and the manifestations of the first deities: "the age of the gods". Indeed, pervasive interest in cosmogony is one of the most significant aspects of the medieval Japanese intellectual arena. The exploration of cosmogony led medieval authors to concentrate on events that lay on Buddhism's 'outside', exploring non-Buddhist sources, concepts and representations. What was conceptualized as the primordial kami, was supposed to precede not only the beginning of Buddhism, but the very creation of the universe. In this new discourse on cosmogony, Buddhism was criticized for having introduced dualist distinctions (namely, the dichotomy enlightenment/delusion); authors began to investigate what they believed to be a more fundamental condition of being in which dualism had not yet arisen. The condition was known as 'fundamental ignorance" (ganbon mumyo), because it preceded the arrival of Buddhist knowledge. These philosophers equated 'fundamental ignorance' with the highest and truest embodiment of "original enlightenment" (hongaku), a key concept in medieval Buddhism. According to the cosmogony of the Original enlightenment, ultimate salvation consists in the realization of one's innate enlightened nature, that is identical with a primordial condition defined either in terms of absolute being (hossho), or, in certain cases, of fundamental ignorance. To trace the line along which their speculations led them, the A. turns next to the most important medieval theories about the creation of the universe and the primeval kami