JAPANESE BUDDHISM: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Spreading the Word to the People

There were, however, alternatives to the formal, ceremonial, often worldly Buddhism of the capital. One was a popular movement centered around renegade religious figures such as Gyōki, who traveled around the countryside seeking converts among the common people. This was regarded as hazardous by the court, as the following selection from the eighth-century Shoku Nihongi suggests:

These days the worthless monk Gyōki and his disciples swarm along the public thoroughfares, recklessly explaining ill omens, forming factions, burning their fingers [to use them as torches] and stripping skin from their elbows [on which to copy passages from the sutras]. They go from door to door spreading false teachings and extorting donations. Claiming to be saints, they deceive the householders. Lay believers and clergy are confused, and all classes of people abandon their labor. (Aoki et al., Shoku Nihongi, Vol. 2, pp. 26-27.
Translated by Janet Goodwin, Alms and Vagabonds, pp. 23-24.)

When attempts to forbid Gyōki from preaching and to force his return to lay life ended in failure, however, the court decided to ask his cooperation instead, and he was invited to help collect contributions for Shōmu's construction of the giant image of Roshana Buddha to be housed at Tōdaiji.

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