Buddhist Esoteric Theory of Language in the Kokugaku School

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the esoteric version of the origin of the Japanese language, put forward by the Buddhist monk Keichū 契沖 (1640–1701), who is considered the founder of the national cultural and philosophical movement kokugaku 國學, emerging during the Tokugawa period. In his main treatise Man'yō Daishōki 万葉代匠記, relying on his own set of orthographic rules for spelling Japanese in kana (kanazukai 仮名遣い), Keichū tries to prove the inconsistency of the former Fujiwara Teika system and at the same time to reveal the esoteric nature of the structure of speech. According to Keichū, fifty characters of the Japanese alphabet make up a whole integral system in which all sounds originate from the Sanskrit sign “A”. This shows the interdependent relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm, expressed in the sounds that form the language as an instrument of communication and comprehension, which manifests the universality of the nature of the cosmic Buddha Vairochana. Based on this metonymic connection, Keichū concludes that studying the structure of the Japanese language is equivalent to cognition of the world as a sacred object and, accordingly, forms a more rational and open approach to understanding the essence of classical Japanese literature, which distinguishes it favorably from the closed linear tradition adopted in the Heian era. Further study of Man'yō Daishōki is of particular interest to researchers of the kokugaku school, since it may provide additional information about the Buddhist origins of this trend, whose followers then, on the contrary, denied the positive influence of Buddhism on Japanese culture and preferred not to mention Keichū at all as the founder of kokugaku tradition (for example, Hirata Atsutane). It may also shed light on the contribution of Buddhist philosophy to the formation of the tradition of scientific empiricism in Japan at the end of the XVII century.