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‘Halo of Golden Light’ reveals how Japan’s ancient leaders harnessed Buddhist rituals
by Stephen Mansfield, The Japan Times, Oct 3, 2015
Tokyo, Japan -- Like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the current Japanese emperor represents royalty in unbroken perpetuity, reformulated today into a fusion of timeless tradition and progressive democracy. And yet, the case of Japan is more complex, opaque and, at times, divisive.
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Asuka Sango’s estimable new book, “The Halo of Golden Light,” examines how Heian Period (794-1185) emperors appropriated Buddhist rituals to legitimize their authority, and the extent to which monks and members of the aristocracy co-opted Imperial symbolism to advance personal ambitions.
Sango analyzes the mechanisms of the Emperor’s Misai-e Assembly - a body established to endorse an Emperor-centric system based on legal codes adopted from China - and the role of the Golden Light Sutra in promoting ideology through rituals.
The purpose of the rituals was to place the Emperor in a brilliant shaft of light, one that would illuminate him as a divine sovereign functioning with the support of the clergy. As Sango notes, however, this model of parity between Buddhism and a head of state claiming divine status was fraught with an, “antagonistic symbiosis, filled with tension and conflict.”
Clearly a title for the special interest reader, “The Halo of Golden Light” nevertheless provides an intriguing portrait of power during the Heian Period.
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