Description:
<jats:p>This essay discusses theories of the emperor in medieval Shintō. First in the context of jien's Buddhist theory of the emperor in the Gukanshō, then Kitabatake Chikafusa's Ise Shintō theory of the emperor are taken up. The case of jihen is then contrasted with these views and serves as the main focus of the essay. </jats:p>
<jats:p>Jien accepted the origins of the Imperial lineage from the Age of the Gods, but he believed that the ruler of necessity borrowed from the "hidden" powers of the gods and buddhas in order to protect the country. Kitabatake Chikafusa, in contrast, believed in a direct genealogical link with the gods and held that the purity of the Imperial lineage was the source for Japan's supremacy. </jats:p>
<jats:p>Jihen, like Kitabatake Chikafusa, was from the line of Ise Shintō, but he pointed to a break between the Age of the Gods and the Age of Humans. This break came in three stages. In the first, the hidden and the manifest are clearly separated, while in the second the land and seas are separated and the unfettered power of the gods is lost. In the third stage, impurities are produced. In this way conditions for an idealized Utopia lead to the development the human world filled with impurities. In the midst of such a human world, the emperor is the one who can preserve the virtue of the purity that comes from the gods. The uniqueness of the emperor is not something limited to the borders of Japan, but rather carries with it the meaning of being the center of the world. Jihen's theory of the emperor, along with that of Chikafusa, came to exert influence upon theories of the emperor from the early modern period onward.</jats:p>