Introduction
Hey hey, my name is Thersa Matsuura, author of The Book of Japanese Folklore and podcaster here at Uncanny Japan, my little place where I tell you about the more obscure nooks and crannies of Japanese culture.
Today’s show is part of a really fun mini-series that has been made possible thanks to our sponsor Explore Worldwide, who offer small group adventures with local tour leaders. I really think you’re going to like them.
In today’s episode, I’ll be telling you about someone I’ve had a crush on for the past couple years, Fudomyō, and also about a very cool fire ceremony that will burn away all your worldly desires, ignorance and purify you.
Meet Fudomyō
Fudomyō. To say he’s fierce looking is an understatement. He’s got wild, often sparkling, angry eyes; a deep scowl with two fangs showing, one jutting up, one pointing down. Oftentimes one of those eyes is a little squinty. Sometimes he even has a third eye. Sitting — dare I say immovably — on a large stone, in his right hand he grasps a sword, in his left a braided rope with a ring on one end, an animal trap. He’s topless but for a sash across his muscled chest, tastefully layered skirts below. And if you didn’t think that wasn’t glorious enough, behind him rages a blazing fire.
Believe it or not, he’s here to help you.
So who is this Fudomyō, you ask. You’ve probably seen him, well, not HIM him, (if you have, shoot me a message), but depictions of him, painting and statues, for example. My rock carving teacher even hammer and chiseled a giant image of Fudomyo in the side of a mountain near a waterfall. It took like a year or so. Also, tattoos abound.
The Meaning Behind the Name
But let me first tell you about his name first. It means the immovable or unshakable one. Fudo mean “not moving, unmovable”. And an interesting bit of trivia right off the bat: a fudosan, san being the kanji for “assets or property”. Unmovable assets, what could it mean? If you guessed, real estate, you were right! Houses and plots of lands don’t move. So fudosan means real estate. But that’s boring.
Back to Fudomyo. So Fudo means unmovable. What is myō? A myō are a wrathful-looking deities, called Mantra or Wisdom Kings in English. In Japan there are five, one for each of the four directions who also look very warrior-like but with significantly more arm than Fudomyo, who is the leader of the pack and standing or sitting in the center.
The Wisdom King’s True Nature
Even though he’s all tough looking on the outside, he’s all squishy love and enlightenment on the inside. Because this Immovable Wisdom King is the personification of dainichi nyorai, that’s a Buddha. Yes, a Buddha not THE Buddha. There are many different Buddhas. There’s also THE Buddha, but that’s for another time. Just know that the dainichi nyorai in English is called the cosmic, all-encompassing Buddha. So he’s a big deal. As is fudomyō.
But why so angry? Well, different reasons. One is he converts that rage into salvation, another is that he seeks to frighten the wishy washy back onto the sweet and gentle path of the Dainichi Nyorai. He actually cares about you. That sword he carries? It’s to cut through ignorance so that wisdom can be found. That braided rope? It’s not to trap animals, but to rescue people and also catch and tie up demons! The flames behind him burn away the three poisons (greed, hatred, and ignorance). Oh, and that squinty eye? If you look carefully, one eye is wide open and looking up toward heaven, the other narrowed and gazing down to earth. The symbolizes his watching over both heaven and earth, a protector of all existence.
Historical Background
Briefly, of course, Fudomyō originated in India, traveled through China and arrived to Japan in the 9th century. Just like Buddhism itself did. The myō were adopted, too, and are important deities even today in esoteric Buddhism. Esoteric Buddhism is called Mikkyō, by the way, or secret teachings and there are three traditions that are a part of these secret teaching: Shingon, Tendai, and Shugendo. Let’s look at Shingon.
It was founded by Kukai who brought it back from China after the death of his Chinese teacher and asked for formal approval to start this new religion. The Imperial court made him wait three years before saying, sure go ahead. Soon the Emperor became interested in the teachings and he appointed Kukai head of Todai ji Temple (you know the famous one in Nara with the world’s largest gilt bronze statue of the Buddha). He also gave Kukai an entire mountain (Mount Koya) to practice and teach in peace away from bustling Kyoto.
The Goma Fire Ceremony
One practice all these esoteric traditions do is called Goma. Goma comes from the Sanskrit word Homa which means fire offering or to burn.
So just like Fudomyō, the goma fire ceremony’s purpose is to burn away ignorance, worldly desires and suffering. Through the years I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to attend several of these myself and can attest, they are visually striking, very powerful and, well, just an incredible, personally profound experience.
The Ceremony Experience
The ones I went to went something like this: The room is a treasure itself, decorated with ancient Buddhist iconography, flowers, gold and red, dark wood, paper lanterns, and in the front of the room, a large statue (often but not always of Fudomyō) staring down ready to exterminate all the bad energy and get down to some purification.
A monk sits in the middle, in front of a square area where the fire will be built. On either side he has all sorts of sacred objects. There’s also a pile of small pieces of wood called gomagi next to him. Before the ceremony even starts people have written their prayers and wishes on these. You can write anything you want, prayers for yourself, a loved one. It’s okay. They’ll eventually be thrown into the fire once it gets going, symbolically offering up those prayers. Other monks sit stoically off to the side. Attendants are also sitting all around the room.
The ceremony starts slow with sutra chanting and slow drumming and the occasional bell ringing. The main monk both chants and carefully builds the fire. He’ll also perform mudras. Mudras are those complicated hand gestures, each one has a specific meaning and is believed to influence the mind and body in a certain way. They’re also used in meditation and yoga and surely you’ve seen ninja use them. Not real ninja, if you have shoot me a message.
The goma ceremony is extremely relaxing and meditative, almost trancelike. The chanting slowly speeds up, as does the rhythmic drumming. The gomagi along with various other offerings, like grains, rice, seeds, spices and different wood pellets are added to create a fragrant, enchanting, magical mood. So now you have all the monks chanting and keeping rhythm on the taiko (small and large) or ringing a bell in the right place. And you’re experiencing this with all your senses. The fire is right in front of you which is hypnotizing in and of itself, you can feel the heat coming off it, taste the ash that’s flying about, the sutras are otherworldly, and the smells are just exotic and intoxicating. It doesn’t matter if you can’t understand the words — I think most Japanese can’t either — the whole room just becomes transformed. So by participating in such a ceremony the purpose is to remove negative energy and purify both your mind and spirit. Anyway, this goma ceremony has always really resonated with me deeply and whenever I have a chance to attend one, I do.
A Literary Connection
I’ll leave you with an interesting tie into the classic, The Tale of Genji. One of the things traditionally thrown into the goma fire and sometimes even now are poppy seeds. They have a distinct sweet roasty smell. Since ancient times they’re believed to have great purification qualities and protect against negative energy.
Well, in The Tale of Genji a noblewoman named Rokujo no Miyasudokoro who was one of Prince Genji’s lovers becomes consumed with jealousy. This jealousy become an ikiryou or living spirit with bad intentions and haunts Genji’s main wife, Aoi no Ue. Rokujo doesn’t realize that her spirit or part of it has done this terrible thing until she notices a persistent smell of poppy seed smoke clinging to her hair. Meaning, poor Aoi no Ue and Prince Genji were having goma purification rituals performed on her (as she grew weaker) trying to exorcise the evil spirit. In this case, however, it didn’t work, because Aoi no Ue eventually died for the curse.
Thank you all for listening.
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