Ken horimono & religious significance - full article

[Gabriel L]

Hello everyone,

 

A while back I posted a breakdown of ken horimono terms and their Buddhist context. Barry Hennick graciously requested to use that material for the JSS/US newsletter. I was happy to oblige, except that I was not wholly satisfied with the forum post. Accordingly it has now been expanded to a more complete article format which makes a few small revisions/corrections and includes more information on Shingon Buddhism etc.

 

You are invited to read the full PDF (~7 MB) here. This is the final draft that was submitted to Barry last week, and it should be 99% of what appears in the JSSUS bulletin. There were some growing pains in expanding the post to an article, and I realized along the way that these topics and themes could fill a book or more. Nevertheless, I am happy with the final result and I hope you all enjoy it.

 

Special thanks to Barry Hennick, Ford Hallam, Darcy Brockbank, & Pablo Kuntz for their help and contributions.

 

Regards,

 

—G.

[cabowen]

Excellent job! Very detailed with well documented research.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see a few blades by the smith Oguri Motoshige, having brought him to Chicago for a show some years back. He is an excellent smith and a very talented hori-shi as well...

[seattle1]

Hello Gabriel:

Excellent work Gabriel! It is great to see such an interesting article on a little touched upon subject. Very good also to see the co-operative help you have received.

Arnold F.

[Peter Bleed]

Gabriel,

This is, indeed, a terrific contribution. It is well researched and quite useful. I am also very pleased that you have made it available thru the JSSUS. Thanks!.

Peter

[cabowen]

You can tell what turns the academics on! :lol:

[Brian]

Great job Gabriel, fantastic article. A seriously professional look to it.

Would love your permission to host it in the articles section, or otherwise link it there.

Thanks for your time and effort.

 

Brian

[Gabriel L]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Brian, you are certainly welcome to host it.

 

Cheers, —G.

[Randy McCall]

Very nice work, Gabriel!

[kusunokimasahige]

Thank you ever so much for this great article !!

 

KM

[Jussi Ekholm]

Awesome article Gabriel, very well written.

[Tcat]

This is great. Thanks Gabriel

[Kevin Adams]

Wonderful article, thanks Gabriel! I can see the distinctions also being a useful start in looking at some tosogu (i.e. menuki)...

[Gabriel L]

Your comments are all appreciated.

 

Kevin, certainly these themes exist beyond horimono. Keeping the article centered on horimono was a convenient way to limit the scope, but it would be nice if there was a comprehensive dictionary of nihontō/tōsogu-related motifs, wouldn't it? There are actually elements of vajra etc. that I was continuing to discover as I was polishing the final draft. For instance:

 

* A closed vajra (with the prongs meeting at the tip) is peaceful, an open vajra wrathful.

* The male double-sided vajra vs the female vajra bell.

* The quatrefoil vajra, which is basically two crossed vajras.

* The "shoulders" on Japanese vajra prongs were originally sculpted "makara" mouths in Indian vajra, a sort of aquatic mythical beast, and the prongs were tongues.

* At least one example of a Shingon ritual involving the ken.

* At least one example of a Shingon ritual involving fire.

* Many complex interrelated concepts regarding the five wisdoms, the five wisdom kings, the five great Buddhas, lotuses, mantras, sutras, circles, etc.

 

At some point however it would have stopped being a nihontō article and started to become a Buddhism book.

 

I also slightly regret not including more example photos of fine historic horimono, since a central point of the article was that originally they had more personal meaning than they may have for many nihontō owners today. The modern ones I included are gorgeous but I think swapping a few out for some Heian/Kamakura examples might have been a good idea.

 

Anyway all this is to say that there is a lot more to the subject than I could really fit in an article, but that is trivially true I suppose. Just more incentive to keep studying.

 

Thanks again, —G.