Buddhist Fire Ritual in Japan - PDII – LIPI

I Preface I
Preface
Madhavi Kolhatkar
Musashi Tachikawa
This is an attempt not to present the Japanese Fire Ritual in general but only that
which is performed according to Chisan branch of the Shingon sect. In 1980, the late
Professor Rev.YUsh6 Miyasaka laid the foundation stone of this project, when
accepting the request of Musashi Tachikawa, he performed the Buddhist Shingon Fire
Ritual or Gama as it is called in Japanese. At that time, all the Mudras, an important
feature of the Tantric ritual were done under the robe. Hence for better understanding,
he made them separately after the performance was over. On 29th October 1982, again
honouring the request of Tachikawa, he performed the ritual of the Fire Offerings to the
God Fudo Myoo 'Acala Vidyaraja', this time making the Mudras openly. This
performance could be filmed by the able team of National Museum of Ethnology,
Osaka, Japan (,Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan' in Japanese and popularly
more well known as Minpaku), since Musashi Tachikawa was a Co-appointed
Professor (Kyakuin Kyoju) at Minpaku. A monograph on Goma with 92 photographs,
their explanation in Japanese language and a brief introduction to the ritual was
published by Tachikawa, E. Kuwamura and A. Yamade under the title "Hude Gama no
Kiroku" pp. 48, in Sa,!,bha,ii 8, the Nagoya University Journal, November1986.
The seed of this present venture was sown when Madhavi Kolhatkar was invited
by Musashi Tachikawa to Minpaku for three months (from 21st January to 29th April
2003). It was at that time that Mrs. Mari Hattori very meticulously translated the brief
Japanese annotations to the 92 photographs published in the 48 pages monograph in
Sa,!,bhii,ii, 1986. Further, the book THE TANTRIC RITUAL OF JAPAN (FEEDING
THE GODS: THE SHINGON FIRE RITUAL) by Richard Payne became like the Old
Testament to liS. He has described, in it, the ritual in minute details and in a very clear
and picturesque way and has explained even the difficult topics like Mudra:; in a very
simple, easy and lucid style. It is due to his work that our task became far less difficult.
At times, there were differences in the traditions which gave rise to various doubts in
our mind. At such times we were immensely fortunate to avail of the able guidance of
Rev. Ylik6 Miyasaka, a son of the late Rev. Ylish6 Miyasaka. Also, he was gracious to
allow us to take additional photographs of some of the Mudras in 2011.
In the process of taking photos, making a film, finalizing and completing the text
and bringing it to the book fOnTI, valuable help was volunteered and offered by the
students of the Nagoya University, the staff of Minpaku office, computer division and
library, Mrs. Satoko Suzuki, Mr. Takeshi Kameyama, Mrs. Chieko Kameyama an,d Ms.
Junko Koguchi. The credit from the inception to the completion of this project goes to
all these.