Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

to deliver the labor and taxes demanded of them. In this way, local gods
symbolized the authority that rulers exercised over people and land.
After the late thirteenth century, it became common for rural warriors
to augment their clan shrines by establishing clan-centered Buddhist temples
(ujidera [94]), especially ones associated with Pure Land or Zen. Pure
Land teachings were especially popular among warriors because they
promised that even killers could escape the torments of hell and attain deliverance
to the Buddha’s Pure Land. The main appeal of Zen priests lay in
their ability to perform Chinese-style funeral rites and elaborate memorial
services that enhanced the earthly prestige of deceased warrior rulers and
their descendants. These different forms of Buddhism did not necessarily
preclude one another. A single family could, for example, sponsor many
types of religious institutions simultaneously: an esoteric temple to pray for
military success, a Pure Land temple for the salvation of soldiers killed in
battle, a Confucian hall to teach duty and loyalty to their living vassals, and
a Zen temple for the aggrandizement of their clan ancestors. Regardless of
their denominational affiliation, however, Buddhist temples functioned like
clan shrines as religious reinforcements for social and political status. In
many cases, for example, the abbot of the main temple would be a blood
relation of the leader of the local warrior band that sponsored the temple.
The abbot’s disciples consisted primarily of kinsmen of the vassals who
comprised the warrior band, and these disciples would serve as head priests
at affiliated branch temples sponsored by those vassal families. In this way
familial, military, and ecclesiastical hierarchies merged or mirrored one another.
Peasants found themselves subjected to social domination justified
by unified religious and military authority. The deification of Tokugawa
Ieyasu served this same purpose for Japan as a whole.
Martial arts were taught by one generation to the next within real or
fictional familial lineages (ryûha [95]). These martial art lineages, like warrior
families in general, also worshiped ancestral spirits and tutelary deities.
Anyone who wished to learn martial curricula was required to sign a
pledge (kishômon [96]) requesting membership in one of these lineages.
Such pledges usually concluded by stating that any violations of the lineage’s
rules would invite divine punishment by their tutelary deities. Members
of the lineage observed ancestor rites and participated in religious ceremonies
at clan temples and shrines just as if they were related by blood.
Group devotion was symbolized by the donation of votive plaques (hônô
kaku [97]) to local shrines or temples. These plaques typically proclaimed
the historical ties of that particular martial lineage to a religious institution,
listed the names of all the lineage members, and requested divine assistance.
Donation of a plaque was accompanied by monetary gifts and performance
of religious ceremonies, including ritual performance of martial arts. Par-
488 Religion and Spiritual Development: Japan