Kofukuji and the Vimalakirti Assembly

For many centuries, the Buddhist temple Kofukuji, located in the 8th-century capital of Heijo-kyo, functioned as one of the major monastic institutions of Japanese Buddhism. Within its walls, many colourful rituals were conducted for its main patrons, the Fujiwara family, and the court. These ritual events consisted of fierce doctrinal debates (rongi) that could lead its monastic participants to higher institutional positions. This study examines the highest and most illustrious of these rituals, the Vimalakirti Assembly (Yuima’e), and its connection with a lesser ritual, the Jion Assembly (Jion’e), to analyze the symbiotic relation between temple and court in the premodern period. An analysis of the doctrinal, social and institutional background of the ritual’s main actors will show how the temple’s internal structure was closely intertwined with the court nobility.