Moving monks and mountains: Chōgen and the cults of Gyōki, Mañjuśrī, and Wutai

ABSTRACT The renown of Chōgen (1121–1206), who spearheaded Tōdaiji’s early medieval restoration, rests greatly on his reputed three pilgrimages to China. However, scholars have long questioned Chōgen’s accounts, with some doubting that he ever went. The current majority view is that he did go. But doubts linger concerning other details Chōgen claims, including his professed veneration of Mañjuśrī at Mt. Wutai. On one hand, Kujō Kanezane’s (1149–1207) diary records an 1183 dialogue in which Chōgen reports that he could not travel to Wutai due to the Jin occupation. On the other hand, Chōgen’s 1185 vow for Tōdaiji’s restored Great Buddha claims that he did make it to Wutai. But given that Wutai remained under Jin control then, and we have no evidence for a trip by Chōgen in that interim, how can we understand this incongruity? This article contextualizes that incongruity within Chōgen’s cultic and performative practices, arguing that questions of Chōgen’s veneration of Mañjuśrī ‘at Wutai’ require more than tests of historical veracity to assess. I suggest instead that the very ‘fit’ and ‘non-fit’ of the moving pieces and players provide the keys to understanding how Chōgen places Wutai and his cultic practices within broader cultural imaginaries.