A, literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a buddha in the form of an indigenous kami, an entity who had come to guide the people to salvation, during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan. The words and are synonyms for gongen. is the term for belief in the existence of gongen. The gongen concept is the cornerstone of the honji suijaku theory, according to which Buddhist deities choose to appear to the Japanese as native kami in order to save them, which is based on the Mahayana Buddhist notion of upaya, "expedient means".
History
It is sometimes assumed that the wordgongen derives from Tokugawa Ieyasu's posthumous name. However, the term was created and started being used in the middle of the Heian period in an effort to harmonize Buddhism and indigenous religious practice in what is called shinbutsu-shūgō or "syncretism of kami and buddhas". At that time, the assumption that Japanese kami and buddhas were essentially the same evolved into a theory called honji suijaku, which held that native kami were manifestations or avatars of buddhas, bodhisattvas and other Buddhist deities. The theory gradually spread around the country and the concept of gongen, a dual entity composed of a buddha and a kami, evolved. Under the influence of Tendai Buddhism and Shugendō, the gongen concept was adapted to religious beliefs tied to Mount Iwaki, a volcano, so that female kami Kuniyasutamahime became associated with Avalokiteśvaraekadaśamukha, Ōkuninushi with Bhaisajyaguru and Kuninotokotachi with Amitābha. The title "gongen" started being attached to the names of kami and shrines were built within the premises of large Buddhist temples to enshrine their tutelary kami. During the Japanese Middle Ages, shrines started being called with the name gongen to underline their ties to Buddhism. For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many Mount Haku shrines where the shrine itself is called either gongen or jinja. Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to native kami, the use of the term was legally abolished in the Meiji Restoration with the Shinbutsu bunri and shrines began to be called jinja.
Gongen of Japan
Izuna Gongen, also called "Izuna Myōjin" and enshrined in Izuna Shrine in Nagano, is similar to a tengu and represents the kami of Mount Iizuna.
Kumano Gongen, also known as Three Mountains of Kumano. The kami enshrined in the three Kumano Sanzan Grand Shrines and worshipped in Kumano shrines are the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi.
Zaō Gongen or Kongō Zaō Bosatsu is a deity worshiped in Shugendō.
''Gongen-zukuri''
Gongen-zukuri is the name of a complex Shinto shrinestructure in which the haiden, or worship hall, and the honden, or main sanctuary, are interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H. One of the oldest examples of gongen-zukuri is Kitano Tenmangū in Kyoto. The name comes from Nikkō Tōshō-gū in Nikkō because, as we have seen, it enshrines the Tōshō Daigongen and adopts this structure.
