Deeper significance of suken, hōken, kurikararyū etc. hori

Hello everyone.

For a few weeks I've been collecting detailed vocab (kanji) as a way to improve my reading skills, sort out a few longstanding points of confusion/ambiguity, explore topics I may have previously glossed over, etc. I've found some very nice sites in the process—this Japanese page has been great, for example—and found a few gaps in my academic knowledge that I am working on filling. On the one hand it's "just vocab," but on the other hand, really making sure I know what each kanji means and how it relates to others has been surprisingly illuminating.

One such gap has been the deeper religious significance of many horimono. I could previously identify the motifs in a simple way ("that's Fudō Myōō, that's a suken, that's sō-no-ryū with a flaming pearl" etc.) but it is only recently that I learned of a few deeper connections bridging the many ken motifs.

The following will undoubtedly be painfully old news to many of you, and perhaps woefully incomplete besides; but for the newbies and intermediates among us, I hope it may be useful information as it was for me. I rush to add that this is just an edited summary and amalgamation of many other peoples' work, especially this page. I will append as many of the sources I used that I can recall (with the most relevant at the top).

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剣 Ken

We all know (I presume) that ken are, in general, buddhist ritual objects in the form of a double-edged straight sword, often represented in various stylistic ways in blade horimono. Of particular interest is the distinctive "vajra" hilt. But what is a vajra exactly?

金剛 Kongō (vajra)

Vajra (kongō in Japanese) is a sanskrit homophone for both lightning and diamond, symbolizing unstoppable force and immovable spirit. The physical vajra is ostensibly a weapon, but like the ken is really a ritual object, meant to overcome evil via the indestructible truth. It is symmetric with a varying number of prongs at a given end. One (dokko), three (sanko), and five (goko) are typical; three is most common. It often has demons' eyes running down the center, and lotus blossom patterns to either side.

独鈷 Dokko (Tokko) (single-blade vajra)

This motif also represents a spoke in the Buddhist wheel of law. This is not directly related to the following items, but as it is a motif sometimes seen in horimono/menuki, it is worth mentioning.

三鈷 Sanko (trident vajra)

The sanko represents the three jewels (sanbō 三宝) of Buddha, Dharma (law), and Sangha (community). This is the common form used as the hilt for certain kinds of ken.

宝剣 Hō-ken (treasure sword), 三鈷剣 Sanko-ken, or 金剛剣 Kongō-ken (vajra sword)

So now we have come full circle and have a little bit better understanding of what the hilt of a ken is, and why this form of ken is called hōken or sankoken. But what is the significance of turning the vajra into a sword?

不道明王 Fudō Myōō (literally "immovable wisdom king")

Acala-vidyaraja in the original Sanskrit. A worthy accounting of Fudō's meaning and importance to Shingon Buddhism would be impossible here, but we can address some basic points. The highest of the Wisdom Kings, a category of deity following Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, he is a manifestation of the Buddha Mahāvairocana.

He is wrathful in the pursuit and eradication of evil from men's hearts. Wreathed in flames, he burns away earthly ties. He has blue skin, and sometimes even crooked fangs. In his left hand he holds a kenjaku 羂索 (five-colored lariat) used to bring wanderers back into the true path, or to bind harmful emotions.

In his right hand, he holds the kongō-ken 金剛剣. If the kenjaku should fail to restrain men's violent passions, Fudō can cut their earthly ties using this sword. Thus the hōken is a means by which Fudō cuts through delusions and overcomes evil. For this reason, this sword is also called the chiken 知剣 — sword of wisdom.

素剣 Suken

A stylized representation of a ken blade. As far as I know it has no further significance other than that inherited from the above points. However, as in the second image, sometimes it has a base with a tsume 爪 (claw)—specifically that of a dragon. Which brings me to…

剣巻龍 Kenmaki-ryū (dragon wrapped around ken) or 倶梨伽羅剣 Kurikara-ken (dragon king sword)

Another common horimono theme is the dragon wrapped around a ken. Sometimes it is wreathed in flames (sound familiar?). This is not simply an arbitrary mashup of images:

There is a legend that Fudō was challenged by another deity. They both manifested as flaming swords (ken) and found they were evenly matched. However, Fudō then transformed into a dragon, wound around the other sword, and ate it from the top. Thus, the dragon-king Kurikara 倶利迦羅 is actually another representation of Fudō Myōō.

On a related note, Kurikara is golden in color; thus, depicting him in actual gold is not just for materialism's sake.

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I invite everyone's corrections and comments as I was only peripherally aware of these themes before doing this research, and am still quite a novice when it comes to the deeper religious dimensions of horimono. There are many other interesting connected themes in other horimono, but I wanted to focus on this variety tonight. I hope it has been of interest!

Regards,

—Gabriel

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Sources include, but were certainly not limited to:

http://world.choshuya.co.jp/engrave/index.htm (most images)

http://new.uniquejapan.com/glossary/ (the image of the ken)

http://nihonto.ca (the image of the suken)

bujishugyo.wordpress.com (connection between Fudō and Kurikara; Fudō image)

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/o ... senju.html

http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/kongousho.htm

http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Eosaru/index.htm

Connoisseur's (Nakayama)

Harry "Afu" Watson's glossary (Nihon Tōkō Jiten etc.)

http://www.thejapanesesword.com/terminology

Wikipedia (yes, I know…)

Gabriel,

Thanks for posting.. I found it very interesting.

Barrie.

Thanks Barrie! Glad that you enjoyed it.

I forgot to add an observation. Compare the tsume (claw) at the base of the suken with the prongs of the ordinary sankoken. Consider also that Japanese dragons are usually depicted with three claws, specifically. Though I have not seen a source specifically confirming this, it seems pretty evident to me that these elements (the three sanko prongs and the claws of Kurikara) have become semi-equated in the Japanese artistic motifs.

Well done Gabriel, what an excellent read.

I would like to turn that into a pdf article if ok. Also, I suspect the JSSUS would love to use it for their newsletter

Thanks for that, you are a natural researcher.

Brian

Splendid! It is nice to see what curiosity, the internet, and motivation can accomplish. Very nice work indeed.

Very interesting, thanks for posting it.

Outstanding!! Glad Brian is saving to file for future ref.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Barry did indeed ask if it could be included in the JSSUS, to which I was happy to agree. To that end, I am actually cleaning it up slightly and producing a PDF in more formal article form that will include a couple additional notes. I will post it when it's done (which will be before Monday).

Regards,

—G.

Cheers Gabriel, your write up as been very helpful, id been planning on learning something about Horimono. I have a wakizashi from the late Nanbokucho period, the horimono as diminished with polishing over the years and did have me curious. I had the horimono down as Suken previously, but i believe Hoken or Sankoken is the correct term.

Yes, you can clearly see the remains of the sanko/kongō-tsuka (vajra hilt), which would make this an example of the hōken (treasure sword) / chiken (wisdom sword) / sanko-ken (trident vajra sword) / kongō-ken (vajra sword). Take your pick as to which term you like best, they all apply.

Suken 素剣 literally means "plain ken," referring to the simplified design. The first kanji Su 素 means undecorated or unadulterated, from the more concrete meaning of plain white silk; note the lower radical 糸 (thread). This is the same kanji in suaka 素銅, purified copper.

Thank you Gabriel, you have been extremely helpful indeed

I hope @Noah is fine with me posting his photo here as it is a beautiful example of what has been discussed in this thread.

I've added a red love-heart necro 'like' to the OP original post as I cannot ever remember seeing this thread/article before, more so as I have a lovely Echizen Shimosaka kiriha katana with very well executed horimono.  I shall now read the entire thread with very close attention.  A belated thank you to Gabriel.  Dunno how I could have missed this and I wonder how many 'old' threads could do with an occasional update for newer members.

BaZZa.

I completely agree with Barry above.

I never saw this before and it was extremely interesting so, belated thank you to Gabriel too.

Warm Regards,

Jesse 

Worth adding that religious horimono were added and not to be freshened up if dulled by subsequent polishes to the blade. They were meant to be a spiritually indelible attribute by whoever ordered the carving.