The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (589 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Daijô-sai
.
The first First Fruits Ceremony (
Niiname-sai
) following the accession of a new emperor in Japan. The entire sequence of official preparations and performances, promulgated during the 10th cent., is contained in
Engi-shiki Procedures of the Engi Era
[Books VI-X]
, tr. F. Bock (1970), 27–56.
Daikoku
.
A Japanese deity (said to have been introduced to Japan by
Saich
, 767–822), identified in the popular mind as one of the seven gods of luck (Shichi-fuku-shin). The name is a Sino-Jap. tr. of the Skt.
Mah
k
la
, an Indian deity whose character in Japan is manifested variously as a deity of war, of wealth and agriculture, and of the underworld.
Daiky
.
The ‘Great Doctrine’ promulgated by the new imperial Japanese government in the late 19th cent., as part of its effort to create a state religion. The Great Doctrine stated three central moral-religious tenets:
(i) reverence for the national gods,
(ii) the importance of the Law of Heaven and the Way of Humanity, and
(iii) loyalty to the throne and authorities.
Daimoku
.
(Jap., ‘sacred title’). The practice of chanting the
mantra
namu my
h
renge ky
, ‘I take refuge in the Lotus of the Wonderful Law S
tra’ (
Lotus
S
tra) followed by
Nichiren
Buddhists. The Japanese monk Nichiren (1222–82) believed all Buddhist teaching and practice is concentrated in this mantra, which he also calligraphically inscribed on a tablet called the
gohonzon
, ‘object of worship’.

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