Dharma Horses and Karma of Equestrian: Horseback Riding Motif in Konjaku monogatari shū (Honchō Part)

The article discusses the stories about horses and riders from Konjaku monogatari shū (1120s). In the Honchō part of the collection, horseback riding is one of the cross-cutting motives uniting stories on Buddhist and secular themes. There are six main contexts in which this topic is discussed. 1) A wonderful or simply unusual horse belongs to a person with a special fate, with the features of a ruler, although it is not always possible to reveal these features. 2) A horse accompanies a person not only in bad deeds, such as hunting and war, but also in good ones, for example, helps to find a sacred place for a temple. 3) Passion for horses can push a person to crime, but one who knows how to cope with it succeeds. 4) The art of riding can introduce both the rider and the spectator into a kind of “intoxication”, yoi , akin to madness, and even strict competition ceremonial is powerless against it; however, sometimes people benefit even from their defeat in competitions. 5) The meeting of a horseman and a pedestrian on the road is a difficult case in terms of etiquette, and often in such cases people unwittingly reveal how they really relate to their fellows. 6) To be born a horse is an unenviable fate, since horses, like other animals, suffer harder than people, but being close to a human allows a horse to hear the words of Buddhist teachings and acquire a better rebirth. Human attachment to horses turns out to be beneficial for horses and for their future fate according to the law of retribution, and, therefore, allows people to help animals. So the connections between the stories in Konjaku not only contribute to the integrity of the narrative, but also express the main idea of the book: the universal connection of events in the world is designed so that everyday life sets the conditions for moving towards liberation and mercifully caring for others.

«Собрание стародавних повестей», Japanese culture, Japanese literature, Buddhism, setsuwa short stories, “A Collection of Ancient Tales”, horses, horseback riding

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