Encyclopedia of Shinto

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詳細表示 (Complete Article)

カテゴリー1： 7. Concepts and Doctrines
カテゴリー2： Basic Terms
Title
Tenjō mukyū
Text
This phrase means "everlasting like heaven and earth." It comes from part one, section one of the "Descent of the Heavenly Grandchild" (tenson kōrin) chapter in Nihongi. There, Amaterasu gives the following command to her grandchild, Ninigi. "This land of reed-plain-of-fair-rice-ears-of-fifteen-hundred-autumns is the place where my descendants shall all be kings. My august grandchild, do go down there and govern. Go! May the heavenly dynasty prosper and may it last forever just like heaven and earth." The words' meaning indicates eternity for as long as heaven and earth shall last. So did Amaterasu guarantee the establishment of an everlasting line of tennō and the prosperous development of their realm. While the idea of mappō (the Final Dharma) in Buddhism or the mappō-derived "theory of one hundred kings" contain eschatological elements, the phrase tenjō mukyū succinctly indicates the Shintō belief that life continues in perpetuity.
— Fukui Yoshihiko

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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