What is Kyuri Kaji?

What is "kaji"?

Why a cucumber is used

The cucumber is used as a container that receives illness and misfortune within the prayer.

It is long and slender, easy to hold in the hand and stroke against the body, and a familiar crop during the summer doyo. Its concrete form and seasonal character make the cucumber easy to accept as a vessel.

The wisdom of "vicarious suffering" (daijuku), seeing the cucumber as a human body

Buddhism has the word "vicarious suffering" (daijuku). It expresses the working of compassion in which another being receives suffering in one's place.

In Kyuri Kaji, the cucumber is treated as a stand-in for the petitioner. Rather than holding the illness and misfortune within oneself, the cucumber is used as a receptacle for entrusting them to the Buddha within the prayer.

The bodily sense of the doyo, and the cucumber in season

The doyo period brings together the heat and the turning of the season, a time when one's health is easily upset. The cucumber, rich in moisture, is a crop close to the bodily sense of that season.

In Chinese materia medica as well, the cucumber has long been described as a crop that cools the body. There is a naturalness rooted in everyday experience in using a seasonal crop in a prayer that entrusts summer's ailments to the Buddha.

The cucumber as a vessel of prayer, as seen by Gorai Shigeru

Gorai Shigeru (1908–1993, professor at Koyasan University and Otani University), a great authority in Buddhist folklore studies, touched on the summer prayers that include Kyuri Kaji, and on cucumber belief, in his book Religious Almanac (Kadokawa Sensho, 1982; reissued by Kadokawa Sophia Bunko, 2010).

The cucumber has a tradition of being made an offering to the water deity, and, like the gourd, was thought capable of becoming a container for holding something spiritual.

Put in difficult terms, the cucumber was seen as "a vessel that receives something spiritual." Put more plainly, the cucumber is a summer gourd rich in water, and has been received as something readily suited both to be an offering to the gods and buddhas and to be a stand-in for entrusting illness and misfortune.

Among the same family of gourds, the calabash (hyōtan) too has long been cherished as a container for medicine and a container to ward off evil. Hollow within and able to hold something, the gourd family was likely easy to see, within the beliefs of East Asia, as "that which receives" and "that which guards."

It is precisely for this reason that, in Kyuri Kaji, illness and misfortune are entrusted to the cucumber. It is not so much that the cucumber itself has a mysterious power, but rather that a single familiar, water-rich cucumber is used as a vessel for receiving the Buddha's empowerment.

Even in ancient words of prayer, one can sense a way of reading the image of a gourd parting naturally from its vine as a metaphor for being released from bondage.

In the ancient Indian scripture the Rigveda, Book Seven, 7.59.12, there remain the words of a prayer: "as a ripe gourd parts from its stem."

Original Sanskrit (Devanāgarī)

त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ॥

IAST transliteration

tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam |
urvārukam-iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā ’mṛtāt ||

English translation

We worship and revere the three-eyed sacred one,
whose power fills like fragrance, nourishing life and granting strength.
As a ripe fruit parts of itself from the vine,
so release us from the bonds of death,
and lead us toward life everlasting.

This does not mean that this prayer is itself the direct origin of Japan's Kyuri Kaji. Yet the way of reading the image of a gourd parting naturally from its vine as a release from bondage offers a deep guiding line for considering Kyuri Kaji, in which one prays for illness and misfortune to part from the body.

Source: Ṛgveda-saṃhitā, Book Seven, 7.59.12. This passage belongs to the middle maṇḍalas and is included in the Vasiṣṭha family collection. The text follows the word-by-word recitation (Padapāṭha) held in GRETIL, the Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages at the University of Göttingen.

• GRETIL word-by-word recitation (Padapāṭha)

Transmission by Odaishi-sama, and the path of Kyuri Kaji

Kyuri Kaji belongs to the esoteric Buddhist prayer that Odaishi-sama transmitted from Tang China. Its source goes back to the esoteric scriptures and ritual manuals of the Tang, and through the Heian court and the temples of the medieval age it spread as a summer prayer in regions across the land.

1. 7th century CE　Chang'an, the Tang capital

   Offering winter melon into the homa, a prayer to quell calamity

   The esoteric Buddhist ritual texts translated in Chang'an, the Tang capital, record rites for offering winter melon and its vines into the fire of the homa. The gourd was not merely a crop to eat; it was also an offering to quell the unseen presence of calamity and illness, and to carry prayer up to the buddhas and devas.

   The Dhāraṇīsamuccaya (Daranijikkyō), translated in 654 CE by the Tang monk Atikūṭa (Ajikuta), arrays rites in which various offerings are made into the homa fire to delight spirits and the deva ranks. Among them is a passage on offering winter melon into the fire bit by bit.

   Original Chinese　Dhāraṇīsamuccaya, fascicle ten (Taishō Tripiṭaka vol. 18, No. 901, trans. Atikūṭa, Tang dynasty, 654 CE)

   又法、若取具嚧陀木一千八段、一一呪已、呪一遍火中燒盡、一切鳩盤荼・藥叉等鬼神皆悉歡喜。
   又法、若火燒冬瓜少少、一千八遍并呪者、一切魍魎皆悉歡喜。
   又法、若取塚墓之樹木一千八段與胡麻相和、火燒一千八遍并呪者、一切大惡鬼神歡喜。

   • CBETA Online

   English translation

   Another rite. Take one thousand and eight pieces of nyagrodha-like wood (kurodaboku, a tree resembling the banyan), recite the incantation over each, and offer them into the fire one recitation at a time. Then the spirits such as the kumbhāṇḍa (kubanda) and the yakṣa (yakusha) will all rejoice.
   Another rite. Offer winter melon into the fire bit by bit, performing it together with the incantation one thousand and eight times, and the mōryō spirits will all rejoice.
   Another rite. Take one thousand and eight pieces of wood from a grave mound, combine them with sesame, and offer them into the fire together with the incantation one thousand and eight times, and all the great evil spirits will rejoice.

   Offering winter melon into the fire of the homa, layering mantras upon it. There, even the unseen ones feared for bringing illness and calamity are quelled within the place of prayer. The gourd was used as an offering that softens calamity amid the fire and the mantra.

   The Shō-kani-funnu-kongō-dōji-bosatsu-jōju-giki-kyō (the Ritual Manual for the Accomplishment of the Bodhisattva Krodha-Vajrakumāra), translated by the Tang master Amoghavajra (Fukū Sanzō, 705–774), goes a step further and expounds a rite for using the vines of winter melon in the homa in order to subdue the kumbhāṇḍa spirits.

   Original Chinese　Shō-kani-funnu-kongō-dōji-bosatsu-jōju-giki-kyō, middle fascicle (Taishō Tripiṭaka vol. 21, No. 1222a, trans. Amoghavajra, Tang dynasty)

   又法欲降伏鳩盤茶鬼、取冬瓜蔓藤長十指截一千八莖、搵酥護摩、誦真言一千八遍、一遍一擲火中、其鬼即皆降伏。

   • CBETA Online

   English translation

   Again, a rite to subdue the kumbhāṇḍa spirits (kubandaki). Cut the vines of winter melon to about the length of ten fingers, and prepare one thousand and eight stems. Steep these in clarified butter (su), perform the homa, and recite the mantra one thousand and eight times. Casting one stem into the fire with each recitation, those spirits will all be subdued.

   What is cast into the fire here is not the fruit of the winter melon but its vines. The rite of offering the fruit into the fire, and the rite of casting the vines into the fire. Their forms differ, yet through both runs the same sense of prayer: quelling unseen calamity by means of the concrete object that is the gourd.

   Concerning the kumbhāṇḍa, Huilin's Yiqiejing yinyi gives explanations such as "winter-melon spirit" and "its face and belly resemble a winter melon." The winter melon was something that called to mind the form of the spirits who bring calamity, and at the same time an offering for entrusting that calamity to the Buddha's fire.

   In Kyuri Kaji, illness and calamity are transferred to the cucumber, and at the end returned to the earth. In the winter-melon homa seen in the Tang texts as well, there appears a heart that makes the gourd a vessel of prayer and entrusts calamity to the working of the Buddha. The ages and the rites differ, yet the prayer that, before a familiar gourd, calamity may be quelled resonates quietly across them.

   Source: Taishō Tripiṭaka vol. 18, No. 901, Dhāraṇīsamuccaya, fascicle ten, 0873c01–c08 (trans. Atikūṭa); the same, vol. 21, No. 1222a, Shō-kani-funnu-kongō-dōji-bosatsu-jōju-giki-kyō, middle fascicle, 0112c26–c28 (trans. Amoghavajra); and the kumbhāṇḍa-related entries in vol. 54, No. 2128, Yiqiejing yinyi. The text is held by the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA).

2. 9th century CE　Odaishi-sama's transmission of esoteric Buddhism

   Odaishi-sama brings esoteric Buddhism to Japan

   Odaishi-sama (774–835) traveled to Tang China from 804 to 806 CE, received the abhiṣeka (kanjō) of both maṇḍala divisions from Master Huiguo (Keika Ajari) of Qinglong Temple in Chang'an, and brought the orthodox lineage of esoteric Buddhism to Japan. The teachings of "kaji" and the "three mysteries empowerment" that support Kyuri Kaji were systematized at this time (for details, see What is "kaji"?).

   Source: Taishō Tripiṭaka vol. 77, No. 2428, Sokushin-jōbutsu-gi (composed by Kōbō Daishi, first half of the 9th century), and the same, vol. 39, No. 1796, Dainichikyō-sho, fascicle five (expounded by Śubhakarasiṃha, recorded by Yixing). The text is held by the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA).

3. Court tales of the late 10th to early 11th century　Preserved in the Kokon Chomonjū and the Genkō Shakusho

   Empowerment over a gourd, before Fujiwara no Michinaga

   In the Genkō Shakusho, a history of Japanese Buddhism composed by Kokan Shiren (1278–1346) of the late Kamakura period, fascicle four, "Wisdom and Understanding, Part Two of Three," the Biography of the Monk Kanju (Shaku Kanju den), there is preserved an intriguing anecdote. It is the tale of an occasion when summer gourds were delivered to Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1028), and there happened to be present Kanju (945–1008, Tendai school, chief administrator of Onjōji), who was deeply revered by Michinaga, the onmyōji and doctor of astronomy Abe no Seimei (921–1005), and the physician Tanba no Shigemasa (946–1011).

   Original Chinese　Genkō Shakusho, fascicle four (composed by Kokan Shiren, completed in 1322, 30 fascicles in all. Held in CBETA Supplement No. B0173)

   開門納之。于時修在座。大史安晴明、大毉重雅預焉。
   相國顧安大史曰。家裏有齋祓、不知此瓜可嘗不。
   晴明曰。瓜中有毒不可輙啖也。
   相國語修曰。許多瓜子何為毒乎。
   修誦呪加持。忽一瓜宛轉騰躍。一座驚恠。
   重雅乃袖出一針針瓜、其動便止。割見中有毒蛇、針中其眼。蓋術家之言是也。

   • CBETA Online

   English translation

   The gate was opened and [the gourds] were brought in. At that time, Ju (Kanju) was present, and the Grand Astrologer (taishi, the Chinese-style title for the doctor of astronomy) Abe no Seimei, and the Grand Physician (taii, a physician of the Bureau of Medicine) Tanba no Shigemasa (946–1011, later Head of the Bureau of Medicine), were also in attendance.
   The Minister (shōkoku, Michinaga) turned to Seimei and said: "A purification rite has just been performed within the household; may these gourds be eaten or not?"
   Seimei said: "There is poison within the gourds. They should not be eaten lightly."
   The Minister turned to Ju and asked: "Among so many gourds, which could be the poison?"
   Ju recited an incantation and performed empowerment. Thereupon one gourd suddenly rolled and sprang up. The whole company was astonished and uneasy.
   Shigemasa drew a needle from his sleeve and pierced the gourd, and its movement at once ceased. When it was split open, there was a poisonous snake within, and the needle had pierced through its eye. The onmyōji's words had been correct.

   This anecdote well displays an old Japanese sense of prayer, in which the gourd and empowerment were spoken of together. The calamity lurking within the gourd begins to move through the monk's recited incantation and empowerment, and is quelled by the physician's needle. Receiving and quelling unseen anxiety while drawing upon the power of the Buddha. Here too, before a single gourd, the heart that prays for illness and misfortune to part lives quietly on.

   Source: Kokan Shiren, Genkō Shakusho, fascicle four, "Wisdom and Understanding, Part Two of Three," the Biography of the Monk Kanju. A similar tale is also preserved in the Kokon Chomonjū, fascicle seven, "The Arts, No. 9," Tale 295.

4. Medieval age　12th–16th century

   Carried on as a temple prayer

   By the medieval age, the prayers of esoteric Buddhism did not remain only within temple halls but spread deeply into the daily lives of people facing illness and calamity. Mantras, protective talismans, empowerment, the use of a stand-in, and rites for returning things to the earth were handed down as prayers that guard daily life, bound together with the prayers of temples across the land.

   Kyuri Kaji, too, ripened within such a current of prayer. Using the cucumber as a stand-in, transferring illness and calamity to it, receiving the Buddha's empowerment, and returning it to the earth. There, the three mysteries empowerment of esoteric Buddhism, the illness-sealing of Shugendō, and the common people's wish to pass safely through the summer overlap. The concreteness of this prayer lies in entrusting the power of the sutras and mantras to a single familiar thing, the cucumber.

Together with the emigrants of the Meiji era, Kyuri Kaji crossed the sea and was transmitted to Hawaii as well (for details, see A prayer that took root across the sea: Hawaii's Kyuri Kaji). Today it is carried on at temples across the country, beyond the Shingon school and across sectarian lines, and online as well. For temples that perform it, please see A list of temples performing Kyuri Kaji across the country.

Yasaka Shrine's cucumber taboo, another story of the cucumber

In fact, the parishioners of Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto have traditionally been said not to eat cucumber.

There are two reasons. One is that Yasaka Shrine's shrine crest, the "goka ni karahana", resembles the cross-section of a cucumber. The other is the tradition that Yasaka Shrine's enshrined deity, Gozu Tennō, hid in a cucumber field and saved his life while being pursued. It is the belief that it would be too presumptuous for the parishioners to eat the cucumber that saved the deity's life.

Goka ni karahana crest

Cross-section of a cucumber

• Crest image: Mukai / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This cucumber taboo is confirmed to be distributed across the country in the branch shrines of Yasaka Shrine and in regions where Gion belief has spread, in the folklorist Suzuki Tōzō's Dictionary of Japanese Folk Beliefs: Animals and Plants (Kadokawa Shoten, 1982; later split into volumes, Kadokawa Sophia Bunko, Plants volume, 2020).

A prayer that took root across the sea: Hawaii's Kyuri Kaji

The tradition of Kyuri Kaji does not remain only in Japan. In Hawaii, far across the Pacific, this culture of prayer too is cherished and carried on.

In the latter half of the 19th century (from 1885 onward), Japanese immigrants crossed the Pacific as laborers on the sugarcane plantations. Amid the harsh labor and unfamiliar culture of a new land, they held fast to the faith of their homeland as a support for the heart. On plantations where medical resources were limited, prayer was also a support for living.

In particular, the gatherings of Kōbō Daishi devotion called "Daishikō" functioned as healing rites in which medicine and religion were united. The research of Moriya Tomoe of Ritsumeikan University, "Aspects of Japanese American Buddhist Organizations in Prewar Hawaii" (Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture, 20-1, 2008), reveals this history in detail.

Within comparative folklore, amid prayers surrounding the body and calamity

Kyuri Kaji is a rite in which suffering is not merely received within the mind, but entrusted to the concrete object that is the cucumber and prayed over. Similar conceptions are found in East Asia and its surroundings as well, such as effigies, paper substitute-bodies, atoning offerings, and rites for calling back the soul.

The comparable point is that suffering and calamity are not treated as something abstract, but are prayed over through concrete forms: an object that touches the body, a paper figure, an offering, a voice that calls the soul. Among these, Kyuri Kaji has the following features.

1. The cucumber is used as a fresh vessel that can be stroked against the body.It is a long, slender, water-rich crop, bound to the bodily sense of the summer doyo.
2. Protective talisman, mantra, empowerment, and the rite of returning to the earth are united in one.Illness and misfortune are entrusted to the cucumber, empowered before the Buddha, and at the end returned to the earth.
3. It is performed in the height of summer, during the doyo, as a seasonal rite praying for freedom from illness.It is an observance praying for the body's safety amid the heat and the turning of the season.
4. The rites differ from temple to temple, yet it is distributed across the country.It is carried on not only at esoteric Buddhist temples, but also as regional belief and as a summer annual observance.

Frequently asked questions (on doctrine)

Principal references and sources

This page is compiled on the basis of a comprehensive search of primary-source materials. Here we introduce the principal works that serve as sources for its descriptions.

On this page, in order to convey the Kyuri Kaji handed down by Kōbō Daishi, we refer to the above original texts and research materials as background sources. The relationship between literary documents, temple traditions, and folkloric materials is set out as distinctly as possible within the main text.