This article explores the narrative potency and ritual efficacy of a medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhist text in relation to the process of awakening and the construction of imperial legitimation, perceived as two interrelated objectives. Entitled the Kinpusen himitsuden, ‘The Secret Transmission of the Golden Peak’, the text was written by the Shingon monk Monkan Kōshin in 1337, soon after the outbreak of the civil war, at the stronghold of the southern court in Yoshino. The text is treated here as a complex ritual platform of metamorphosis and empowerment, intermingling the local cultic structure and the esoteric Buddhist ritual stage of the imperial court as well as realities internal and external to the text, which mutually inform and impregnate one another. Focusing on the articulation of a rock—the body/abode of Zaō, a tutelary mountain deity—we explore its transformation from the site of a local legend of apparition into a Buddha, an object of contemplation, the centerpiece of the imperial stage and a mold for the practitioner’s liturgical body, an achievement allowed by the text taken as a transformative agent. We demonstrate that as an epitome of esoteric Buddhist power, Zaō becomes the source of the emperor’s renewed authority as a Buddhist king, and that in turn, the emperor’s participation in the semiotic sphere of the text endows the deity with sovereign power. As such, this article shows that rather than a vessel of knowledge, the text-as-an-event, is a powerful mechanism of transformation.

本文探讨了中世纪日本密宗佛教文本的叙事效力和仪式功效，与觉醒过程和帝国合法性的构建相关，这两个目标被视为两个相互关联的目标。名为Kinpusen himitsuden《金峰秘传》，是真言宗僧人僧堪弘信于 1337 年在内战爆发后不久，在吉野南宫的据点所写的。在这里，文本被视为一个蜕变和授权的复杂仪式平台，将地方的宗教结构和宫廷密宗的佛教仪式阶段以及文本内部和外部的现实交织在一起，相互告知和浸渍。专注于岩石的表达——藏王的身体/居所，守护山神——我们探讨了它从当地传说中的幻影变成佛陀、沉思的对象、皇家舞台的中心和一个为从业者的礼仪身体模具，文本所允许的成就，作为变革的媒介。我们证明，作为深奥佛教力量的缩影，藏王成为皇帝作为佛教国王重新获得权威的源泉，而皇帝参与文本的符号学领域又赋予了神灵至高无上的权力。因此，本文表明，文本即事件不是知识的容器，而是一种强大的转换机制。