It is said that the Kechiengyō (結縁経) was performed at the time of the Gyakushu ceremony, because the Gyakushu (逆修) was understood as a ceremony that serves to connect oneself with the Tathāgata. However, there is no cases in which the Kechiengyō was conducted at the time of the Gyakushu ceremony during the Heian Period. Therefore, I suppose that the purpose of the Gyakushu was not to connect oneself with the Tathāgata.
The Gyakushu means to pray that one’s soul may rest in peace after death while one is still alive, and to conduct a prayer ceremony prior to one’s death, which is similar to the ceremony conducted posthumously every 7 days during the 49 days after death. It can be understood that the Gyakushu’s rituals are conducted in the same manner as the Chūin’s (中陰, intermediate state) rituals with oneself as the person being commemorated.
In this paper, I discuss why the Kechiengyō was not performed at the time of the Gyakushu ceremony by considering the changes to the Gyakushu’s rituals in the Heian Period and comparing them with the Chūin’s rituals.
