Before moving on to the third theory, we may note one further strand of scholarly argument that, while neither sectarian nor theological, has worked to reinforce the idea of the new Kamakura Buddhism as a reaction against original enlightenment thought. This is the scholarship of historians of the kenmitsu taisei, the system of exoteric doctrine and esoteric ritual that characterized the established schools of Buddhism in the medieval period and served ideologically to support the ruling parties. Kuroda Toshio, who originated this approach, wrote that “kenmitsu ideology in its most archetypical form is found in the Tendai doctrine known as hongaku shiso.” Sato Hiroo has argued that nondual hongaku ideas equating this world with the pure land were employed to legitimize established systems of rule. Taira Masayuki sees hongaku thought as contributing both to aristocratic monopolizing of high clerical offices and to a climate in which strict observance of monastic precepts was devalued:

Novices who were scions of the nobility, having received the secret transmission of arcane rites, were easily able to lord it over the most senior monks accomplished in difficult and austere practices. This was because of original enlightenment thought. The discourse of absolute affirmation found in original enlightenment thought readily translated into an immediate affirmation of personal desires, becoming an excuse for precept-breaking and the excesses of aristocratic monks. It was further employed to rationalize the attack and razing of rival temple shrine complexes and became the intellectual basis for the activities of warrior monks (akusō).

Being concerned primarily with the institutional and ideological aspects of medieval religion, kenmitsu taisei historians have not focused on the issue of what continuities and discontinuities obtain between Tendai hongaku thought and the teachings of the new Kamakura Buddhist leaders. However, in that they have treated hongaku thought as an ideology of the dominant kenmitsu Buddhism, and the itan-ha or marginal heterodoxies as resisting kenmitsu authority, their work has contributed to the picture of the two as standing in opposition. (Page 84-85)