From this question

[Why is に used in
若者が元気に溢れている?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/29460/why-
is-%E3%81%AB-used-
in-%E8%8B%A5%E8%80%85%E3%81%8C%E5%85%83%E6%B0%97%E3%81%AB%E6%BA%A2%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B)

I did few hours ago another one, a bigger one arose.

> マフィアは隠れ蓑に合法的な事業を展開している

I know に can be used as an indirect complement but I would have used として since
隠れ蓑に is not the recipient of an action.

Also Can someone explain how is に used as an indirect complement?
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grammar particles particle-に
に as an indirect complement
So yesterday I was trying to understand this a little better. I think that に
is just the answer japanese has to most of the indirect compliments.

There are Transitive and Intransitive verbs

* * *

**Transitive verbs** have

Subject=The one who performs the action  
Direct Object=The one which the action acts upon  
Verb=An action

> 僕が林檎を食べる

How do you know which is the direct object?  
You could ask this questions:

> What is the action?  
>  Who/What is doing the action?  
>  What is being (insert verb)?

So the answers are

> What is the action? 食べる  
>  Who/What is doing the action? 僕 (Marked with が)  
>  What is being (食べる )?林檎 (Marked with を)

Sometimes there is a receiver of the direct object:  
**The indirect object**

> 僕が彼にペンを上げた
>
> What is the action? 上げる  
>  Who/What is doing the action? 僕  
>  What is being (上げる)?ペン  
>  Who is recipient of the Object?彼

**This indirect object is marked with に**

In my example

> マフィアは隠れ蓑に合法的な事業を展開している
>
> What is the action? 展開する  
>  Who/What is doing the action? マフィア  
>  What is being (展開する)?合法的な事業  
>  Who is recipient of the Object?隠れ蓑

You can say that 隠れ蓑 is the recipient of the action but you can say that it
answer the te question

> as what?

Which is another indirect complement. So as long as there is no other particle
that fit the role に can be used. (IF there is a choice you can use another
particle which fit the same gramatical role in that situation, but not with
the complement of means で)

* * *

**Intransitive verbs**

**Here there is no direct object for the action** Excluding times when: You
get out of a smaller to a bigger place:

> 建物を出る

You are going trough something

> 空を飛んでいる

So some verbs have a transitive and intransitive form.

The transitive is used to act upon an object and the intransitive is kinda
like a state of being.

> Transitive:閉める=To close something  
>  Intransitive:閉まる=To be closed

Some verbs while being intransitive have different meanings. For example:

Intransitive:映える=To shine, To look attractive, To look pretty

映える=To shine

**If the meaning is active** (The subject is doing an action) You have
something like this:

> 夕焼けが空に映える
>
> What is the action? 映える  
>  Who/What is doing the action? 夕焼け  
>  What is being (映える)? Nothing  
>  Where is the verb happening?空
>
> The sunset shines in the sky

As you can see に here means the location where something takes place.

If the meaning is passive (in the sense that something is doing a state for a
lack of a better term). 映える=To look attractive

> ジャケットが映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える.
>
> What is the action? 映える  
>  Who/What is doing the action? ジャケット  
>  What is being (映える)? Nothing  
>  What is the indirect complement? Nothing
>
> In order for a jacket to look attractive you have to train your deltoids and
> traps.

When I say **indirect complement** I mean the answer to every question which
is not "Whom?" "What?". (that is how it is my native language at least).

  * It can used to also mean the way you do something when transforming な adjectives into adverbs.
  * It can be used to show company

and has other roles.

Ultimately I think it does not matter the distinction beetween intransitive
(active and passive) since I believe you could say, but I am not sure so if
there is a mistake please correct me.

> 僕がジャケットに映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える. I,in order to look good in a jacket, train my
> deltoids and traps.
>
> 僕にジャケットが映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える. In order for the jacket to look good on me, I
> train my deltoids and traps.

If I am wrong please correct me.
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answer
You are correct that you can use `として` there. This kind of `〜に` basically
means として. I'm not sure you can call it a complement though, because according
to the definitions I just looked up, it seems more like an adjunct. But
terminology is not my forté, so I'll just give some examples of the same kind
of usage.

  * (私は)息抜き **に** 本を読む → I 本を読む as a 息抜き
  * (私は)暇つぶし **に** テレビを見る → I テレビを見る as a 暇つぶし
  * (私は)東京を拠点 **に** 活動する → I 活動する with [ 東京 as the 拠点 ]
  * (私たちは)結婚を前提 **に** 付き合う → We 付き合う with [ 結婚 as a 前提 ]

The `に` in the above examples can all be replaced with `として`.

For many of the words that are often used adverbially like 試しに (試しに買った) or 戯れに
(戯れに描いた), you can't replace the `に` with `として` because those are set phrases.
But the meaning of the `に` is basically the same as として.
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