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Hōnen (法然) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tankū (湛空) | Genchi (源智) | Benchō (弁長) | Shōkū (証空) | Chōsai (長西) | Kōsai (幸西) | Ryūkan (隆寛) | Shinran (親鸞) | Shinkū (信空) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ryōchū (良忠) | Jō-on (浄音) | Enkū (円空) | Shōtatsu (聖達) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinzei branch | Seizan, Zenrinji branch | Seizan, Komyoji branch | Seizan, Fukakusa branch | Ippen (一編) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shōgei (聖冏) | Ji-shū sect | Jodo Shinshu sect | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The largest branch of Jōdo-shū, the Chinzei-ha (鎮西派, "The Chinzei Branch"), named after the district of Chinzei in Kita-Kyushu, was originally established in the hometown of disciple, Benchō, who had been exiled in 1207, but grew through subsequent disciples. The rival Seizan-ha (西山派, "The Seizan Branch") and Kuhon-ji branches grew around the capitol of Kyoto, as Shōkū and Chōsai were among the few major disciples who were not exiled.
Finally, Shinran, another disciple established communities in Echigo Province, but the sect gradually differed enough from others to be considered a separate sect, Jodo Shinshu.
Other disciples of note:
A generation later, Bencho's disciple, Ryōchū, became his disciple for a year, and then spread Benchō's and Hōnen's teachings throughout Japan before reaching the new capital at Kamakura. Ryōchū helped to legitimize the "Chinzei branch" of Jōdo Shū as the mainstream one, and is credited as the 3rd Patriarch accordingly. He also referred to Benchō, his teacher, as the 2nd Patriarch after Hōnen. Ryōchū also met with Renjaku-bo, whose own teacher Genchi, had been another disciple of Hōnen. Renjaku-bo felt that Genchi and Benchō had been in complete agreement, so he willingly united his lineage with Ryōchū's, helping to further increase its standing. [15]
Jōdo Shū through the Chinzei lineage continued to develop until the 8th Patriarch, Shōgei (聖冏, 1341-1420) who formalized the training of priests (rather than training under Tendai or Shingon lineages), thus formally establishing it as an independent sect.
In 1590, during the Azuchi–Momoyama period, Jōdo-shū was officially patronized by Tokugawa Ieyasu, [13] [16] leading to an era of great prosperity for the sect that lasted throughout the Edo period and beyond. Zōjō-ji in Edo, previously a Shingon sect temple converted to a Jōdo-shū temple, became the family temple of the Tokugawa clan during the same year, receiving considerable patronage. [17] Several shoguns of the Tokugawa family are still interred in mausoleums at Zōjō-ji, though Ieyasu himself is interred at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū shrine.
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 marked a tumultuous period for Japanese Buddhism. The separation of Shinto and Buddhism unintentionally triggered the haibutsu kishaku, a nationwide movement targeting Buddhist institutions, in which temples were demolished, their properties revoked, and their monks forcibly defrocked. [18]
Jōdo-shū, having formerly received considerable patronage from the Tokugawa Shogunate, now embarked on a period of internal reform in which several monks emerged as important reformers.
Among these reformers was Tetsujō Ukai (養鸕徹定), a Buddhist historian and the head priest of Chion-in from 1885 to 1887. He became a staunch defender of Buddhism during this period, opposing both the attempts to eradicate Buddhism in Japan and the rise of Western criticism aimed at the religion. He also emphasized the importance of Buddhism in Japanese history and culture, underscoring its contributions to the nation's history. [19]
Another important figure within the reform movement was Fukuda Gyōkai (福田行誡), a Buddhist scholar, poet, and the head priest of Chion-in from 1887 to 1888. [20] He promoted both the preservation of Buddhist traditions and the modernization of social welfare systems based on Buddhist philosophy. He also promoted the creation of the League of United Buddhist Sects (諸宗同徳会盟), which united several Buddhist sects to follow the goals of modernization and preventing Christian influences on Japan. [21]
Before and during World War II, Jōdo-shū, along with other Buddhist sects, faced pressure to endorse the actions of Imperial Japan and its policy of State Shintō. Despite the protests of certain members of the sect, the Jōdo-shū organization nevertheless complied with the policy of State Shintō. This included building several temples within Japan’s overseas colonies (all of which would later be destroyed in the years following the war) and providing memorial services to deceased soldiers as well as relief for their families. The school subsequently apologized for its wartime actions alongside the other Buddhist sects of Japan. [22]
After the Second World War, during the 1940s and early 1950s, several temples broke off from the main Chinzei Branch of Jōdo-shū, forming their own independent sects. However, this period of fragmentation proved to be relatively short-lived. In January 1961, on the 750th anniversary of Hōnen’s death, the majority of the breakaway sects of Jōdo-shū merged back into the primary Chinzei branch, which remains the largest branch of Jōdo-shū in the modern day.
Although Jōdo-shū is mainly found in Japan, a sizable Jōdo-shū community exists in Hawaii as well as a few temples in the continental United States and Brazil. The first Jōdo-shū temple built in Hawai'i was the Hāmākua Bukkyo Kaido, constructed in 1896 under the supervision of Reverend Gakuo Okabe. [23] [24] The Jodo Shu North America Buddhist Missions was the first Jōdo-shū temple to be built in mainland America in 1936 in Los Angeles, California. [25] [26]
Pure Land Buddhist teachings had been prevalent in Japan for centuries, particularly in the Tendai sect through Ennin, Genshin, and others, but what distinguished Honen's teaching was the notion senju nembutsu (専修念仏, "exclusive nembutsu"), whereby the only true means of achieving rebirth in the Pure Land was through reciting the nembutsu. In particular, Honen argued that it was through Amida Buddha's merit and compassion that one achieved rebirth, and since the nembutsu was explicitly called out in the Immeasurable Life Sutra in the 18th Vow (also known as the Primal Vow), it was the only practice that would work, especially in the latter age of Mappō , when people could no longer effectively put the teachings of the Buddha into practice anymore. Other practices would neither add nor detract from Amida Buddha's power.
Toward the end of the Immeasurable Life Sutra is the following passage:
The Buddha further said, "I have expounded this teaching for the sake of sentient beings and enabled you to see Amitāyus and all in his land. Strive to do what you should. After I have passed into Nirvāṇa, do not allow doubt to arise. In the future, the Buddhist scriptures and teachings will perish." But, out of pity and compassion, I will especially preserve this sutra and maintain it in the world for a hundred years more. Those beings who encounter it will attain deliverance in accord with their aspirations.
— Hisao Inagaki, translation
Since the Jōdo-shū school was founded near the end of the Heian period, when Buddhism in Japan had become deeply involved in political schemes, and some in Japan saw monks flaunting wealth and power, it was felt that society had already reached the era of latter days of the Dharma, and that, based on the passage above, all other practices had ceased to have any efficacy.
Further, Hōnen sought to provide people a simple Buddhist practice that anybody could use toward enlightenment, no matter how degenerate the times because he was concerned that many people were excluded from existing sects: [27]
"The reason I founded the Jōdo [浄土, Pure Land] sect was that I might show the ordinary man how to be born into the Buddha’s real land of recompense [e.g. the Pure Land]. According to the Tendai sect, the ordinary man may be born into the so-called Pure Land, but that land is conceived of as a very inferior place. Although the Hossō [Yogacara] sect conceives of it as indeed a very fine superior place, they do not allow that the common man can be born there at all. And all the sects, though differing in many points, all agree in not allowing that the common man can be born into the Buddha’s land of real compensation....Unless I start a separate sect, the truth that the common man may be born into the Buddha’s land of compensation will be obscured, and it will be hard to realize the deep meaning Amida [Buddha]’s Original Vow [to provide a refuge for all beings]."
— Rev. Harper Coates and Rev. Ryugaku Ishizuka, translation
Since, according to Honen's line of reasoning, salvation was mostly due to Amida Buddha's power, there was no reason why anyone who sincerely recited the nembutsu couldn't be reborn in the Pure Land.
Part of a series on |
Buddhism in Japan |
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Recitation of the nembutsu, lit. namu amida butsu (南無阿弥陀仏, "Praise to the Buddha Amitabha"), is the most fundamental practice of Jōdo-shū, which derives from the Primal Vow of Amitābha. In home practice, or in temple liturgy, the nembutsu may be recited in any number of styles including: [28]
However, in addition to this, practitioners are encouraged to engage in "auxiliary" practices, such as observing the five precepts, meditation, the chanting of sutras, and other good conduct. There is no strict rule on this however, as Jōdo-shū stresses that the compassion of Amitābha is extended to all beings who recite the nembutsu, so how one observes auxiliary practices is left to the individual to decide. Furthermore, Jōdo-shū practitioners are allowed to worship kami and visit Shinto shrines as long as they do not worship the kami as a means to enter the pure land. [27]
Of the entire Buddhist canon, Sutra of Immeasurable Life is the central Buddhist scripture for Jōdo-shū Buddhism, and the foundation of the belief in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha. In addition to this, the Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra and the Amitabha Sutra are important to the Jōdo-shū school. Collectively, these are known as the Sanbukyō (三部経, "Three Pure Land Sutras").
Further, the writings of Hōnen, contained mostly in the Senchaku-hongan-nembutsu-shū (often abbreviated to Senchakushū), are another source for Jōdo-shū thought as is his last writing, the Ichimai-Kishōmon (一枚起請文, "One-Sheet Document"). Most of what is known about Honen and his thought is attributed through sayings collected in the following century, the Senchakushū, and letters to his students and disciples. The One-Sheet Document is also read aloud in daily services as part of Jōdo-shū liturgy.
Jōdo-shū, like other Buddhist schools, maintains a professional, monastic priesthood, based on the parent Tendai-sect monastic organization, with two "head temples", one at Chion-in in Kyoto, and one at Zojoji in Tokyo. The head of the Jōdo-shū school is called the monshu in Japanese, and lives at the head temple of Chion-in. For the Seizan branch, there are three sub-branches, each with their own head temple. [13]
Hōnen was the religious reformer and progenitor of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism called Jōdo-shū. He is also considered the Seventh Jōdo Shinshū Patriarch.
Tendai, also known as the Tendai Lotus School, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese monk Saichō. The Tendai school, which has been based on Mount Hiei since its inception, rose to prominence during the Heian period (794–1185). It gradually eclipsed the powerful Hossō school and competed with the rival Shingon school to become the most influential sect at the Imperial court.
Shinran was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino at the turbulent close of the Heian Period and lived during the Kamakura Period. Shinran was a pupil of Hōnen and the founder of what ultimately became the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Japanese Buddhism.
Jōdo Shinshū, also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran.
The Nianfo, alternatively in Japanese as 念仏, Korean: 염불; RR: yeombul, or in Vietnamese: niệm Phật, is a Buddhist practice central to the East Asian Buddhism. The Chinese term nianfo is a translation of Sanskrit buddhānusmṛti, which is a classic Buddhist mindfulness (smṛti) practice.
Buddhist liturgy is a formalized service of veneration and worship performed within a Buddhist Sangha community in nearly every traditional denomination and sect in the Buddhist world. It is often done one or more times a day and can vary amongst the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana sects.
Ikkō-shū (一向宗) or "single-minded school" is usually viewed as a small, militant offshoot from Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, though the name has a complex history.
Genshin, also known as Eshin Sōzu (恵心僧都), was the most impactful of a number of scholar-monks of the Buddhist Tendai sect active during the tenth and eleventh centuries in Japan. Genshin, who was trained in both esoteric and exoteric teachings, wrote a number of treatises pertaining to the increasingly famous Pure Land Buddhism from a Tendai viewpoint, but his magnum opus, the Ōjōyōshū, had considerable influence on later Pure Land teachers such as Honen and Shinran. In spite of growing political tensions within the Tendai religious hierarchy, and despite being one of the two leading disciples of the controversial Ryogen, 18th head of the Enryakuji Temple, Genshin and a small group of fellow monks maintained a secluded community at Yokawa on Mount Hiei solely devoted toward rebirth in the Pure Land, while staying largely neutral in the conflict. He was one of the thinkers who maintained that the nembutsu ritual, which was said to induce a vision of Amida, was an important hermeneutic principle in the Buddhist doctrinal system.
Chion-in in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan is the headquarters of the Jōdo-shū founded by Hōnen (1133–1212), who proclaimed that sentient beings are reborn in Amida Buddha's Western Paradise by reciting the nembutsu, Amida Buddha's name.
The One-Sheet Document is a document written by the founder of the Japanese Jōdo Shū Buddhism school, Hōnen, two days before his death. The document is meant to summarize Hōnen's teachings for future generations, and serves as his final testament. The document was written on the twenty-third day of the first lunar month of the second year of Kenryaku (1212) and contains fewer than three hundred words. It is regularly read and recited in Jōdo Shū services to this day.
Kenjōdo Shinjitsu Kyōgyōshō Monrui (顕浄土真実教行証文類), often abbreviated to Kyōgyōshinshō (教行信証), is the magnum opus of Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Japanese Buddhist sect, Jodo Shinshu. The title is often translated as The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way in English. The work was written after Shinran's exile, and is believed to have been composed in the year 1224.
Shōkū, sometimes called Seizan (西山), was a disciple of Hōnen, founder of the Jōdo-shū Buddhist sect. Shōkū later succeeded Jōhen, another disciple of Hōnen, as the head of a former Shingon Buddhist temple, Eikandō, established a separate branch of Jōdo-shū called the Seizan branch, and completed the transition of Eikandō from a Shingon temple into a Jōdo shū one.
Seizan (西山) is a branch of Jōdo-shū Buddhism that was founded by Hōnen's disciple, Shōkū. Shōkū often went by the name Seizan as well, however the name derives from the western mountains of Kyoto where Shōkū often dwelt. The main temple of this branch of Buddhism is at the temple of Eikandō in the city of Kyoto. The temple formerly served as a Shingon Buddhist temple, but when Jōhen headed the temple, he took an interest in Jōdo Buddhism, designated Hōnen as the 11th chief priest. Later, Hōnen's disciple became the head priest of Eikan-dō, and established the Seizan branch, fully converting the temple into a Jōdo one.
Benchō, was a Japanese Buddhist monk and second patriarch of the main Chinzei branch of the Jōdo-shū sect of Japanese Buddhism, after Hōnen. In Jodo Shu Buddhism, he is often called by adherents as Shōkō Shōnin (聖光上人) or Shōkōbō (聖光房). According to biographies, he first ordained as a priest of the Tendai sect at the age of fourteen, and entered Enryaku-ji temple in 1183. He first met Hōnen in 1197. Later, after Hōnen and many of his followers were exiled in 1207, Shōkō was exiled on the island of Kyūshū and taught the practice of the nembutsu there, founding the Zendō-ji temple.
The Ōjōyōshū was an influential medieval Buddhist text composed in 985 by the Japanese Buddhist monk Genshin. The text is a comprehensive analysis of Buddhist practices related to rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, drawing upon earlier Buddhist texts from China, and sutras such as the Contemplation Sutra. Genshin advocated a collection of mutually supportive practices, such as sutra recitation, centered around visual meditation of Amitabha Buddha where later Pure Land sects favored an approach that relied on exclusive recitation of the verbal nembutsu. The text is also well known for its graphic descriptions of the Hell realms, and sufferings one might endure for harmful acts committed in this life. Its influence can be seen in Japanese Buddhist paintings and other, later, texts. The founder of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, Shinran, wrote an influential commentary on the Ōjōyōshū titled, "Notes on Essentials of Rebirth", while Hōnen first encountered Pure Land teachings after studying Genshin's writings.
The Senchaku Hongan Nembutsushū (選択本願念仏集), abbreviated to Senchakushū, is the magnum opus of Hōnen, founder of the Jōdo-shū school of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. The title means "Collection of Selections on Nenbutsu and the Original Vow" and draws upon past Pure Land Buddhist sources, sutras and especially from the writings of Chinese Pure Land Buddhists Shan-tao and Tanluan to bolster Hōnen's doctrine of relying upon the sole recitation of Amitabha Buddha's name for rebirth in the Pure Land. Hōnen also asserts for the first time that he is establishing a new school of Buddhism.
The term Ōjō is a term in Japanese Buddhism for rebirth in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha. Sometimes the term is expressed as Ōjō gokuraku. The subject of how to obtain birth in the Pure Land remained an important question throughout Japanese Buddhist history even until today.
The Chinzei-ha (鎮西派) branch, also called the Chinzeigi, of Jōdo-shū Buddhism is the main branch that exists today, and was first established by Benchō, a disciple of Hōnen, but formalized into a separate branch by Benchō's disciple Ryōchū.
Kōsai was a former monk of the Tendai Buddhist sect and controversial disciple of Hōnen who advocated the ichinen-gi that led to his public censure, his later expulsion by Hōnen and eventual exile to Shikoku. Kōsai taught that one recitation of Amitabha Buddha's name, the nembutsu, would be sufficient for rebirth in the Pure Land, and that further recitations would indicate a lack of faith on the part of the believer. Thus, he taught a path strictly based on faith without any Buddhist practice, which drew criticism from established Buddhist sects at the time, and even Hōnen's other disciples.
Shōgei was a Buddhist monk from the middle of the Muromachi period. He is the considered the seventh founder of Jōdo-shū (Chinzei-ha).