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Before diving in — Vol. 2 sets out the author’s framing and caveats.
called Kamakura Buddhism)*¹. It refers to the Buddhist schools that emerged in the Kamakura period, from the late 12th to the early 14th century. Specifically, Jodo Shu, Jodo Shinshu, Nichiren Shu, Rinzai Shu, Soto Shu and Ji Shu were all born in this era.
According to the statistics on umbrella religious organisations in the Shukyo Nenkan (Religion Yearbook), published by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, some 44 million people in Japan belong to Buddhist religious organisations, and 36 million of them belong to schools classed as Kamakura New Buddhism. That alone shows how much influence Kamakura New Buddhism still wields in contemporary society. Moreover, among the founders of these schools, Honen of Jodo Shu, Shinran of Jodo Shinshu, Dogen of Soto Shu, Eisai of Rinzai Shu and Nichiren of Nichiren Shu all studied at Enryakuji, the Tendai Shu temple on Mount Hiei.*²
It should be noted, however, that although Kamakura New Buddhism was born in the Kamakura period, it did not flourish until the Muromachi period that followed (14th–16th centuries).
Honen’s early life
Of all the schools of Kamakura New Buddhism, the first to emerge was Jodo Shu.
Honen, the founder of Jodo Shu, was born in 1133 in Mimasaka Province (present-day Tsuyama, Maniwa and Kumenan in Okayama Prefecture). His father held a post roughly equivalent to that of a police officer today, but was killed by another official. Honen was nine years old at the time, and his father is said to have told him: ‘Do not bear a grudge against your enemy. What has befallen me is retribution for deeds in a former life. If you harbour resentment towards your enemy, that resentment will not die out, even after many generations. Leave the secular world soon, take holy orders, pray for my repose, and seek enlightenment yourself.’*³
Honen heeded his father’s words. On the advice of his uncle, himself a monk, he went to study under a monk named Genko in Kitadani, the northern valley of the Saito (Western Pagoda) precinct on Mount Hiei. Then, at the age of 18, he took as his master Eiku of Kurodani, also in the Saito precinct. It was Eiku who gave him the name Honen, taken from the phrase honen dori — the immutable, natural order of things.*⁴
Master and disciple, however, eventually parted ways. The cause lay in the difference between contemplative nembutsu and recitative nembutsu, discussed in the previous instalment. Eiku maintained that no practice surpassed contemplative nembutsu (kanso nembutsu) — an influential view within the Tendai Shu of the day — whereas Honen, citing the Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra (Kanmuryojukyo-sho) by the Chinese Pure Land monk Shandao, argued for the superiority of recitative nembutsu (shomyo nembutsu). Honen came to wish to spread a teaching devoted exclusively to the nembutsu, and at the age of 43 he left Mount Hiei.
Honen’s thought, born of the age of Mappo
Why did Honen champion the superiority of recitative nembutsu, even in defiance of his own master?
To understand this, one must first understand how the Buddhist world interpreted the society of its time. Buddhism regarded the Kamakura period as the age of Mappo, the Latter Days of the Dharma. Mappo is the era said to arrive 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 years after the Buddha’s passing. In the age of Mappo, it was believed, no one would practise the teachings any longer, and so no one would be able to attain enlightenment. In Japanese Buddhism, the age of Mappo was thought to have begun in 1052, in the late Heian period.
Honen therefore came to believe that escape from the suffering of the age of Mappo lay in rebirth in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss (Gokuraku Jodo). Buddhism offered many forms of practice, but in an age when enlightenment was out of reach, what would bring karma-laden human beings to rebirth there was recitative nembutsu. The Pure Land is the realm in which one attains Buddhahood.
And of all the many Buddhas, Honen urged faith in Amida Buddha (Amida Nyorai), who is said to save any human being, however heavy their karma. As touched on in the previous instalment, the nembutsu ‘Namu Amida Butsu’ chanted in Jodo Shu and Jodo Shinshu is an expression of this faith in Amida.
Another aspect of Honen’s thought, and one that must have seemed revolutionary to the Buddhism and believers of his day, was that he placed little weight on the nembutsu recited at the moment of death. Until then, Japanese Buddhism had attached great importance to rinju gyogi, the rites to be observed on the deathbed. These included prescribed numbers of nembutsu recitations and joining the dying person to a Buddha image with a cord.
Honen, however, made it clear to a member of the imperial family that deathbed rites were unnecessary for those who had accumulated merit through daily recitation of the nembutsu. Imperial Princess Shokushi, third daughter of the former emperor Goshirakawa Hoo (hoo being the title of an emperor who had abdicated and taken Buddhist vows), had asked Honen to teach her so that she might be reborn in the Pure Land. Frail in health, she lived in constant awareness of death. In response, Honen sent her a letter declining her request, having first reassured her that, since she recited the nembutsu daily and had accumulated merit, her rebirth in the Pure Land was assured.
This letter is known as Shonyobo e Tsukawasu Gohenji (Reply Sent to Shonyobo). As Princess Shokushi died in 1201, it must naturally have been written before then.
And in that same year, 1201, another monk left Mount Hiei, just as Honen had done. That monk was Shinran.
OHYASHIMA is seeking information about the Ohmi Shonin
In connection with this series, OHYASHIMA welcomes information about the Ohmi Shonin. The author would be particularly grateful to hear from:
- Museum curators and archivists — in Japan or elsewhere — who hold collections related to the Ohmi Shonin
- Those who work for companies with ties to the Ohmi Shonin, or whose own ancestors were Ohmi Shonin
- Those who know of Ohmi Shonin merchants who conducted business outside Japan
OHYASHIMAは近江商人に関する情報を求めています
本連載にあたり、近江商人に関する情報を募集しています。たとえば、下記に該当する方はぜひご存じの情報をお寄せください。
- 日本国内外を問わず、近江商人に関する所蔵品がある博物館などの学芸員の方
- 近江商人と関連のある企業にお勤めの方、先祖などに近江商人がいらっしゃる方
- 日本国外でビジネスをした近江商人についてご存じの方
*¹Shinsan Jodoshu Daijiten (Web edition), entry ‘Kamakura Bukkyo’
*² Why Is Jodo Shinshu the Largest School in Japan? The Riddle of Buddhist Schools, Hiromi Shimada, Gentosha Shinsho
*³ What Is Jodo Shinshu? Shinran’s Teaching and Its Lineage, Satoko Koyama, Chuko Shinsho
*⁴Chion-in, Head Temple of Jodo Shu, ‘Raigo Injo’
