Pure Land school, Japan

Pure Land school, Japan. This term refers to a number of sects of Buddhism rather than a single school, of which the most important are the Jōdo Shū founded by Hōnen (1133–1212), the Jōdo Shinshū founded by Shinran (1173–1262), the Jishū founded by Ippen (1239–89), and the Yūzū-nembutsu school founded by Ryōnin (1072–1132). While all of these schools established themselves as independent organizations during the Kamakura period and after, the general complex of Pure Land thought and practice had actually existed in Japan for some centuries already. The monk Saichō (767–822) founded the Tendai school after travelling to China with the express intention of bringing the teachings and practices of the Chinese T'ien-t'ai school home. The T'ien-t'ai school was a repository and transmitter of a great number of meditative techniques, among which were some directed towards Amitābha and his Pure Land Sukhāvatī. Because of this, Pure Land writings and practices derived from the Chinese T'ien-t'ai school came into Japan and during the early 9th century and were preserved and studied within that school thereafter. A further advance in the Tendai tradition of Pure Land practice came with the publication of the Ōjōyōshū by the monk Genshin (942–1017). The dissemination of this work had two important effects. First, it represents the introduction into Tendai Pure Land thought of the formulations of the Chinese master Shan-tao (613–81), who popularized oral invocation of the Buddha Amitābha's name among the masses with the intention of gaining rebirth in the Pure Land after death. Second, the book consisted of all known passages relating to this Buddha and his Pure Land in Sinitic Buddhist scriptures and treatises, and so helped to make the study and defence of Pure Land thought much more convenient than it might otherwise have been. In this second respect, its influence cannot be overestimated: not only has it remained a popular book for the study of Pure Land in Japan down to modern times, it was also one of the few Japanese Buddhist works to be exported back to China and achieve influential status. In Genshin's time, its appearance raised the visibility of Pure Land within the Tendai school, and inspired even clerics of other schools to adopt Pure Land practice. Besides Genshin, one other pre-Kamakura Pure Land figure deserves mention. The monk Kūya (903–72) was one of the first to spread Pure Land practices among the common people, and is widely recognized as the first of the Pure Land hijiri, or wandering holy men. Born into an aristocratic family (or the imperial family itself, according to some legends), he left household life in his youth and received the novice's ordination at the Owari Provincial temple at the age of 20. After a period of study, he took to the road, chanting Amitābha's name ceaselessly while beating a gong, and preaching the virtues of orally invoking the Buddha's name to all and sundry. He distributed the alms he collected among the poor, preached in prisons, smoothed roads, buried abandoned corpses, dug wells, and built bridges as well. Because of his devotion to Pure Land practice, his itinerant lifestyle, and his dedication to the common people, he because the model for later Amida hijiri. He took full ordination in the Tendai school later in life, but retained his novice name of Kūya and continued his activities for the remainder of his life.

As can be seen, the Tendai school was the incubator for Pure Land thought and practice, both scholastically oriented and popularizing. It is little wonder, then, that the figures mentioned at the beginning of this entry came out of the Tendai school to establish their own schools of Pure Land Buddhism. However, during this early phase, Pure Land did not stand alone. Genshin composed many other works and commentaries on non-Pure Land topics, and, as seen above, Kūya engaged in other practices besides the invocation of Amitābha. For these men, Pure Land was simply an emphasis, not an independent practice. During the early Kamakura, many movements arose that sought to simplify Buddhism to a single practice and to spread it among the masses: zen, Nichiren, and Pure Land. The great difference between the founders of the Pure Land schools and these early Pure Land figures lies in the great pessimism that the founders had with regard to the human capacity to achieve enlightenment (bodhi) and bring an end to suffering. Seeing the times as too corrupt and human frailty as too great to hold any hope of liberation, they settled on nembutsu, or oral invocation of Amitābha's name, as the only practice by which one might have a realistic chance of ending suffering, and on this basis they established groups dedicated to the exclusive practice of the nembutsu, groups which evolved into the main Pure Land schools listed above. For the theology and subsequent history of these schools, the reader is referred to the individual entries. Since the founding of these schools, Pure Land has gone on to become the dominant mode of Buddhist practice in Japan among both lay and clerical devotees, and the Jōdo Shinshū has become the largest and most economically powerful of the Buddhist schools.