Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan

Rhodes, Robert F. (著)

著者

Rhodes, Robert F. (著)

出版年月日

2017.06

ページ

404

出版者

University of Hawaii Press

出版サイト

https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/

出版地

Honolulu, HI, US [檀香山, 夏威夷州, 美國]

シリーズ

Pure Land Buddhist Studies

資料の種類

書籍=Book

言語

英文=English

ノート

Robert F. Rhodes is professor of Buddhist studies at Otani University in Kyoto.

抄録

The Ōjōyōshū, written by the monk Genshin (942–1017), is one of the most important texts in the history of Japanese religions. It is the first comprehensive guide to the doctrine and practice of Pure Land Buddhism written in Japan and so played a pivotal role in establishing this form of Buddhism in the country. In Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan, the first book in English on the Ōjōyōshū in more than forty years, Robert F. Rhodes draws on the latest scholarship to shed new light on the text, its author, and the tumultuous age in which it was written.

Rhodes begins by providing substantial discussion on the development of Pure Land Buddhism before the Ōjōyōshū’s appearance and a thorough account of Genshin’s life, the full details of which have never before been available in English. Japan in the tenth century was marked by far-reaching political, social, and economic change, all of which had a significant effect on religion, including the emergence of numerous new religious movements in Kyoto. Pure Land was the most popular of these, and the faith embraced by the Tendai scholar Genshin when he became disaffected with the growing factionalism at Enrakuji, Tendai’s central temple. A significant portion of Rhodes’ study is a wide-ranging examination of the Ōjōyōshū’s Pure Land teachings in which he describes and analyzes Genshin’s interpretations of Pure Land cosmology and nenbutsu practice. For Genshin the latter encompassed an extensive range of practices for focusing the mind on Amida Buddha—from the simple recitation of Namu Amidabutsu (“recitative nenbutsu”) to the advanced meditative practice of visualizing the buddha (“meditative nenbutsu”). According to the Ōjōyōshū, all of these are effective means for ensuring birth in Amida’s Pure Land.

This impressively researched and updated treatment of the formative text in the Japanese Pure Land tradition will be welcomed by all scholars and students of Japanese religions. It also offers a fascinating window into Heian (794–1185) religious life, which will be of interest to anyone concerned with medieval Japan.

Series Editor's Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I. The Background to the ōjōyōshū
Chapter 1: The Indian and Chinese Background 15
Chapter 2: The Introduction of Pure Land Buddhism to Japan 40
Chapter 3: The Growth of Pure Land Buddhism in the Heian Period 51
Chapter 4: Zenyu, Senkan, and the Beginning of Tendai Pure Land Discourse 77
Part II. Genshin's Life
Chapter 5: Genshin's Early Years 107
Chapter 6: Genshin and Pure Land Buddhism 126
Chapter 7: Genshin's Later Years 157
Part III. The Central Ideas of the ōjōyōshū
Chapter 8: The Six Paths and the Pure Land 183
Chapter 9: Genshin's Interpretation of the Nenbutsu 226
Chapter 10: Auxiliary Practices and Deathbed Nenbutsu 263
Chapter 11: Hōnen's Appropriation of the ōjōyōshū 286
Conclusion 297
Notes 301
Bibliography 369
Index 385

ISBN

9780824872489 (hc); 9780824879280 (pbk)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824872533

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