Pure Land was one of the main fields of mythopoesis and discourse among the Asian Buddhist traditions, and in Japan of central cultural importance from the Heian period right up to the present. However, its range, inconsistency, variability, and complexity have tended to be misevaluated. The pieces reproduced in this set, organized both chronologically and thematically, have been chosen as linchpin works accentuating the diversity of what evolved under this heading of Buddhism. Special attention is given to the traps into which Western observers may fall, the role of the large True Pure Land (Jōdoshinshū) school, and the richness of Tokugawa and twentieth-century developments. These selections of previously published articles will serve as an essential starting point for anyone interested in this perhaps underestimated area of Buddhist studies.
目次
Part 5 Formation of a Major Institution: Honganji and Its Negotiations with Popular Consciousness From Inspiration to Institution The Rise of Sectarian Identity in Jōdo Shinshū 349–362 Shin Buddhist Attitudes towards the Kami From Shinran to Rennyo 0363–387 Popular Pure Land Teachings of the Zenkōji Nyorai and Shinran 388–397
Stand by Your Founder Honganji’s Struggle with Funeral Orthodoxy 398–429 Steadied Ambiguity: the Afterlife in “Popular” Shin Buddhism 430–448 Ambivalence Regarding Women and Female Gender in Premodern Shin Buddhism 449–480
Part 6 The Alternative Field: Pure Land Striven for in This World Ippen and Pure Land Buddhist Wayfarers in Medieval Japan 483–508 The Shingon Subordinating Fire Offering for Amitābha, “Amida Kei Ai Goma” 509–529 Breath of Life: the Esoteric Nembutsu 530–560 Jōkei and the Rhetoric of “Other-Power” and “Easy Practice” in Medieval Japanese Buddhism 561–599
Part 7 Pure Land Fellowships in War and Peace The Life of Rennyo A Struggle for the Transmission of Dharma 603–627 The Dilemma of Religious Power Honganji and Hosokawa Masamoto 628–644 Shin Buddhism and Burakumin in the Edo Period 645–694 Precepts in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism The Jōdoshū 695–711
Exemplary Lives Form and Function in Pure Land Sacred Biography 712–745 Preaching as Performance Notes on a Secretive Shin Buddhist Sermon 746–758 The Nianfo in Ōbaku Zen: a Look at the Teachings of the Three Founding Masters 759–777 Extreme Asceticism, Medicine and Pure Land Faith in the Life of Shuichi Munō (1683–1719) 778–802
