Robert F. Rhodes Genshin’S Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan

Book Reviews 281

Robert F. Rhodes Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2017. 412 pages. ISBN: 9780824872489.

The appearance of Robert Rhodes’ Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan, in the year of the thousandth anniversary of Genshin’s (942–1017) death, is very timely. This is a long-awaited scholarly work on the text that epitomizes the development of Japanese Pure Land Bud- dhist thought in the mid Heian period (794–1185). Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū (Col- lection of Essential Passages Concerning Birth [into the Pure Land of Amida Buddha]) is one of the most popular Buddhist texts composed in the history of Japanese religions. Despite this popularity among Japanese Buddhists, study of the Ōjōyōshū has lagged in English-language scholarship, the only notable monograph being Alan Andrews’ The Teachings Essential for Rebirth: A Study of Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū (1973), a brief monograph on the text published over four decades ago. Rhodes points out that the lack of interest in Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū is rooted in the lasting influence of sectarian studies based in Jōdoshū and Jōdo Shin- shū, both of which emerged during the Kamakura period (1185–1333) some two hundred years after Genshin. The author shelves sectarian biases to focus on the original intent of Genshin’s writing of the Ōjōyōshū as a practitioner in the Tendai school. Rhodes’ comprehensive study of Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū now fills the decades of scholarly vacancy not only in the field of Pure Land Buddhist studies, but also for scholars in Japanese religions more generally. The organization of the book falls into the three parts: “The Background to the Ōjōyōshū,” “Genshin’s Life,” and “The Central Ideas of the Ōjōyōshū.”The first part is an introduction in four chapters to the background of Genshin’s writing of the text as a Tendai monk. In the first chapter, “The Indian and Chinese Back- ground,” Rhodes carefully limits his discussion to the sources directly related to the development of Genshin’s Pure Land thought. The author notes the sig- nificance of the visualization practice discussed in the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra (pp. 17–18), and the importance of Tiantai (Jpn. Tendai) meditation as described in Zhiyi’s Moho zhiguan in the development of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist practices (pp. 21–24, and 33–39). The next three chapters review the development of Pure Land practice in Japan up to Genshin’s time, closely following recent Japanese scholarship. In Chapter 2, “Introduction of Pure Land Buddhism to Japan,” after examin- ing the historical events by which Pure Land practices were transmitted in the Nara (710–794) and early Heian periods, he concludes that it is the mid- Heian period when the nenbutsu rapidly spreads among Japanese Buddhists

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi: 10.1163/22118349-00603002 282 Book Reviews because of socio-political turmoil causing an “unsettled religious situation” (pp. 60–63), such as the revolt of Taira no Masakado (?–940) or the spirit of Sug- awara no Michizane (?–903) haunting the imperial court as a revenge-seeking goryō. In Chapter 3, “The Growth of Pure Land Buddhism in the Heian Period,” Rhodes discusses Kūya (903–972), who spread popular faith in Amida by pro- moting the chanting of the Buddha’s name as “Namu Amidabutsu” (pp. 64– 72), as well as Yoshishige no Yasutane (931–1002), who organized the Kan- gakue, a scholarly fellowship consisting of students from the national university (Daigakuryō) and monks from Mt. Hiei. This latter group incorporated the nenbutsu recitation as a part of its activities (pp. 72–76). These figures laid the groundwork for the development of Genshin’s Pure Land thought and the popularity of the nenbutsu among both nobles and commoners. In Chapter 4, “Zenyu, Senkan, and the Beginning of Tendai Pure Land Dis- course,” Rhodes introduces two Japanese Tendai masters, Zenyu (913–990) and Senkan (918–984), who developed an early Tendai Pure Land discourse in Japan. For these scholars, Pure Land practice “did not represent the rejection of the traditional Tendai path to Buddhahood,” and was “available even to people who felt incapable of practicing as bodhisattvas in this life” (p. 104). Their views provided the doctrinal foundation for Genshin to write the Ōjōyōshū. The second part of the book, “Genshin’s Life,” provides a biographical over- view in three chapters, introducing the historical and institutional context behind the Ōjōyōshū. Chapter 5, “Genshin’s Early Years,” introduces Genshin as a young scholar training at Enryakuji. Genshin was recognized as a lead- ing disciple of Ryōgen (912–985), the eighteenth Tendai abbot. In his forties, Genshin retired to become a recluse monk. Although there is no record explain- ing this choice, Rhodes suggests that Genshin probably wanted to distance himself from the secular power and political authority that dominated at the Tendai school under Ryōgen to “enjoy a life unencumbered by worldly con- cerns” (p. 124) by following the example of other contemporary recluse scholars such as Zōga (917–1003) and Shōkū (?–1007). Chapter 6, “Genshin and Pure Land Buddhism,” focuses on how Genshin became seriously involved with Pure Land Buddhism as a recluse monk. After introducing the Byakugōkanbō (Method for Contemplating the Byakugō), Gen- shin’s first brief writing on Pure Land Buddhism focusing on the method of contemplating Amida’s Urna, Rhodes provides a fairly detailed introduction to the Ōjōyōshū, completed in 985, and considers how this text might have influ- enced the founding in 986 of the Nijūgo zanmaie (Fellowship of Twenty-five Samādhis), a nenbutsu fellowship later characterized as “a group to prepare for death” (p. 143).

Journal of Religion in Japan 6 (2017) 275–285