This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of H[=o]-nen.  During his lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of three Mikados.  After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight volumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or republished it.  In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the most influential, especially with the imperial and sh[=o]gunal families.  In Ki[=o]to the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chi[=o]n-in, and in T[=o]ki[=o] Z[=o]-j[=o]-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal divisions of this sect.  The gorgeous mausoleums,—­well known to every foreign tourist,—­at Shiba and Uyeno in T[=o]ki[=o], and the clustered and matchless splendors of Nikk[=o], belong to this sect, which has been under the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while its temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands.

The doctrine of the J[=o]-d[=o], or the Pure Land Sect, is easily discerned.  One of Buddha’s disciples said, that in the teachings of the Master there are two divisions or vehicles.  In the Maha-yana also there are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land.  The Smaller Vehicle is the doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for five hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and discipline.  The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which in addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the three virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance.  The man who is able successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is no ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good actions performed in a former state of existence.  The doctrine by which man may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path.

During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and contentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and men.  The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of deliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year’s almanac, when can they complete their deliverance?  H[=o]-nen, deeply meditating on this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure Land; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this world by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in the latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha’s name.

Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to be completed.  The difference is like that between travelling by land and travelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are eighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of people one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the Pure Land.  The Pure Land doctrine of H[=o]-nen was derived from the sutra preached by the great teacher Shaka.