GENSHIN (942–1017), also known by the title Eshin Sōzu, was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Tendai sect and patriarch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. Genshin was born in the village of Taima in Yamato Province (modern Nara prefecture) to a family of provincial gentry named Urabe. By his mid-teens he had entered the Tendai priesthood and had become a disciple of Ryōgen (Jie Daishi, 912–985), one of the most eminent clerics of the age. Little is known of Genshin's early career except that he presided at an important Tendai ceremony in 973 and five years later, when he was thirty-six, wrote a learned treatise on Buddhist metaphysics (abhidharma), the Immyōronsho shisōi ryaku-chūshaku.

Shortly thereafter, Genshin's interests seem to have changed. In 981 he wrote a work on a Pure Land Buddhist theme, the Amida Butsu byakugō kambō (Contemplation upon Amida Buddha's wisdom-eye), and in 985 he completed...