Note (return) — Chapter IX · - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE

This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of Hō-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 shōgunal families. In Kiōto the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chiōn-in, and in Tōkiō Zō-jō-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 Uyéno in Tōkiō, and the clustered and matchless splendors of Nikkō, 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.