Genshin
Genshin was a prominent Japanese monk of the Tendai school, recognized for his significant contributions to both Tendai thought and Pure Land Buddhism. Genshin studied under Ryōgen, a key Tendai reformer, and became well known for his intellectual prowess, particularly after his success in official debates. He was also known as Eshin Sōzu and Yokawa Sōzu.
Genshin spent much of his later life at the secluded Eshin-in hermitage in Yokawa, Mount Hiei, where he focused on scholarly pursuits, writing, and meditation. He left behind numerous works on a variety of topics, including Buddhist reasoning, Abhidharma, Tendai doctrine, and Yogacara. Genshin's Ichijō yōketsu was one of his most important works, as it contributed to medieval Japanese debates about buddha-nature and the one vehicle. He has also been credited with founding the Eshin-ryū, which became a key lineage in the development of the inherent awakening teaching.
Genshin also became a leading figure in the development of Japanese Pure Land through his influential Ōjōyōshū and the founding of a nenbutsu society on Mount Hiei. The Ōjōyōshū outlined a comprehensive approach to attaining rebirth in Amitabha's Pure Land, integrating practices like precepts, buddha contemplation, and the recitation of the nembutsu.
Genshin's Ōjōyōshū is considered as "the formative text of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism" by buddhologist Robert F. Rhodes, who notes that the text remained the standard work on Pure Land in Japan for generations. Genshin had a profound impact on Heian period deathbed nembutsu rituals, which were widely adopted by the elites. Genshin's Ōjōyōshū was also instrumental in shaping later Japanese Pure Land figures such as Ryōnin, Hōnen, Shinran and Benchō. Genshin was therefore considered a patriarch in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. Genshin's work is still read outside of the Tendai school by Pure Land scholars, and thus, he continues to resonate within modern Tendai and in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism today.
Biography
Early life and education
Genshin's life is somewhat obscure despite the existence of four different brief biographies on him from the Heian Period. What is known is that Genshin was born as Chigikumaro in Lower Katsuragi county, Yamato Province, to one Uraba no Masachika and his wife from the Kiyohara clan, a cadet of the Minamoto who were provincial aristocrats. His pious mother, a Pure Land believer, is said to have wished for a son, and prayed before a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon. After receiving a vision where a monk handed her a jewel, she is said to have become pregnant and gave birth to Genshin.Genshin took tonsure with the Tendai sect of Buddhism as a child at Mount Hiei's Enryakuji Temple, though the reasons are unknown. One theory is that his father died, since his mother and sisters also took tonsure at some point. While there, he studied under the controversial monk Ryōgen 良源, who would later become the head of Enryakuji. During this time, Tendai had become divided into two competing lineage factions. Ryōgen was part of the Sanmon sect and worked to strengthen the power of this faction through the forging of ties with powerful politicians at the imperial court. Through his ties with court elites, Ryōgen was able solidify his power base in Yokawa, an old base of the Ennin sect that had previously gone into decline.
Genshin was trained in the Tendai tradition of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism, receiving full ordination in 955. Under Ryōgen, Genshin soon became a precocious scholar. At age fifteen in 956, Genshin was already giving sutra lectures and he was selected by Emperor Murakami as a lecturer for the prestigious Hokke Hakkō ceremony. Later, Genshin took part in debates promoted by Ryōgen to enforce academic standards. In 974, Genshin's victory against the Sanron monk Chōnen in a debate at the Imperial palace impressed the nobleman Taira no Chikanobu, who praised Genshin in his personal diary. In 978 Genshin wrote his first academic treatise, which was on Buddhist logic, the ''Inmyōronsho Shisōi Ryakuchūshaku.''
Yokawa
By 981, Genshin had retired to the remote Yokawa area of Mount Hiei, away from the centers of religious and political power. In doing so, he "cast aside the prospect of a successful career within the Tendai monastic institution and retired to spend the rest of his life as a recluse in Yokawa." Scholars still speculate on his reasons for retreating from public and political life. Some sources say that Genshin's retreat was prompted by his own mother, who scolded him for associating with the powerful and the wealthy instead of practicing the Dharma. Rhodes also argues that the political machinations of Ryōgen, in particular his swift promotion of the monk Jinzen, a member of the Fujiwara clan, may have also led Genshin to retreat.file:Enryakuji Eshin'in.jpg|thumb|Eshin-do, Genshin's hermitage
The political infighting between the Sanmon and Jinmon lineages may also have been a factor. According to Rhodes, "Ryōgen’s partisan policies had polarized the monks of Mt. Hiei, and the resulting antagonism had poisoned the atmosphere of the entire monastery. Genshin must have felt that the situation had deteriorated to the point where Enryakuji was no longer fit as a serious center of religious practice." This period even saw the appearance of armed monks, as rival factions resorted to violence to settle their disputes. Other disciples of Ryōgen such as Zōga similarly retired in disgust, with some leaving Mount Hiei entirely.
Once at Yokawa, Genshin began to study and write on Pure Land Buddhism, completing some small Pure Land works, including the Byakugō kanbō, which teaches the contemplation of the white hair curl between Amida Buddha's eyebrows and how this curl emits a salvific light that illumines all beings.
Four years later Genshin worked on his three fascicle Ōjōyōshū between 984 and 985. This systematic anthology of sutras and commentaries vividly described the sufferings of the six realms and the bliss of the Pure Land, establishing vocal and contemplative nenbutsu as the essential practice for rebirth. The text famously states, "The essential act for rebirth is the practice of the Buddha's name." Ōjōyōshū became immensely influential in Japan and was later taken to Song China, where it was also highly praised.
In 987, Genshin also went on pilgrimage to Kyūshū where he came into contact with Chinese Buddhist monks who were staying there, and they exchanged works with one another. A merchant named Yang Renzhao reported that a copy of Ōjōyōshū was deposited there at Guoqingsi Temple on Mount Tiantai some time before 990. Genshin sought to further expand contacts with the parent Tiantai community in China, but due to the An Lushan Rebellion and internal strife within the Chinese community from 1000 onward, these efforts did not achieve the expected results.
Nenbutsu fellowship
During the 980s, Genshin remained deeply involved in the study and practice of Pure Land Buddhism. In 986 Genshin joined fellow monks dwelling in Yokawa in a nenbutsu fellowship called the nijūgo zanmaie, an association of twenty five nenbutsu devotees who all signed a vow together to help each other practice nenbutsu and attain birth in the Pure Land. It is unclear if Genshin was a founding member or not, however, and there are different scholarly views on this issue. The fellowship's vow calls for all members to see each other as spiritual friends who will, if one of them falls ill, encourage and support them in nenbutsu practice at the time of death. According to the Kishō hachikajō, the group also agreed to meet on the fifteenth of every month to practice a ritual recitation of the Amida Sutra, followed by circumambulatory nenbutsu, and dedication of merit. The fellowship integrated esoteric elements, notably the ritual empowerment of sand through the Mantra of Light. The empowered sand, which was seen as being able to eradicate karmic obstructions to rebirth in the Pure Land, was set aside for later funerary use. Beyond ritual practice, the society functioned as a disciplined monastic community: membership was based on moral conduct and regular participation; care for sick members was institutionalized through the planned construction of an infirmary ; and collective responsibility was emphasized at the deathbed, where all members were required to assemble to support the dying monk’s nenbutsu. Burial practices were likewise communal, involving a shared cemetery, periodic memorial services, and continued nenbutsu on behalf of deceased members, all restricted to an exclusively monastic fellowship.In 988, Genshin revised the fellowship's covenant in the Yokawa Shuryōgon’in nijūgo zanmai kishō 横川首楞嚴院二十五三昧起請. This text expands on the group's activities, specifying in detail the timing and sequence of the monthly all-night nenbutsu vigil, adding lectures on the Lotus Sūtra, and clarifying duties such as lamp offerings and altar simplicity. The revision also reinforced mutual obligations among members, portraying the fellowship as a quasi-familial community bound by reciprocal care during illness, and coordinated funerary observances. Particular emphasis was placed on organized hospice care, reflecting both doctrinal concerns about maintaining correct mindfulness at death and practical anxieties about aging, poverty, and abandonment. Although the fellowship initially struggled to realize its institutional goals such as the construction of the Ōjōin and cemetery, these difficulties eventually prompted external patronage.
Later life
In 990, Genshin was given responsibility for the Shikikō 四季講 by the elderly Jinzen. These were a series of yearly lectures and debeates instituted by Ryōgen. According to Rhodes, "in spring, lectures were given on the Huayan Sutra; in summer, on the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra; in autumn, on the Lotus Sutra; and in winter, on either the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra or the Large Prajñāpāramita Sūtra."Throughout the next decade of his life in the 990s, Genshin continued to life as a recluse on Yokawa, practicing with his nenbutsu fellowship and continuing his studies in relative obscurity. He shunned worldly contacts and avoided monastic offices. Genshin remained aloof from official activities until around 1001, when participated in a Ninnōe at the imperial palace. At this year he was also given the priestly rank of Dharma Bridge. He also served as a judge for official debates held in the 1004 Minazukie ceremony. During this time he received the ecclesiastic rank of supernumerary minor bishop. However, despite his fame at court, he resigned this official position after only one year in 1005, never accepting any further promotions again. Even when the powerful Fujiwara no Michinaga sought him out for private religious services, Genshin politely refused. His fame at this time is reflected in the Tale of Genji which mentions a reclusive "bishop of Yokawa", which is thought to refer to Genshin.
Genshin continued writing throughout his life, producing major works like the Daijō Tai Kusha Shō, a comparative study of Mahayana and Abhidharma philosophy, and the Ichijō Yōketsu, which expounded the one-vehicle doctrine of universal Buddhahood. Genshin composed a number of other treatises throughout his life. In 994 he wrote the Sonshō yōmon 尊勝要文, a work on the important Sonshō dhāraṇī. This dhāraṇī which is associated with the destruction of bad karma and ensures birth in Amida's Pure Land was an important part of Pure Land practice in the Heian period. Genshin recited it three hundred thousand times throughout his life. Genshin also wrote the Bodaishingi yōmon 菩提心義要文 in 997, in which he discusses the need to arouse bodhicitta.
Genshin also helped establish several new organizations at Yokawa, including the Mukakekō and the Shakakō, which was based on devotion to the Śākyamuni of the Lotus Sutra and sought to create a ritual center which represented Śākyamuni Pure Land on Vulture Peak. Genshin also contributed to initiating the Mukaekō ceremonies which invoke Amida Buddha's welcoming descent at the time of death using song and dance. Genshin may have also been involved in the creation of raigō paintings depicting the coming of the Buddha Amida.
In 1013, Genshin wrote a work that listed all the practices he had done in his life until this time. The text states:
Here, I will briefly list the practices that I have cultivated while alive. Nenbutsu: twenty koṭi times. Mahāyāna sutras recited: 55,500 fascicles . Great spells invoked: one million recitations . In addition, spells of Amida, Fudō, Light, and Butsugen several times.Furthermore, the Kakochō biography adds that there are other records of Genshin's practices that include "the creation of Buddhist statues, the copying of sutra scrolls, the practice of donation, and helping others do good."
Genshin's "eclectic" recitation of numerous different sutras and mantras was in line with the traditional Tendai approach. As Rhodes notes, "Although Genshin believed that the nenbutsu was the primary practice for birth in the Pure Land, he also stressed the importance of undertaking various other subsidiary practices to enhance the effectiveness of the nenbutsu. For Genshin, these auxiliary practices were beneficial in helping one toreach the Pure Land."
In 1014 Genshin finished writing the Amidakyō ryakki 阿彌陀經略記, a short commentary to the Amida Sūtra, which he saw as the best sutra for daily recitation. In this work, he emphasizes recitative nenbutsu and also the importance of faith. An anecdote preserved in the Kakochō biography portrays the elderly Genshin articulating a clear and deliberate preference in his Pure Land practice. When questioned about the most important of his many religious disciplines, he identified the nenbutsu, and specifically clarified that his practice consisted solely in reciting the name of Amida Buddha rather than engaging in doctrinal contemplation of Amida’s dharma-body. He explained that name-recitation alone is adequate for securing rebirth in the Pure Land and that, although he was capable of contemplative practice, he did not consider it necessary for his own aims. This exchange shows that while Genshin had experience with and insight into contemplative nenbutsu, he had chosen to devote himself almost exclusively to vocal recitation in his old age, maintaining the conviction that it was fully sufficient to ensure birth in Amida’s land.
After several years of illness, Genshin died in 1017 at the age of 75. According to the Kakochō biography, at his final moment, he held a thread tied to the hand of a statue of Amida Buddha and with his hands joined prayer recited some verses. Then he washed and cleaned his room. He eventually died peacefully in his sleep while holding the string tied to the Buddha statue. The date of his passing is still marked by an annual ceremony at the Mount Hiei's Yokawa.
His main disciples included Kakuchō, Ryōzen, Myōgō, and other eminent monks. The scholarly tradition called Eshin-ryū derives from his lineage.