Encyclopedia of Buddhism

JIUN ONKO

Jiun Onko
(Jiun Sonja, 1718–1804) was born and
raised in Osaka, the son of a masterless samurai and a
devoutly Buddhist mother. Forced into the Buddhist
clergy at thirteen at the time of his father’s death, Jiun
became a novice under Ninko Teiki (1671–1750), a
master in the Shingon Vinaya sect. This sect stressed
both Shingon or Japanese tantric Buddhism and tra-
ditional monastic discipline. Under Teiki’s influence,
and after a period of training in his late teens and early
twenties that included Zen and further Confucian
studies, Jiun went on to become one of the leading
Buddhist scholars and reformers of the Tokugawa pe-
riod (1603–1868).

Early in his career, Jiun devoted much attention to
the study of monastic discipline and the creation of
supra-sectarian Buddhist communities that became
part of his “Vinaya of the True Dharma” movement.
To counteract a moral laxity that he saw in the Bud-
dhist clergy, he advocated a return to what he judged
to be a common core of Buddhist thought and prac-
tice that he called “Buddhism as it was when the Bud-
dha was alive.” Buddhist ethics, the practice of
meditation, and, for monks and nuns, the observance
of the VINAYAor monastic discipline stood at the cen-
ter of his movement. Jiun’s most famous work, Ju
zen
ho
go(Sermons on the Ten Good Precepts), completed
in 1774, was an argument for Buddhist ethics as the
foundation of the Buddhist way of life. Jiun is also re-
membered as one of Japan’s greatest Sanskrit scholars.
Working without the aid of a Sanskrit teacher and
without a living tradition of Sanskrit studies, Jiun com-
piled the one thousand-chapter Bongaku shinryo

(Guide to Sanskrit Studies,1766) that included infor-
mation on the geography, history, and customs of In-
dia, as well as dictionaries, grammars, and textual
studies.

In his later years, Jiun turned his attention to the
study of nativism and articulated his own understand-
ing of the positive relationship that existed between
Buddhism and Japan’s local gods. His interpretation of
nativism came to be known as Unden Shinto
, or the
“Shinto
Transmitted by Jiun.” When Japan began a pe-
riod of rapid modernization in the Meiji period
(1868–1912), Buddhist leaders who shared Jiun’s con-
cerns about the moral laxity of the clergy and the overly
sectarian character of Japanese Buddhism drew inspi-
ration from his Sermons on the Ten Good Precepts,and
Japanese scholars who were learning of new research

on Indian Buddhist languages in Europe looked with

pride to Jiun’s pioneering Sanskrit studies.

See also:Shingon Buddhism, Japan; Shinto
(Honji Sui-

jaku) and Buddhism

Bibliography

Watt, Paul B. “Sermons on the Precepts and Monastic Life by

the Shingon Vinaya Master Jiun (1718–1804).” Eastern Bud-

dhist25, no. 2 (1992): 119–128.

Watt, Paul B. “Jiun Sonja (1718–1804): A Response to Confu-

cianism within the Context of Buddhist Reform.” In Confu-

cianism and Tokugawa Culture,ed. Peter Nosco. Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Watt, Paul B. “Shingon’s Jiun Sonja and His ‘Vinaya of the True

Dharma’ Movement.” In Religions of Japan in Practice,ed.

George J. Tanabe, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press, 1999.

PAULB. WATT

JO KHANG

Jo khang is Tibet’s earliest and foremost Buddhist tem-

ple. It is located in the center of Tibet’s capital city,

Lhasa. The Jo khang enshrines one of Tibet’s most sa-

cred Buddhist images—a statue of the buddha S ́a
kya-

muni as a young man, said to have been crafted in India

during his lifetime. The monastery takes its name from

this icon: Jo bo (pronounced Jowo) means “lord”;

khangmeans “house.”

The Jo khang has been a major center for Tibetan

Buddhist worship and religious practice, drawing pil-

grims and devotees from all parts of the Tibetan cul-

tural world for well over a millennium. In common

parlance the temple, with its numerous side chapels,

adjoining courtyards, walkways, and residential quar-

ters, is referred to simply as the Gtsug lag khang (pro-

nounced Tsuglag khang), perhaps translated as “grand

temple” or “cathedral.” Western sources often describe

it, somewhat misleadingly, as “the Cathedral of Lhasa.”

Traditional sources such as the Mani bka’ ’bum(Hun-

dred Thousand Pronouncements [Regarding] Mani) credit

the Tibetan king Srong btsan sgam po (r. ca. 614–650)

and his two queens with founding the Jo khang’s orig-

inal temple in approximately 640. According to these

accounts, the king’s Chinese bride Wencheng carried

the Jo bo statue to Tibet as part of her dowry. Arriv-

ing in the capital city to inauspicious signs, however,

JIUNONKO