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JOHNC. MARALDOHONEN
Honen (Genku, 1133–1212) was a renowned master of
PURELANDBUDDHISMin medieval Japan. He is best
known for his advocacy of the verbal nenbutsuas the
exclusive practice for birth in the Pure Land paradise
of the Buddha Amida. Honen is recognized as the
founder of an independent Pure Land movement in
Japan and of the Jodoshu, or Pure Land school.
Honen was born in Mimasaka province (present-
day Okayama prefecture) and entered the priesthood
as a boy in 1141. In 1145 or 1147 he was sent to train
at the Enryakuji, the preeminent Tendai monastic
complex on Mount Hiei near Kyoto. There he studied
a variety of Tendai traditions, but gravitated to its Pure
Land teachings and practices. In 1150 he took up res-
idence at the Kurodani hermitage on Mount Hiei,
which was headed by the Tendai master Eiku(d. 1179)
and devoted primarily to Pure Land practices. Honen
explored widely other forms of Buddhism, and visited
major temples in Nara and Kyoto. But the main in-
fluence on him came from the writings of the Chinese
Pure Land master Shandao (613–681).In 1175 Honen left Mount Hiei in order to spread
the Pure Land teachings in Kyoto; he resided for many
of his remaining years at Otani on the east side of the
city. Over time he became a Pure Land teacher of great
renown, attracting aristocrats, samurai, and clerics, as
well as lowly members of society. His primary message,
based largely on his interpretation of Shandao’s teach-
ings, was that invoking or chanting AMITABHA(Amida)
Buddha’s name is the one and only practice assuring
birth in the Pure Land, where Buddhist enlightenment
would be certain. This teaching came to be known as
the “exclusive nenbutsu” (senju nenbutsu). It is the mes-
sage Honen articulated in his foremost doctrinal trea-
tise, Senchaku hongan nenbutsu shu (Passages on the
Selection of the Nenbutsu in the Original Vow), com-
posed in 1198.The established monasteries, Enryakuji on Mount
Hiei and Kofukuji in Nara, raised objections to Honen’s
movement in 1204 and 1205, and called for its ban. In
1207 the court executed four of his followers, and ban-
ished Honen and several disciples from the capital.
Though Honen was revolutionary in his exclusive nen-
butsuteaching, he was always an upstanding priest, ob-
servant of the Buddhist precepts, and he even
administered the precepts to others. He also contin-
ued to practice Pure Land meditative visualizations
throughout his life. Honen was allowed to return to
Kyoto in 1211, and died at Otani in 1212. Many fol-
lowers considered him a wordly incarnation of
Amida’s companion bodhisattva Seishi, or even of
Amida Buddha himself.See also:Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo ̆mbul);
Pure Land SchoolsBibliography
Andrews, Allan A. “The Senchakushuin Japanese Religious His-
tory: The Founding of a Pure Land School.” Journal of the
American Academy of Religion55, no. 3 (1987): 473–499.
Coates, Harper Havelock, and Ishizuka, Ryugaku, trans. Honen,
the Buddhist Saint: His Life and Teaching(1925), 5 vols.
Reprint, Kyoto: Society for the Publication of Sacred Books
of the World, 1949.
Kleine, Christoph. Honens Buddhismus des Reinen Lande: Re-
form, Reformation oder Häresie.Frankfurt, Germany: Peter
Lang, 1996.HONEN