94 Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1
form of blueprint for imagining the interaction between a dys-
topian consciousness and a utopian one. As confidence is ever
coupled with severe self-criticism and an aspiration for ongoing
transformation, any project modelled in Shinran’s thought ought
to remain self-questioning and suspicious about its owns claims
and authority. This critical spirit is an important element missing
in many current Buddhist anarchist discourses. While not fully
anarchist, Shinran’s political statements and social identity also
contain many subversive elements that offer a number of inter-
pretive possibilities.
5. Neither Monk Nor Layman: An Ethic of Resistance?
In 1207 Honen’s exclusive nenbutsu movement was banned by
the imperial court, at the request of the state-supporting and state-
supported Buddhist institutions. In the banning petition against
Honen and his followers, the established Buddhist orders argued
not only over contentious points of doctrine but also warned of the
undesirable social implications of letting the Pure Land movement
grow unchecked. The popularity of Honen’s movement posed a
threat to the status of the traditional schools, in terms of social and
financial support from the laity, but it was also an implicit threat to
the larger socio-political order.
Two of the accusations levelled against the Pure Land move-
ment concerned the imperial order (in)directly. The first involved
setting up a new Buddhist school without imperial permission
and the second charged the movement with being disrespectful
or neglectful towards the kami, the native deities of Japan whose
worship is intimately connected to the cult of the emperor^57. These
alleged crimes set a dangerous precedent: Buddhist institutions
could exist without state control and might, directly or indirectly,
challenge its authority.
A few members of the Pure Land movement were executed,
and others like Shinran or Honen were exiled and / or disrobed.
The ban and the diaspora it created seems to have strengthened
the movement in two fundamental ways: on one hand, it allowed
Honen’s ideas to spread to remote areas of Japan far from Kyoto,
and on the other it reinforced the nonconformist attitudes of those