last update April 2nd 2014
I revised this English edition with the help of Richard St Clair (Shaku Egen) and added some footnotes marked with "editor's note". The pdf is also of a better quality.
I revised this English edition with the help of Richard St Clair (Shaku Egen) and added some footnotes marked with "editor's note". The pdf is also of a better quality.
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| Master Genshin (942-1017) |
I am glad to
present to you this English edition of Ojoyoshu, composed in 985 by Master
Genshin (Eishin/Eshin), the sixth Patriarh of our Jodo Shinshu school. It contains only two chapters from the entire work, but still I am sure you will find it useful.
The importance of this text upon Shinran Shonin and Honen Shonin
was great, the first even wrote a commentary on it, Notes on Essentials of Rebirth, while the latter wrote four such
commentaries. In 986, a
copy was sent to China ,
where the monks where so impressed that they called Genshin the "Little
Shakyamuni".
I have been
looking for a translation of this text but I could hardly find a recent one.
So after long search I came by a magazine called The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, second series, volume VII, 1930. In it there was
this translation from Japanese made by A.K. Reischauer ( M.A., D.D., L.L.D.)
which I decided to share with you here.
