JJRS > Volume 31 Issue 1 Hōnen's Senchaku Doctrine and His Artistic Agenda

Kanda, Fusae C.

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As the founder of the Pure Land School, Hōnen (1133-1212) had a profound impact on the doctrines of the medieval period. His teachings on the exclusive selection of in vocational nenbutsu generated a new doctrinal matrix with far-reaching social and theological implications. Less well understood is the relation between Hōnen and the visual images of Pure Land Buddhism. A fresh examination of Hōnen’s writings illuminates the monk’s novel interpretation of a key soteriological icon: the paintings of Amida’s welcoming descent with his celestial assembly. Special attention is given to the Gosho mandara and its role both as a manifestation of Hōnen’s doctrines and as a prototype for later paintings of Amida’s welcoming descent with twenty-five bodhisattvas.