Ji-shu

Ji-shū
時宗
Shōjōkō-ji, by Hiroshige
Classification	Pure Land Buddhism
Headquarters	Shōjōkō-ji
Founder	Ippen
Origin	1270
Separated from	Seizan Jōdo-shū

Ji-shū (時宗, lit. time sect) is one of four schools belonging to the Pure Land within Japanese Buddhism. The other three are Yūzū Nenbutsu, Jōdo-shū ("the Pure Land School") and Jōdo Shinshū ("the True Pure Land School"). The school has around 500 temples and 3,400,000 followers. Ji-shū means "school of time"^[1] and the name is derived from its central teaching of reciting Nembutsu at regular intervals.^[2]

In the general classification of Buddhism in Japan, the Jōdo-shū, the Jōdo Shinshu, the Ji-shu and the Yuzu Nembutsu shu are collectively classified into the lineage of Jōdo Buddhism. (Jōdo kei, 浄土系)^[3][4] Shōjōkō-ji (清浄光寺), a temple located in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, and serves as the headquarters of the sect today.^{[5] [6]}

The school was founded in 1270 by Ippen.^[1] In addition to practicing nembutsu,^[7] he was strongly influenced by the non-dualism within Zen. He even received Dharma transmission as a Zen master from Rōshi Kakushin.^[8][9]

After Ippen's death, the Ji-shū sect he had led disintegrated. It was re-formed by his influential disciple, Ta'a, who attempted to organize the sect. After that, the leaders of the sect who succeeded Ippen and Ta'a were called Yugyo Shonin (遊行上人), who, like Ta'a, traveled around the country, practicing scheduled nembutsu and nembutsu odori.

In the mid-Muromachi period, the sarugaku performers Kan'ami and Ze'ami bore the Buddhist name of the Jishu sect, being known as Dōbō-shū, Buddhist sculptors, and garden designers, and they reached their heyday as cultural leaders, but leading a large number of Nembutsu practitioners on their travels entailed many difficulties. As the sect developed, it began to approach those in power in order to carry out its travels smoothly, and as it gained the protection of the shogunate and feudal lords and other such organizations, it began to carry out large-scale travels, but it lost its popularity for educating the common people, and the Ji-shū sect was eroded by the missionary activities of the Jōdo Shinshū and Sōtō sects .

At the will of the Tokugawa Shogunate, various Pure Land monks were integrated into a single sect called "Ji-shū" centered around the teachings of Ippen, and the Ikkō-shū and others were placed in 12 schools of that sect ("the 12 schools of Ji-shū"). The mainstream was the "Yugyo school" whose main temples were Fujisawa Dojo Seijoko-ji and Shichijo Dojo Konko- ji. Although it declined from a certain period, under the Shogunate's han system, official yugyo (traveling monks) were supported with the backing of the Shogunate, and Ji-shū monks traveled all over the country, including areas without Ji-shū temples. It is believed that the direct cause of the Ji sect's decline was the haibutsu kishaku movement in the Meiji era.

In 1871, the Ji-shū sects fell into a difficult position due to the order to confiscate temple lands and the order to abolish the use of shrine money. Furthermore, the anti-Buddhist movement led to the destruction of Ji-shū temples in the territories of the Satsuma Domain and Sado Island, which were considered Ji-shū strongholds. In 1940, Ippen Shonin was bestowed the title of "Shosei Daishi" (証誠大師.) In response to this, during the Second World War, Ji-shū cooperated with the government by forming the Ji-shū Patriotic Association and establishing the Yugyoji branch temple in Mukden, Manchuria. In 1943, the Ikkō-shū sect left Ji-shū and joined the Jōdo-shū sect.

The Ji-shū sect is known for its recitation of nembutsu at certain intervals throughout the day, scheduled sessions of chanting (hence the name Ji-shū "Time sect"), the handing out of slips of paper with the nembutsu written on them,^[2] and keeping a register of the converted.

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• Foard, James Harlan (1977). Ippen Shônin and popular Buddhism in Kamakura Japan, Dissertation, Stanford University. OCLC
• Foard, James Harlan (2006). The Pure Land Tradition: History and Development, Fremont, CA: Jain Publishing. ISBN 9780895810922. pp. 357–398
• Griffiths, Caitilin J. (2011). Tracing the Itinerant Path: Jishū Nuns of Medieval Japan, Thesis, University of Toronto
• Hirota, Dennis (1997). No Abode: The Record of Ippen, (Ryukoku-Ibs Studies in Buddhist Thought and Tradition), Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, ISBN 0824819977
• Kaufman, Laura S. (1992). Nature, Courtly Imagery, and Sacred Meaning in the Ippen Hijiri-e. In James H. Sanford (ed.), Flowing Traces Buddhism in the Literary and Visual Arts of Japan, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press; pp. 47–75
• Matsunaga, Daigan, Matsunaga, Alicia (1996), Foundation of Japanese buddhism, Vol. 2: The Mass Movement (Kamakura and Muromachi Periods), Los Angeles; Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1996. ISBN 0-914910-28-0
• Thornton, S.A. (1999). Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyo-ha (1300-1700). Cornell East Asia Series no. 102, Ithaca: Cornell University, ISBN 1-885445-62-8
• Dennis Hirota, No Abode: The Record of Ippen, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 1997 ISBN 978-0-8248-1997-2
• Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga, Foundation of Japanese Buddhism. Vol. II: The Mass Movement (Kamakura & Muromachi Periods), Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles & Tōkyō, 1976 ISBN 978-0-9149-1027-5

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ji-shu.

• Jodo Shu Research Institute
• Stewart, Harold, Ippen
• The Yugyo-ji temple / Head temple of the ji-shu sect
• 念佛金言录
• Shonin Ippen, E-den (Biographical stories vol7)
• The Ji Sect (時宗)
• Ji-Shu Main Temple website

Media related to Ji-shū at Wikimedia Commons

• Ji-shu Sōhonzan Yugyō-ji web site
• Yugyō-ji Houmotsukan
• Yugyō-ji Keidai Zu (late Edo period)
• Kunishitei Bunkazai Database Archived 2015-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

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