Kamakura accounts of Myōe Shōnin as popular religious hero
1982; Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture; Volume: 9; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.18874/jjrs.9.2-3.1982.171-198
ISSN0304-1042
Autores Tópico(s)Chinese history and philosophy
ResumoMyoe Shonin (Koben, 1173(Koben, -1232) ) lived at the beginning of an age of religious renewal and innovation.Honen (1133-1212)，for example, was advocating the " Single-practice calling upon the name of Amida Buddha" (senju nenbutsu), the founding of the Jodo sect being traditionally placed in 1175; Eisai (1141-1215) returned from China in 1191 to propagate the meditation practices of Rinzai Zen.And on the secular front there were also renewals and innovations, with the Minamoto clan's establishment of a center of political power in Kamakura which would share the direction of the nation's social， religious and cultural life with the court in Kyoto.The belief was widespread, although not universally accepted， that the world was well into the period of the Decline of the Law (mappo), the last of the three phases of Shakyamuni's teaching, which meant that people would be increasingly incapable of prac ticing or even of comprehending the original discipline and that human institutions would deteriorate.New methods appropriate to the times were required, and Honen, Eisai and Myoe were merely three of the earliest to attempt to meet the challenge of determining what these methods were to be.These three were succeeded by a flood of reformers, notably Dogen (1200-1253) ， Nichiren (1222-1282), and shinran, who was born the same year as Myoe but outlived him by three decades.Myoe's ambition was to rejuvenate Kegon, the most prominent of the old Six Nara Sects, which had its headquarters at the T5dai-ji_ After being ordained a priest in 1188， he devoted himself both to the study of Kegon theory and the practices of esoteric Bud dhism (mikkyd), and eventually developed his own synthesis, known
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