Ryōnin (良忍, 1072–1132) was a

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

Buddhist monk in the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

and the founder of the

Yuzu Nembutsu is a school of Pure Land Buddhism that focuses on the recitation of the ''Nembutsu'', the name of the Amitabha Buddha. Followers believe this recitation benefits not just the chanter, but the entire world as well. History The sect began in t ...

sect. Ryōnin was born the son of Tomita no Shō (富田荘), the feudal lord of

Owari Province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces w ...

. When he was young, he was called Yoshihito (良仁). At the age of 12, he left home and began studying Buddhism near

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...

. After his education, he worked in the Jitsuhōbō (実報房) as a temple priest (Nembutsu choir priest), who continuously practiced

nembutsu file:玉里華山寺 (21)南無阿彌陀佛古碑.jpg, 250px, Chinese Nianfo carving The Nianfo ( zh, t=wikt:念佛, 念佛, p=niànfó, alternatively in Japanese language, Japanese ; ; or ) is a Buddhist practice central to East Asian Buddhism. ...

in the Jōgyō-Sanmaidō Hall (常行三昧堂), where

Amida Buddha Amida can mean : Places and jurisdictions * Amida (Mesopotamia), now Diyarbakır, an ancient city in Asian Turkey; it is (nominal) seat of: ** The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida ** The Latin titular Metropolitan see of Amida of the Roma ...

is the main object of worship. In later years, Yoshihito retired to Ōhara on the outskirts of

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, called himself Ryōnin, and began a life in which he recited a portion of the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...

and the nembutsu 60,000 times a day as a priest and practiced it as a method of incantation in the morning, at noon, and at sunset. According to the illustrated text scroll "Yūzū−Nembutsu Engi Emaki" (融通念仏縁起絵巻), which was produced in 1314 during the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, when the idea of the Yūzū−Nembutsu was completed and spread, Ryōnin was immersed in Amida Buddha at the age of 46 and taught Nembutsu to the people. He realized that the Nembutsu led the common people to reach enlightenment more quickly.S. Noma (ed.): ''Ryōnin'' . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X, p. 1282. At the request of the retired emperor Toba, Ryōnin built the

Dainenbutsu-ji Dainenbutsu-ji (大念仏寺) is a Buddhist temple in Hirano-ku, Osaka, Japan. It was founded in 1127. It is the headquarters of the small Yuzu Nembutsu school of Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Buddhism or the Pure Land School ( zh, c=淨土� ...

temple in 1127. Ryōnin is also known for reciting the "Tendai Shōmyō" (天台声明), the musical tradition of the Tendai school of Buddhism, as a sutra and for reviving and systematizing it as "Ōhara Shōmyō" (大原魚山声明). He died in 1132 in the Ōhararaigō-in temple (大原来迎院) at the age of 61. In this tradition, from the 14th century onwards, Yūzū-Nembutsu teachings became important, which emphasized the power of the Nembutsu of people and not the power of vows to Amida Buddha. In 1773, Ryōnin was posthumously named Shōō Daishi (聖応大師).

References

{{Buddhism topics Pure Land Buddhism 1073 births 1132 deaths Founders of Buddhist sects Japanese Buddhist clergy Tendai Buddhist monks