Quotations of the Kyōgyōshinshō in Post-Shinran Writings: Mainly Focusing on Kakunyo’s Writings

Abstract

According to my survey, no study has yet to examine Kakunyo’s citations of the Kyōgyoshinshō in light of the overall trend of citations of Buddhist scriptures in Kakunyo’s works. In this study, first, I make a comprehensive survey of the numerous sūtras and commentaries cited in Kakunyo’s writings, classify them and examine the overall tendency of how they are cited. The core of the Buddhist scriptures cited in Kakunyo’s works consists of the Kyōgyōshinshō along with the Larger Sukhāvativyūha sūtra and Shandao’s writings. Kakunyo, who compiled his works in response to the requests of his disciples and sometimes dictated his words to his followers, quoted, read, and made comments on the Japanese and Chinese scriptural passages. Since Kakunyo’s purpose for writing shifted between biographical texts and doctrinal commentaries, the trend of his citations from the scripures changes depending on the type of writing. However, he was consistent in that his writings were based on citations from the Larger Sukhāvativyūha sūtra, Shandao’s Wangsheng lizan, and Shinran’s Kyōgōshinshō. This can be understood to mean that he made an effort to reposition Shinran’s Pure Land thought and his Kyōgōshinshō properly in the history of the development of Pure Land Buddhism.