Nishida Kitaro and Suzuki Daisetsu were both born in 1870. Throughout their lives since their adolescence, they shared an intimate friendship and exchange of ideas. Daisetsu discovered in the Pure Land thought of Hōnen and Shinran a distinctive “Japanese Spirituality” characterized by the faith in being saved unconditionally through the absolute compassion of Amita- Buddha. Nishida discussed the theory of salvation in Shin Buddhism in his very last article, “The Logic of basho(Place)and the Religious World-view.” He pointed out that the Buddha in Shin Buddhist doctrine fully transcends us and at the same time embraces us. However, Daisetsu’s and Nishida’s understanding of Shin Buddhism went further than this. Both emphasized that salvation by Amita-Buddha immediately transforms itself into concrete effort to help others. Such understanding is not only a valuable contribution to contemporary doctrinal studies of Shin Buddhism, it more generally points a way to religion’s engagement with society.
