As one form of media for propagating Shinshū teaching, Shinran created visual materials called Kōmyō honzon. The Kōmyō honzon contains three parts: Amida Buddha’s name, images of the buddhas, and words of the scriptures. The term Kōmyō honzon was first defined in the Benjutsu myōtaishō and was popularized after the publication of the Shinshū jūhō shūei in 1987. The basic definition of the composition of Kōmyō honzon is that it contains three forms of Amida Buddha’s name and portraits of Śākyamuni and Amida within a single scroll.

The Myōgenji Temple in Aichi prefecture possesses a set of three hanging scrolls which is considered to be only remaining example of a Kōmyō honzon composed in Shinran’s lifetime. The middle scroll contains the nine-character Name of Amida Buddha emitting ninety-one rays of light. On the scroll on the left are portraits of the Indian and Chinese masters; on the scroll on the right are images of Prince Shotoku and Japanese masters. There are, however, no images of the two Buddhas.

It is clear that the set of scrolls of Myōgenji Temple does not fit the definition of Kōmyō honzon as described in the Benjutsu myōtaishō. Instead of classifying this set of scrolls under the category of Kōmyō honzon, in this paper I suggest that it is more accurate to identify them as Shinshū Mandara.

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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the education of the school for girls established by Prefecture Agricultural Associations in 1920-1930s; they were established in Mie, Toyama, Hiroshima, Fukui, Chiba, Yamagata, Aomori. The background of establishment was the increase of women who hope to marriage in urban, and the necessity of science education for girls who become farmer's wives; although there were other schools for girls such as girls' high school and vocational continuation school, they were considered to be inadequate to lead the girls as rural women. The schools for girls established by Prefecture Agricultural Associations had school dormitory. Especially Chiba has own school building, but the others did not so they moved in search of schoolhouse every year, therefore they were called "the type of movement schools". The education and policy of school were difference between Chiba and the others. The graduates were expected to be the model of rural girls, and to transmit the way to improvement of rural life. One of the ways to improvement of rural life was the save of wedding expenses, so they swore to wear the bride costume which was not made of silk but cotton when they would get married. The improvement in nourishment was other way; which was mainly worked on Chiba. We consider that the tendency of the improvement of rural life was difference by prefecture; so, Prefecture Agricultural Associations of Chiba was ambitious for the construction of cultural village. The important idea of "the type of movement schools" was mental training, on the other hand, there was also the leading of the improvement of rural village, especially in Chiba. In Japanese farming families, the parents hoped the eldest son who would be their heir to take the wife, but the daughters not to be farmer's wives, so the education which made girls live in village was needed in the schools for girls established by Prefecture Agricultural Associations.

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