The Daruma Sect and the Jōdō Sect: A Study on the Basis of the Reception of the Shinkon ketsugishō

The main aim of this study is to discuss the relationship between the Daruma 達磨宗 and the Jōdō Sects 浄土宗, based mainly on how the Shinkon ketsugishō 心根決疑章, a newly discovered historical source of the Daruma Sect, was duly accepted into the canonical works of the Jōdō Sect. As has already been suggested, the only relationship between the Daruma Sect and the Jōdō Sect, based on the extant historical materials, was the documented dialogue between Dainichibō Nōnin 大日房能忍 and Shōkōbō Benchō 聖光房弁長, who was the Second Leader of the Jōdō Sect. However, in 2018 I discovered the Shinkon ketsugishō written by the Daruma Sect’s second leader, Butchibō Kakuan 仏地房覚晏. Furthermore, it turned out that Ryōchū 良忠, the Third Leader of the Jōdō Sect, had cited quotations from this Shinkon ketsugishō in his Kannenhōmon shiki 観念法門私記. Thereafter, this Shinkon ketsugishō was cited continuously in the guiding manual of the Kannenhōmon shiki. Moreover, in the canonical works of the Jōdō Sect, some quotations other than these parts used in the Kannenhōmon shiki were recognized, which shows that the Shinkon ketsugishō was a historical source which was continuously in use by the Jōdō Sect. The Daruma Sect as a religious school died out by the medieval period, but it is demonstrated that although the ideas of Butchibō Kakuan may have been very minor in proportion, they were still successively taken up in the Jōdō Sect.