Ojoden - Tale of the dead

This book is a collection of stories of people who went to the Pure Land of Amida Buddha through various good deeds, especially through the practice of nembutsu. As the idea of ​​Pure Land Buddhism spread among aristocratic society, a resignation to things of this world was born among the middle and lower classes of aristocrats. It was against this background that Yoshishige Yasutane wrote "Nihon Gokurakuki," the first story of going to the Pure Land, around the end of the 10th century. As the preface of the book quotes "Jodoron" by Kasai of the Tang dynasty, many of Japan's stories of going to the Pure Land are modeled on or precedented by those from the Tang and Song dynasties. After the Insei period, Oeno Masafusa's "Zoku Honcho Ojoden" and Miyoshi Tameyasu's "Shuui Ojoden" were compiled in succession, but "Zoku Honcho Ojoden" adopted secular social order as its principle of arrangement, introducing values ​​of this world that should be denied, and a kind of refraction can be seen between it and "Nihon Ojo Gokurakuki." The compilation of these works ceased with the "Nenbutsu Ojoden" of the Kamakura period, but in the Edo period, the Jodo sect was patronized by the shogunate, and various stories of rebirth began to be produced again.

[Tada Kazuomi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

さまざまな善業、とくに念仏を修することで阿弥陀仏(あみだぶつ)の浄土に往生した人々の伝を集めた書。浄土教思想が貴族社会に浸透するなかで、中・下層貴族の間には此岸(しがん)的なものへの諦観(ていかん)が生み出されたが、そうした土壌を背景に10世紀の末ごろ、往生伝の嚆矢(こうし)である慶滋保胤(よししげのやすたね)の『日本往生極楽記(ごくらくき)』が撰述(せんじゅつ)された。その序が唐の迦才(かさい)の『浄土論』を引くように、わが国の往生伝には唐・宋(そう)のそれを範型、先例とするものが少なくない。院政期以後、大江匡房(おおえのまさふさ)『続本朝往生伝』、三善為康(みよしためやす)『拾遺往生伝』などが相次いで編纂(へんさん)されたが、『続本朝往生伝』が世俗的な身分秩序を配列原理とするなど、そこには否定さるべき此岸の価値が導入され、『日本往生極楽記』との間に一種の屈折をみいだすことができる。その編纂は、鎌倉時代の『念仏往生伝』を最後に中絶するが、江戸時代に入ると浄土宗が幕府に外護され、ふたたびさまざまな往生伝が生み出されるようになった。

［多田一臣］

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