Ki[=o]to, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery
of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that
he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation
be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into
his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten
times.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is
recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is
that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly
compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our
own time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed
upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of
the Revelation of Truth.


The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism.


This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism[12] and
resembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute,
foreigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European
Protestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of
Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in
the writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor
Renni[=o],[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by
the disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of
reaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the
mixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or
kana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two
decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools
of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young