About the Institute

Background Information
Jodo Shu priests and priestesses have a number of interests concerning their daily activities and duties. In relating these concerns to traditional Buddhist studies, our focus has been to bring together research that is in tune with the times. In 1989, the Jodo Shu Research Institute was created through the integration of three separate institutes on Jodo Shu teachings, propagation and rituals which had been established 50 years earlier. In 1994, we developed new research guidelines which are based upon the previous three departments of teachings, propagation and rituals. The Director of the Institute, along with the Chief Research Fellows and Visiting Professors, focus our research upon a group of specific projects.

Research projects in 2006 include the following Staff:

Director: Rev. Zenou Ishigami
Chief Research Fellow: Rev. Kencho Fukunishi
Visiting Professors: 5
Other Research Fellows: 31
Office Staff: 2

The Website
The original basis of this homepage came from the work of the Senchakushu English Translation Project of the Taisho University Center for Comprehensive Buddhist Studies in Tokyo. Led by Professor Hirokawa Takatoshi, the project spent over eight years re-translating Honen's magnum opus, the Senchakushu, and developing materials in English on Honen's teachings. Portions of this work were published in Honen's Senchakushu by University of Hawaii Press in 1998, the 800th anniversary of the writing of the Senchakushu. On this homepage, we offer for the first time the complete contents of Professor Hirokawa's comprehensive introduction of Honen's life and teachings.

Here at the Jodo Shu Research Institute, members of the very same Taisho University Senchakushu Translation Team have further expanded these materials and developed numerous new ones as well, such as previously untranslated writings by Honen, a presentation of Jodo Shu ceremonies, a collection of Jodo Shu hymns (eisho) penned by Honen and other Japanese Pure Land masters, and selections from Honen's Forty-eight Fascicle Biography (Shijuhachikan-den). We welcome your critical reflections and comments on improving the quality of this page!

Key to References & Footnotes
HDZ - Honen shonin den zenshu (Collected Biographies of Honen Shonin)

JZ - Jodoshu zensho (Collected Writings of Jodo Shu)

SHZ - Showa shinshu Honen shonin zenshu (The New Showa Collection of the Complete Writing of Honen Shonin)

T. - Taisho shinshu daizokyo (The Taisho Canon of Mahayana Sutras & Commentaries - New Edition)