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尊號眞像銘文

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Text ID
KR6t0365
Date
1255–1258
Dynasty
日本

Zūnhào zhēnxiàng míngwén 尊號眞像銘文

Inscriptional Glosses on the Honored-Names and True-Images by 親鸞 Shinran (撰)

About the work

A two-fascicle vernacular-Japanese commentary by 親鸞 Shinran on the inscriptions (銘文 meimon) found on the honored-names (尊號 songō — name-scrolls bearing the Namo Amida Butsu or similar names) and true-images (眞像 shinzō — patriarch-portraits) used in Shinshū devotional practice. Shinran in his late-Kyoto period prepared autograph meigō and gyo’ei (御影) name-scrolls and patriarch-portraits which he distributed to his Hitachi and Echigo disciples; this work serves as the doctrinal-exegetical companion to those devotional objects, glossing each inscription. The Taishō presents the work in two recensions: A (the present 2656A) and B (the variant KR6t0366).

Abstract

The work opens with the canonical citation of Amitābha’s eighteenth vow — the central senchaku-hongan: “The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha says: ‘Should I attain Buddhahood, may the sentient beings of the ten directions, with sincere faith-and-joy, desire to be born in my land, even to ten thoughts…” (大無量壽經言。設我得佛。十方衆生。至心信樂 …). Shinran then proceeds through extensive vernacular-Japanese commentary on this and other key inscriptional formulae.

The inscriptions glossed include:

  1. The Six-Character Name 南無阿彌陀佛 Namo Amida Butsu — the principal songō inscription;
  2. The Nine-Character Name 南無不可思議光如來 Namo Fukashigi-kō Nyorai (“Refuge in the Inconceivable-Light Tathāgata”) — a Shinshū-distinctive alternative songō;
  3. The Ten-Character Name 歸命盡十方無礙光如來 Kimyō jin-jippō mu-ge-kō Nyorai (“Taking refuge in the Unobstructed-Light Tathāgata of all the ten directions”);
  4. Patriarch-portrait inscriptions for the Shichi-kōsō (seven Pure-Land patriarchs, cf. KR6t0357): Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, Tánluán, Dàochuò, Shàndǎo, Genshin, Hōnen;
  5. Shōtoku Taishi-portrait inscriptions;
  6. Inscriptions citing the Wǎngshēng lùn, the Anrakushū, the Guānjīng shū, and other foundational texts.

Each inscription is given Shinran’s vernacular-Japanese exegesis, drawing out the doctrinal-soteriological significance. The work functions as the liturgical-iconographic commentary for Shinshū devotional practice, supplying the doctrinal understanding that should accompany the recitation of the names and the veneration of the patriarch-portraits.

Date. Shinran’s late-Kyoto period; conventionally dated to Kenchō 7 / 1255 – Shōka 2 / 1258, when Shinran was preparing autograph devotional objects for his disciples.

Significance. The work is one of the principal Shinshū documents bridging scholastic doctrine and lay devotional practice: by glossing the inscriptions that adorn the everyday devotional objects of Shinshū households, Shinran ensured that the lay community’s daily veneration was anchored in the doctrinal content of his Kyōgyōshinshō.

Translations and research

English translation: Hongwanji Translation Series, The Collected Works of Shinran (1997). Treated in: James C. Dobbins, Jōdo Shinshū (Indiana UP, 1989); Cynthea J. Bogel, With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision (Univ. Washington Press, 2009) — on the broader Japanese-Buddhist meibun / meimon devotional-inscription tradition; critical text in Shinran Shōnin zenshū 親鸞聖人全集 (Hongan-ji, 1985).

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