Letters of the Nun Eshinni – Images of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval Japan

Letters of the Nun EshinniImages of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval Japan\nAuthor(s): James C. Dobbins\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Hawai'i Press, United States\nImprint: University of Hawai'i Press\nISBN-13: 9780824826673, 978-0824826673\nSynopsis\nEshinni [tel]?), a Buddhist nun and the wife of Shinran [tel], the celebrated founder of the True Pure Land, or Shin, school of Buddhism, was largely unknown until the discovery of a collection of her letters in 1921. In this study, James C. Dobbins, a leading scholar of Pure Land Buddhism, has made creative use of these letters to shed new light on life and religion in medieval Japan. He provides a complete translation of the letters and an explication of them that reveals the character and flavor of early Shin Buddhism. Readers will come away with a new perspective on Pure Land scholarship and a vivid image of Eshinni and the world in which she lived. After situating the ideas and practices of Pure Land Buddhism in the con.