Yūzū Nenbutsu engi 融通念仏縁起

The History and Benefits of the Yūzū Nenbutsu engi. A handscroll theme recounting the early history of the Yūzū Nenbutsu 融通念仏 sect which held that one person's invocation of *Amida 阿弥陀 could benefit all mankind. The original text was written in 1314, and illustrated soon after in a pair of no-longer extant scrolls *emaki 絵巻. The Yūzū Nenbutsu teachings were articulated by Ryōnin 良忍 (1073-1132), who can be seen as a precursor or model for *Hōnen 法然 (1133-1212), the founder of the Jōdo 浄土 sect. Ryōnin's life is depicted in the first scroll of the pair. A student and priest on Mt. Hiei 比叡 as a young man, in 1095 Ryōnin retired to a hermitage in nearby Ōhara 大原 to study and recite sutras. In 1117, while Ryōnin was meditating, Amida appeared and revealed the message that belief in Amida's grace expressed in recitation of the nenbutsu prayer "All Praise to Amida Buddha" brings salvation not only to oneself but "benefits accrue" yūzū 融通 to all other sentient beings including one's ancestors. In 1124, while Ryōnin was meditating at Kuramadera 鞍馬寺 in Kyoto, *Bishamonten 毘沙門天 appeared and asked him to spread his revelation to others. Ryōnin began to preach in Kyoto and he spent the next nine years traveling across Japan. The scroll ends with his death and a raigō 来迎 scene of his welcome into Amida's paradise. The second scroll depicts the benefits of nenbutsu recitation to people of both high and low birth, in this world and the next.
There are many extant illustrated scrolls of the Yūzū Nenbutsu engi. The earliest surviving pair of scrolls (Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Art Museum in USA) were produced in the first half of the 14th century. Versions now at Chion'in 知恩院 in Kyoto, the Nezu 根津 Museum in Tokyo, Dainenbutsuji 大念仏寺 in Osaka, and the Freer Art Gallery in USA, were all produced between 1381-87. A demand was so great that woodblock printed versions were produced in 1390 and 1410 under the impetus of the priest Ryōchin 良鎮 (?-1382-1423-?). Ryōchin, in effect the real organizer of the Yūzū Nenbutsu sect, relied on the diffusion of the scrolls throughout Japan not only to present the nenbutsu teachings but also to encourage the collection of donations kanjin 勧進 and solidify a network of temple affiliations. Influence, if not competition, from the Jōdo, Jōdoshin 浄土真, and Ji 時 sects, which had their own illustrated biographies of sect founders (see *kōsōden-e 高僧伝絵), may also have spurred production of Yūzū Nenbutsu engi scrolls. A 1414 pair of highly ornate scrolls at Seiryōji 清涼寺 in Kyoto, for noble patrons who wrote out the text passages, includes paintings signed by Tosa Yukihide 土佐行秀 (fl.ca. 1430?), Rokkaku Jakusai 六角寂済 (1348?-1424?), Awataguchi Takamitsu 粟田口隆光 (fl.e. 15th century), Tosa Mitsukuni 土佐光国 (fl. 1394-1424), Tosa Yukihiro 土佐行広 (fl. 1406-34), and Tosa Eishun 土佐永春 (fl. ca. 1369-1468). There is a well-known version at Zenrinji 禅林寺 in Kyoto, from the late 15th century. Copies, printed and painted, continued to be made well into the 19th centrury. Nenbutsu practices were an integral part of popular religion in the Edo period, however, the Yūzū Nenbutsu sect declined organizationally and politically and was in effect subsumed by the Jōdo and Jōdoshin sects.