The New International Encyclopædia/Shin-Shu

​Shin′-Shu′ (Jap., True Sect, full name Jodo Shin-Shu, True Sect of the Pure Land). A Japanese Buddhist sect. As its title indicates, it is a branch of the Jodo (Pure Land) sect. Like the other Buddhist bodies in Japan, the Jodo derived its teaching from China. It believes in Amida (Skt., Amitabha) only, the Buddha of boundless light, life, and mercy, one of the many beings worshiped in the Great Vehicle. Raising himself to Buddhahood, he vowed to create a ‘Pure Land,’ to be glorified forever as Buddha of Boundless Light, to save all who should put their faith in his vows. Hence the object of faith is not the historic Buddha, but the ‘vow’ of Amitabha. Salvation being solely by faith in the ‘vow,’ the believer needs neither knowledge nor works. Rites and ​ceremonies are without efficacy, though the believer as an expression of gratitude lives an upright life and constantly repeats “Glory to Amida the Buddha.” The priest is simply the official of the sect and its teacher, all essential distinction from the layman being done away. The priests marry, eat meat, and practice no austerity. The sect is first in popularity with the masses. Its temples are the most magnificent and the most frequented. At present it is the most progressive sect in the Empire, adopting the methods of Christian missions and sending some of its priests as students to Europe and America. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it took part in the feudal wars, armed its priests, and turned its monasteries into fortresses. For more than a century it ruled the great Province of Kaga. Shin-Shu is Buddhist only in name, retaining nothing of the teaching of Gautama and according him no honor. Consult: Nanjio, Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects (London, 1887); Griffis, The Religions of Japan (New York, 1895).