Genku was then living at Kurodani, near Kyoto, in a humble cottage on the site of the present pretentious monastery of Chion-in. He had retired to this spot to escape from the persecutions of his Tendai brethren, who looked upon him much as a starchy English rector of the eighteenth century may have looked upon one of Mr. Wesley's itinerant preachers, and there he had gathered a few disciples around him,--the nucleus of the present Jodo sect. Genku based his teachings on the so-called "Three Books," spoke of Amida as the Divine Being whom it had been S'akyamuni's special mission to declare to the world, and exhorted his followers to constant faith in Amida's Mercy as declared in his Vow, and to an equally constant devotion to the faithful and devout recital of the Holy Name. He himself would seem to have desired even more drastic reforms for the purpose of carrying the message of salvation through Faith more effectively home to the people, but his disciples as a body were not, perhaps, ready to follow him. He retained therefore all the ancient rules of the Vinaya discipline, and all the ancient ceremonies, as far as was possible under the changed circumstances in which he found himself. I have always thought of Genku as of some cautious, spiritually-minded, Anglican reformer, steering his way carefully between the extremes of Popery and Puritanism, and losing something of his power from his very caution. When I add that, to my mind, Genku is one of the most attractive

personages in the whole history of the Japanese Mahayana, it will be seen that I have here set down nothing by way of disparagement.

Shinran became Genku's favourite disciple, and it was the affection which the master had for the disciple, that enabled the latter to carry the principles of Salvation by Faith to their logical conclusion.