^15:* Shinran's name was originally Zenshin. When about 28 years of age he changed his name to Shakhu, but after a year or two went back to his original name. His name of Shinran was assumed when he formally began his Apostolate. He sometimes wrote under the pen-name of Gutoku. In 1876, an Imperial Decree conferred on him the posthumous title of Kenshin Daishi (the Great Teacher who had the Vision of Truth), and this is still his official designation.

^17:* There is another account which says that Kikkojo, who was married at the age of fifteen, was the daughter of Michichika Minamoto, the Rokujo Kurando, 1149-1202, an active minister under seven consecutive Emperors, whose daughter was the wife of the Emperor of Go-Toba and mother of the Emperor Tsuchimikado.

^17:+ Bukkyo Kakuha Koyo, vol. v.

^18:* See my translation of Shoshinge in chapter V.

^19:* This is the Yuzunembutsu sect, still extant.

^19:+ I have taken these dates from Haas, Annalen d. japanischen Buddhism's, vol. xi. p. 3. of Transactions of German As. Society of Japan.

^21:* It is a mistake to speak of Kwannon as a female deity. Kwannon is the son of Amitabha, capable of appearing in many forms, male or female, human or animal, according to circumstances. But he is never manifested except as a means of practically demonstrating the Divine compassion for a suffering creation.

^21:+ Certain apparent exceptions to this statement will be considered later.

^24:* We can also see the grounds on which the Shinshu theologians take their stand, when they say that they, and not the Jodo, are the true followers of Genku. For, apparently, in overthrowing the compulsory celibacy of priests and the disciplinary laws against meat-eating, Shinran was acting in perfect conformity with the instructions of his teacher. Genku, at Kanezane's instigation, set forth his doctrines in a book entitled Senjakushu.

^25:* Kanezane had by this time himself entered the Order of monks. He joined the Zen sect, with the introduction of which he had a great deal to do. (Others say he joined the Tendai.)

^26:* In one Dr. Murakami's magazines I have seen a series of articles horn his pen, describing his childhood in a "parsonage" in one of the Shinshu villages in Echigo. Allowing for the differences in the surroundings, these papers reveal an atmosphere not unlike that of country parsonages in remote parts of England or Germany, where social life is simple and where the parson is not above working with his own hands at the cultivation of the glebe.