Doshaku, who is reckoned by the Jodo Buddhist as the fourth patriarch of the Amida Doctrines, and therefore as Zendo's immediate predecessor, was born in Heishu () in the year A.D. 553, and died in 636. He had experienced the persecution which the Buddhists had undergone during the reign of Wu-ti of the Chow () Dynasty, and he was one of the few brave ones who remained faithful in spite of the violence of the storm. His predecessor, the third patriarch, Donran, had taught with considerable

effect in the district in which Doshaka was born, and though he had been dead twenty years when Doshaku came into the world, his influence was still felt in the neighbourhood. It was kneeling before the stone pillar erected to Donran's memory that Doshaku made his vow to propagate the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith in Amida. Doshaku was forty-eight years of age when he thus enrolled himself as a posthumous pupil of Donran's; but he is said to have developed the doctrine beyond what Donran had done. Donran had been drawn by the hope of eternal life, and it was this hope, set before him by the Indian monk Bodhiruci, that had made him burn his Taoist books of magic and set himself to the study of Amidaism. In Doshaku's hands the Amida doctrine had developed in the direction of personality. He taught (if we may believe his latest biographer, Mr. Tada) that Amida must be considered to be a personal Being and not a mere abstract ideal, and the book which he placed in Zendo's hands was the Larger Sukhavati Vyuha, the book which gives the account of Amida's life, of His Incarnation in the person of Hozo Biku, His labours undertaken for the Salvation of men, the successful accomplishment of His Great Vow, and His return to glory as King of His Western Paradise. This doctrine Zendo accepted and preached. He may be said to have carried the doctrine a stage further. The followers of Honen Shonin (otherwise known as Genku) form three communities: (i) the Shinshu, founded by Shinran, and (ii and iii) the two sub-sects of the older Jodo sect, the Chinsei-ha and the Seizan-ha. The Chinsei-ha, agreeing in this respect with the Shinshu, differ from the Seizan-ha in the matter of reciting the Nembutsu. The latter community treat the Nembutsu as an act of adoration addressed to all the Buddhas; the Chinsei-ha and Shinshu treat it as addressed to Amida alone, as being the only Buddha, and the one to whom everything else is subordinate and subservient; and this practice, according to Murakami. is due to the teachings of Zendo. To Zendo, therefore, the doctrine of faith became a doctrine involving a belief in a single Being, without beginning of days or end of life, unbounded

in every , who, for man's salvation, had become a man, had accomplished a scheme of salvation, and had returned to his original glory.