^201:1 Nichiren (see "Sei-go-roku," passim)) was very scathing in his denunciation of this spurious oracle, as he termed it. Nichirenism had no official connection with Ryobu, and yet, on occasions, it too would turn to Hachiman and Tenshodaijin.

^201:2 Miwa is a town in Yamato, with a well-known Shinto temple. The oracle is mentioned by Dr. Murakami on p. 859 of his handbook.

^201:3 Most of the present funeral customs of Japan date from the Nara period. Strange to say, most of them imply the continuance of the soul after death. This is absolutely contrary to the original doctrines of Buddhism; but the Japanese belief in immortality was too deeply engrained to be easily eradicated.

^202:1 See Nanjo, No. 87.

^202:2 The list of Avatamsaka Sutras given by Nanjo gives us some data for fixing the age of Nagarjuna. One of the chapters was translated by Lokaraksha of the Han Dynasty who reached Loyang in A.D. 147. It would follow that Nagarjuna must have lived before that date. Again, all Buddhist authorities in Japan place him 600 years after the Parinirvana. If we fix that at about 500 B.C. we get Nagarjuna's date about 100 A.D., which agrees very well both with the translation of the chapter by Lokaraksha and with the year assigned by Eusebius and other writers for the terminus a quo of Gnosticism.

^203:1 Nanjo, "Cat. of Tripitaka," Nos. 87, 88.

^203:2 Mr. G. Sakurai, in the now defunct Hansei Zasshi, vol. xiii. p. 12, says that in A.D. 781 one of the Indian translators of the Tang period, Prajna by name, who had come to China in order to get near the scene of Manjus'ri's labours, was actually collaborating with the Nestorian priest King Ching, or Adam, the man who erected the Singanfu monument. Between them they made a translation of the "Shatparamita Sutra," which they offered to the Emperor Tetsung. The Emperor, however, refused to receive it, saying that King Ching should devote himself to preaching the doctrines of Meshiho (Messiah), leaving the Buddhists to propagate the teachings of S'akyamuni. The book therefore appears in Prajna's name only.

^203:3 Vairoc'ana is said to be distinct from the Roshana of the Hosso, though in practice he is almost always identified with him. I have drawn my materials from the chapters on Hossu and Kegon in "Bukkyo Kakushu Koyo," vol. i.