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영어

The uniqueness of the majority of Japanese Buddhists as a whole is that it does not overly emphasize the necessity of observing precepts. There seems to be two reasons for this: the strong influence of Natural Religion and the prevalence of Honen's teaching in the thirteenth century, who introduced a new form of Buddhism, oriented toward lay people, who could not observe such rules in their daily lives.
In Natural Religion, hijiri, a type of holy men, used to separate themselves from worldly affairs and carry out ascetic practices during times of spiritual union with indigenous deities, though apart from these occasions, their lives were just the same as those of ordinary people.
However, as Buddhist priests began to be influenced by this viewpoint, they became quite open about their sexuality, although such behavior violated their precepts.
Honen, whose teaching was revolutionary within the history of Buddhism, abandoned the idea of getting rid of sexual desires and instead, introduced a form of salvation, which embraced human sexuality as it is.
Shinran, his follower, went even further and challenged his own sexuality in a very concrete way, by marrying and having children. Owing to this, Jodoshinshu followers, who regard him as their founder, have acknowledged and accepted the Japanese Buddhism and Sexuality marriage of their clergy and in return, the priest and his wife, as a couple, have promoted the teaching.
When considering Japanese Buddhist sexuality, these two factors cannot be overlooked, especially when Honen introduced this new teaching into the lives of ordinary people. However, I should also like to deal with this theme, as expressed in the Tale of Genji, before these concepts came to be applied in public life as well as that of Ikkyu, who lived in the fifteenth century.