Ensetsu

Ensetsu (圓説, 1714–1759) was a Japanese Buddhist monk active during the mid-Edo period. He was the founder of the Mokugyo Nenbutsu practice and centered his activities in Kyoto and Osaka. He walked throughout Kyoto city, regardless of wind or rain, heat or cold, carrying a wooden fish drum over his shoulder and chanting the nembutsu as he struck it. At an event labelled the Hōdenji Lecture, it is said he instructed as many as fifteen thousand people in daily chanting. He rebuilt Hōdenji Temple (a temple commissioned by Emperor Shōmu and founded by Priest Gyōki) in Fushimi, Kyoto, and also established Kōgetsuan in Fushimi, opening a chanting hall to preach the Buddhist Dharma.

This was an important moment in the history of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, establishing the wooden fish chanting as the essence of Jōdo-shū. However, it sparked accusations of heresy as “dissenting doctrine and deviant practice” from temples throughout Kyoto. This marked the beginning of the Hōreki Fushimi Disturbance, a rare incident in the history of the Jōdo Shū school in the early modern period. As a result, he was falsely accused, exiled, and banished. Undeterred, amidst the Hōreki Incident (a pro-imperial movement), he rebuilt Sōkinji Temple (a temple commissioned by Emperor Shōmu and founded by Priest Gyōki) in Kitano, Osaka. For these successive acts of imperial loyalty and veneration, he was secretly granted the purple robe, purple crest curtain, and the titles ‘Futae Shōnin’ and “Mokugyōin” by the reigning emperor, Emperor Momozono.

Lifetime Born in 1714 during the Edo period, in the village of Terauchi, Shimogasa, Kurimoto District, Ōmi Province, east of Lake Biwa, as the son of Yokoi Shichibei. He was said to be intelligent and compassionate from a young age, and an outstandingly honest child.

In the 6th year of the Kyoho era (1721), at the age of eight, he lost his father. He personally requested his mother's permission to become a monk. Moved by his resolve, she consented. He shaved his head and entered the monastic life under the guidance of the monk Dan'yo at Myōraku-ji Temple in Minami-Kasa. His posthumous name was Ensetsu, his given name was Donsei, and his monastic name was Futae. He stated this was for his father's repose, for memorial services, and for his own liberation. Possessing a resolute spirit and an early awakening to seek the Way, he devoted himself to study for several years and mastered the Buddhist scriptures.

In 1727, when Ensetu was fifteen, he sought to deepen his studies. He took up residence at Zōjō-ji Temple in Shiba Sanyen-yama, Edo (also the Tokugawa family's ancestral temple), where the Jōdo sect's Danrin (a center for learning and training monks) was located. There he pursued his studies to completion, achieving both understanding and practice, and made the study of Buddhist doctrine his life's work. He received direct transmission from his master of the essential teachings of the Jōdo sect's doctrine and precept lineage, the vital core of the sect's lineage and precept lineage.

Transmission of Both the Doctrinal and Precept Lineages

Within the Jōdo Shū tradition, there are two methods of transmitting the Dharma: the doctrinal lineage, which conveys the fundamental teachings of the school, and the precept lineage, which transmits the precepts handed down within the Jōdo Shū. The doctrinal lineage refers to the transmission of the essential teachings of Jōdo Shū from master to disciple. The precept lineage refers to the transmission of the precepts handed down within Jōdo Shū from master to disciple. The term “lineage” (脈) signifies bloodline; it denotes the lineage of transmission, the genealogy of the Dharma passed from master to disciple. This lineage is established both within the doctrinal lineage and within the precept lineage. To become a Jōdo Shū priest, one must inherit both lineages.

Regarding the lineage of the doctrine: In the first volume of the “Shōsen-shū,” Hōnen discusses the two transmissions: the transmission of the Six Great Virtues and the transmission of the Five Patriarchs of the Pure Land. Receiving this meaning, Shōkyō states in the “Kenjōdo Dengenron”: "In the Pure Land school, there are two bloodlines: the lineage of the doctrine and the lineage of precepts. When transmitting the doctrine, the precepts are always transmitted as well. This principle is universally acknowledged by all scholars of the Pure Land school." The Precept Lineage: The En-ton Precepts establish two types of precept lineages: the Brahma's Net Transmission (Lotus Platform Transmission) and the Lotus Sutra Transmission (Direct Transmission from Mount Gridhrakuta).

In the 15th year of Kyoho (1730), when Ensetsu was 18 years old, he reflected on himself: his ordination was for the sake of his deceased father's memorial and his own liberation. If he were to waste his days now, he would surely be swept back into the ocean of birth and death. He could not remain at Zōjō-ji, thinking he was merely preserving expedient means while forgetting the goal of liberation. He resolved to thoroughly study the scriptures of his own and other schools and to diligently examine commentaries.

Studying Buddhist Texts The term “chōso” refers to commentaries on Buddhist scriptures, collectively known as Buddhist texts. This involved studying not only Jōdo-shū scriptures but also those of Jōdo Shinshū, Tendai-shū, Shingon-shū, Hokke-shū, Zen-shū, and other schools. Afterward, he embarked on a journey to travel throughout the provinces.

From late Kyōhō 16 (1731) through the summer of Kyōhō 17 (1732), the weather was poor, and the inclement conditions persisted even after the new year began. A cold summer and pest infestations caused crop failures across western Japan, particularly in the Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions, especially along the Seto Inland Sea coast. This became known as the Great Kyoho Famine. According to Tokugawa Jitsuki, approximately 970,000 people starved to death. It is also said that over 2.5 million people suffered from starvation.

The Kyōhō Reforms, the shogunate policies initiated by the eighth shogun Yoshimune starting in Kyōhō 1 (1716), were now starkly revealing themselves as reforms solely for the Tokugawa shogunate's own dominance. While the shogunate itself turned a blind eye to the famine countermeasures of the various domains, it instead exploited their misgovernance and financial circumstances, scheming to punish them with measures like abolition whenever an opportunity arose. However, these shogunate fiscal strengthening measures gradually backfired. Following the great famine, resistance from the Imperial Court, backlash from the domains, peasant uprisings, townspeople's rebellion, the tyranny of rōnin samurai, and scholarly criticism erupted into a conflagration of anti-shogunate sentiment rising from all sectors of society and generations.

After five years of wandering, in Kyōhō 20 (1735), at age 23, Ensetsu returned to his hometown in Ōmi. He preached at Myōraku-ji Temple, where samurai and commoners gathered to receive his teachings. This marked the beginning of Ensetsu's sect reform. He settled at Kakai-ji Temple in Ōtsu and continued spreading the practice of Nembutsu there until he was 26, in Genbun 3 (1738).

Exile In the third year of Hōreki (1752), at the age of forty-one, Ensetsu was expelled from Hōdenji Temple in Yamashiro Province due to slanderous accusations of spreading heretical teachings. This was a local banishment.

He then settled at the site of Sōkin-ji in Kitano, Osaka, a former sacred place that had fallen into ruin, and revived it. It seems likely that Futae, at the request of his disciples and followers, assumed the role of founding abbot. He rebuilt this temple within three years.

Death On the third day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Hōreki (1759), he fell ill and passed away peacefully. (Aged forty-six) He lay down with his head facing north and his feet toward the west, donned his sanghati robe, and vigorously chanted the Buddha's name one hundred times. People from a neighboring village saw a purple cloud covering the roof and thus knew of Ensetsu's passing, indicating he was a monk whose name would be remembered. This event is recorded in the “Sequels to the Biographies of Eminent Monks of Japan, Volume 10.”

After Ensetsu's passing, Sōgonji Temple in Kitano, Osaka, temporarily became a branch temple of Chōsenji Temple during the Edo period. The temple history of Kitano, Osaka, preserved the mountain name, Futaizan, and its monastic hall name, Mokugyōin, due to Ensetsu's achievements. Unfortunately, the entire town was destroyed in the Great Osaka Air Raid during World War II, and all traces of Ensetsu's footsteps, records, and temple furnishings were lost.

Legacy The aspirations of Priest Ensetsu would later see the light of day with the collapse of the shogunate in the Meiji Restoration. By championing the deeds of the Priest Ensetsu, he sought first to overcome the crisis facing Jodo sect temples amid the rising anti-Buddhist movement sparked by the Meiji government's Separation of Shinto and Buddhism Edict. The first transformation was that of the head temple, Chion-in. Chion-in had enjoyed peaceful times under the Tokugawa clan's patronage. Yet, despite its close ties to the Tokugawa, Chion-in found itself isolated among Kyoto's temples, treated like a pariah. It offered no support to the new government, and its lack of honorific acts toward the Imperial family stood in stark contrast to those performed by temples affiliated with the Honganji lineage. Relying solely on the achievements of its founder, Honen Shonin, and the imperial lineage of its successive head priests, its very survival was precarious. Yet, this head temple, which had branded and expelled it as heretical, was saved by the numerous merits of Ensetsu Shonin's acts of veneration.

Chanting the wooden fish nembutsu, created by Ensetsu, is now common practice in Jōdo-shū temples. A large wooden fish is enshrined in the main hall of Chion-in Temple and is used daily.