Ippen

Ippen Shōnin (一遍上人) 1234/9–1289 was a Japanese Buddhist itinerant preacher (hijiri) whose movement, the Ji-shū (時宗; "Time sect") became one of the major currents of medieval Japanese Pure Land Buddhism.

Born in what is now Ehime Prefecture, he studied at the Seizan branch of Jōdo-shū before meeting many Shingon- and Tendai-associated hijiri, and then became a hijiri himself. During a Kumano pilgrimage, Ippen had an experience that inspired him to spread the Pure Land faith throughout Japan. Accompanied by bands of followers, he traveled throughout Japan teaching that salvation lay in the single-minded invocation of Amida’s Name and that the very moment of recitation unites the reciter with the timeless enlightenment of the Buddha. Ippen traveled over fifteen hundred miles, visiting every major population center and devotional center in Japan, such as Kumano, Zenkō-ji, Taima-dera, and Mount Kōya.

In his itinerant ministry, Ippen combined the devotional recitation of the nembutsu with ecstatic dancing, and the distribution of ofuda (talismans) inscribed with the name of Amitābha, which he handed to people as symbols of faith and rebirth in the pure land of Sukhavati. His teachings blended the Pure Land ideal of other power with Zen non-dualism and the folk religious practices of wandering ascetics. Rejecting all self-powered efforts and sectarian distinctions, Ippen held that the simple recitation of even a single nembutsu invariably linked one with Amitābha's enlightenment, assuring rebirth in Sukhavati. Ippen’s radical vision of faith and his insistence that the heart can attain birth in the Pure Land while the body remains in this world gave rise to a popular movement that appealed to all social classes. His life is outlined in the Ippen Hijiri-e, a series of emakimono (narrative painted scrolls) that serve as the main historical source for his life and activities.