References

Pilgrims Visiting Album

An adherent of the Pure Land School of Buddhism compiled the content of these albums—slips of paper brushed with the name of the Buddha Amida (Sanskrit: Amitābha)—on temple visits. The signed and sealed slips indicate that most of the calligraphers were abbots of Pure Land temples in the greater Edo (Tokyo) area. The albums also have paintings of Amida, as well as Shandao, an influential Tang dynasty (618–907) monk; Hōnen, the founder of the Pure Land School in Japan; and a youthful Shinran, the founder of the True Pure Land School. A portrait of the monk Yūten Kenyo (1637–1718), who served as the thirty-sixth abbot of the Edo temple Zōjōji, appears on the right-hand side of a page of one album.