The Ohigashi schism (お東騒動) was a religious

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

in the

Ōtani-ha Ōtani-ha (真宗大谷派, ''Shinshū Ōtani-ha'') is a Japanese Buddhist movement. It belongs to , also known as Shin Buddhism (or True Pure Land). The movement has approximately 5.5 million members. The headquarters of Ōtani-ha are in Kyoto,< ...

(also known as Higashi Hongan-ji) subsect of the

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran (founder) S ...

school of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

that occurred in 1969 after a reformist group created internal divisions.

History

The Dobokai movement (同朋会運動), a reform group within Higashi Hongan-ji, officially began on the 700th memorial of

Shinran ''Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture'' by Esben Andreasen, pp. 13, 14, 15, 17. University of Hawaiʻi Press 1998, . was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the turbulent clos ...

in 1962, though its roots were in a movement started in 1947 by a group of practitioners calling themselves the ''shinjinsha'' "true person community".Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture by Esben Andreasen, pp. 26, 69-73 / University of Hawaii Press 1998, . The grass-roots reform group was led by Kurube Shin'yū. Akegarasu Haya,

Soga Ryōjin was a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and priest of the Ōtani-ha of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism. He served as the 17th president of Ōtani University from 1961 to 1967. Biography Soga was born in the city of Niigata, Niigata Prefecture. He gra ...

, and other disciples of

Kiyozawa Manshi was a Japanese Shin Buddhist reformer and priest of samurai background who studied at Tokyo University in Western philosophy under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa.Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture by Esben ...

were also closely involved.Higashi Honganji sanjūnen funsō 東本願寺三十年紛争 by Tahara Yukio 田原由紀雄, pp. 37-41 / Hakubasha 2004, . The goal of the Dobokai movement was to awaken and unite members of Higashi Hongan-ji due to internal conflict over differences of doctrinal opinion such as over the idea of

shinjin Shinjin (信心) is a central concept in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism which indicates a state of mind which totally entrusts oneself to Amida Buddha's other-power (Japanese: tariki), having utterly abandoned any form of self effort (Japanese: jir ...

and whether the

Pure Land Pure Land is a Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist concept referring to a transcendent realm emanated by a buddhahood, buddha or bodhisattva which has been purified by their activity and Other power, sustaining power. Pure lands are said to be places ...

was to be entered in death or in this life. The Dobokai movement based itself largely on the '' Tannishō'', a collection of sayings attributed to Shinran with commentaries by Yuien-bo, one of his disciples, and the idea of cutting through spiritual differences. The movement split Higashi Hongan-ji into four different groups. What is now known as the Higashi Honganji-ha is centered in Tokyo. The physical property of Higashi Hongan-ji temple is run by the much larger Ōtani-ha, which changed the temple's name to "Shinshū Mausoleum". Meanwhile, the treasure of Higashi Honganji-ha at the time, amounting to about $200 million in donations, was seized for use by a "nonprofit organization" which does not maintain any temples. In 2012 a court ruled that this money must be returned.

References

Notes Bibliography * Suzuki, David A. (1985). Crisis in Japanese Buddhism: Case of the Otani Sect. Los Angeles: Buddhist Books International. . * Shojun Bandō, Harold Stewart, Ann T. Rogers, Minor L. Rogers (trans.)
Tannishō: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith and Rennyo Shōnin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo
Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 1996. . Shinshū Ōtani-ha History of Jōdo Shinshū History of Buddhism in Japan {{Japan-reli-stub