An element of mysticism also pervades the influential _Hokkai_ sect, a Japanese offshoot of the Tendai, founded in the thirteenth century by a priest named Nichiren, who is said to have been born supernaturally of a virgin mother. The Hokkai are most jealously attached to their own ritual, and to other observances peculiar to themselves; and, inheriting the disposition attributed to their founder, exhibit a narrowness and intolerance rarely met with in Japan. Their characteristic may be said to consist in an emotional fanaticism; and a visitor to one of their temples will generally find a number of devotees,--who thus remain engaged for hours at a time,--chanting the invocation of the sect, "Adoration to the Lotus of the Law," to a deafening accompaniment of drums.
Two sects only now remain, but these by no means the least interesting or least popular: the _Jodo_ and the _Shin-Jodo_ (i.e. the New-Jodo). The distinguishing features of these sects,--which also find a place in the system of the Hokkai,--are their acknowledgement of the need of external aid, and their doctrine of the Western Paradise, presided over by Amitabha Buddha. How marked a departure from the original teaching of Sakya-muni, as observed by us, these schools present is sufficiently obvious; nevertheless, it is alleged that the revelation of the Paradise in the West was first made by Buddha himself to one of his principal disciples. In the distant West is said to dwell one named Amida, or Amitabha, that is to say "Illimitable Light." Immortal himself, immortal also and freed from all the trammels of transmigration are the vast multitudes of men(18) who inhabit the boundless regions which he rules. In that "Pure Land,"(19) that "Undefiled Ground," everything beautiful and enchanting has a place, neither is pain or sorrow known; and thither nought that is evil or that defileth can come. Whosoever would attain to this heavenly country must rely, most of all, on faithful invocation of the name of Amida; he having, as is recorded, made a vow that he would only accept Buddhahood on condition that salvation should be placed within reach of all sincerely desirous of achieving it. Such is the doctrine of the Western Paradise, some of the descriptions of which read almost like echoes of the last chapters of the Bible. Unknown to the Buddhism of Ceylon, Siam, and Burmah, it can be traced back as far as the second century A.D., when it was certainly known in Cashmere, though it was not until three centuries later that it began to spread widely over Northern Buddhism. But the whole question of its origin remains wrapped in obscurity. At the present day, the devotion to Amida is very widely practised in Japan, and it is extremely popular. No doubt, the more educated and intellectual Buddhist,--and the distinction thus suggested needs constantly to be insisted on,--would explain the Paradise of the West as being a mere allegory, and regard Amitabha, as he was originally conceived to be, as merely an ideal personification of boundless light. But to the people generally the Undefiled Ground and its presiding deity are actual, literal, realities.