Pure Land was one of the main fields of mythopoesis and discourse among the Asian Buddhist traditions, and in Japan of central cultural importance from the Heian period right up to the present. However, its range, inconsistency, variability, and complexity have tended to be misevaluated. The pieces reproduced in this set, organized both chronologically and thematically, have been chosen as linchpin works accentuating the diversity of what evolved under this heading of Buddhism. Special attention is given to the traps into which Western observers may fall, the role of the large True Pure Land (Jōdoshinshū) school, and the richness of Tokugawa and twentieth-century developments. These selections of previously published articles will serve as an essential starting-point for anyone interested in this perhaps underestimated area of Buddhist studies.

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Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Brill Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan -- Part 1 Useful Overarching Perspectives -- Buddhism as a Religion of Hope: Observations on the "Logic" of a Doctrine and Its Foundational Myth -- Pure Land Buddhism as an Alternative Mārga -- Part 2 Early Presence in Japan -- The Development of Mappō Thought in Japan (I) -- The Development of Mappō Thought in Japan (II) -- The Growth of Pure Land Buddhism in the Heian Period -- Ōjōyōshū, Nihon Ōjō Gokuraku-ki, and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan

With the Help of "Good Friends": Deathbed Ritual Practices in Early Medieval Japan -- Part 3 Turn to the Nembutsu as the Sole Solution -- Hōnen on Attaining Pure Land Rebirth: the Selected Nenbutsu of the Original Vow -- Hōnen and Popular Pure Land Piety: Assimilation and Transformation -- Socio-Economic Impacts of Hōnen's Pure Land Doctrines: an Inquiry into the Interplay between Buddhist Teachings and Institutions -- Part 4 Shinran's More Radical Turn to the Enlightenment Gift as an Involuntary Emergent Property -- Faith: Its Arising