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Entertainment > Art| Friday, April 29, 2011 Divides in the Pure
Land Kyoto celebrates two major Buddhist influences of Japan
Special to The Japan Times The portrait of Honen Shoin (13th
century) is known in Japanese as "Kagami no Miei" (mirror
portrait) and shows the famous Buddhist priest seated on a mat,
slightly slumped and holding his nenju (rosary). For the title
of another famous 13th-century depiction of a well-known
Buddhist priest, Shinran, the same kanji characters are given a
slightly different reading. This time the mirror portrait is
titled "Kagami no Goei." It is an exceedingly subtle difference,
but one that invokes the mirrorlike refractions and reflections
that occur within evolving religions. Like the rays in the
"Mandala of Saving and Never Forsaking," which represents the
light of the Buddha falling on only those who practiced the
nembutsu (invoking Amida Buddha's holy name), e