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{{Short description|Japanese Buddhist monk}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| religion           = [[Buddhism]]
| birth_date         = 1234/9
| birth_place        = [[Hōgon-ji]], [[Matsuyama]], [[Iyo Province]]
| birthname          = Kawano Tokiuji (河野時氏), Tsūshū (通秀), or Tsūshō (通尚).
| title              = Grand Master (Daishi; 大師)
| honorific suffix   = Shōnin (上人)
| name               = Ippen
| nationality        = Japanese
| era                = [[Kamakura Period]]
| school             = [[Ji-shū]]
| dharma_name        = Chishin (智真)
| monastic_name      = Ippen (一遍)
| posthumous_name    = Enshō Daishi (円照大師) or Shōjō Daishi (証誠大師)
| death_date         = 1289
| other_names        = "Itinerant Shōnin" (Yugyō Shōnin 遊行上人) or the “The Saint Who Cast Aside” (Sute Hijiri 捨聖)
| death_place        = [[Shinkō-ji]] (modern day [[Kobe]])
| teacher            = Shōtatsu (聖達)
| influences         = [[Shōkū]] (証空)
| disciples          = [[Shōkai]] (聖戒); Ta'a (他阿)
| works              = Ippen Shōnin Goroku (一遍上人語録; The Record of Ippen's Sayings)
| image              = Ippen2.jpg
| caption            = Statue of Ippen at [[Shōjōkō-ji]], [[Fujisawa, Kanagawa|Fujisawa]], Japan
}}
{{nihongo|'''Ippen Shōnin'''|一遍上人}} 1234/9<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Soda |first=Keiko |title=Ippen: The Japanese Buddhist "Sage Who Abandoned All" |publisher=BookWay |year=2015 |isbn=978-4-86584-027-8 |location=Himeji |pages=24 |language=English |translator-last=Horton |translator-first=Sarah J.}}</ref>–1289 was a [[Buddhism in Japan|Japanese Buddhist]] itinerant preacher (''hijiri'') whose movement, the {{nihongo|[[Ji-shu|Ji-shū]]|時宗||"Time sect"}} became one of the major currents of medieval Japanese [[Pure Land Buddhism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. |date=2013 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-15786-3 |editor1-last=Buswell |editor1-first=Robert Jr |editor1-link=Robert Buswell Jr. |location=Princeton, NJ |page=374 |editor2-last=Lopez |editor2-first=Donald S. Jr. |editor2-link=Donald S. Lopez Jr.}}</ref><ref name=":1">Foard, J. H. (2020). "Ippen and Pure Land Buddhist Wayfarers in Medieval Japan".  In ''Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan (Volume 2)''. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401518_022</nowiki></ref> Born in modern [[Ehime Prefecture]], he studied in the [[Seizan]] branch of [[Jōdo-shū]] before meeting with many Shingon and Tendai associated hijiri and then becoming a wandering holy man himself. During a pilgrimage to the [[Kumano Shrines]], had an experience which inspired him to spread the Pure Land faith throughout Japan. Accompanied by bands of followers, he traveled throughout Japan teaching that salvation lay in the single-minded invocation of Amida’s Name and that the very moment of recitation unites the reciter with the timeless enlightenment of the Buddha. Ippen traveled over fifteen hundred miles, visiting every major population center and devotional center in Japan, such as [[Kumano shrine|Kumano]], [[Zenkō-ji|Zenkōji]], [[Taima-dera|Taimadera]], and [[Mount Kōya|Mt.]] [[Mount Kōya|Kōya]].<ref name=":1" />

In his [[Itinerancy|itinerant]] ministry, Ippen combined the devotional recitation of the ''nembutsu'' with ecstatic dancing and the distribution of [[ofuda]] (talismans) inscribed with Amida’s Name, which he handed to people as symbols of faith and rebirth in the Pure Land.<ref name=":1" /> His teachings blended the Pure Land ideal of [[Other power|Other-Power]] with [[Zen]] non-dualism and the folk religious practices of wandering ascetics. Rejecting all self-powered efforts and sectarian distinctions, Ippen held that the simple recitation of even a single nembutsu invariably linked one with Amida Buddha's enlightenment, assuring our birth in the Pure Land. Ippen’s radical vision of faith and his insistence that the heart can attain birth in the Pure Land while the body remains in this world gave rise to a popular movement that appealed to all social classes. His life is outlined in the ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden|Ippen Hijiri-e]],'' a series of [[Emakimono|narrative painted scrolls]] which are the main historical source for his life and activities.<ref name=":1" />

==Biography==
[[File:Ippen_shonin_eden_I_-_Departure.jpg|thumb|{{Transliteration|ja|Ippen|italics=no}} leaving home at thirteen to begin learning Buddhism (Scroll I of the ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden]]'')]]

=== Early life ===
Ippen was born to the Kōno clan who ruled the [[Iyo Province]] (modern [[Ehime Prefecture]]) on the island of [[Shikoku]].<ref name=":1" /> After the decline of the Kōno clan, his father, Michihiro, became a monk at Hōgonji temple, which is where Ippen was born.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', pp. 24-32.</ref> Ippen's secular name may have been Kawano Tokiuji (河野時氏), Tsūshū (通秀),<ref>{{Cite book |title=歴史シンポジウム「遊行ひじり一遍」 |date=14 May 1983 |publisher=Hōgonji Temple |language=Japanese |trans-title=Symposium on History: The Itinerant Saint Ippen}}</ref> or Tsūshō (通尚).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sae |first=Shūichi |title=わが屍は野に捨てよ |date=2002 |publisher=Shinchōsha |pages=52 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Cast My Corpse upon the Field}}</ref> As a monk, he was given the Dharma names Zuien and {{nihongo|Chishin|智真}}. Ippen means one (一) yet all pervading (遍). He is respectfully referred to as "Ippen Shōnin," where "Shōnin" (上人) signifies a holy person.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sae |first=Shūichi |title=わが屍は野に捨てよ |publisher=Shinchōsha |year=2002 |pages=24 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Cast My Corpse upon the Field}}</ref> 

Following his mother's death and on his father's command,<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 38.</ref> Ippen became a Buddhist monk at an early age and resided at Keigyōji temple as early as 1245.<ref name=":1" /> In 1251, he traveled to [[Dazaifu, Fukuoka|Dazaifu]] to study under a [[Tendai]] monk called Shōtatsu who was devoted to [[Amitābha|Amida Buddha]]<ref name=":1" /><ref name="japanesearchitectureandartnetuserssystem">{{cite web |author=Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System |title=JAANUS / Ippen 一遍 |url=http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/i/ippen.htm |work=aisf.or.jp}}</ref> and who urged Ippen to "learn to read the sūtras and commentaries of the Pure Land school."<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 41.</ref> Ippen also sent to study the Pure Land sutras in [[Hizen Province|Hizen]] under a monk named Kedai, who changed Ippen's name from Zuien to Chishin, because Zuien refers to "various good karmic conditions," which sounded like a self-power oriented name. After studying with Kedai, he returned to study with Shōtatus for twelve years.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 41.</ref> Both Shōtatsu and Kedai were disciples of the Pure Land teacher [[Shōkū]] (1177–1247), who was the founder of the [[Seizan]] branch of [[Jōdo-shū|Jōdoshū]].<ref name=":1" />

When his father died, the 25-year old Ippen returned to secular life and assumed family responsibilities at his home province of Iyo. He got married and became head of the household.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yusa |first=Michiko |title=Japanese Religions |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=0-415-26284-4 |page=59}}</ref> Eventually, in 1271, he eventually felt called to renounce a second time, which, according to different accounts, was for one of four different reasons:<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', 45–48.</ref>

# He had a philosophical insight about karma while watching a spinning top (''Ippen Hijiri'e'').
# He was fleeing a relative trying to kill him in an inheritance dispute (''Ippen Shōnin Ekotobaden'').
# He saw the hair of two of his napping wives turning into snakes, making him fearful of jealousy (''Ippen Shōnin Nenpuryaku'').
# He had inheritance problems with his two jealous wives. (''Hōjō Kudaiki'').

Thereupon, during the national crisis of the [[Mongol invasions of Japan|Mongol invasions]], Ippen took a pilgrimage to [[Zenkō-ji|Zenkōji]], drawn by legends of its "living" Amida statue<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', 49–50.</ref> and the influence of the Zenkōji hijiri (wandering sages)<ref name=":1" /> who he had previously met at Dazaifu.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', 50.</ref> Hijiri were itinerant [[Mendicant|mendicants]] and preachers who were not ordained as [[Bhikkhu|Buddhist monks]] but could still become influential religious figures and fundraisers for temples and shrines. Ippen was influenced by such people, especially by [[Kūya]], a popular tenth century nembutsu hijiri.<ref name=":1" /> At Zenkōji, he was influenced by the temple's beliefs in saving beings from hell, as well as the temple's enshrinement of the image of [[Shandao]]'s analogy of the "[[Shandao#Parable of the White Path|Two Rivers and the White Path]]," which he copied and revered.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 54.</ref>

He then returned to Iyo and entered ascetic retreat in a place called Iwaya at Sugō,<ref name=":1" /> at a temple called Kubodera.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 58.</ref> At this temple, he hung the image of the "Two Rivers and the White Path" on his wall, and began a life of exclusive [[Nianfo|Nembutsu]] practice. After three years, he composed his central teaching, the verse on the "non-duality of ten and one."<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', 61–64.</ref>

In 1273, Ippen secluded himself in Iwayaji temple on the [[Kumano Kodō]], a site associated with [[Kukai]]. He found resonance in his doctrine of the "non-duality of ten and one" with Kukai's teaching of "attaining Buddhahood in this very body," which led him to seek out [[Mikkyō|esoteric teachings]].<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 65.</ref> He engaged in [[Shugendō]] (mountain asceticism) and became devoted to [[Acala|Fudō Myōō]], thereupon receiving divine dreams.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', 66.</ref> These experiences solidified his resolve and belief that that [[kami]] supported the Nembutsu.<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 67.</ref>  

In 1274, Ippen visited [[Shitennō-ji|Shitennōji]] and then [[Mount Kōya|Mt. Kōya]], which was a major site for a large old community of nembutsu hijiri who practiced Pure Land influenced by [[Shingon Buddhism|Shingon]] esotericism (as found in [[Kakuban|Kakuban's]] teachings). Ippen's practice of distributing nembutsu [[ofuda]] may have been influenced by the practices of these hijiri.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Proffitt |first=Aaron P. |title=Esoteric Pure Land Buddhism |date=2023 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-9380-4 |editor-last=Payne |editor-first=Richard K. |series=Pure Land Buddhist Studies |location=Honolulu |pages=153}}</ref> At this point, Ippen seems to have become committed to a life of ascetic wandering.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xxviii</ref>
[[File:Ippen_shonin_eden_I_-_Nakaheji_Route.gif|alt=Two groups of figures meet on a mountain path.|thumb|{{Transliteration|ja|Ippen|italics=no}} (dressed in black on the right) meets an ascetic in the Kumano Mountains.]]
 
Ippen then continued his pilgrimage following the [[Kii Peninsula]] south until he reached three major [[Shinto]] shrines at [[Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range|Kumano]] which were important sites for [[yamabushi]] mountain ascetics. From a Buddhist perspective ([[honji suijaku]]), the local [[kami]] Hongū had come to be known as a manifestation of Hōjō bosatsu (Dharmodgata, Truth Revealing Bodhisattva) as well as a manifestation of Amida Buddha.<ref name=":1" /> Ippen had a [[Mystical or religious experience|religious experience]] at this shrine that transformed his spiritual practice. After offering some [[ofuda]] talismans to a reluctant priest who felt that his faith was not true enough to accept the talismans, Ippen then prayed to the [[gongen]] Hongū at the hall of witness (Shojoden) in the main shrine at Kumano.<ref name=":1" /> According to the ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden|Ippen Hijiri-e]]'':<blockquote>
 
When he had closed his eyes but not yet fallen asleep, the doors of the sacred hall were pushed open and a [[yamabushi]] with white hair and a long hood emerged. On the verandah three hundred other yamabushi touched their heads down in obeisance. At that moment Ippen realized that it was surely the Manifestation [gongen] himself and entrusted himself completely. Then the yamabushi stepped before Ippen and said, "Hijiri spreading the nembutsu of interpenetration [yuzu nembutsu], why do you go about it mistakenly? It is not through your propagation that sentient beings come to attain birth. In Amida Buddha's perfect enlightenment ten kalpas ago the birth of all sentient beings was decisively settled as Namu-amida-butsu. Distribute your fuda regardless of whether people have faith or not, and without discriminating between the pure and the impure."<ref name=":4">Hirota (1997), p. xxxv</ref> </blockquote>This statement confirmed Ippen's nembutsu recitation practice along with his fuda distribution to all people as consistent with his non-dual Pure Land beliefs. This meant that the saying of a single nembutsu and the reception of a nembutsu talisman could act as the one nembutsu (ichinen) which marked someone's liberation in the Pure Land, an attainment which was already assured by Amida ten kalpas ago.<ref name=":1" /> Furthermore, there was no need for practitioners to make an effort to attain a specific state of faith or concentration.<ref name=":4" /> Ippen saw this teaching as being based on this direct revelation as well as on the sutras. He would go on to state "My teaching is the oral transmission bestowed in dream by the Kumano Manifestation".<ref name=":5">Hirota (1997), p. xxxvi</ref> 

After this encounter, Ippen devoted himself to nembutsu practice exclusively and to distributing the nembutsu fuda as a way to lead people to the Pure Land. He saw himself as a follower of the hijiri [[Kūya]].<ref name=":5" /> Ippen soon sent a female companion back to Iyo with an ofuda print block for his half-brother Shōkai along with a poem which states:<ref name=":1" /> 

<poem>The six character name is the one law;
The karmic beings of the ten realms are one body.
Abandoning the myriad practices and relying on the one nembutsu,
One rises among humans as a beautiful lotus.</poem>

=== Forming a new hijiri order ===
[[file:Ippen Shōnin Engi-e.JPG|thumb|Ippen and his followers arriving at a town]]
Ippen then spent the next three years as a solitary hijiri before gaining his first and foremost disciple, Taa Amidabutsu. By the time he returned to Iyo in 1278 he may have had a few other followers as well. Ippen's activities were varied, and included chanting sessions (of nembutsu and sutra), practicing an ecstatic form of dancing ''nembutsu'', handing out nembutsu [[ofuda]] (お札) and keeping a register of the converted.<ref>[http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/i/ippen.htm Ippen], Jaanus</ref><ref name="Dobbins1988">{{cite journal |last1=Dobbins |first1=James C. |date=1988 |title=Review: No Abode: The Record of Ippen. by Dennis Hirota |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=43 |issue=2 |page=253 |doi=10.2307/2384755 |jstor=2384755}}</ref> 

His activities drew a wide following from all social classes. The dancing nembutsu practice began as early as 1279, and may have been derived from traditional funerary practiced tied with placating the spirits of the dead.<ref name=":1" /> In Ippen's teaching though, dancing nembutsu was seen as a spontaneous ecstatic expression of Ippen's joyful faith in the nembutsu.<ref name=":1" /> The idea that one's faith can lead to such ecstatic joy is also found in the Pure Land Sutras. The dancing nembutsu practice became quite popular throughout Japan and it was spread by many different groups not just Ippen's sect.<ref name=":1" /> 

Ippen continued to travel throughout Japan, gathering a band of followers and proselytizing a unique version of Pure Land Buddhism.<ref>Moriarty, Elisabeth (1976). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140304073315/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1035 Nembutsu Odori], Asian Folklore Studies 35 (1), 7-16</ref> During Ippen's time, hijiri were often affiliated with specific temples and promoted specific geographical sites (especially mountains like [[Mount Kōya]]). However, Ippen created an independent group of hijiri not based on any single temple or site. Instead, his teaching was based on the immanent presence of Amida in all places. Nevertheless, this new universal movement also embraced all the popular devotions and local deities of Japan, since they were all considered to be manifestations of Amida Buddha's power.<ref name=":1" /> This universality and inclusiveness allowed Ippen's movement to absorb many hijiri groups, including those of Zenkōji and sections of Mt. Kōya's hijiri community. According to Foard, Ippen's movement soon emerged as "the leading order of medieval [[Mendicant|mendicancy]], and perhaps the major source of Pure Land propagation for over a century and a half."<ref name=":1" />  

The tradition came to be known as "[[Ji-shu|Jishū]]", a name which ultimately comes from a passage in [[Shandao]] to those who practice nembutsu in each of the six times of the day. This referred to specific periods of intense uninterrupted nembutsu practice that Ippen's group would undertake at certain times of the year where different hijiri would take turns in leading the chant during the six four-hour periods of the day.<ref name=":6">Hirota (1997), p. xxxvii</ref><ref name=":1" /> According to Foard, the intended meaning of the term is equivalent to “twenty four hours a day nembutsu group.”<ref name=":1" /> Male members of the group were given names that all ended in Amidabutsu (such as Taamidabutsu etc), and female member names all ended in ichibō ("the one Buddha").<ref name=":1" /> All members wore plain grey robes and black [[Kasaya (clothing)|kasaya]], and shaved their heads.<ref name=":1" />   

In 1279, while conducting a nembutsu chanting session in [[Nagano Prefecture|Nagano]], purple clouds filled the sky and flowers fell. Shortly after this auspicious sign Ippen began to dance while reciting the nembutsu.<ref name=":7">Hirota (1997), p. xxxix</ref> People joined him while waving their arms and beating a rhythm on whatever implements they had at hand. Ippen would later say:<blockquote>My meditative practice lies in letting my lips freely utter Amida's Name; hence, even the marketplace is my practice hall. My contemplation of Buddha lies in following after my voice; hence, my breath is a rosary...To the course of nature I give charge of my thoughts, words, and deeds, and to the working of enlightenment leave all my acts.<ref name=":7" /> </blockquote>[[File:Ippen_Biography_5.jpg|alt=Very dense and lively crowd that occupies the entire space, crowding around several small buildings.|thumb|Swarming crowd in Kyoto (Scroll VII, Section 2 of the ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden]]'')]]
Ippen's group traveled around Japan performing the increasingly popular nembutsu dance at local temples, drawing large crowds, which would also donate to the sponsoring temple or shrine (a practice called kanjin). Perhaps the first such public performance was at Kagase (south of [[Kamakura]]) in 1282.<ref name=":1" /> This event also saw some of the first religious suicides for rebirth, a practice that was also admired by Ippen and his band.<ref name=":1" /> Further public events followed, which drew increasingly larger and boisterous crowds who clamored to receive Ippen's fuda.<ref name=":1" /> The core group of wandering hijiri often included about 20 to 30 close disciples. Ippen also [[Tonsure|tonsured]] many more followers who did not join the wandering group but stayed at home.<ref name=":6" /> According to the ''Hijiri-e'', Ippen's movement drew people from all classes, including people from the lowest classes and those at the margins of society: "fishermen and itinerant peddlers were his companions on the road. He talked with lowly people whose names he did not know, and even before he spoke of the teaching, tough village elders made their bonds with the Dharma through him."<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xl</ref> 

Throughout his travels, Ippen would give instructions and teachings to his followers, often passed down in poems. One such teachings is the ''Seigan Gemon'', which states:<ref name=":1" /><poem>
… until our present bodies
Are finally exhausted,
We shall not be devoted to mortal life,
But will take refuge in the [[Original Vow]].
All our lives
We will single-mindedly chant the name …
Throughout the six divisions of night and day,
Successively, without interval,
Like an object and its shadow,
Never once parting from it …
</poem>
Over time, various [[Dojo|dōjōs]] sprung up associated with the [[Ji-shu|Jishū]] order, though they were initially seen as secondary places, since the tradition was based on wayfaring mendicancy and never living in a single place.<ref name=":12">Foard, J. H. (2020). "Ippen and Pure Land Buddhist Wayfarers in Medieval Japan".  In ''Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan (Volume 2)''. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401518_022</nowiki></ref>

Ippen's insistence on constant traveling and giving up of family and possessions led to his nicknames: {{nihongo|Traveling Saint|遊行上人|Yugyō Shōnin}} and {{nihongo|Holy Man of Renunciation|捨聖|Sutehijiri}}.<ref name="japanesearchitectureandartnetuserssystem2">{{cite web |author=Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System |title=JAANUS / Ippen 一遍 |url=http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/i/ippen.htm |work=aisf.or.jp}}</ref> He also received the following posthumous names: "Grand Master Enshō" (''Enshō Daishi'' 円照大師; granted in 1886),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Imai |first=Masaharu |title=世界大百科事典 |title-link= |date=2023 |publisher=Heibonsha |language=Japanese |trans-title=World Encyclopedia |chapter=円照大師 |trans-chapter=Great Teacher Enshō}}</ref> and "Grand Master Shōjō" (''Shōjō Daishi'' 証誠大師; granted in 1940).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yabuki |first=Yasuhide |date=2015 |title=大正十一年の「立正大師」諡号宣下をめぐって |trans-title=“On the Bestowal of the Posthumous Title ‘Great Teacher Risshō’ in 1922” |journal=日蓮教学研究所紀要 |volume=42 |pages=35}}</ref>

=== Death and Legacy ===
In 1289, Ippen passed away in [[Hyōgo Prefecture|Hyōgo]].<ref>Hirota (1997), xiii</ref> Maintaining his creed of itinerancy without fixed abode (issho fujū), Ippen claimed that “my work of guiding is only for this one lifetime”. Thus, thirteen days before his death, on the morning of 10th day of the 8th month, 1289, Ippen entrusted a few of the books he possessed to monks at Shosha-yama for dedication. He then burned all his remaining writings and texts while chanting the ''[[Amitābha Sūtra|Amida-kyō]]'', declaring: “All the sacred teachings of the lifetime of the Buddha are exhausted and brought to completion in Namo Amida Butsu.” Thus he left behind no scholastic system.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tachibana |first1=Toshimichi |title=一遍聖絵 |last2=Umeya |first2=Shigeki |publisher=Shunjūsha |year=1989 |pages=1–45 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Illustrated Biography of Ippen Shōnin}}</ref> Some of his works kept by some of his disciples however and eventually copied and published. [[Dennis Hirota]] has translated some of these writings into English in ''No Abode: The Record of Ippen'' (1997).<ref>Dennis Hirota, 'No Abode: The Record of Ippen'', Ryukoku-Ibs Studies in Buddhist Thought and Tradition, Honolulu: [[University of Hawaiʻi Press]] 1997 {{ISBN|0-8248-1997-7}}''.</ref> Ippen also told his disciples not to waste their times in funerary rituals and to leave his body for the animals.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xlv</ref>  [[File:Taa_Shonin_(Shonenji_Sakai).jpg|thumb|251x251px|Taa Amidabutsu, a disciple of Ippen and architect of the [[Ji-shu|Ji-shū]] sect]]
After Ippen's death some of his disciples committed religious suicide by jumping off a cliff, seeking to attain birth in the Pure Land together with him.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xlvi</ref> Other key disciples, like Taa Amidabutsu and [[Shōkai]] continued to practice and promote Ippen's teachings. [[Shōkai]] went on to found [[Kankikō-ji|Kankikō-ji temple]] in 1291. He also wrote the ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden|Illustrated Biography of the Itinerant Monk Ippen]]'' (''Ippen hijiri-e''), the oldest surviving Ippen biography.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kaufman |first=Laura S. |title=Lyrical Imagery and Religious Content in Japanese Art: The Pictorial Biography of Ippen The Holy Man |date=2006-01-01 |work=Traditions in Contact and Change |pages=201–230 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.51644/9780889206106-014 |access-date=2024-07-12 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Press |doi=10.51644/9780889206106-014 |isbn=978-0-88920-610-6 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 1292, three years after Ippen's death, Ippen's birthplace, [[Hōgon-ji (Matsuyama)|Hōgon-ji]], was rebuilt by his disciple Sen'a and became a key Ji-shū temple. 

The current [[Ji-shu|Ji-shū]] religious order regards Ippen as its founder, but its formal establishment as a sect was due to the work of Taa Amidabutsu and the later policies of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]]. From an institutional perspective, the key founder of Ji-shū was Taa Amidabutsu Shinkyō. After Ippen's death, Taa reorganized the various hijiri groups, which had originally disbanded, into a formal organization and began group wanderings again.<ref name=":8">Hirota (1997), p. xlvi</ref> Taa also established specific precepts and regulations for the Jishū monks, molding it into a proper religious institution. In 1304, Taa handed over the wandering group to the third leader of Ji-shū, Ryōa. Taa himself established a thatched hut in Sagami Province known as the Tōma Dōjō, where he stayed until the end of his life. This would later become the Konkōin Muryōkōji temple. The Jishu sect thrived during the [[Muromachi period]], but later declined in size, as other Pure Land schools like [[Jōdo Shinshū]] grew.<ref name=":8" /> 

In the [[Edo period]], the lineages of Ikkō Shūshin and Koku'a, which are thought to have originally been separate hijiri systems, were absorbed into a formal Ji-shū sect that combined all temples aligned with Taa Amidabutsu's line along with other hijiri temples that regarded [[Kūya]] as a founder. This is how the modern [[Ji-shu|Ji-shū]] sect coalesced. 

== Teachings ==
{{Pure Land Buddhism}}

=== Doctrine ===
While Ippen is primarily depicted as a wandering preacher who ministered to the common people in simple ways, his teachings reflected a deep knowledge of Pure Land doctrine.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xxvii</ref> Ippen's teachings were primarily influenced by [[Shōkū]], founder of the [[Seizan]] branch of the [[Jōdo-shū]].<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xlvii</ref> Ippen was also strongly influenced by the [[nondualism (spirituality)|nondualism]] of [[Zen]] and studied under the Zen monk Kakushin (覚心; 1207–1298), who was a student of Dōhan (道範; 1179–1252) and [[Dōgen]] (道元; 1200–1253).<ref name=":0" /> From Kakushin, Ippen received ''inka'', a form of [[dharma transmission]] which recognised his Zen realisation.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xxi</ref> 

[[Shōkū]]'s view held that "the various Buddhist practices contain no more than a portion of the merit of the single practice of the nembutsu and serve merely to lead people to recite the nembutsu."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110610205645/http://www.jsri.jp/English/Pureland/LINEAGE/disciples/ippen.html Ippen (1239-1289), The Ji School, The Votive Nembutsu].</ref> As such, all other Buddhist practices are merely skillful means to lead us to abandon all self-power in an encounter with the Buddha's [[Original Vow]] and [[Other power|Other-power]], an encounter manifested in the nembutsu.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xlix</ref> 

Another key doctrine taught by Shōkū and adopted by Ippen was that the liberation of all beings was [[Nondualism|non-dual]] with the liberation of Dharmakara bodhisattva as Amida Buddha. Because of this, the one moment of saying the nembutsu is also the one moment of liberation, as well as the one moment of Dharmakara's attainment of [[Buddhahood]] as Amida ten [[Kalpa (time)|kalpas]] ago. The practice of the nembutsu thus links us with the very [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]] of the Buddha eons ago, which transcends [[Spacetime|time and space]].<ref name=":1" /> This non-dual Pure Land teaching is termed ''kihō ittai'' in the Seizan school, which means "the oneness of sentient being and Buddha".<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lvii</ref> It is a key doctrine taught in the ''[[Anjin Ketsujō Shō]]'', a key Seizan work attributed to Shōkū. 

Ippen's core doctrine, expressed in his poem of "the non-duality of ten and one," exemplifies this:<ref>Hirota (1997), p. liv, 36</ref>  

<poem>
Perfect enlightenment ten kalpas past—pervading the realm of sentient beings;
Birth in one thought-moment—in Amida's Land.
When ten and one are nondual, we realize no-birth;
Where Land and realm are the same, we sit in Amida's great assembly.
</poem>

Since Amida's enlightenment (the "ten kalpas past," i.e., when he attained buddhahood) pervades all reality, sentient beings can touch this the very moment we remember the Buddha through even a single nembutsu (this is the "one thought-moment" which is non-dual with the "ten").<ref name=":9" /> When a person abandons self-power, all discrimination and false thinking and relies solely on Amida, they realize the immanent non-duality between themselves and Buddhahood, which manifests as the single-minded nembutsu.<ref name=":9">Hirota (1997), pp. liv-lviii</ref> Ippen's doctrine, rooted in Seizan school teachings, is that these two events are nondual. Amida's enlightenment is the nembutsu of the present moment. Therefore, as Ippen wrote, "each moment is the moment of death, and each moment is birth in the Pure Land."<ref>Soda, ''Ippen'', p. 64.</ref> 

This single nembutsu in the present moment is also one with all nembutsus. It is also one with the coming of the Buddha ([[raigō]]) to meet us at death, as well as with our birth in the Pure Land. It is thus a timeless event in which, according to Ippen, "there is neither start nor finish, beginning nor end".<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lx</ref> This present moment of infinity is also described by Ippen as the realization of "no-birth" ([[anutpada]]), which is also a term for the ultimate truth. According to Ippen, after this realization "our hearts are Amida Buddha's heart, our bodily actions Amida Buddha's actions, and our words Amida Buddha's words, the life we are living is Amida Buddha's life."<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lxi</ref> Indeed, from this percepctive, “among all living things—mountains and rivers, grasses and trees, even the sounds of blowing winds and rising waves—there is nothing that is not the ''nembutsu''.”<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2014-06-25 |title=Ippen’s Pure Land |url=https://buddhismnow.com/2014/06/25/ippens-pure-land/ |access-date=2025-11-13 |website=Buddhism now |language=en}}</ref>  

No-birth stands in contrast to "birth and death" (samsara), as well as a "birth" in the Pure Land as something that only occurs in some future time. Since Amida Buddha as Immeasurable Life transcends all dualities, it transcends all conceptions of birth and death, and so ultimately transcends temporal "birth" while also reaching into the present moment.<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lxii</ref> 

According to this view, our rebirth in the Pure Land after death is attained immediately in the very moment we say the nembutsu, and this is identical with Amida's [[Buddhahood]], a doctrine called ''sokuben ōjō''. As Ippen says, “When one takes refuge in the name which cuts the flow of past, present, and future, there is rebirth without beginning or end.” (''Hōgo Shū'', 29).<ref name=":1" /> As such, on saying the nembutsu, we can be sure that we are will certainly be liberated, and do not need to concern ourselves with any other practices, doctrinal learning, or even with attempting to develop any specific mental attitude, including [[Faith in Buddhism|faith]]. 

=== Saying the nembutsu ===
[[File:Statue of Ippen at Hōgon-ji, Matsuyama.jpg|thumb|120px|Statue of Ippen at Hōgon-ji, Matsuyama]]
This view of simple-minded nembutsu recitation is expressed in a letter by Ippen which characteristic of his teaching to say the nembutsu while "doing away with the multiplicity of expectations in our hearts."<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lxiv</ref> When asked by a follower what kind of mental attitude was needed for the recitation of the nembutsu, Ippen wrote in response that no special attitude was necessary besides just reciting Na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu and that nembutsu followers should not worry about these things and just focus on recitation.<ref name=":2">Shizutoshi, Sugihira. (2011). The Teaching of Ippen Shōnin (1239–1289). 10.1558/equinox.20454.</ref> Ippen further writes: <blockquote>When [[Kūya|Kūya Shonin]] was once asked in what state of mind one should recite the Nembutsu, he answered simply, “Abandon”, and did not say anything further. This is recorded in [[Saigyō|Saigyō’s]] ''Senjūshō''. This saying is really the golden rule. The Nembutsu followers abandon wisdom, folly, the knowledge of good and bad, the thought of one’s social position, noble and mean, high and low, the fear of hell, the desire for a land of happiness, and even the [[Bodhicitta|aspiration for enlightenment]] as exhorted by different schools of Buddhism. In short the Nembutsu followers abandon all these. When the Nembutsu is thus recited, it is in perfect accord with the incomparable [[Original Vow]] of Amida. When the Nembutsu is recited without interruption with this frame of mind, there is no thought of [[Buddhahood]] or self-hood, not to say anything about the presence of an argumentative mood; the world of good and bad is no more than the [[Sukhavati|Land of Purity]] itself and beside this there is nothing for which we cherish a desire or from which we turn away. The universe, with all its beings, sentient and non-sentient, with blowing winds and roaring waves, is no other than the Nembutsu. You must not imagine that man is the only being who is embraced by the incomparable Vow. But if my words are hard to understand, leave them as they are, giving no further thoughts to them, and just recite the Nembutsu putting your absolute trust in the Original Vow. As for the Nembutsu, whether you recite it with a believing heart or not, it never fails to be in accord with the incomparable Original Vow of [[Other power|other-power.]] In the Original Vow of Amida, nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous. Beside this, what mental equipment do you wish to have? Only going back to the state of mind found in a simple-minded Nembutsu devotee, recite the Nembutsu. Na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu.<ref name=":2" />     </blockquote>This practice is one which relies completely on the Buddha's [[Other power|other-power]] and abandons all self-power. Ippen held that any attempt to alter and improve the nembutsu by our own efforts is pointless, even any attempt to generate faith. According to Ippen, this self-powered attitude in when "we imagine that we can by ourselves learn and practise the way of severing ourselves from the bondage of birth and death."<ref name=":2" /> This attitude inevitably leads to pride, egoism and contempt towards others.<ref name=":2" /> As such, one must abandon all self-powered efforts, ideas and discrimination, and simply single-mindedly say the nembutsu without any further thought.<ref name=":2" /> 

Ippen considered this view that was completely unconcerned with whether one had faith or not as having been a revelation to him from the Kumano Gongen. He describes this revelation as follows: "Make no judgments about the nature of your heart and mind. Since this mind is delusional, both when it is good and when it is evil, it cannot be essential for emancipation. Namu-amida-butsu itself is born."<ref name=":10">Hirota (1997), p. lxv</ref> Ippen writes that after receiving this "I abandoned my own intentions and aspirations of self-power once and for all."<ref name=":10" /> Thus, for Ippen, we must reject the idea that we need to have faith at all, since it is just another attachment to self-power and discriminative thinking taking the guise of religious aspiration.<ref name=":10" /> Instead, we should "just return to the mind and heart of a simple, foolish person and say the nembutsu".<ref>Hirota (1997), p. lxvi</ref>

=== Hijiri practices ===
[[file:Ippen shonin eden IV - Odori Nembutsu.jpg|thumb|Ippen hijiri performing the dancing nembutsu]]

Ippen led the Ji-shū community on continual [[itinerancy]] (''yugyō''), guiding the people (including peasants and [[Burakumin|outcasts]]) to the Pure Land through the practices of dancing nenbutsu and ''fusan'' (distribution of ''nembutsu'' slips).<ref name="Shunjūsha">{{Cite book |last1=Tachibana |first1=Toshimichi |title=一遍聖絵 |last2=Umeya |first2=Shigeki |publisher=Shunjūsha |year=1989 |pages=4–16 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Illustrated Biography of Ippen Shōnin}}</ref> Ippen's community adopted numerous religious practices from past wandering hijiri and local traditions like the [[yamabushi]] including mountain asceticism, pilgrimages to sacred places, retreats at sacred places hoping to receive divine messages in dreams or visions, funeral rites, distribution of talismans (ofuda), ecstatic dancing, and "the keeping of a register for recording the names of the faithful."<ref>Hirota (1997), p. xxii</ref>

Regarding the dancing nenbutsu, Ippen taught: “Merely hearing that the ''nembutsu'' is the teaching of Amida brings such joy that one cannot help but dance."<ref name="Shunjūsha" /> Ippen would also cite the ''Sutra of Immeasurable Life'' in defense of the practice, which states: "persons who have beheld a World-honored one in a past life are now able to entrust themselves to this teaching; With humble reverence they hear and uphold it, and they leap and dance, rejoicing greatly."<ref name=":7" /> Ippen’s dancing nenbutsu events often became popular spectacles. In populated areas, a raised platform called an “odori-ya” was often set up, and men and women dancers (among Ippen’s 20–40 companions, nearly half were nuns) formed a circle, singing and dancing until the spectators too were drawn in, reaching states of [[religious ecstasy]]. Its extreme and frenzied character provoked resistance from conservative circles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shimokawa |first1=Kōshi |title=盆踊り：乱交の民俗学 |date=2011 |publisher=Sakuhinsha |location=Tokyo |isbn=978-4-86182-338-1 |pages=126–136 |trans-title=Bon Odori: The Folklore of Orgy}}</ref> 

==== Method of propagation ====
[[file:Mushono-Dainembutsu amulet paper.JPG|thumb|120px|Simple paper fuda given out in the Musho-no dancing nembutsu celebration held at Uenohara City, [[Yamanashi Prefecture]]]]
While his thought has been praised by thinkers like [[Yanagi Sōetsu|Yanagi Muneyoshi]], Ippen himself placed value not on abstract doctrine but focused on the practice of propagating the single-minded recitation of the six-syllable ''[[Nianfo|nembutsu]]''.<ref name=":3">Hirota (1997), pp. xxix-xxxii</ref> The way Ippen taught the nembutsu to others is described by the term ''ippen-nembutsu'' (single nembutsu, or "once" nembutsu) which indicated a single racitation of "Namu-amida-butsu" (I take refuge in Amida Buddha). According to Hirota, his method of propagation "seems to have been an 'exchange' or 'bestowal' of utterance in which Ippen, reciting the Name himself, would urge a passerby to follow his example."<ref name=":3" /> This first single utterance was seen as highly important for Ippen, since it indicated that the person was now sure to attain rebirth in the Pure Land. Furthermore, this single moment of recitation is also non-dual with the essence of Amida's Buddhahood.<ref name=":3" /> 

After a person had responded to Ippen's nembutsu with a recitation of their own, Ippen would then hand them a slip of paper (fuda) with "Namo Amida Butsu" (南無阿弥陀仏; meaning "I pay homage to Amida Buddha") printed on it. Ippen describes this as a image which could be used on an [[Butsudan|altar]], indicated that they might have been considered as sacred [[honzon]] by the people.<ref name=":3" /> Since Amida's name was considered to embody enlightenment itself, it could also have served as concrete symbol of an individual's conversion and future enlightenment. It thus served as a tangible link to the sacred for common people and made their religious practice of accepting the nembutsu an embodied one rather than an intellectual one.<ref name=":3" />  

Ippen wished to lead as many people as possible to birth in the Pure Land (a concept known as ''issai shujō ketsujō ōjō'', the certain rebirth of all sentient beings), and so distributed these slips widely. They were inscribed with "The ''[[shinjin|anjin]]'' [faith] of the Universal Vow of the Six and the Eight" (安心の六八の弘誓), meaning, "Namo Amida Butsu" along with the eight characters "Ketsujō Ōjō Rokujūmannin" (決定往生六十万人; which can be translated as "600,000 people are determined of birth in the Pure Land", or "Decisive settlement of birth: sixty myriad people").<ref name=":3" /> <ref>{{Cite book |last=Sae |first=Shūichi |title=わが屍は野に捨てよ|publisher=Shinchōsha |year=2002 |pages=125 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Cast My Corpse upon the Field}}</ref> 

The figure “600,000” or "sixty myriad" was derived from the first characters of the following verse by Ippen: 
<poem>
The six-character Name is the Dharma teaching of Ippen; 
the dependent and true realms of the [[ten realms]] are the body of Ippen; 
the abandonment of ten thousand practices and meditations are the realisation of Ippen; 
the highest grade of the highest rank [referring to the ranks in the ''[[Amitāyus Contemplation Sūtra|Contemplation Sūtra]]''] of persons are the supreme and wondrous flowers (puṇḍarīkas).
</poem>
This number, whose size could represent the concept of a very large number, stood for all sentient beings. Sixty was also the approximate number of provinces in Japan, and so was meant as an aspiration to bring the Pure Land teaching to everyone.<ref name=":3" /> The [[numerology]] of this phrase also links all these people to the six characters of the nembutsu, indicating the non-duality between Buddha and sentient beings as taught by [[Shōkū]], a doctrine known as ''kihō ittai''. Toshio Ōhashi compared these slips to tickets guaranteeing rebirth in the Pure Land—like boarding passes for a train bound there.<ref name="Ōhashi 1978 13">{{Cite book |last=Ōhashi |first=Toshio |title=一遍と時宗教団 |date=1978 |publisher=Kyōiku-sha |pages=13 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Ippen and the Ji-shū Order}}</ref>  According to one account, the number also indicated that Ippen would first allot 600,000 [[Woodblock printing|woodblock printed]] slips, then repeat the distribution for further groups of 600,000.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sae |first=Shūichi |title=わが屍は野に捨てよ |publisher=Shinchōsha |year=2002 |pages=125 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Cast My Corpse upon the Field}}</ref> 

Ippen also directed his followers to create a nembutsu registry where the names of all those who had received the slips were counted. This practice may have been adopted by Ippen from previous figures like [[Ryōnin|Ryōnin,]] the founder of the [[Yuzu Nembutsu|Yuzu nembutsu]] sect.<ref name=":3" /> According to the Hijiri-e, the total number reached 251,724.<ref name=":3" /> Other sources state that the number of adherents who received Ippen’s slips and inscribed their names in the subscription registers eventually reached 2.5 million.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Irisawa |first1=Noriyuki |title=ビジュアル百科 日本史1200人 |date=2010 |publisher=Seitōsha |location=Tokyo |page=79 |trans-title=Visual Encyclopaedia: 1,200 People of Japanese History}}</ref> 

== Art ==
[[File:Ippen Biography 3.jpg|thumbnail|[[Ippen Shōnin Eden|Illustrated Biography of the Priest Ippen]]: Volume 7. Kamakura period, 1299.]]
Ippen himself was greatly devoted to paintings of [[Shandao]]'s allegory of the "White Path", so it is appropriate that his life led to the production of a great many portraits, sculpted images, and illustrated narrative scrolls (''emaki'' 絵巻).

The ''[[Ippen Shōnin Eden|Ippen Hijiri-e]]'' (一遍聖絵)  was edited by Ippen's disciple [[Shōkai]] (聖戒) and, according to an inscription dated 1299, was painted by the artist [[En'i]] (円伊) ([[Kankikō-ji]] 歓喜光寺, Kyoto, and Tokyo National Museum). The twelve handscrolls on silk show Ippen's trip around Japan, and are well known for their naturalistic depiction of "famous places", including [[Mount Fuji]] (富士), Kumano, [[Shitennō-ji]] (四天王寺), Zenkō-ji (善光寺), [[Enoshima]] (江ノ島), Yoshino (吉野), [[Itsukushima]] (厳島), and Naruto (鳴門). The treatment of space shows the influence of [[Song dynasty|Song]] and [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] Chinese landscape painting. A second type of biographical handscroll ''Ippen Shōnin Engi-e'' 一遍上人縁起絵), edited by Ippen's other disciple, Sōshun (宗俊), was painted sometime between 1304 and 1307. The original scrolls no longer exist but were copied in many other versions including those at Shinkō-ji (真光寺), [[Hyōgo Prefecture]]. These versions are characterized by the addition of the biography of Ippen's most important disciple, Taa (他阿, 1237–1319). In the Shinkō-ji version, the first four scrolls depict Ippen's life, while the last six concern the life of Taa and the spread of Ji Sect teaching. The Kinren-ji (金蓮寺) in Kyoto has a [[Muromachi period]] copy of the now-lost work dated 1307.<ref>[http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/i/ippen.htm Ippen]</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* Asano, Jun’i. (1999) 一遍上人と大三島 (''Ippen'' ''Shōnin and Ōmishima''). Imabari City, Ōmishima-chō: Manpukuji.
* Foard, James Harlan (1977). Ippen Shônin and popular Buddhism in Kamakura Japan, Dissertation, Stanford University. [[oclc:9782681|OCLC]]
* Foard, James Harlan (2006). ''The Pure Land Tradition: History and Development,'' Fremont, CA: Jain Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-89581-092-2}}. pp.&nbsp;357–398
* Griffiths, Caitilin J. (2011). [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/26185 Tracing the Itinerant Path: Jishū Nuns of Medieval Japan], Thesis, University of Toronto.
* Hirokami, Kiyoshi. 一遍 (Ippen). 日本大百科全書 (''Nipponica Encyclopaedia of Japan''). Tokyo: Shōgakukan. 
* Hirota, Dennis (1997). ''No Abode: The Record of Ippen'',  (Ryukoku-Ibs Studies in Buddhist Thought and Tradition), Honolulu: [[University of Hawaiʻi Press]], {{ISBN|0-8248-1997-7}}
* Imai, Masaharu. 照大師 (“Great Teacher Enshō”). 世界大百科事典 (''World Encyclopedia''). Tokyo: Heibonsha.
* Kaufman, Laura S. (1992). Nature, Courtly Imagery, and Sacred Meaning in the Ippen Hijiri-e. In James H. Sanford (ed.), Flowing Traces Buddhism in the Literary and Visual Arts of Japan, Princeton, N.J.: [[Princeton University Press]]; pp.&nbsp;47–75
* Matsunaga, Daigan, Matsunaga, Alicia (1996), Foundation of Japanese buddhism, Vol. 2: The Mass Movement (Kamakura and Muromachi Periods), Los Angeles; Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1996. {{ISBN|0-914910-28-0}}
* Noda, Hideo. 明照大師嘉号請願考 (''A Study on the Petition for the Honorific Title of Great Teacher Myōshō''). Kōryō Shigaku [鷹陵史学] 12 (1986): 156. Kyoto: Bukkyō University Institute for Historical Research.
* Ōhashi, Toshio. (1978) 一遍と時宗教団 (''Ippen and the Ji-shū Order''). Tokyo: Kyōiku-sha.
* Sae, Shūichi. (2002) わが屍は野に捨てよ (Cast My Corpse upon the Field). Tokyo: Shinchōsha.
* Shimokawa, Kōshi. (2011) 盆踊り：乱交の民俗学 (''Bon Odori: The Folklore of Orgy''). Tokyo: Sakuhinsha, 2011. ISBN 978-4-86182-338-1.
* Soda Keiko. (2015) ''Ippen: The Japanese Buddhist "Sage Who Abandoned All''." Translated by Sarah J. Horton. Himeji: Bookway, 2015. [[Special:BookSources/9784865840278|ISBN 978-4-86584-027-8]]
* Thornton, S.A. (1999). Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyo-ha (1300-1700). Cornell East Asia Series no. 102, Ithaca: Cornell University,  ISBN 1-885445-62-8.
* Tachibana, Toshimichi & Umeya, Shigeki (eds.). (1989) 一遍上人全集 (''Collected Works of Ippen Shōnin''). Tokyo: Shunjūsha.

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}{{Wikisource|lang=ja|一遍|Ippen Shōnin|works=by}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050501193416/http://www.jsri.jp/English/Pure%20Land/LINEAGE/disciples.html Jodo Shu Research Institute]
*[http://www.nembutsu.info/hsrippen.htm Stewart, Harold, ''Ippen'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121103124822/http://www.jideco.co.jp/homes/yugyoji/index.html The Yugyo-ji temple / Head temple of the ji-shu sect]
* [http://www.pureland-buddhism.org/WebplsCh/%E6%B7%A8%E5%9C%9F%E5%AE%97%E5%8F%A2%E6%9B%B8/%E5%BF%B5%E4%BD%9B%E9%87%91%E8%A8%80%E9%8C%84/%E7%9B%AE%E9%8C%84.aspx 念佛金言录]
* [http://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_collection/index.php?controller=dtl&colid=A10944&lang=en Shonin Ippen, E-den (Biographical stories vol7)]
*[https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/Buddhism/The%20Ji%20Sect.html The Ji Sect (時宗)]
*[http://www.jishu.or.jp/ Ji-Shu Main Temple website]

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