Home › Magazine › Fall 1996 › The Monk Who Dared: An Historical Novel About Shinran

The Monk Who Dared: An Historical Novel About Shinran

Sarah Fremerman

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Ruth M. Tabrah

Press Pacifica: Kailua, Hawaii, 1996.

329 pp., $15.95 (paper).

When the emperor of Japan asked Shinran, the founder of the Jodo Shin (True Pure Land) sect of Buddhism, to recite a poem summing up his experience of monastic life, the monk surprised them both:

Like a fledgling attempting to fly against the wind,
Snow weighting its fragile wings,
I struggle
Powerless as I try to help myself.

After a long silence, the emperor said, “You are no ordinary monk,” and bestowed upon him a beautiful brocade robe. Later the same emperor would send Shinran into exile for his heretical activities.

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