Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect
which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of
J[=o]-d[=o] was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of
the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-d[=o] (A.D. 600-650),
the great propagator of the J[=o]-d[=o] philosophy, H[=o]-nen, the
founder of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, was born; and this phase of organized
Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under
the head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism.
When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called H[=o]-nen, was
converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native
province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to
the monastery of Hiyeizan, near Ki[=o]to. The boy's letter of
introduction contained only these words: "I send you an image of the
Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved his head and received
the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving
the prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he
built a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the
five thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose
of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day,
how to escape from misery.
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