ABSTRACT
T h o u g h Amida, or Amitabha, is well known as a benevolent deity in China, Tibet, and other countries of the Far East, it is above all in Japan that his worship has developed into distinct, well organized, popular, and progressive sects which claim attention if only for the numbers and wealth of their adherents. In the earlier sections of this work I have already spoken several times at length of the history of this worship which is summed up in the names of its seven Patriarchs : two Indian, Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu ; three Chinese, Donran, D5shaku, and Zendo ; and two Japanese, Genshin and Honen.1
