Licensed Evil: Antinomian Understanding of Hōnen's Buddhism in Early Medieval Japan

Medieval Japanese Buddhists debated the relationship between moral conduct and salvation, widely understood as birth after death in the Buddha Amida’s Pure Land. Some argued that faith rendered rules of proper behavior unnecessary to attain birth in the Pure Land. This paper examines medieval Japanese debates over whether Pure Land teachings license individuals to commit evil. It focuses on Hōnen (1133-1212) and his followers, with whom the discourse of “licensed evil” is closely associated. Hōnen taught that salvation is achieved only by chanting Amida’s name (nenbutsu) and relying totally on his compassion. As his doctrine spread, however, some devotees used it to legitimize the violation of conventions. In this paper, I situate antinomian readings of Hōnen’s doctrine within a broader undercurrent of anxieties over attainment of salvation and show that “licensed evil” became a focal point of debates over how to interpret Hōnen’s doctrine of the exclusive nenbutsu.