Background
Yasutane no Yoshishige was born in 1002. He was the son of Kamo no Tadayuki but later adopted the surname Yoshishige.
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Yasutane no Yoshishige
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also known as
Chiteiki
Education
He studied under Sugawara no Fumitoki and was skilled in writing poetry and prose in Chinese.
Career
Though he held a post in the government, he became increasingly weary of the secular society of the time, with its numerous evils and injustices.
In 986 he became a member of the clergy, adopting the religious name Jakushin, and thereafter traveled about the country performing religious exercises. Along with the priest Genshin, he played an important role in the formation of the Nijugo Zammaie, a society devoted to the propagation of nembutsu, the ritual invocation of the name of the Buddha Amida. He had a disciple, Oe no Sadamoto, who also took the religious name Jakushin.
Achievements
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In 982 he wrote a prose piece in Chinese entitled Chiteiki, or “Record of the Pond Pavilion," in which he described the social ills of the time and lamented his failure to gam recognition in the world. In 984 he compiled a work called Nihon ojo gokuraku-ki, containing biographies of persons who were believed to have been reborn in the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amida.
Religion
He took a deep interest in Buddhism and in 964 joined with other scholars and monks in forming the Kangakue, an association of clergy and laymen devoted to the study of the Lotus Sutra.
