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佛神は貴し佛神をたのまず busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them

The article of Musashi's last sheet that a shrine story made famous, and the older words inside it.

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Japanese Scroll of The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them佛神は貴し佛神をたのまずbusshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

佛神は貴し佛神をたのまず, the buddhas and gods are to be revered; I do not rely on them, is the nineteenth of the twenty-one articles on the sheet headed 獨行道, Dokkōdō, handed down as Miyamoto Musashi's 宮本武蔵 and dated the twelfth day of the fifth month of 1645, a week before his death; as the sheet is transcribed, its last word is written たのます, without the voicing mark, and read たのまず [1][2][3]. The 『二天記』, the chronicle of Musashi with a preface of 1776, sets the article beside a scene: on his way to the fight at 一乗寺下り松, Musashi reaches for the rope of the gong at a shrine of Hachiman to pray for victory, and stops, thinking 我常に佛神を信仰せす, I have not, as a rule, put my faith in the buddhas and gods; the article is the chronicler's comment on the scene [4]. A book of 1909 moved the article itself into his thought, as a vow already sworn and with the gods set before the buddhas, 神佛, an order in print by 1886; the novelist Yoshikawa Eiji 吉川英治, in 1936, gave it as the sheet's words in the form 「われ、神佛を尊んで、神佛を恃まず。」 [5][6][7]. The words themselves are older than the sheet: the Genji says of a man leaving for the mountains that he 佛神を賴み申して, entrusted it to the buddhas and gods, and a letter attributed to Shinkyō 真教 (1237–1319), second patriarch of the Ji school, counsels 佛神をたのまずして, not turning to them in prayer for the sake of this brief life [8][9]; its readers have taken the article as Zen, as self-reliance and as one man's account of himself; I read it through the older idiom: revere them, and do not pray to them for one's own ends.

Overview

The sense. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives ぶつじん【仏神】, 「ぶっしん」とも, as 仏と神。かみほとけ。, buddhas and gods [10]. Under とうとい【尊・貴】, whose classical form is たふとし, its first sense is 高貴である。品位が高くすぐれている。すぐれて価値がある。あがめ重んずべきである。大切である。たっとい。, noble; of high and excellent dignity; of surpassing worth; to be revered and held weighty; precious [11]. Under たのむ【頼・恃・憑】 its first two senses are ① たよりにする。あてにする。また、信頼する。信用する。, to rely on; to count on; to trust; to have confidence in, and ② 信仰する。帰依する。, to put one's faith in; to take refuge in, with the Genji's 「住吉の神をたのみはじめたてまつりて」; of its six senses, ④ 他にゆだねる。依頼する。委託する。 and ⑤ 特に懇願する。願う。 are the senses of asking. Its note on the word's history says that in the early and court periods たのむ was used mainly of trusting someone and committing oneself to them, examples that may carry the sense of asking 極めてまれ, extremely rare, and that asking became the general sense in the medieval period [12]. So the line says the buddhas and gods are to be revered, and that they are not relied on, or not turned to in faith; which use of たのむ it takes is the question every reading below answers.

The words. 佛神 is the pair buddhas and gods, the buddhas named first; 神佛 is the same pair in the other order, 神と仏 in the same dictionary [13]. 貴し and 尊し are one word, which the dictionary heads under both characters [11]. たのまず is たのむ with the negative ず; the sheet as transcribed writes たのます, the same word without the voicing mark, and so does the chronicle's copy of the article [1][4]. The first clause is a judgment, 〜は貴し, are to be revered; the second is a negative verb with no subject, which the sheet's other articles, statements of what their writer does and does not do, invite one to read in the first person [1]. 佛神 is read ぶつしん, busshin, in the one Musashi edition found with a reading set beside it, by the army officer Horiuchi Bunjirō 堀内文次郎 in 1917, and Kenji Tokitsu gives busshin [14][15]; the editors of the Genji read the same 佛神 there both ほとけかみ and ぶつしん (§ Notes) [8].

The text in English. The English books read here give: Kenji Tokitsu, in Sherab Chodzin Kohn's translation, 2004, Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help, glossing tanomazu not depending on, not counting on someone; William Scott Wilson, 2004, Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not rely on them; David K. Groff, 2016, Buddha and the gods are to be revered, but do not make requests of them; Alexander Bennett, 2018, I respected the deities and Buddha without seeking their aid [15][16][17][18].

The historical record

1645. The sheet. The sheet is in the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, ink on paper, dated 正保2年（1645） by the museum's record [2]. The prefecture's designation text judges the twenty-one articles to be in Musashi's own hand and holds it more natural to take the date, signature and seal as a later insertion [3]. The transcription at Wikisource gives the nineteenth article, after 老身尓財寳所領もちゆる心なし, in old age I have no heart to put wealth or estates to use, and before 身を捨ても名利はすてす, though I throw away my body, I do not throw away name and honor [1]:

一 佛神は貴し佛神をたのます

The museum's own photograph is too small to read the line [2].

1755. The 武公伝, at second hand. The prefecture's text quotes the 『武公伝』, which it gives to 豊田正剛 and lists under 豊田正剛 and 豊田正脩, 宝暦5 (1755): 武公(武蔵)自誓ノ書ノ中ニ佛神ハ尊シ、佛神ヲ憑マズト在リ, in the master's writing of his vow to himself it says: the buddhas and gods are to be revered, on the buddhas and gods I do not rely; and it says the sheet was handed down in the 豊田 house, teachers of Musashi's school at 八代 [3]. The 武公伝 itself is not read here, and whether it tells the shrine scene is not known to this history (§ Sources not seen). The prefecture's own reading of the article, with two others of the sheet, is 克己的で強い自我意識が見てとれる独特な人生訓, a singular rule of life in which a self-mastering, strong consciousness of self can be seen [3].

1776. The 二天記: the scene and the comment. The 『二天記』, a chronicle of Musashi with a preface dated 1776, is read here in the typeset of 1910 [4]. On his way to the fight with the house of 吉岡 at 一乗寺下り松, Musashi sets out alone before dawn [4]:

鷄鳴より獨歩し、洛を出る路に八幡の社あり、因て思ふ我幸に神前に來れり、正に勝利を祈るべしと、社壇に至て愼て鰐口の紭を把て將に打鳴さんとす、忽ち思ふ我常に佛神を信仰せす、今此難を憚て敬禱すとて神夫受めや、吁怯しと、

He walked out alone at cockcrow. On the road out of the capital there was a shrine of Hachiman, and he thought: by good fortune I have come before a god; I should pray for victory. He went up to the shrine, took the rope of the gong in reverence and was about to strike it, when he suddenly thought: I have not, as a rule, put my faith in the buddhas and gods; if now, shrinking from this danger, I pray in reverence, would the god accept it? Ah, how cowardly. After the fight the chronicle comes back to it: 退て彼の神前の事を思ふに、事に流て心を不レ變こと難しと云へり、武藏自誓の書の中に、佛神は尊し佛神を不レ賴とあり、猶奥に出す, afterward, thinking of what happened before the god, he said it is hard not to be carried along by events and to keep one's heart unchanged. In Musashi's writing of his vow to himself it says: the buddhas and gods are to be revered, on the buddhas and gods I do not rely. It is given again further on [4]. Further on, in the chronicle's copy of the sheet, the article reads 佛神は尊し佛神をたのます, with 尊し where the sheet's transcription has 貴し, and たのます unvoiced as there [4]. So in the chronicle Musashi's thought at the shrine is about faith, 信仰, and the article is cited beside it by the chronicler, from Musashi's 自誓の書, the name the 武公伝 also gives the sheet, as the prefecture reads it [3].

1886. The order turned. 藤野富之助's 『剣道達人武蔵実記』, of 1886, prints nineteen articles, as the chronicle's copy has them, and the sheet's nineteenth, its eighteenth, reads [6]:

一 神佛ハ貴し神佛をたのまず

The gods now stand before the buddhas, where the sheet and the chronicle have 佛神.

1909. Into his own thought. 『宮本武藏』, compiled by the society formed to honor Musashi's memory and sites, 宮本武藏遺蹟顯彰會, and published in 1909, retells the scene [5]:

道に八幡の社あり、武藏おもへらく今幸に神前に來りぬ、いかで勝利を祈らざらむやとて、進んで社壇に至り、神前に下れる鰐口の緒を取り、將に振り鳴さむとして、忽ち思ふに、我常に神佛を尊んで神佛を頼まずと誓へり、今この難に臨んで、いかに祈るとも神何ぞ受けたまふべき、嗚呼拙き心なりけりと、いたく慚愧して、

On the road there was a shrine of Hachiman. Musashi thought: by good fortune I have now come before a god; how should I not pray for victory? He went up to the shrine, took the cord of the gong that hung before the god and was about to shake it, when he suddenly thought: I have always vowed to revere the gods and buddhas and not to rely on them; facing this peril now, however I pray, how would the god accept it? Ah, what a poor heart, he thought, and was deeply ashamed. Where the chronicle has I have not put my faith in them, the Musashi of 1909 has the article itself, sworn already, 誓へり, and in the order 神佛. A statistical journal of the same year names the line, the buddhas first, 「佛神は尊し佛神を賴まず」と云ふ自誓文, the vow to himself that says the buddhas and gods are to be revered, on them I do not rely, in the snippet the National Diet Library's search displays [19].

1916. Self-reliance. Fukurai Tomokichi 福来友吉, a psychologist and a researcher of psychical phenomena, in 『心霊の現象』 of 1916, quotes the article as 神佛を尊び神佛を賴まず。 and goes on [20][21]:

とあるは、正に此の心の絕頂を示したものである。唯我が此の腕を賴んで、神佛さへも賴みとせざる程の雄々しき自信力あればこそ、天地をも碎かん武藏一流の實が生ずるのである。

That it says so shows precisely the summit of this mind. Only because he had a manly self-confidence great enough to rely on his own arm alone and not to take even the gods and buddhas for his reliance does the substance of Musashi's school, which would shatter heaven and earth, come into being. Here たのむ is rely on, and what the article refuses the gods it gives to the self.

1917 and 1931. Zen. Horiuchi Bunjirō, a lieutenant general of the army, in 『禅と健康』 of 1917, sets the reading ぶつしん beside each 佛神 and writes [14][22]:

先生の座右の銘なる『獨行道』の第十八項に曰く『佛神は尊ぶ、然れども佛神をたのまず』と明記しある。此『佛神をたのまず』の獨立獨行の大勇猛心は、禪學の根本義にして、禪學の先哲が、『佛を拜するも佛に求めず、法に求めず、僧に求めず』と斷言した見識と一致し

In the eighteenth article of the Dokkōdō, the master's motto at his side, it is written plainly: the buddhas and gods are to be revered, and yet I do not rely on them. The great dauntless heart of this "I do not rely on them", standing alone and walking alone, is the root meaning of the study of Zen, and agrees with the insight of the Zen ancient who declared: I bow to the Buddha, but I seek nothing of the Buddha, nothing of the Dharma, nothing of the Sangha. In 『禅と活動』 of 1920 he names the ancient: 昔、黄檗禪師は「佛を拜するも、佛に求めず、法に求めず、僧に求めず」と言はれたが, long ago the Zen master 黄檗 (Ōbaku; in Chinese, Huangbo) said … [23]. The Zen master 釈宗演's lectures, printed in 1931, read the article 神佛を尊ぶ、然れど、神佛を賴まず(第十八條) with two others of the sheet and say of the three 眞に之れ獨立獨行の禪旨に契合するものである, truly in accord with the Zen spirit of standing alone and walking alone [24].

1936. Yoshikawa's wording. Yoshikawa Eiji, the novelist whose works include 『宮本武蔵』, in 『現代青年道』 of 1936, writes [7][25]:

宮本武藏は、自著獨行道のうちでかう誡めてゐる。「われ、神佛を尊んで、神佛を恃まず。」

Miyamoto Musashi admonishes thus in the Dokkōdō, his own writing: "I revere the gods and buddhas, and do not rely on them." This is the sentence of the 1909 book, 我常に神佛を尊んで神佛を頼まず, without 常に and with 恃, given as the sheet's own words. In the National Diet Library's full-text search, oldest first, 神佛を恃まず and 神仏を恃まず first appear in this book; in a book of 1967, as that search displays it, the phrase is remembered from his novel: 吉川英治氏の小説「宮本武蔵」の中に「神仏を尊んで、神仏を恃まず」という一句があった, in Mr. Yoshikawa Eiji's novel Miyamoto Musashi there was the line "revere the gods and buddhas, and do not rely on them" [26].

Older than the sheet: 佛神をたのむ

The court tales. In the 『源氏物語』, in 若菜上, the tale says of the Akashi Novice, as he gives up his house for the mountains and before he writes his last letter: 唯少し覺束なき事の殘りければ、今までながらへけるを、今はさりともと、佛神を賴み申してなむ移ろひける。, only because a little that was uncertain remained had he lived on until now; now, thinking that surely it would be so, he entrusted it to the buddhas and gods and went; the edition of 1932 sets the reading ほとけかみ beside 佛神 [8]. The dictionary quotes the same tale, in 明石, for its second sense of たのむ, to put one's faith in, and its note on the word says examples that may carry the sense of asking are extremely rare in that period [12]: the Novice commits to the buddhas and gods what remains in doubt.

A Ji-shū letter. Shinkyō 真教 (1237–1319), called 他阿弥陀仏, was the second patriarch of the Ji school, and his sayings are collected as the 『他阿上人法語』 [27]. In that collection, a letter in reply to 松田淨阿彌陀佛 reads [9]:

幾程もなき今生の身命の爲に佛神をたのまずして。ひとすぢに念佛すれば。いのりの爲にたのみつる佛神も。生死はなるべきかたをよろこびて。晝夜六時に阿彌陀佛の光中にして。行者を臨終までまほりたまふなり。

If, without turning to the buddhas and gods for the sake of one's life in this world, which lasts so short a while, one calls the nembutsu single-mindedly, then even the buddhas and gods one used to turn to in prayer rejoice that one is turning toward release from birth and death, and day and night, within the light of Amida, guard the practicer until the hour of death. The edition of 1932 in the 『国訳大蔵経』 sets ぶつしん beside both 佛神 [28]. The 国書データベース lists the collection as printed, in eight volumes, and the one copy it images carries a postscript dated 1776; when the letters were first collected is not known to this history (§ Sources not seen) [29]. Here 佛神をたのむ is to pray to the buddhas and gods for one's life, and to stop doing so is not to stop revering them: the letter's 佛神 go on guarding the one who no longer asks.

Musashi's own century. In 1925 the scholar of religion Anesaki Masaharu 姉崎正治 printed a deposition which, as his headnote has it, an apostate priest, perhaps the one called Joseph 三右衞門, made under questioning by the inspector 北條安房守, in 明曆四年, 1658 [30][31]. Of the buddhas and gods that stand between heaven and earth it says: 是も我等同性の人間にて御座候故、佛神を賴み、後生前生たすかり申さゞる儀、うたがい御座なく候。, since they too are human beings of the same nature as we, there is no doubt that by turning to the buddhas and gods no one is saved, in the life to come or the life before [30]. Thirteen years after the sheet, in this deposition, 佛神を賴む still names the practice of turning to them for salvation, the buddhas named first.

A reading

The readers of the twentieth century made the second clause about the reader: Fukurai's self-confidence, which relies on its own arm; the prefecture's self-mastery; Horiuchi's Zen, which seeks nothing of the Buddha, and 釈宗演's Zen of standing and walking alone; the English rely on, count on, seek their aid [20][3][14][23][24][15][16][18]. Each takes たのむ in its first sense today, to rely on. The words had another use for centuries before the sheet. 佛神をたのむ is to turn to the buddhas and gods in faith, and in the older witnesses read here, to turn to them for something: the Akashi Novice commits to them what remains in doubt; the Ji-shū believer stops praying to them for his brief life; the 1658 deposition denies that turning to them saves anyone [8][9][30]. From the medieval period the verb was also the ordinary word for asking [12]. And the oldest telling of the article's occasion is a man with his hand on the gong's rope, about to pray for victory, who stops on the thought that he has never put his faith in them, 信仰 [4]. Read in that use, 尊し and たのまず do not pull against each other and need no but between them. The first clause is reverence, owed; the second refuses one act, turning to them in prayer for one's own ends. Groff's do not make requests of them comes nearest of the English [17]. Nothing in the witnesses read here shows that Musashi read Shinkyō's letter, and this reading does not rest on his having read it; it rests on the phrase still standing in that use in his century, as the deposition of 1658 shows, and on the scene the tradition set beside it. I read the article, then, not as I need no gods but as I honor the buddhas and gods, and I do not pray to them for my own ends, and the 1909 book's I have vowed as the right word for what the sheet does: it states a rule of one man's conduct, not a doctrine for others [5]. Signed, 典.

Notes

The forms of the article. Point by point, against the witnesses read for this history:

The earliest known. The earliest print here means, after the 二天記, the earliest in the National Diet Library's full-text search, all access levels, sorted by date of issue, oldest first, for twenty forms of the line: for 佛神をたのまず and 神佛を賴まず, items of 1909 [5][19]. The 1886 book, read at its page, is earlier, and that search does not reach its text [6].

The reading ぶつしん. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 heads ぶつじん and adds 「ぶっしん」とも [10]. Horiuchi 1917 sets ぶつしん beside all three 佛神 in his passage, and the 1932 edition of Shinkyō's letter sets ぶつしん beside both of its 佛神 [14][28]. For the Genji's phrase, the 1932 edition reads ほとけかみ in 若菜上, and a commentary of 1924–25, as the National Diet Library's search displays it, carries ぶつしん in the reading it sets over another of the tale's passages, 心の闇晴間無く嘆き渡り侍し隨に [8][32].

The saying Horiuchi gives Huangbo. 堀内 gives it in Japanese and names no text; its address in the canon is not traced here [23].

佛神をたのむ in Pure Land doctrine. A Nichiren monthly of 1928, as the search displays it, sets out the doctrine that gives the phrase its edge: 念佛宗に於ては阿彌陀佛のみを賴むのを正行といひ、阿彌陀佛以外の佛神をたのむのを雜行といひ, in the nembutsu school, to rely on Amida alone is called right practice, and to turn to the buddhas and gods other than Amida is called miscellaneous practice [33].

Tokitsu's anecdote. Tokitsu tells the shrine story, perhaps romanticized, and writes: This is the sense in which the phrase of Musashi's found in the Dokkodo is usually interpreted: "Respect the Buddha and the gods without relying on their help." [15]

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
佛神は貴し佛神をたのまずVB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
佛神は貴し佛神をたのまずVC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
佛神は貴し佛神をたのまずVD5JEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of The Buddhas and Gods Are to Be Revered; I Do Not Rely on Them (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
佛神は貴し佛神をたのまずVS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

『武公伝』 (1755): quoted here at second hand, from the prefecture's text [3]. It would show whether the shrine scene and the thought 我常に佛神を信仰せす are already there, twenty years before the 二天記.

Yoshikawa Eiji's novel 『宮本武蔵』 at the shrine scene, in copyright and not on the house's shelf: seen here only through the book of 1967 [26].

The 日本古典文学大辞典's article on the 『他阿上人法語』, which the 国書データベース names: it would say when Shinkyō's letters were first collected [29].

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「獨行道」, the transcription of the sheet with its line breaks, at Wikisource. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/獨行道
  2. 熊本県立美術館 収蔵品データベース, 「独行道」, 宮本武蔵, 紙本墨書, 正保2年（1645）, 資料番号 日-書040, the catalogue record and its photograph. https://jmapps.ne.jp/kumabi/det.html?data_id=377
  3. 熊本県教育委員会, 「獨行道（どっこうどう）」, the designation text for the 県指定重要文化財（書跡）, filed under 2003.9.12 in the site's address, at the Internet Archive's capture of the prefecture's site. https://web.archive.org/web/20081218202853/http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/education/hinokuni/isan/siteijoukyou/2003.9.12/dokoudou.html
  4. 『二天記』, preface 1776, in 武藤厳男・宇野東風・古城貞吉 編『肥後文献叢書』第二巻, 隆文館, 1910, pp. 190–192, scans 101 and 102, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/766733/1/101
  5. 宮本武藏遺蹟顯彰會 編, 『宮本武藏』, 金港堂, 1909, scans 38–39, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/38
  6. 藤野富之助, 『剣道達人武蔵実記』, 誠之堂, 1886, p. 63, scan 43, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/782065/1/43
  7. 吉川英治, 『現代青年道』, 新英社, 1936, p. 62, scan 39, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1228632/1/39
  8. 紫式部, 『源氏物語』 三, 島津久基 校訂, 岩波文庫, 1932, 若菜上, scan 97, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1107250/1/97
  9. 『他阿上人法語』 卷第六, 松田淨阿彌陀佛へつかはさる御返事, in 仏書刊行会 編『大日本仏教全書』 第67巻, 1912–22, scans 70–71, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952747/1/71
  10. 「仏神」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%8F%E7%A5%9E-619299
  11. 「尊い」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B0%8A%E3%81%84-561386
  12. 「頼む」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A0%BC%E3%82%80-562131
  13. 「神仏」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A5%9E%E4%BB%8F-466630
  14. 堀内文次郎, 『禅と健康』, 実業之日本社, 1917, scan 75, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/944189/1/75
  15. Kenji Tokitsu, Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, tr. Sherab Chodzin Kohn, Shambhala, 2004, p. 225 and p. 375, note 54, read on the house's shelf.
  16. William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi, Kodansha International, 2004, p. 179, read on the house's shelf.
  17. David K. Groff, tr., The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi's Art of Strategy, Chartwell Books, 2016, p. 241, read on the house's shelf.
  18. Alexander Bennett, tr., The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works, Tuttle, 2018, "The Path Walked Alone", read on the house's shelf in an edition without page numbers.
  19. 『統計集誌』, August 1909, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1573210
  20. 福来友吉, 『心霊の現象』, 弘學館書店, 1916, p. 328, scan 181, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/955230/1/181
  21. 「福来友吉」, 日本大百科全書 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A6%8F%E6%9D%A5%E5%8F%8B%E5%90%89-1105002
  22. 「堀内文次郎」, 20世紀日本人名事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A0%80%E5%86%85%E6%96%87%E6%AC%A1%E9%83%8E-1108290
  23. 堀内文次郎, 『禅と活動』, 博文館, 1920, scan 34, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/962159/1/34
  24. 釈宗演, 『達磨の足跡：以心伝心教外別伝』, 1931, p. 154, scan 88, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1175460/1/88
  25. 「吉川英治」, 20世紀日本人名事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%90%89%E5%B7%9D%E8%8B%B1%E6%B2%BB-22130
  26. 『沖縄かくて潰滅す』, 1967, search index 81, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9581586
  27. 「真教」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9C%9F%E6%95%99-536962
  28. 『国訳大蔵経 昭和新纂』 宗典部 第8巻, 時宗聖典, 東方書院, 1932, scan 243, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1172327/1/243
  29. 『他阿上人法語』, the 国書データベース, work 1065367, and the copy of 京都大学 蔵経書院文庫, canvas 386. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100379952/386
  30. 姉崎正治, 『切支丹宗門の迫害と潜伏』, 同文館, 1925, scans 65 and 71, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971126/1/71
  31. 「姉崎正治」, 20世紀日本人名事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A7%89%E5%B4%8E%E6%AD%A3%E6%B2%BB-26459
  32. 小林栄子, 『源氏物語活釈』, 1924–25, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/982445
  33. 『法華』, 1928, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/7929165

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-10-26, citations — the cited web addresses opened and the quoted words looked for at each; all 29 addresses answered with the words sought; the four English books are held here and carry no address; nothing found to differ · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-10-26, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 failed on one wrong fact, the order of the gods and buddhas said to change in 1886 when two later witnesses keep the buddhas first, and round 2 passed from both, with wordings corrected in the pass, among them the old sense of たのむ given as the dictionary gives it, a misread character in the 1776 chronicle corrected at the page, and every first and every absence named by its search

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · October 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 佛神は貴し佛神をたのまず (busshin wa tōtoshi busshin o tanomazu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/busshin-wa-totoshi-busshin-o-tanomazu.