Akegarasu Haya
Encyclopedia
was a Shin Buddhist
Jodo Shinshu
, also known as Shin Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.-Shinran :...

 student of Kiyozawa Manshi
Kiyozawa Manshi
was a Japanese Shin Buddhist reformer of samurai background who studied at Tokyo University in Western philosophy under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa....

 for a decade. Akegarasu was a former head of administration of the Higashi Hongan-ji
Higashi Honganji
, or, the Eastern Temple of the Original Vow, is one of two dominant sub-sects of Shin Buddhism in Japan and abroad, the other being Nishi Honganji...

 who was a major inspiration to the formation of the Dobokai Movement
Dobokai Movement
The Dobokai Movement, a reform group within the Jodo Shinshu Higashi Honganji Buddhist tradition, officially began on the 700th memorial of Shinran Shonin in 1962, though its roots were in a movement started in 1947 by a group of practitioners calling themselves the shinjinsha, or, 'true person...

.

In 1949 Akegarasu focused Shin practice in the direction of faith alone, declaring in a statement to his disciples: "First shinjin
Shinjin
Shinjin was originally the Japanese word for the Buddhist concept of citta-prasāda , but now carries a more popular related meaning of faith or entrusting....

, second shinjin, third shinjin." This is basically the moment where Dobokai became official, although the movement did not receive official recognition until 1962. The early roots for the Dobokai Movement faith movement began in 1947 as the shinjinsha, or, 'true person community'.

Akegarasu died August 27, 1954.

The earliest English translation of Akegarasu's writings can be found in Selections From The Nippon Seishin Library, which Akegarasu published in 1936 (translators Hata Taigan, Hanaoka Kimi, Imadate Tosui and others). In 1977 to commemorate the centennial of Akegarasu's birth, two ministers of the Buddhist Temple of Chicago who were his direct students published their translations: The Fundamental Spirit of Buddhism translated by Gyomay Kubose with Nancy DeRoin and Shout of Buddha: Writings of Haya Akegarasu translated by Gyoko Saito with Joan Sweany.

Akegarasu's main student was Shuichi Maida (1906-1967).
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