Emotions Conducive to Awakening

Abstract On the basis of canonical depictions of the Buddha’s life, hagiographies that differed in significant respects from the traditional accounts emerged in Japan from the 12th century onwards. One of the most important hagiographies of the late medieval and early modern period, the Shaka no honji , focuses on the depiction of the grief of the young Prince Siddhârtha over the death of his mother. This article aims to show how the experience of time, emotions and religious practice are interrelated in the Shaka no honji and that unlike the literary aspects of the text which are very different from canonical sources on the life of the Buddha, the motif of a mother’s benevolence and its repayment dealt with therein are not an expression of specifically Japanese developments, but look back on a long tradition that understands the benevolent love between mother and son as a fundamental component of Buddhist practice.