The Reverend Shonen Sobue, having been accepted such as "Going through all sorts of tribulations, his life is earnestly devoted to preaching," "The legitimate preacher who still carries on Fushidansekkyo, which was traditional in Japanese Buddhism, in the modern age, his excellent expressiveness with his distinctive beautiful voice has, today, the enormous reputation of the best in Japan," who lived a full life with his mission completed in January, 1996, is a genuine preacher of the Otani branch of the Shin denomination and a distinguished person of religion. The Reverend Shonen is never an entertainer. Yet that the reverend accurately hands down Fushidansekkyo that is the origin of Japanese talking performances (rakugo [Japanese sit-down comedy], kodan [historical narrative], rokyoku [recitation of stories with samisen] et cetera) to the present day and that his virtuoso preaching is premised on all the conditions as a traditional Japanese Buddhist preacher and it is the emergence of a "true figure of Ho Gei Ichinyo " [Literally speaking, that the "Dharma" and the "Art" are one unity] possess high cultural-historical value and great significance in the history of the Japanese performing arts.

(a free translation) The mountain is still the same, So is the road. And yet, O my heart was changed forever.

[Mountain Priest Bennen]
When a mountain priest in active service around Mount Itajiki in Hitachi, Bennen was alarmed by the fact that a lot of those local people who had been believers of his magic and magical invocation were gravitating toward Shinran's teachings that exhorted the tenets of the Nembutsu. Bennen hated Shinran for that and made an attempt on Shinran's life with a sword. But he learned his own wickedness and repented just when he faced Shinran's genial and benign countenance. He threw out his sword, bows and arrows and sat at Shinran's feet. He was given his Buddhist name Myohobo by Shinran and became a Nembutsu practitioner.

[The background to this episode of the oral tradition of Shinran]
It is said that around 1214, Shinran entered the eastern region frontier Hitachi and in the course of time he located himself in Inada for edification on the path of "Jishin Kyoninshin" [To have the true entrusting heart (adamantine faith), which is great joy, and share this great joy of being saved with others. cf. Inagaki, Hisao tr., Kyogyoshinsho: On Teaching, Practice, Faith, And Enlightenment, Copytext: Taisho Volume 83, Number 2646 (Berkeley, California: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2003), Chapter III. Revealing the True Faith, pp. 121-122.]. Inada was not far from Mount Tsukuba, which was one of the sacred mountains in terms of Japan's ancient mountain worship and Japanese mountain religion. Assumably, not only indigenous faith but also magicized mountain Buddhism prevailed all around the area of Mount Tsukuba. It is just conceivable that Shinran's edification generated frictions with those worship and religion.

Fushidansekkyo S3 Audio MP3 S3 The Reverend Shonen Sobue's Fushidansekkyo at Yurinji Temple in 1992. Kind: MP3 Audio Format: MPEG Layer-3 Audio, Stereo, 44100 Hz Data Size: 1.5 MB Data Rate: 15.6 K bytes/sec Duration: 00:01:42.12

Audio Video Material A2-1, A2-2, A2-3, A1, A3-3, S1, S2 and S3 :
The Reverend Shonen Sobue
I have selected several scenes as to the preacher of the Shin Buddhism in Japan, the Reverend Shonen Sobue, from an original two hours video Hi8 tape on which I recorded his edification and Fushidansekkyo delivered in the main hall of Yurin Temple (Yurinji), Nagoya, Japan in 1992, and I have made QuickTime Movie (.mov) files, RealPlayer Media (.rm) files and audio (.aif, .mp3) files.

• A2-1: About Tune [Cadence] (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• A2-2: About his first preaching at the age of 8 (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• A2-3: "Nothing is left if Amida Buddha is taken away from me." (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• A1: About the frame of mind when he decided to be a "preacher" that shepherds the people (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• A3-3: About the "beautiful voice," the narrative power and the tune (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• S1: Fushidansekkyo from "Shinran Shonin den": Resting his head on a stone in the snow (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• S2: Fushidansekkyo from "Shinran Shonin den": Refusing to receive his own son Zenran (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)
• S3: Fushidansekkyo from "Shinran Shonin den": Mountain priest Bennen O my heart was changed forever (.mov, .rm, .aif, .mp3)