Hotoke
The Japanese noun hotoke (仏)[note 1] is a word of Buddhist origin and uncertain etymology.[citation needed] It has several meanings, all but a few directly linked to Buddhism.[citation needed]
Toward A Working Definition
The term can be applied to the laws of Buddhism[1] as well as a person who has achieved satori (state of enlightenment) and has therefore become a "buddha".[1] (In Buddhism, the term "buddha" in the lower case refers to a person who has become enlightened (i.e., awakened to the truth).)[2][note 2]
The historical Gautama Buddha himself[1] was called Hotoke, as well as being the term used for statues of buddhas[1]
Other Uses
In common parlance, a dead person; his or her soul[1]
- Figuratively, a benevolent person or someone dear to one's heart[1]
- Hotoke can also be a person's name or a nickname. It is for example a female character in the Heike Monogatari[1] and daimyō Kōriki Kiyonaga's nickname.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Note that the very same kanji 仏 in modern Japanese can be also read futsu, but is often used as an abbreviation for the word "furansu", or France.[citation needed] It is the first of three characters used to write the name of that country (仏蘭西 (fu-ran-su)), in a somewhat uncommon practice called ateji,[citation needed] in which kanji are matched to the phonetic sound of a word with little regard for the indicative meaning of the kanji.[citation needed]
- ^ The term is also sometimes used to represent Buddhism as a whole.[citation needed] For example, the expression "kami and hotoke" (神と仏) draws a distinction between the Japanese kami of Shinto belief and the enlightened beings of foreign Buddhism.[citation needed]