Letters of the Nun Eshinni: Images of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval JapanEshinni (1182 1268?), a Buddhist nun and the wife of Shinran (1173 1262), the celebrated founder of the True Pure Land, or Shin, school of Buddhism, was largely unknown until the discovery of a collection of her letters in 1921. In this study, James C. Dobbins, a leading scholar of Pure Land Buddhism, has made creative use of these letters to shed new light on life and religion in medieval Japan. He provides a complete translation of the letters and