Whether the new schools are seen as emerging from the “womb” of Tendai original enlightenment thought, or taking form as a reaction against it, or developing out of it by dialectical process, all these views reflect the influence of an evolutionary model of Buddhist history in which the new Kamakura Buddhism represents the apex. Occasionally there is even a hint of telos at work, as though the very raison d’être of Tendai original enlightenment thought was to give rise to the new Kamakura Buddhism. Hongaku thought thus becomes merely one more locus from which to reassert tired stereotypes of a vibrant, reformist “new Buddhism” reacting against a corrupt, elitist “old Buddhism.”

To point out that existing models of the relationship between Tendai hongaku thought and the new Kamakura schools serve to privilege the latter is in no way to disparage the achievements of men like Shinran, Dōgen, and Nichiren. Nevertheless, such assumptions prejudice our understanding and need to be reexamined if a more balanced view is to be obtained.