jodo

1. uncountableA Japanese martial art using a short staff, originally as a defence against swords.

   Every Saturday after the karate class there was a jodo class (not judo, but jodo—the way of the short staff).

   2007, Paul Walker, Lessons with the Master, page 15

   Synonyms: jojutsu

alternative Jodo

1. JapaneseuncountableBuddhismSynonym of pure land: the various realms of the buddhas and boddhisattvas.

   Synonyms: pure land

alternative jodo

1. JapaneseBuddhismSynonym of Pure Land: a sect of Buddhism and its primary afterlife, the seat of the Amida Buddha.

   The Jō-do-shū, or Pure Land sect.

   1886, Bunyiu Nanjio, chapter IX, in A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects

   5 more examples

   ...zealous persons, chiefly the followers of the Sect of Siodo...

   1727, Engelbert Kaempfer, translated by John Gaspar Scheuchzer, History of Japan, volume I, page 287

   In 1579, the two great sects of Nichiren and Jōdo held a great discussion upon religious subjects.

   1876, William Elliot Griffis, Mikado's Empire, page 233

   In the far off West there is said to be the home of Amida... He is free from the chain of transmigration and enjoys a conscious and happy immortality in ‘Jodo’,—that is, in the Pure Land.

   1901, R.L. Halsey, The Religion of Japan & the Present Attitude of the Japanese, page 13

   The Jōdo appeals naturally more to plebeian requirements because of the simpleness of its faith and teaching.

   1938, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture, page 37

   Jodo Buddhism... had in its structure a grace-based doctrine of salvation of trusting in its goddess that was similar to the doctrine of grace in Christianity.

   2012, Atsuyoshi Fujiwara, Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context, page 175

   Synonyms: Pure Land

alternative jodo

1. JapaneseuncountableBuddhismAlternative letter-case form of jodo: any of various other pure lands.

   Simple faith in Buddha's grace was all that one needed to cross this ocean of samsara to the Jodo or 'Pure Land'.

   1999 Nov., Prabuddha Bharata, p. 877