Hotoke
title: "Hotoke" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["buddhist-philosophical-concepts", "buddhism-in-japan"] topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotoke" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
The Japanese noun hotoke is a word of Buddhist origin and uncertain etymology. It has several meanings, all but a few directly linked to Buddhism. It can refer to:
- A person who has achieved satori (state of enlightenment) and has therefore become a "buddha". (In Buddhism, the term "buddha" in the lower case refers to a person who has become enlightened (i.e., awakened to the truth).)The term is also sometimes used to represent Buddhism as a whole. For example, the expression "kami and hotoke" draws a distinction between Japanese kami and the enlightened beings of foreign Buddhism.
- The historical Gautama Buddha himself
- The statue or the name of a buddha
- The laws of Buddhism
- Figuratively, the performing of a Buddhist memorial service. The Eiga Monogatari for example contains a sentence in which the term is used in that sense.
- In common parlance, a dead person; someone's soul
- Figuratively, a benevolent person or someone dear to one's heart
- Hotoke can also be a person's name or a nickname. It is for example a female character in the Heike Monogatari and daimyō Kōriki Kiyonaga's nickname.
Notes
References
References
- Iwanami {{nihongo. [[Kōjien]]. 広辞苑 Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version
- New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition, 2005, Oxford University Press, Inc.
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