@article{oai:kanagawa-u.repo.nii.ac.jp:00014447,
 author = {吉川, 良和},
 issue = {61},
 journal = {人文学研究所報, Bulletin of the Institute for Humanities Resarch},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {The Bon Festival of the Dead（invocation of the spirits of the dead） and Mokuren（ 目連） legends derive from the Buddhist scripture Urabon- kyo¯（仏説盂蘭盆経』）. Not a few scholars contend it was counterfeited in China, because Indian have not concept of ancestor worship. Anyway, the emperor of Liang 梁（Wudi 武帝） base on Urabon- kyo¯, held the Bon festival on 538A.D. in Nanjing . It was introduced into Japan and hold it on 606A.D.. 　An Indian named Maudgalya¯yana, the great disciple of Budddha, was called Mu（jian） lian（目犍連） in China, and called Mokuren in Japan. The following is the outline of the story in Urabon- kyo¯. One day while he was meditating, he saw his extremely emaciated mother in the Hell of starvation. Therefore, he went there with some food, but it caught fire and burned near her mouth just as she was about to eat it. Seeing this, he went to see Buddha and implored him to relieve his mother. Buddha advised him to hold the Bon Festival to service many monks delicious food on the lunar calendar July 15th when their asceticism in the rainy season would end. There the monks recited Mahayana-sutras（大乗仏典）. As the result of the Bon festival, his mother was emancipated from the Hell. Buddha also promised that the parents of Buddhists would spend a happy life until 100 years old, as well as their ancestors would reborn in heaven until the seventh generation from now on. 　A large number of preachers spread the story of Mokuren. Most of them were master storytellers, so the illiterate masses enjoyed listening to it. Preachers gave vivid descriptions of the hells, the masses cried it was intolerable, and felt relief when Mokurenʼ mother was reborn in heaven finally. 　Preachers amplified the narrative of Mokuren at full length. Reading the three versions scripts of discourse about Mokuren legends before Tang dynasty（唐朝）, we can understand how favorably it was received. In North Song dynasty（北宋） a Mokuren drama was performed for seven days until the Bon Festival. 　In South Song dynasty（南宋） idea of the Xuepenjing（sutra of the Hell of blood pond：血盆経） came into existence. In Yuan dynasty（元朝） idea of the Xuepenjing was gaining ground. And in Ming dynasty（明朝） it has got a large number of follows among the people. The Xuepenjing asserts that women who died from a loss of blood must descent into Xuepen（the blood pond） hell, because of their unclean blood. Beginning of this sutra says that when he arrived at the blood pond hell, Mokuren saw many women suffering in the pond and took pity on them. Then Mokuren asked a master of this hell and Buddha for a remedy. Therefore Mokuren legends has connected with Xuepenjing. 　After this sutra was introduced to Japan, high society accepted and hand-copied Xuepenjing for relieving their dead mother on sister during the 15century. With the years, its idea permeated into all ranks in the Japanese society. But women descent into this hell concern not only delivered women but also menstruating women. Thus, all grown-up women could possibly fall into that hell. To avoid that hell, they had to profess the Xuepenjing . And with such curret of times, the narrative of Mokuren was performed at Noh-drama and puppet-play stages. 　Nowadays Mokuren legend connected with Xuepenjing is performed at rural stages and people in farmersʼ villages still sing it by ballade-style（口説） along dance during the Bon Festival., Departmental Bulletin Paper},
 pages = {55--77},
 title = {わが国目蓮物への血盆経浸潤初探},
 year = {2019}
}