Orthography of “<i>wo</i>” ヲ in the <i>Kyōgyōshinshō</i>: A Study of Character Readings Written in Different Handwriting in the Bandō Manuscript

Abstract

Shinran 親鸞 uses the kana “wo” ヲ in a specific way. First, particular forms such as woka をか,woba をば,womo をも,and woya をやare always written using oka オカ,oha オハ,omo オモ,and oya オヤ.Second, all initial “wo” ヲ at the beginning of readings of characters provided in the text are also transcribed with the kana “o” オ.Virtually all of the Bandō 坂東 text (that is, Shinran’s holographic manuscript) conforms to this convention for the use of wo, but there are a few exceptions. Twelve exceptions to the second rule were found in the Bandō manuscript, primarily in the “Chapter on Practice” (行巻). Moreover, most of these instances are in red ink. Therefore, it is difficult to think that Shinran made a mistake in writing these. Instead, it is quite possible that these instances where written by someone other than Shinran.