While acknowledging the evil in her own child, Queen Idaike could not help but make allowances for that evil. If only that even-more-evil Daiba had not been around... if that Daiba had not tempted my precious son, my precious Ajase would not have killed his father. Even as she sought his help, Queen Idaike could not help feeling resentment towards Shakyamuni Buddha because of a desire to protect her own child. Her resentment of Shakyamuni Buddha was all the greater because Daiba was Shakyamuni Buddha’s cousin.

Queen Idaike thus reveals herself as a self-centered, deeply-evil individual who is “ignorant and filled with base passions” (bombu).

But Queen Idaike then asks, “O World-Honored One, please teach me of a world in which there is no suffering or agony. That is where I would like to live. Please use your great powers to show me such a pure world!”

Shakyamuni Buddha revealed and explained the various Buddha-worlds in the ten directions. Queen Idaike selected Amida Buddha’s Pure Land (the Pure Land of Serene Sustenance), and asked to be born there.

This is expressed in the General Preface to the “Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment” in the following way:

And using this opportunity (to reveal the Pure Land teaching), Shakyamuni Buddha lead Vaidehi to select the Land of Peace and Happiness.

And in “Hymns of the Pure Land,” the Venerable Master Shinran wrote:

From boundless compassion
Shakyamuni Buddha
Instructed Queen Idaike,
Leading her to select
Amida’s world of peace and happiness
From all the lands
Revealed in the pedestal of light.

The Venerable Master Shinran said that in order to lead Queen Idaike from her grief and sorrow as a result of the treachery of her own son—in response to her desire for a realm without suffering or anguish—Shakyamuni Buddha lead her to wish birth in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land of Ultimate Joy.

The Venerable Master Shinran considered King Binba-sharon, Queen Idaike, Prince Ajase and Daiba to be bodhisattvas who took human form in order to “save” deluded beings. He considered this tragedy of Osha Castle a means to lead those who are aware of the “weight of their karmic evil” (zai-aku jinju) and their “ignorance and base passions” (bombu) to the realm of salvation through the Primal Vow. That is why the Venerable Master emphasized that, like Queen Idaike, those with true and real shinjin would receive great salvation.