The title of this book originated from that the writer had written his grief about difficulties and division arose in the Jodo-shin sect after Shiran's death, and he had written also in the opening of the preface as 'grieving over the difference from the truth of his master's kuden (oral instruction).'
書名は、その内容が親鸞滅後の浄土真宗の教団内に湧き上がった異議異端を嘆いたものであり、序文冒頭に「歎異先師口傳之眞信」（先師の口伝の真信に異なることを歎き）とあることからこう呼ばれる。