Transcript Japanese Buddhism

Japanese Buddhism
 Some kinds of Japanese Buddhist
practice
– “Funeral Buddhism”
– “Community Buddhism”
– Pilgrimage
“Community Buddhism”
 Annual festivals at local temples
– Often relating to local history or the temple’s
history
• Takeda Shingen festival, Yamanashi
• Taima festival at Taimadera
– Local commemorations of common tradition
• eg. O-bon festival
Pilgrimage
 Acting out the Buddhist path
 Aimed at spiritual reassurance
 Most famous; the Shikoku pilgrimage
 Most often undertaken by the elderly
 Other pilgrimages:
– related to Kannon, for example
The Shikoku Pilgrimage
The Shikoku Pilgrimage
Practice over doctrine
 Practice matters most; always has
 Many schools/sects of Buddhism
– Differences in practice small
 Most people have a formal affiliation with a
temple (those statistics), but
– Often they don’t know which temple or
– What sect it belongs to
Goals of Japanese Buddhism
 Care for ancestors
 A good life after death
 This-worldly benefits
– Health
– Safety
– Prosperity
Japanese Conceptions
of the Netherworld
 Reincarnation and the six realms
– Gods
– Humans
– Asuras
– Animals/beasts
– Hungry ghosts
– Hell dwellers
 Post-death rituals aimed at ensuring the
departed moves on
Rise of Japanese Buddhism
 Entered Japan ca. 1st-3rd centuries CE from
the Asian mainland
– Not a unified state, no writing system
– As today, Buddhism well mixed with
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Daoism
Yin-yang belief
Geomancy (directional taboos)
Confucianism
“Formal Introduction”
of Japanese Buddhism
 Mid 500s, letter from a Korean king to a
Japanese emperor
 The emperor embraced it but his courtiers
resisted it
– They feared their prestige would be reduced
First Buddhist institutions
 ca. 600-1000 CE
 Mainly monasteries
 Patronized by aristocrats
 Served official functions
– Most important: state protection
 Common people little served by these
official institutions
Medieval Buddhism
 True or false:
Zen is the most popular kind of Buddhism in
Japan
 False. Zen comes in at number two
 Most popular: Pure Land
– Begins to develop about the year 1000
– Focuses on Amida and posthumous birth into
his Pure Land (Pure Land = heaven)
Medieval Buddhism II
 Zen comes to Japan from China about the
year 1200
 Embraced by the warriors who ruled Japan
at the time
 However, many warriors held on to older
family beliefs and did not embrace Zen
 Older schools also thrive, supported by
landholdings donated over the years
Buddhism in Modern Japan
 Buddhist temples separated from shrines (to
kami, Japanese deities)
 Buddhism suppressed for a time in the
interest of national identity
– Stripped of their landholdings
– Temple destruction in some areas
– Ultimately a failure
New Religions
 Two types:
– Those begun by charismatic leaders
claiming special visions and insights
• Tenri-kyō, Agon-shū
– Popular lay movements that grew out
of older Buddhist institutions
• Risshō Kōsei-kai, Soka Gakkai
Agon-shū
 Leader: Kiriyama Seiyū
Agon-shū
 Hoshi matsuri — goma ritual
Conclusion
 In Japan, the distant goal of awakening
(enlightenment) was and is relatively not
important
 Buddhism in its Japanese form seeks
– This-worldly benefits
– Salvation in the next life
 Visits to temple mostly occasional: a death
in the family, festival, pilgrimage, in times
of need