Zen The Zen practitioner seeks enlightenment through discipline and meditation and awaits salvation for himself and for all sentient beings. History The zazen meditative posture has long been a Buddhist technique for attaining enlightnment. It was the Zen sect, originating in China, however, which first taught that all of life, every act of eating, sleeping, walking, and sitting, could be applied to meditative purposes. The monk Eisai introduced the Rinzai sect of Buddhism from China in the late 12th century and the monk Dougen introduced what is now the Soutou school of Buddhism soon afterward in the early Kamakura period. Stressing the combination of zazen with kouan, paradoxical riddles put by a master to provide the substance for meditation, the Rinzai sect was especially popular among upper-class samurai and nobility. Daitokuji and Nanzenji in Kyouto (Kyoto) and Kenchouji and Engakuji in kamakura are Rinzai temples.Perhaps the most famous of these kouan is to ask, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The Soutou sect stresses meditation, claiming that single-minded devotion to zazen is sufficient to attain enlightenment. Dougen had little interest in power or fame and established his monastery in the mountains of Fukui prefecture far from the capital. Teaching that anyone can attain enlightenment, he drew many followers from the lower samurai classes and the common people. Another Zen sect, the Oubaku school, was introduced from China by Ingen in the early Edo period. Its sutras are read in Chinese, and its rituals and decor retain a strong Chinese flavor. Culture Zen has had a profound influence on Japanese culture. Rinzai monks were important in introducing Chinese culture to the Muromachi establishment. Gozan literature, the writings of monks at the five major Zen temples, contributed much to literature. The zen influence was strong in painting as well, and Sesshuu and others produced outstanding ink paintings and religious portraits. The rock and sand gardens considered so typical of Japan are also Zen creations. Likewise, the tea ceremony traces its origins back to the first powdered tea brought back from China by Eisai, and a number of tea master, including Sen no Rikyuu, learned about Zen and suffused the tea ceremony with the Zen spirit. Today, there are about 3.32 million registered Zen followers, or a little under 4% of all Japanese Buddhists. Of the roughly 77,000 Buddhist temples in the country 21,000 are Zen temples (14,700 of them Soutou sect). These temples sponsor a variety of activities to propagate their teachings including short Zen "training camps" for their followers. Suzuki Daisetsu introduced Zen to the West, and Deshimaru Taisen of the Soutou sect did much to popularize it in Europe. @ |
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Buddhism Buddhism is generally said to have been introduced into Japan in 538 from the (Korean) Paekche kingdom. Visitors had actually introduced it much earlier, however, and there were Japanese adherents as early as the 5th century. Buddhism made its way to Japan from india through centralized China just when Japan was itself consolidating into a centralized state, and the newly unified Japanese nation quickly adapted Buddhism's teachings to its own mores and needs. From the end of the 6th century, Buddhism was the main faith of the imperial and other ruling clans--virtually a national religion, at least as far as the nobility was concerned. Prince Shoutoku (574-622), one of Buddhism's strongest adherents, commissioned the building of the Houryuuji, today the oldest wooden building in the world, and this was followed by the construction of other temples which exist to this day: Koufukuji, Toudaiji, Yakushiji, and Toushoudaiji. The first systematic religious philosophy to be introduced into Japan, Buddhism had a profound cultural and philosophical impact. Architecture, metallurgy, medicine, and even agricultural techniques, were strongly affected by Buddhist concepts. Further waves of new Buddhist teachings from China continued to add to Japanese culture in succeeding periods, from the Heian period all the way through the Edo period. Political and social unrest and the rise of the warrior class in the mid-Heian period gave credence to an apocalyptic Buddhism that laid the foundation for a new Buddhism in the Kamakura period. This new Buddhism emerged as the Nichiren, Joudo, joudo Shinshuu, and Zen sects--still the leading Buddhist sects--teaching a salvation through grace that was quite different from the intellectual Buddhist philosophy of the Nara-period nobility. These sects taught that simple repetition of "Namu myou houren gekyou" (I place my faith in the Lotus Sutra) or "Namu amidabutsu" (I place my faith in Amida Buddha), or meditation in the case of Zen, were sufficient to save one's soul. With its much broader popular appeal, the new Buddhism spread rapidly, and this was reinforced in the Edo period by the shogunate's danka system requiring all families to be registered with one of the country's many Buddhist temples. Instituted as an instrument for repressing Christianity, this system also helped the government keep tabs on the people. Buddhism Today As of 1994, there were 89.8 million registered Buddhists. The traditional sects are still strong in the rural areas, but new Nichiren-based sects founded just before World War II have won many urban adherents--including Souka Gakkai (claiming about 8 million households), Risshou Kouseikai (6.48 million adherents), and Reiyuukai (3.07 million adherents). Old and new Buddhist sects coexist today in ecumenical harmony, actively promoting peace and aiding refugees. @ @ |
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Shintou Because it lacks the usual trappings of religion, there is still some question whether shintou should be classified as a religion. Basically, Shintou is the name generally given to Japan's indigenous beliefs, rituals to native spirits, daily practices and traditional ways of thinking. Though Japanese are not consciously Shintou, many Shintou customs are still practiced, including visiting a shrine during the New Year's holidays, taking part in local Shintou shrine festivals, praying to the Shintou gods for success in school exams, and taking children to be blessed by shrine deities at Shichi-go-san. Most weddings are Shintou. Shintou originated in the Japanese worship of agrarian, earthly, and ancestral gods. Every uji or clan had a tutelary god known as an uji-gami, and the Shintou gods are collectively known as yaoyorozu no kami (lit. the eight million deities). Ancient Shintou did not bother to erect shrines until the 3rd or 4th century. Not until the country was unified under the Yamato in the 4th century did Shintou begin to acquire a clear hierarchical structure with the Yamato gods and high-priest emperor at top and local gods at bottom. The first known Japanese histories were efforts to legitimize the imperial line by merging myths and legends concerning local uji-gami with the Yamato mythology. No Shintou doctrine as such, however, was postulated until the mid-Heian Honjisuijaku doctrine stipulating that the Shintou gods were really manifestations of Buddhist deities, thereby linking indigenous beliefs to Buddhist teachings. In the feudal and early-modern periods, a number of sects emerged professing an independent and pure Shintoism. These included Isse, Yoshida, and Fukkou Shintou. In the Meiji era the government made a determined effort to promote emperor worship and all the trappings of Shintou. Local shrine teachings and festivals were brought into line with the national doctrine, and local priests lost the authority to do much but conduct ceremonies. When state and religion were separated after the war, Shintou became just one more of the many Japanese religions. While 1994 statistics volunteered by Shintou shrines show 117.37 million Shintou followers, a 1981 NHK survey showed only 3% of the people identifying as Shintou. There are numerous Shintou sects, including Konkoukyou, Oomotokyou, and Misogikyou, though many of them were prosecuted in the zeal to establish State Shintou prior to World War II. Today these more-than-500 sects claim 7.15 million believers. Fork Shintou is closely tied to local and family religious practices. Its worship of the gods of the fields, the hearth, and all things close to home remains an integral part of local customs in many regions today. @ |