Chapter 99. Buddhism in Japan: From Nara Temples to Zen, Pure Land, Nichiren and the Shamans

Buddhism reached Japan as a court religion, carried by the Soga clan and protected by kami who were enlisted to guard its temples (Chapter 98). Over the next millennium the Japanese remade it. The Kamakura period (1185–1333) produced popular faiths of radical simplicity: rebirth through the name of Amida, enlightenment through sitting alone, or salvation through the title of the Lotus Sutra. Zen became the religion of the warrior class and the aesthetic of tea. Beneath the schools, mountain asceticism and exorcism carried pre-Buddhist shamanism in Buddhist dress. Temples were also political powers: armed, burned, enlisted by warlords and finally made into the Tokugawa state’s registry.

Court Buddhism and Mount Hiei

Jeremy Roberts reports that the most important form of Buddhism in Japan was Mahayana. It held that “all creatures contain the innate Buddha,” and that the historical Buddha was only one manifestation of “the everlasting Buddha or life force.” The Tendai school, based on the Lotus Sutra’s doctrine that the Buddha “uses many different vehicles,” encouraged “syncretism, or the combining of different beliefs, in Buddhism and Shinto” [Roberts, Japanese Mythology A to Z, #78726, Introduction]. Bronwen and Frans Stiene list five components of the Tendai curriculum: “the teachings of the Lotus Sutra; esoteric Mikkyô practices; meditation practices; Buddhist precepts; and Pure Land teachings.” They add that “apart from the belief that the Lotus Sutra is Buddha’s complete and perfect teaching it also teaches meditation based on esoteric elements like mudras and mandalas” [Stiene & Stiene, The Reiki Sourcebook, #73531].

Hiei was also a military power. Describing the monks who fought for Minamoto Yorimasa and Prince Mochihito in 1180, the History of East Asia records that “many monks at those times were warrior monks” [#71236, Part 2 ch. 2 “Warring Clans”]. In 1571 Oda Nobunaga “and his troops entered the Enryakuji temple, destroyed thousands of buildings there, and slaughtered many of the monks” [History of East Asia: A Captivating Guide, #71236, Part 2 ch. 3].

The Kamakura Movements: Pure Land, Rinzai, Soto, Nichiren

Roberts defines Pure Land Buddhism as “a group of Buddhist sects that developed during the KAMAKURA PERIOD (1185–1333), a time marked by war and great suffering in Japan.” He calls Amida “the most important Buddha in Japan.” For believers, “saying his name at DEATH deposited the soul in the Pure Land where enlightenment was possible” [Roberts, #78726, “PURE LAND BUDDHISM”, “AMIDA”, Introduction]. Wikipedia’s article identifies Shinran (1173–1263), Hōnen’s disciple, as the founder of Jōdo Shinshū. Shinran taught that enlightenment cannot be reached by “self-power (jiriki)” but only by “the other-power (tariki) of Amida Buddha’s compassionate Vow.” His school “became the largest Buddhist school in Japan by the sixteenth century” [Wikipedia: Jōdo Shinshū].

Zen came in two lineages. Sam van Schaik writes that Dogen (1200–53) “travelled to China to discover the true teachings on Zen, which he felt were not available in Japan,” and on his return taught zazen. Esai (Eisai, 1141–1215), by contrast, “specifically sought the patronage of the ruling samurai class.” In Promoting Zen for Protecting the Country Eisai wrote that Zen rituals “commemorating imperial birthdays… repaying the emperor’s kindness, and so on, are all designed to enhance the imperial cause and the fortunes of the Japanese state.” During the Muromachi period (1336–1573), “Rinzai monasteries were favoured by the shoguns and the court, and Zen monks worked in government roles” [van Schaik, The Spirit of Zen, #51289, ch. 3, “Zen in Japan”]. Philip Kapleau, writing of Dogen, says that “his dissatisfaction with the answers he received at Mount Hiei led him eventually to Eisai-zenji, who had brought the teachings of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan” [Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen, #69569, “Presentiment of Death”].

The Lotus school was the most exclusive of all. Roberts describes the Hokke (Lotus) sect as holding “that the LOTUS SUTRA contains the only important truth.” It “was founded in the 13th century by the monk Nichiren, who believed that other strands of BUDDHISM had harmed Japan.” Nichiren taught that a dying person could reach heaven “by saying Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.” “Though persecuted and repressed, Nichiren preached his beliefs relentlessly. He gained considerable standing after he predicted that Japan would be invaded by the Mongols. (The prediction was made in 1260 and 1268; the Mongols invaded in 1274 and 1281.) Many of his followers were SAMURAI. Historically, the Lotus Sect has been linked with Japanese nationalism and militancy” [Roberts, #78726, “HOKKE”]. Soka Gakkai, treated later in this study, grew from this root.

[Roberts, #78726; van Schaik, #51289; Stiene, #73531; Wikipedia: Jōdo Shinshū]

Zazen, Faith and the Koan

Kapleau stresses the religious side of Zen, against what he calls the “‘intellectual images’ of Zen by scholars devoid of Zen insight.” “Yasutani-roshi’s emphasis on… faith as a prerequisite to enlightenment” derives “for the most part from the teachings of Dogen-zenji.” When Dogen was awakened he was practising shikan-taza, “a mode of zazen which involved neither a koan nor counting or following the breaths.” Its “very foundation… is an unshakable faith that sitting as the Buddha sat… is the actualization or unfoldment of the inherently enlightened Bodhi-mind” [Kapleau, #69569, “Presentiment of Death”]. Van Schaik traces the two methods to Chinese “silent illumination” (Caodong, later Soto) and “viewing the phrase” (Linji, later Rinzai) [van Schaik, #51289, ch. 3].

The koan curriculum was normally kept secret. The collection published under the name Hau Hōō presents 281 koans with their expected answers. Its notes say the “one hand” koan was composed by Hakuin (1686–1769) and that “it is either this koan or the koan on ‘mu’ which the novice receives as his first koan upon entering the monastery.” The first answer is given as: “The pupil faces his master, takes a correct posture, and without a word, thrusts one hand forward.” A later check-question asks “The-Zen-monk-one-hand, what’s it like?” and the required reply is “To eat meat, to take a wife is absolutely forbidden” [Hau Hōō, The Sound of the One Hand: 281 Zen Koans with Answers, #85236, Part One and “Notes to Part One”]. Van Schaik credits Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769) with revitalising Rinzai through “great doubt” and with originating this koan [#51289, ch. 3]. D. T. Suzuki’s Manual of Zen Buddhism collects the liturgical texts actually used in monasteries. Suzuki concedes that “properly speaking, the dharani has no legitimate place in Zen,” yet he includes dharanis among the texts in use [Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism, #54451, “The Dharanis”].

Van Schaik records two later changes. By the seventeenth century, “rigorous meditation had largely been abandoned in Zen temples,” which had become places for “funerals and memorial services for… lay parishioners.” Under the Meiji reforms, clerical celibacy was abandoned, so that “the vast majority” of Japanese clergy “are married” [#51289, ch. 3].

Zen, Warriors and Tea

William Scott Wilson attributes to Juko the phrase “Zen and tea are of one taste” (禅茶一味). He records Rikyu’s rule that tea-room talk “should not be about worldly matters” and should run no longer than four hours “unless the subject matter was Buddhism” [Wilson, The One Taste of Truth, #64763, ch. 1, ch. 10].

Rikyu’s death shows how dependent Zen aesthetics were on warlord power. Kenichi Yamamoto’s historical novel Enigma Rikyū, held in the library in Romanian translation (quotations translated here), dramatises the events. The crisis turns on “the incident with the temple gate of Daitokuji,” repaired through Rikyu’s donation, where his wooden statue stood. Hideyoshi protests: “I always go in and out through that gate! Do you want me to keep passing under Rikyu’s feet?” The statue is taken down and “symbolically crucified” at Ichijō bridge. Rikyu is exiled to Sakai on 12 February 1591, and three guests “sent by Hideyoshi to make sure the seppuku was carried out” attend his last tea [Yamamoto, Enigma Rikyū, #16607, ch. 3]. These scenes are a novelist’s reconstruction.

The Shamanic and Ascetic Undercurrent

Carmen Blacker’s The Catalpa Bow documents the ascetic substratum. Medieval holy men practised “womb-like seclusion inside a cave” or “continuous wandering from one holy place to another,” fasting, taking cold ablutions and “reciting [a] holy text.” In one exemplary life, “day and night for ten years he recited the Lotus Sutra in his mountain retreat, never once relaxing his diet.” Blacker shows how far the scripture has shrunk in modern popular practice. A “comparatively short passage,” the Kannon chapter, in which “a man only has to think of the Bodhisattva Kannon to be saved,” “is all that is left in popular ascetic practice of the Lotus Sutra, the Saddharma which in medieval times held so supremely important a place” [Blacker, The Catalpa Bow, #50912, chapters on ascetic practice]. The water austerity (suigyō) at the Nachi waterfall was “considered a powerful means of accumulating power,” and the abstention from cereals derives from “the Taoist doctrine of the Three Worms” [#50912]. Blacker also records the darker side: the corrupt “mountain ascetic, a kitōshi or exorcist who has allowed the desire for money to corrupt him,” paid “to use his power over the fox to have the woman killed” [#50912]. The Stiene account of Shugendō as a blend of “shamanism, Shintoism, Taoism and Buddhism,” outlawed in 1872, belongs to the same world [Stiene & Stiene, The Japanese Art of Reiki, #73976].

Buddhism and the Family Dead: Jizō and the Mizuko

O. Corazza describes the Sai-no-kawara, “a riverbank where dead children were gathered,” and the role of Jizō as the focus of “prayers for the soul of the fetus to be reborn into better circumstances.” She cites Patrick Drazen: “there is a belief (which the West simply does not share) that nothing irretrievable has been lost by an abortion.” She also notes that “aborted children have a different status from newborn infants (mizuko). In dying, they ‘go back’ to the world previous to life” [Corazza, Near-Death Experiences, #29924, “The river of no return”]. Here Buddhism serves the household’s dead (compare Chapter 98).

Christianity and Tokugawa Control

Roberts states that “Christianity came to Japan in 1549, when Jesuit priests founded a missionary on Kyūshū with the help of Portuguese traders.” Converts “eventually included the lord Ōmura Sumita,” who “ruled the northwestern part of the island of Hizen, and in 1574… declared that all citizens in his domain would be baptized” [Roberts, #78726, “CHRISTIANITY”]. The History of East Asia says Hideyoshi “viewed any change in religion as another potential threat.” Under Ieyasu, the Arima Harunobu–Okamoto Daihachi bribery affair led in 1612 to a ban on Christianity “in the entire country.” Ieyasu complained that Christians honoured the condemned: “If this is not an evil law, what is it?” Persecutions continued “from the year 1622 to the year 1637,” and after the Shimabara Rebellion Japan was isolated [#71236, Part 2 ch. 3–5]. In reaction to Shimabara the danka system was made compulsory in 1638. Every household had to register with a Buddhist temple and obtain a terauke certificate “that a citizen was not a Christian.” This turned the temples into “a government-mandated… system to monitor and control the population as a whole” [Wikipedia: Danka system].

Key points

• Tendai on Mount Hiei combined the Lotus Sutra, Mikkyō, precepts and Pure Land. It trained the Kamakura founders, kept warrior monks, and was destroyed by Nobunaga in 1571 (#73531, #71236).
• Roberts says Pure Land arose in a Kamakura age “marked by war and great suffering” and that Amida became “the most important Buddha in Japan.” Shinran’s “other-power” faith made Shin the largest school (#78726).
• Eisai sought samurai patronage and framed Zen as “protecting the country.” Dogen brought Soto shikantaza, which Kapleau grounds in faith (#51289, #69569).
• The secret Rinzai koan curriculum, including Hakuin’s “one hand,” is documented with its answers in Hau Hōō’s collection (#85236).
• Nichiren’s Lotus exclusivism, Mongol prophecy and samurai following tied the Hokke sect, in Roberts’ words, to “nationalism and militancy.” It is the root of Soka Gakkai (#78726).
• The Rikyu affair, dramatised by Yamamoto, shows Zen aesthetics subject to Hideyoshi’s power (#16607, #64763).
• Blacker documents Lotus Sutra asceticism, waterfall austerities and mercenary exorcists as a shamanic stratum beneath institutional Buddhism (#50912).
• Christianity was banned in 1612–14 and crushed by 1637–38. The Tokugawa terauke system then made every Buddhist temple an anti-Christian registry office (#78726, #71236, Wikipedia: Danka system).