BUDDHISM, SCHOOLS OF: JAPANESE BUDDHISM

Prior to its official introduction into the court in 552 ce, Buddhism had been brought to Japan by Chinese and Korean immigrants and was presumably practiced widely among their descendants. According to the Nihongi, an envoy of the king of Paekche presented Buddhist statues, sūtras, and other artifacts to the Japanese court in 552 (other sources give 538). The official introduction of Buddhism exacerbated the antagonism that had been developing between the internationalist Soga clan, which supported the court's recognition of Buddhism, and the more parochial clans, which considered the Buddha a banshin (foreign deity). To avoid further dissension, the court entrusted the administration of Buddhism to the Soga clan. The Buddhism promulgated by the Soga was primarily magical. However, aristocrats and court nobles were initially attracted to Buddhism as an intrinsic part of the highly advanced continental (i.e., Chinese and Korean) culture and civilization, which also encompassed Confucianism, Daoism, medicine, astronomy, and various technological skills. As it developed on the continent, Buddhism was not exclusively a religion, for it was also associated with a new, esoteric culture that included colorful paintings, statues, buildings, dance, and music.

Although Japanese understanding of Buddhism was superficial and fragmented in the early stages of assimilation, it gained religious depth through the course of history. The rise of Japanese Buddhism and the growth of schools or sects were closely related to and influenced by the structure of the state bureaucracy, which was itself in the initial stages of development. Yōmei (r. 585–587) was the first emperor officially to accept Buddhism, but it was his son, the prince regent Shōtoku (574–622), who was responsible for creating Japan's first great age of Buddhism. Although the sources provide very little precise information about his activities, Shōtoku is said to have been a great patron of Buddhism. In addition to building many Buddhist temples and sending students and monks to study in China, he wrote commentaries on three texts—the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Lotus Sūtra), the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, and the Śr̄imala Sūtra —and is supposed to have promulgated the famous "Seventeen-Article Constitution" based on Buddhist and Confucian ideas. Later, Shōtoku was worshiped as the incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. His promotion of Buddhism fell strictly within the bounds of the existing religio-political framework of Japanese sacral kingship: he upheld the imperial throne as the central authority and envisioned a "multireligious system" in which Shintō, Confucianism, and Buddhism would maintain a proper balance under the divine authority of the emperor as the "son of Heaven." Shōtoku's religious policies, his indifference to the doctrinal and ecclesiastical divisions of Buddhism, his dependence on the universalistic soteriology of the Lotus Sūtra, and his emphasis on the path of the lay devotee significantly influenced the later development of Japanese Buddhism.

Buddhism in the Nara Period

During the Nara period (710–784) the Ritsuryō state, based upon the principle of the mutual dependence of imperial law (ōbō ) and Buddhist law (buppō ), recognized Buddhism as a state religion and incorporated it into the bureaucratic system of the central government. Under these conditions Buddhism enjoyed royal favor, and temples and monks became wealthy. However, the state's sponsorship of Buddhism was not entirely altruistic. Throughout the Nara period the government was concerned with the political power held by the Buddhists. The state promoted Buddhism as a religion that could civilize, solidify, and protect the nation. Monks were encouraged to engage in the academic study of Buddhist texts, probably in the hope that they would settle in the government-controlled temples. These temples were presumably subordinate to the state and functioned as an intrinsic part of the state bureaucracy: priests were expected to perform rites and ceremonies to ensure the peace and order of the state, and monks and nuns were ordained under the state authority and thus were considered bureaucrats. The Ritsuryō government prohibited monks from concerning themselves with the needs and activities of the masses. However, those who were not granted official status as monks became associated with folk Buddhist activities. Movements of ubasoku (Skt., upāsaka ; laymen), hijiri (holy men), and yamabushi (mountain ascetics) emerged spontaneously, integrating indigenous Shintō, Buddhist, and other religious and cultural elements. At the center of these movements were unordained magician-priests who lived in mountainous regions and who had acquired, through ascetic practices, shamanistic techniques and the art of healing. Later, these groups were to inspire powerful popular movements and would influence the development of Japanese Buddhism.

Prior to the Nara period Buddhism had remained nonsectarian. However, as the study of texts and commentaries on the sūtras became more intense and sophisticated, groups of scholar-monks organized themselves into schools or sects. Here, the term sect (shū ) does not refer to an organized school but, rather, to a philosophical position based on the various sūtras. Differences between the sects were based solely on the particular text chosen as the focus of study: the ecclesiastical, doctrinal, or religious orientations of the individual sects were not mutually exclusive. Often, these sects were housed in a single temple and, under the restrictions imposed by the Ritsuryō government, they remained dependent on both the state and each other.

Of the six most noteworthy sects of Nara Buddhism, two were affiliated with the Hīnayāna tradition and four with the Mahāyāna tradition. In the first category were the Kusha, based on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa (Jpn., Kusharon ; Treasury of Higher Law), and the Jōjitsu, based on Harivarman's Satyasiddhi (Jpn., Jōjitsuron ; Completion of truth). The Mahāyāna-affiliated sects included Sanron (Chin., San-lun ), based on the Mādhyamika Śāstra (Jpn., Chūron ; Treatise on the middle way) and on the Dvādaśadvāra (Jpn., Jūnimon ; Treatise on twelve gates), both of which were written by Nāgārjūna, as well as on the Śataśāstra (Jpn., Hyakuron ; One hundred verse treatise), written by Āryadeva; the Hossō sect (Skt., Yogācāra), principally based on the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi (Jpn., Jōyushikiron ; Completion of mere ideation) by Dharmapāla; the Kegon sect, based on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Jpn., Kegongyō; Flower Garland Sūtra); and the Ritsu sect (Vinaya), based on the so-called Southern Mountain tradition of Chinese Vinaya studies, represented chiefly by the work of Daoxuan (596–667). In the early years of the Nara, the most prominent and prestigious of these sects was the Hossō, which was transmitted by Dōshō, a Japanese monk who had studied in China. The prestige of the Hossō gradually waned, to be replaced by the Kegon sect under the leadership of Roben. The Ritsu sect provided the codes and external formalities of monastic discipline. The remaining three sects represented, for the most part, academic and political alternatives to the more powerful temples.

Schools of the Heian: Tendai and Shingon

The government's decision to move the capital from Nara to Kyoto was motivated in part by the need to regain the power held by the large, wealthy Buddhist temples. Toward the end of the Nara period, the effort to integrate Buddhism and temporal politics resulted in the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of large tracts of private land by the Buddhist temples and the involvement in state politics by the more ambitious monks. This trend culminated in the so-called Dōkyō incident, which was, in effect, an attempt to make the religious authority of Buddhism supreme. Under the sponsorship of Empress Kōken (later, Shōtoku), Dōkyō, a monk in the Hossō sect, was promoted rapidly through the ranks of the state bureaucracy. In 766 Dōkyō was appointed "king of the Law" (hō-ō ), and several years later he attempted to usurp the throne, an action that was quickly crushed by the court aristocracy. The government responded to this affair by once again affirming Buddhism's subordination to the state and enforcing traditional Buddhist discipline. Throughout the Heian period (794–1185), Buddhism continued to be promoted as the religion that would ensure the safety of the state (chingo kokka ). The sects that arose in the Heian, however, were considerably different from the six Nara sects. Like their predecessors, the Heian sects depended on teachings recently brought back from China as a source of their religious authority. But rather than relying on Japanese and Chinese commentaries, as had their Nara counterparts, Heian-period monks began to focus their study on the actual sūtras, allegedly the words of the Buddha himself. In addition, the schools of the Heian were established by individuals who were considered de facto "founders" of sectarian lineages. They also tended to be centered in the mountains, that is, at a symbolic distance from political authority, and had their own systems of ordination. The two most important schools of this period were Tendai and Shingon (Chin., Zhenyan). Both stressed the importance of learning, meditation, and esoteric cults and mysteries. Most significantly, however, both schools attempted to establish a united center for Buddhism that would encompass all sects and unite Buddhism and the state.

Tendaishu

The founder of this sect, Saichō (767–822, also known by his posthumous title, Dengyō daishi), was a descendant of Chinese immigrants. In his youth, Saichō was trained in the Hossō, Kegon, and Sanron traditions; at the age of nineteen he was ordained at Tōdaiji in Nara. Thereafter, he withdrew from the capital city and opened a hermitage on Mount Hiei. Here, he began to study the writings of Zhiyi, the systemaizer of Chinese Tiantai. During his travels in China, Saichō received the bodhisattva ordination (bosatsukai ) from Daosui, was initiated into mantra practices (mikkyō ) by Shunxiao, studied Zen (Chin., Chan) meditation under Xiaoran, and trained in the Chinese Vinaya traditions. Upon his return to Japan, Saichō established a Tendai school that synthesized these four traditions within the framework of the Lotus Sūtra. Saichō adhered to the Tʿien-tʿai doctrine that recognized universal salvation, that is, the existence of the absolute nature of Buddhahood in all beings, and stressed the meaning and value of the phenomenal world. These teachings stood in opposition to the standard philosophical position of the Nara schools, best represented by the Hossō doctrine that claimed that buddhahood was accessible only to the religious elite.

Saichō's ecumenical approach won the approval of the court. With the death of his patron, Emperor Kammu, and the rise of Kūkai and the Shingon sect, Saichō's influence at court diminished. One of his dreams—that the court approve the establishment of an independent center for Tendai ordination—was granted only after Saichō's death. The Tendai sect continued to exercise a profound influence on Japanese Buddhist life for centuries after the death of its founder. Under Ennin (794–864), a disciple of Saichō, the full flowering of Tendai Esotericism (Taimitsu) took place. Ennin was also responsible for the transmission of the Nembutsu cult (i.e., the practice of invoking the name of Amida Buddha) from China. Enchin (814–891), another prominent Tendai monk, also propagated the Taimitsu tradition and was responsible for the formation of the so-called Jimon subsect of Tendai, a group that vied for ecclesiastical power with Ennin's Sanmon subsect. Additionally, many of the most prominent Buddhist figures of the Kamakura period studied at the Tendai monastic center on Mount Hiei, including Hōnen of the Pure Land sect, Shinran of True Pure Land, Eisai of Rinzai, Dōgen of Sōtō Zen, and Nichiren, whose school bears his name. Through them the Tendai legacy was firmly, if subtly, maintained in Japanese Buddhism.

Shingonshū

Kūkai (774–835, also known by his posthumous title, Kōbō daishi), the founder of the Shingon school, was originally a student of Confucianism and hoped to enter government service. According to various legends, he experienced a compelling desire to leave the capital and live in the mountains, where, it is said, he trained with shamanistic Buddhist priests. He was inspired by the Mahāvairocana Sūtra (Jpn., Dainichikyō ; Sūtra of the great sun buddha), which eventually led him to the tradition of Esoteric Buddhism (Vajrayāna). Between 804 and 806 he traveled in China, where he studied under Huiguo, the direct disciple of the Tantric master Amoghavajra. On his return to Japan he began to promote Shingon (i.e., Tantric) doctrine. At this time he wrote the Jūjūshinron (Ten stages of religious consciousness), in which he systematized the doctrines of Esoteric Buddhism and critically appraised the existing Buddhist teachings and literature. Under the patronage of Emperor Saga, Kūkai established a monastic center of Mount Kōya and was appointed abbot of Tōji (Eastern Temple) in Kyoto, which was granted the title Kyōō Gokokuji (Temple for the Protection of the Nation). In return for these favors, Kūkai performed various rites for the court and aristocracy.

According to the Shingon teachings, all the doctrines of Śākyamuni, the historical, manifested Buddha, are temporal and relative. Absolute truth is personified in the figure of Mahāvairocana (Jpn., Dainichi), the Great Sun Buddha, through the "three secrets"—the body, speech, and thought—of the Buddha. To become a Buddha—that is, to bring one's own activities of body, speech, and thought into accord with those of Mahāvairocana—one depends on mudrās (devotional gestures), dhāraṇī (mystical verse), and yoga (concentration). The Shingon school developed a system rich in symbolism and ritual, employing maṇḍalas and icons to meet the needs of people on all levels of society. Like the Tendai sect, Shingon produced many outstanding monks in subsequent generations.

Owing to the support of the court and aristocracy, the Esoteric Buddhism of Tendai (Taimitsu) and Shingon (also called Tōmitsu; "Eastern Esotericism," after its chief monastery, Tōji) prospered. While each school had its own principle of organization and its own doctrinal position, both sought the official authorization and support of the court. Therefore, as the power of the state declined, Tendai and Shingon evolved into religions associated solely with the elite, for whom they offered various magico-religious rites.

Buddhist Schools in the Kamakura Period

The decline of the Ritsuryō system and the rise of military feudalism brought many changes to the organization and practice of Buddhism, although the basic ideology of the Ritsuryō persisted until the Ōnin War (1467–1477). It has been argued that the new Buddhist schools that emerged in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) transformed Buddhism in Japan into Japanese Buddhism. Unlike the schools of the Nara and Heian, which identified the religious sphere with the national community, the schools of the Kamakura attempted to establish specifically religious societies. The earlier schools had never seriously questioned the soteriological dualism that divided the path of monks from that of the laity, nor had they developed an independent community governed by normative principles other than the precepts. In spite of its otherworldly beliefs, Buddhism, as practiced in Nara and Heian Japan, was a religion grounded firmly in this world. The founders of the new schools in the Kamakura period had all studied at the Tendai center on Mount Hiei but had become dissatisfied with the emphasis on ceremonies and dogma, the perceived corruption of monastic life, and the rigid transmission of ecclesiastical office. In their stead, these religious leaders stressed personal religious experience, simple piety, spiritual exercise, intuition, and charisma. In many respects the practices and doctrines of the new schools reflect the eschatological atmosphere that had emerged toward the end of the Heian, when the country had experienced a series of crises, including famine, epidemics, war, and a deadlock of economy and politics. This sense of apocalypse found its expression in the widespread belief in mappō, the notion that Buddhism and society as a whole had entered an era of irreversible decline, and in the resultant popularity of the cult of Amida, which offered a religious path expressly intended to provide for beings living during mappō. In one way or another, these popular beliefs were incorporated into the most representative schools of the Kamakura period—Jōdoshū (Pure Land school), Jōdo Shinshū (True Prue Land school), Nichirenshū, and the Rinzai and Sōtō schools of Zen.

Jōdoshū

Prior to Hōnen (1133–1212), the founder of the Jōdo sect, most Buddhist schools incorporated the belief in the Pure Land and the practice of Nembutsu as adjuncts to their other practices. It was only with Hōnen, however, that absolute faith in Amida (Skt., Amitābha) Buddha became a criterion for sectarian affiliation. Like many of his contemporaries, Hōnen had become disillusioned with his early training in the Nara and Tendai schools. He turned to the charismatic teachings of such masters as Eiku, who promoted the belief in mappō and the efficacy of the cult of Amida. Under their tutelage, Hōnen came to realize the impossibility of attaining salvation and sanctification through the practice of precepts, meditation, and knowledge. Instead, Hōnen held that one must seek the path to salvation in the Pure Land and the saving grace of Amida. In this, Hōnen was much influenced by Genshin's Ojoyoshu (The essentials of rebirth, tenth century), a work that provides the theoretical basis for faith in the Pure Land. However, in his own work Senchaku hongan nembutsushu (Collection of passages on the original vow in which Nembutsu is chosen above all), Hōnen clearly departs from earlier forms of the cult of Amida. Here, Hōnen claims that one's salvation depends exclusively on one's "choice" (i.e., one's willingness) to place absolute faith in the salvific power of Amida Buddha. The community Hōnen established in the capital city was structured on the notions of egalitarianism and faith and, thus, was able to transcend the social distinctions of kinship and class. Such organizing principles made Hōnen 's school a paradigm for the later development of Buddhism.

Jōdo Shinshū

Little is known of the formative influences in the life of Shinran (1173–1263), the founder of the Jōdo Shin school, except that he entered the Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei at the age of eight. When he was twenty-nine, Shinran met Hōnen, with whom he studied for six years. Shinran's notion of Amida Buddha's salvific power went far beyond that of his master. In holding that one's faith in Amida must be absolute, Shinran denied the efficacy of relying on one's own capacity to bring about redemption. His teachings went to the extreme of claiming that the recitation of the Nembutsu was an expression of gratitude to Amida rather than a cause of one's salvation. Shinran further stated that it is not man who "chooses" to have faith in Amida, but that it is Amida's Original Vow that "chooses" all beings to be saved. Therefore, even those who lead lives of crime and sin are saved.

Shinran's teachings represent a radical departure from traditional Buddhist doctrine. He reduced the Three Treasures (i.e., Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) to one (i.e., Amida's Original Vow) and rejected the accepted methods of spiritual exercises and meditation as paths to enlightenment. He was critical of the government's persecution of Hōnen and argued that the secular authority of the state was subordinate to the eternal law of the Dharma. In the religious communities that surrounded Shinran, distinctions between the clergy and laity were eliminated; Shinran himself was married and had children. Although Shinran never formally established an independent sect, his daughter began to build a True Pure Land sectarian organization. This was the first time in the history of Buddhism in Japan that the continuity of a school was based on heredity.

Nichirenshū

Nichiren (1222–1282), eponymous founder of the sect, is perhaps one of the most charismatic and prophetic personalities in Japanese history. In the time he spent on Mount Hiei between 1242 and 1253, Nichiren came to believe that the Saddharmapuṇḍarika Sūtra (Lotus Sūtra) contained the ultimate and complete teaching of the Buddha. In many respects, Nichiren's thought is based on Tendai doctrine: he upheld the notion of ichinen sanzen (all three thousand spheres of reality are embraced in a single moment of consciousness) and advocated universal salvation, urging the nation to return to the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra. However, Nichiren was also a reformer. Rather than accept the traditional concept of the transmission of the Lotus Sūtra through ecclesiastical offices, Nichiren argued that it was transmitted through "spiritual succession." Thus, he saw himself as the successor to the transmission that began with Śākyamuni and passed to Zhiyi and Saichō. He also identified himself as the incarnation of Viśiṣṭacāritra (Jpn., Jōgyō), the bodhisattva to whom the Buddha is said to have entrusted the Lotus Sūtra. Other of his reforms included the attempt to discredit the established Buddhist sects, in particular, Pure Land and Zen. At the same time, however, Nichiren incorporated many of their key notions and practices. With Shingon he shared the use of the maṇḍala and the concept of sokushin jōbutsu ("becoming a Buddha in this very body"), and with Pure Land he shared the practice of chanting (in this case, the title of the Lotus Sūtra ) and the concept of the salvation of women and people whose natures are evil. Although Nichiren promoted the doctrine of universal salvation, his school developed into the most exclusivist and often militant group in Japanese religious history. Several modern Japanese movements trace their inspiration to Nichiren.

Zen Buddhism

In the Nara and Heian periods, Zen (Chin., Chan) meditation was a spiritual and mental discipline practiced in conjunction with other disciplines by all Buddhist sects. It was not until the Kamakura period, when the Linji (Jpn., Rinzai) and Caodong (Jpn., Sōtō) schools of Chan were brought from Song-dynasty China, that Zen emerged as a distinct movement.

Rinzaishū

The establishment of Rinzai Zen in Japan is associated with Eisai (1141–1215). Discouraged by the corruption of Buddhism in the late Heian, Eisai was initially concerned with the restoration of the Tendai tradition. He traveled to China, first in 1168 and again between 1187 and 1191, hoping to study the true Tendai tradition. In China, Eisai was introduced to the Linji school of Chinese Chan. At that time Chan was noted for its purist approach—its emphasis on a transmission that stood outside the classical Buddhist scriptures and what is termed the "direct pointing to the mind and perceiving one's own nature." In addition, the Chan monks in Song China refused to pay obeisance to the secular authorities. Eisai, however, was more conciliatory. He studied the practices, ceremonies, and texts of other schools and willingly paid obeisance to the Kamakura regime, which in return favored him with its patronage. Eisai strongly believed that one of the central tasks of Buddhism was to protect the nation and that Zen was a state religion. Far from approaching the common people, Eisai's form of Zen was elitist. Rinzai was established by Eisai's followers as an independent school, and while it remained an elitist group throughout the Kamakura period, its contributions to the cultural life of Japan were significant.

Sōtōshū

Dōgen (1200–1253), the transmitter of the Caodong school of Chinese Chan to Japan, entered the Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei when he was thirteen years old. His intense search for the certainty of attaining buddhahood drove him from Mount Hiei, first to a Pure Land teacher and later to Myōzen, a disciple of Eisai. Finally, in 1223, Dōgen traveled to China, where he attained enlightenment under the guidance of Rujing, a Chan master of the Caodong school. In 1227 Dōgen returned to Japan and began to expound Sōtō doctrine, eventually establishing an independent sect. As a student of the Caodong sect, Dōgen emphasized the gradual attainment of enlightenment through the practice of zazen (sitting in meditation), a meditative discipline that entailed sitting without any thought or any effort to achieve enlightenment. Dōgen's notion of zazen (also called shikantaza ) stood in marked contrast to Eisai's use of the kōan as a means to attaining sudden enlight-enment.

In spite of his adherence to Caodong tradition, Dōgen is known for his independence and self-reliance. He was convinced that the truth of Buddhism is applicable to everyone—regardless of sex, intelligence, or social status—and that enlightenment could be attained even in secular life. This doctrine is best expressed in Dōgen's dictum that all beings are the buddha-nature. Dōgen also rejected the theory of mappō popular among other Kamakura Buddhists. He held that the "perfect law" of the Buddha was always present and could be attained by a true practitioner at any time. Dōgen's emphasis on faith in the Buddha represents yet another departure from traditional Zen teachings that stress self-realization. Because he claimed that the Zen practitioner must have faith not only in the Buddha but also in scriptures and one's masters, Dōgen's school is often characterized as sacerdotal and authoritarian. However, after his death, Dōgen's school was institutionalized and grew to be one of the most politically and socially powerful movements in later periods.

Buddhism in the Modern Era

As a result of the Ōnin War and the Sengoku period (a period of incessant wars among feudal lords), the political system was destined to undergo formal changes. Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), the three men who unified the nation, rejected the Ritsuryō system's principle of the mutual dependence of imperial and Buddhist law. The Tokugawa regime (1600–1868) instead adopted neo-Confucianism as the guiding principle of the nation, manipulating Buddhist institutions to strengthen its systems and policies. It maintained strict control over the development, organization, and activities of religious sects. The Tokugawa government continued to recognize and support all the Buddhist schools including those that the Muromachi government had deemed official religions. However, many of its policies toward Buddhism were stimulated by its persecutions of Christianity and its adoption of Confucianism as the state ideology. New sects and doctrinal developments were prohibited, forcing new movements, such as folk Nembutsu to go underground or suffer suppression. Existing schools forfeited their autonomy, and temples, monks, and nuns were institutionalized and routinized within the political structure. In many temples and local temple schools, particularly those associated with Zen, monks studied and taught the Confucian classics.

Along with political and economic modernizations, the Meiji restoration of 1868 brought significant changes to religious institutions. The Meiji government (1868–1912), which attempted to restore the actual rule of the emperor in a modern context, rejected some aspects of the religious policies of the feudal Tokugawa. It rejected the religious institution of Buddhism as a state religion and devised the hitherto nonexistent State Shintō as a "nonreligious" national cult. The loss of government patronage and the decline in prestige, power, and security experienced by institutionalized sects of Buddhism forced them to cooperate with the government. The various sects worked within the structure of the imperial regime by performing ancestral and life-cycle rituals. However, the absence of government favor also brought about a spiritual awakening within Buddhism. Buddhist intellectuals attempted to integrate Buddhist thought and tradition into the newly acquired Western culture and technology. Throughout the Meiji and into the Shōwa period (1912–), popular Buddhism continued to thrive. Such movements as Kokuchūkai (Nation's Pillar Society), led by the ex-Nichiren priest Tanaka Chigaku, gained popularity in the nationalist fervor of the 1890s. Another folk movement to grow out of Nichiren was the Honmon Butsuryūkō (Association to Exalt the Buddha), founded by the former monk Ōji Nissen and concerned primarily with faith healing. The increased popularity of new religions and lay Buddhist associations such as Sōka Gakkai, Reiyūkai, and Risshō Kōseikai continues in post–World War II Japan.

See Also

Amitābha; Amoghavajra; Buddhism, article on Buddhism in Japan; Dōgen; Enchin; Ennin; Genshin; Hijiri; Hōnen; Huayan; Japanese Religions, overview article; Jōdo Shinshū; Jōdoshū; Mādhyamika; Mappō; New Religious Movements, article on New Religious Movements in Japan; Nianfo; Nichiren; Nichirenshū; Saichō; Shingonshū; Shinran; Shōtoku Taishi; Tendaishū; Tiantai; Yogācāra; Zen; Zhenyan; Zhiyi.

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Revised Bibliography