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The paper considers the theme of tutorship, which is one of the cross-cutting issues in Konjaku Monogatari-shū, a 12th century collection of setsuwa didactic tales. The authors reveal what types of tales are chosen for the collection and in which manner they are recited, from the legends about Buddha Shakyamuni himself to the stories of common laity skilled in some art. Buddha Shakyamuni himself, the teacher of all teachers, also studies, and, at the same time, his teachers act as his students, which shows the continuity and infinity of the chain of interdependent emergence of things. Buddha sets an example for all other teachers in that his whole life is mentoring. He helps everyone with whom he interacts to get rid of illusions, even in those moments when he is not directly interpreting his teachings. In all tales, the relations of a master and his disciple are seen as conditioned by the law of retribution, they are very close and intimate; the two people must be congenial in talents and needs to be in such relations, be it in the area of transmitting the Buddhist Law, or merely training in some art. The theme of continuity of tradition, transmission of Buddha’s teaching is very important for Konjaku. It is discussed from different points of view in all three sections of collection – the Indian, Chinese, and Japanese ones. The timeless chain of masters and disciples is formed, and every participant – a link of this chain – should be ready to receive the Law, to become a disciple and, in time, a master. Following the pattern set by Buddha, in some tales, a master and a disciple can exchange their roles, in other ones, the disciple is not a person, but a whole nation. There are also stories about a supernatural being, for instance, a ghost or a god, becoming a teacher. In some cases, the disciple is a character assigned to display wisdom of his master. The ways in which wisdom is imparted can also vary widely, with some stories specifically emphasizing the unexpected actions of mentors, through which their students experience first-hand what they had previously been unable to understand through the efforts of mind. Personal aspects of master–disciple communication are also examined in Konjaku, and examples of bad relationships are provided as well.

Beatrice Lane Suzuki was the American born wife of renowned Zen scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Until very recently, nothing beyond this had been written about her. She was, however, also a very significant figure in introducing Japanese Buddhism to the West, a partner in the mission to making Mahāyāna Buddhism better understood in the West. This paper begins by looking at her early life to establish what she brought to the partnership, and the spiritual search that brought her to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The body of the paper analyses her contribution to Western knowledge of Buddhism: as a founding editor of the pioneering journal of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Eastern Buddhist, and as a prolific author on Buddhism in her own right. It shows the distinctive contribution she made through her commitment to the Bodhisattva vows as a path to spiritual development in modern, secular life, and as a solution to the world problems so apparent in the interwar period in which she wrote.

In addition to being the founder of the influential Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism, Kūkai (774–835) was one of Japan’s greatest calligraphers, a masterful scholar of pre-Tang dynasty classical Chinese literature, a ritual innovator, and an institutional builder who developed influential networks of relationships among Buddhist monastics, political leaders, and powerful aristocrats alike. Within the circles of Buddhist theorists and practitioners at a very formative early period in Japan’s history, his creative rendering of theological perspectives on contemplative ritual effectively galvanized existing practices with a novel esoteric Buddhist perspective on the means and ends of religious practice itself. His promotion of new approaches to the value of chanting scriptures, adorning sacred spaces, and imagining a more perfect world – within a highly articulated Mahāyāna Buddhist ‘mandalic’ vision of the cosmos – had a lasting impact on Japanese culture, religious and beyond. He became a prominent cultural hero for these accomplishments and others, some of admittedly questionable authenticity. Regardless, his saintly status has sustained centuries of reverence in the domains of pilgrimages to sacred sites related to his life, and a belief that he never died but entered a state of suspended samādhi (meditative concentration) in which he awaits the arrival of the future Buddha Maitreya. As one of Japan’s most celebrated cultural figures, Kūkai’s contributions in the religious sphere deserve substantive attention.

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork among Japanese Shin Buddhists who have an enduring commitment to volunteering with Hansen's disease patients in Japan and its former colonies. I trace the negotiation of emotions in this Jōdo Shinshū ethical context, identifying the Buddhist, Japanese, and global liberal vocabularies that ascribe moral value to various emotional responses to suffering and injustice. I argue that for these Buddhists, companionship rather than compassion serves as both an ethical ideal and a focal point of emotional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper addresses esoteric Buddhist rituals in Japan, with special focus on the changes that happened in its practice in the first couple of centuries after its initial arrival to the country. Although esotericism originated in India, it was the brief spotlight it gained in China during the Tang Dynasty (especially in the 8th century) that determined its transmission to Japan in the beginning of the 9th century, where it spread rapidly and reached a particular culmination within the same time period, i.e., the Heian Period (794 to 1185/1192). On the one hand, the Shingon school, established by the monk Kūkai (774-835), was essentially the first time the esoteric Buddhist teachings were systematised, and although the founder’s person and teachings are still very much revered to this day, changes have begun right after his death in 835. On the other hand, the Tendai school, a rival for imperial recognition and support and also established (or rather introduced) in the beginning of the 9th century by the monk Saichō (767-822, a contemporary of Kūkai) included some esoteric teachings, and with the practices introduced by later Tendai monks, such as Ennin (794-864) or Enchin (814-891), this school cultivated esoteric practices that are still extant in Japan today. Firstly, the meaning and usage of the honzon (an icon of a deity) in esoteric Buddhist rituals is clarified in the paper, while later the evolution of two specific icons that were used during the Fugen Enmei rituals of both the Shingon and Tendai schools is introduced, with explanations as to why there are two different types of iconographies extant for the same kind of ritual. The paper contributes to the study of those esoteric practices that were created and developed in a locally recognized Buddhist milieu that served specific purposes in Japan and are found in no other Buddhist cultures in Asia.

The present paper addresses esoteric Buddhist rituals in Japan, with special focus on the changes that happened in its practice in the first couple of centuries after its initial arrival to the country. Although esotericism originated in India, it was the brief spotlight it gained in China during the Tang Dynasty (especially in the 8th century) that determined its transmission to Japan in the beginning of the 9th century, where it spread rapidly and reached a particular culmination within the same time period, i.e., the Heian Period (794 to 1185/1192). On the one hand, the Shingon school, established by the monk Kūkai (774-835), was essentially the first time the esoteric Buddhist teachings were systematised, and although the founder's person and teachings are still very much revered to this day, changes have begun right after his death in 835. On the other hand, the Tendai school, a rival for imperial recognition and support and also established (or rather introduced) in the beginning of the 9th century by the monk Saichō (767-822, a contemporary of Kūkai) included some esoteric teachings, and with the practices introduced by later Tendai monks, such as Ennin (794-864) or Enchin (814-891), this school cultivated esoteric practices that are still extant in Japan today. Firstly, the meaning and usage of the honzon (an icon of a deity) in esoteric Buddhist rituals is clarified in the paper, while later the evolution of two specific icons that were used during the Fugen Enmei rituals of both the Shingon and Tendai schools is introduced, with explanations as to why there are two different types of iconographies extant for the same kind of ritual. The paper contributes to the study of those esoteric practices that were created and developed in a locally recognized Buddhist milieu that served specific purposes in Japan and are found in no other Buddhist cultures in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution focuses on narratives and experiences of belonging and exclusion among convert members of Three Wheels, a Japanese Shin Buddhist temple in London, to investigate how difference is incorporated into transnational Buddhism. Three Wheels, whose members include both diasporic Japanese and convert Buddhist Europeans, occupies a marginal position within both transnational Shin Buddhism and the UK's Buddhist (and broader religious) landscape. By embracing individual and collective marginality, I argue, priests and members foster affective connections that allow for a shared minority space to emerge where its diverse members can feel at home. To explore the dynamics of this 'home-making', I focus specifically on how convert members negotiate their own space in the community and the processes of inclusion and exclusion through which they navigate the linguistic, religious, and cultural barriers they encounter as convert members of a Japanese Buddhist tradition. This discussion of home-making within Three Wheels as a shared minority space highlights the complex dynamics of minority status and marginality in transnational Buddhism. It also shows how, in this case, convert Buddhists have worked with Asian migrants to build what appears to be a successful mixed local Buddhist sangha that accommodates the diverse needs of its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factors that currently lead Japanese men to enter and remain in the Buddhist priesthood are poorly understood. This article reports the results of a qualitative study that examines the profiles of a seminary instructor and six Shingon Buddhist priests (真言) at Kōyasan guesthouse temples (高野山). The data, collected from semi-structured interviews, were analyzed with ATLAS.ti using a thematic analysis approach. The study identified seven key themes related to (1) family, (2) mentoring relationships, (3) education, (4) labor, (5) spiritual practices, (6) religious doctrines and faith, and (7) the devotion of guests. For the six priests, family connections were found to play an especially critical role in initial decisions to enter the priesthood, whereas other factors chiefly contributed to sustained commitment. The results are discussed in terms of theories of 'costly signalling', ego-identity statuses, and the Japanese tendency to construct personal identity within the context of social affiliations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kyoto Animation can rightly be called one of the leading studios of Japanese animation, and its works have been at the forefront of anime production in terms of both techniques and aesthetics. This is why it has been subjected to academic scrutiny by several notable anime scholars. However, no significant studies have been conducted on the works of Kyoto Animation from the perspective of the studio as a whole, or identified consistent themes and patterns flowing throughout them. This paper aims to rectify that gap by studying four works by the most prolific directors of Kyoto Animation (the Haruhi Suzumiya series (2006-2010), Beyond the Boundary (2013-15), A Silent Voice (2016) and Miss Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon (2017)) from the perspective of the Japanese Buddhist conception of tariki (Other-power) in order to tease out the central theme that lies at the heart of the studio’s work, and argues that Other-power (redefined as affective transformation) and the presence of a community of peers to nurture it offers powerful interpretive frameworks through which to understand these, and other, works by the studio.

The set of eighth-century objects known as the "Tōdaiji Golden Hall Platform Pacifying Objects" (Tōdaiji Kondō chindangu 東大寺金堂鎮壇具; "Tōdaiji objects") is among the earliest concrete evidence of ritual practice in the Nara period. This study reveals how the Tōdaiji objects transformed the space inside the temple's colossal central statue of the Vairocana Buddha into a symbolic heavenly realm where the deceased would traverse to arrive at Vairocana's Pure Land. Close analysis of the Tōdaiji objects within Sovereigns Shōmu's and Kōken's religiopolitical applications of the Kegon teaching strengthens Okumura Hideo's argument that Kōken orchestrated the emplacement of these objects in the year 757 as part of commemorating the one-year anniversary of Shōmu's death. I argue that the Tōdaiji objects encapsulated Kōken's filial piety towards her father, Shōmu, by praying for his swift ascension to Vairocana's Pure Land. The objects furthermore served as a reenactment of Buddhist repentance that not only ensured Shōmu's salvation, but also the prosperity of Kōken's new reign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bon, or more politely O-Bon, is the Japanese term for a regionally different midsummer festival celebrated not only throughout Japan but also in other Buddhist Asian countries. In Japan, it has changed over time and is essentially a mélange of ancestor worship, rural Thanksgiving customs, ghost beliefs, folk religion, superstitions and the Buddhist celebration of the temporary release of the spirits from hell. During the Edo period, O-Bon gained popularity, as it gave those employed in urban areas a rare chance to reunite with their families in the countryside, meet friends, revel, and pray for ancestral spirits and deceased loved ones. Celebrations differ from region to region, but they all include eating, drinking, and lots of merrymaking to entertain the living as well as the visiting spirits. Since the 7th century, O-Bon has been held on the full moon of the seventh lunar month, usually around the 15th day. The old calendar is still the basis for the calculations behind the traditional Chinese festival calendar used in both mainland China and Taiwan. However, since Japan adopted the solar Gregorian calendar in 1873, Japan became divided into different areas: some celebrating O-Bon in July (Shichigatsu-Bon, 七月盆), some regions sticking to the old lunar calendar with movable holidays, and some areas holding a Hachigatsu-Bon (八月盆) from August 13th to 15th. During the Edo period, Nagasaki's Japanese O-Bon and Chinese O-Bon fell on the same dates. Due to the calendar reform, they came to be held on separate days. As a result, Nagasaki now celebrates two festivals: 1. a movable lunar O-Bon in July, locally called Karadera-Bon (唐寺盆) or Achasan no Bon (アチャさんの盆or 阿爹さんの盆) with strong connections to the city's Chinese temples and traditions, where it is called Yúlánpén (盂蘭盆) and 2. a Hachigatsu-Bon, celebrated by Japanese citizens, which reflects Nagasaki's' unique culture, history and customs. In this paper, I would like to shed some light on the origins, religious aspects, traditions, practices, and social function of Nagasaki's' two O-Bon celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the narrative potency and ritual efficacy of a medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhist text in relation to the process of awakening and the construction of imperial legitimation, perceived as two interrelated objectives. Entitled the Kinpusen himitsuden, 'The Secret Transmission of the Golden Peak', the text was written by the Shingon monk Monkan Kōshin in 1337, soon after the outbreak of the civil war, at the stronghold of the southern court in Yoshino. The text is treated here as a complex ritual platform of metamorphosis and empowerment, intermingling the local cultic structure and the esoteric Buddhist ritual stage of the imperial court as well as realities internal and external to the text, which mutually inform and impregnate one another. Focusing on the articulation of a rock—the body/abode of Zaō, a tutelary mountain deity—we explore its transformation from the site of a local legend of apparition into a Buddha, an object of contemplation, the centerpiece of the imperial stage and a mold for the practitioner's liturgical body, an achievement allowed by the text taken as a transformative agent. We demonstrate that as an epitome of esoteric Buddhist power, Zaō becomes the source of the emperor's renewed authority as a Buddhist king, and that in turn, the emperor's participation in the semiotic sphere of the text endows the deity with sovereign power. As such, this article shows that rather than a vessel of knowledge, the text-as-an-event, is a powerful mechanism of transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 740s in Japan, the emperor established Buddhist temples in nearly all the provinces, in which three Buddhist scriptures were chanted to avert natural disasters. Tōdaiji, in the recently constructed capital, was the head temple of a network of Temples of Bright Golden Light and Four Heavenly Kings to Protect the State. The principal Buddhist scripture followed in these temples was the Golden Light Sūtra, translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in Tang China at the beginning of the 8th century. This article investigates the history of an understudied example of one of these temples, called Bonshakuji. Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) repurposed it in 786 after the introduction from China of novel rituals to protect the state. It had among the most important Buddhist temple libraries, which came to rival perhaps only that of Tōdaiji through the 12th century. I also examine how and why scholar officials and powerful monastics, particularly those associated with the so-called esoteric Tendai and Shingon temples of Enryakuji and Miidera, and Tōji and Daigoji, respectively, utilized the library of Bonshakuji and older and novel state protection texts kept there to preserve early Japanese state-supported Buddhist worldmaking efforts long after that state had become virtually bankrupt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ars & Humanitas is the property of Ars & Humanitas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Traditional historiography of Japanese Buddhism presents the Muromachi period as an era of triumph for Zen, and of decline for the previous near-hegemony of Esoteric Buddhism. However, for the Shingon school, the period from the late Middle Ages to early Edo period was rather a phase of expansion, especially in the more remote locales of Eastern Japan. Focusing on a text authored during the fifteenth century, this article will analyze how this idea of the outskirts or periphery was integrated with the process of creation of orthodoxy in local Shingon temples. In doing so, it will shed new light not only on the evolution, but also on the epistemological role of discourse relating to heresy, and on their role in the legitimation of monastic lineages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the use, adaptation, modification and omission of astronomical and calendrical elements in early Japanese Mikkyō (ninth century) in large part from the perspective of exact sciences. Shingon and Tendai inherited a Sinicized system of Indian astrology from their respective beginnings, but the significance of this fact in the study of Japanese religions is underrecognized despite the reality that astrology was both studied and technically required in Mikkyō. This study will examine how Mikkyō negotiated the demand for orthopraxical use of Indian models with the contingent realities of only possessing in practice a Chinese calendar and system of observational astronomy. Japanese monks were compelled to observe Indian astrology according to their own scriptures, which by extension necessitated knowledge of Indian astronomy, but substitutions and omissions had to be made in the absence of the required resources and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of the study is to examine the image of India as “Buddha-land” in Konjaku monogatarishū (1120s). The influence of India, mediated through Korea and China, can be traced in Japan back to antiquity. Buddhism, to a large extent, remained an Indian teaching even in Chinese translations; thanks to it, the Japanese got a fragmented acquaintance with the Indian literature, sculpture and painting, music, and non-Buddhist philosophical teachings. In the late Heian era, although there still were no direct contacts between the Indian and Japanese Buddhists, and the ties of the Japanese Buddhists with the Chinese community were weakening, the information available to the Japanese about India, the homeland of the Buddha, was brought together, and a circle of legends, especially important for the Japanese monks and laity, was constructed. Such an attempt of consolidating information is undertaken in the first three scrolls of the first part of Konjaku. Their plots are taken from sutras widely known in the Buddhist world, from Chinese collections of Buddhist tales and from the diaries of Chinese pilgrims who visited India. All these stories are retold in Japanese, with abbreviations and additions. The stories reflect the main events in the life of Buddha Shakyamuni, which also represent the main milestones of the path that every Buddhist seeks to go, and the deeds of the Buddha’s disciples — the examples of how people can walk the same path in different ways. Other major themes here are the reward of happiness for good deeds and that of grief for evil deeds; and the relativity of any oppositions, such as wealth and poverty, wisdom and stupidity, good and evil. Konjaku does not contain a complete exposition of the Buddha legend. The selection of stories is subordinated to the task of showing the prehistory of the Buddhist community that took shape in Japan by the turn of the 11th — 12th centuries. This task is also pursued by the order of the stories and the method of their presentation, where a special attention is attracted to the motives of the Buddha’s family ties, the participation of deities in his life, the distribution of roles between his disciples, as well as the idea that the main provisions of the Mahayana teachings adopted in Japanese Buddhist schools are rooted in the Buddha epoch.

This article argues that there is no single relationship between Japanese Buddhism and Ireland. Rather, there is a series of changing relationships mediated by different world-system contexts between one island and another (peripheral and post-colonial) one: as ethnographic information, as cultural influence and as religious practice. The process of building such relationships has a long history, stretching back to the Irish reception of both Jesuit and traveller's accounts of Japan, later made concrete by early intermediaries like Lafcadio Hearn / Koizumi Yakumo and Charles Pfoundes. W.B. Yeats in particular helped to give Japanese Buddhism a significant place in Irish culture, notably in poetry. From the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese Buddhists started to settle in Ireland and Japanese Buddhism began to be practiced; both are now an established part of the Irish religious landscape. The article sketches this history, culminating in the present situation of Japanese Buddhism in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic study shows that women's knowledge and practices involving food in Japanese Buddhist contexts circulate as gendered currency. It emphasizes how what we term "food literacy" cultivates aesthetic and affective senses of belonging among Buddhist practitioners. We argue that this embodied knowledge helps women negotiate their experiences of Buddhism and show how these experiences articulate the complexities of their bounded and self-disciplining Buddhist selves. Women use food literacy to teach, learn, and practice the way Buddhism feels and etch it into their own and others' emotional, social, and material bodies. By recognizing women as stewards of religion, particularly through food literacy, we also elucidate how women's uses of mundane practices illuminate food literacy as a value carrier that generates belonging through food. Such practices can equally become sites of failure to connect if the intended recipients do not share understandings or appreciations of the aesthetic and affective dimensions of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to clarify the concepts of good and evil in the Japanese tradition of setsuwa tales based on the Konjaku monogatari-shū (1120s). The article compares the stories from 20th and 27th scrolls of the Konjaku. In both we are told about tengu, oni demons, foxes, wild boars, snakes, ghosts and other creatures, traditionally attributed to the evil spirits, mononoke. In the first case, the stories are set out from the Buddhist point of view, and in the second from the worldly, partly based on the Onmyōdō teachings. In their examples, we can trace two different answers to the question of what humanhostile forces are and how one should defend oneself from them. Malicious creatures fool people, increase deception in the world, which itself is an illussion. The evil is taken not from the point of moral principles, but rather from the point of the ceremonial rules: not as a vice that must be exposed, but as a danger from which it is possible and necessary to be protected. At the same time, in Buddhist stories, demons try to lead a person out of the right path, and those who are consistent and “straight” are able to resist them. In worldly stories, on the contrary, “straightness” as a lack of freedom in choosing a path turns out to be an attribute of evil, but a person is freer and can outwit the forces of evil by choosing workarounds. Ultimately, the danger lurks inside the person himself: the heavy karma leads to misfortunes in present life, and evil spirits essentially only execute punishments meted out according to the law of retribution, just as experts in rituals, Buddhist and secular, act only as mediators in finding well-deserved blessings. Conclusion: contacts of humans with evil spirits in Konjaku are interpreted according to the doctrine of karma: as examples of retribution for good and evil. There are no creatures good or evil by nature, but there are connections between the living and the dead, humans and ghosts. Contacts with other worlds reveal the possibilities of choice, essentially the same ones that one has to face in everyday relationships with people; this is the instructive meaning of stories about evil spirits.

The article is devoted to the history of studying the religious and philosophical heritage of Shinran, one of the reformers of Japanese Buddhism of the Kamakura period, in the English-language historiography. The article defines the main stages of development of English-language studies on Shinran, approaches, and major works, specific to each stage. For the present stage, the following types of research are defined: historical, philosophical works and translations of sources, comparative studies, historiographic studies.

Recent research on the intellectual history of modern Japan has shown how Buddhism provides a variety of ideas that inspire both conservative and progressive views of society. The aim of this paper is to consider how similar ambiguities and multiplicities can be found in the appropriation of Japanese Buddhism in Italy. In particular, it focuses on two cases: Traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola's (1898–1974) interest in Zen, and debates in Italian media related to Sōka Gakkai. Building on an anti-democratic reading of Buddhism as the religion of the Aryan Übermensch , Evola found in the modernist Zen of D.T. Suzuki and Nukariya Kaiten tools to resist modernity. Sōka Gakkai's particular success in Italy, especially in left-wing and progressive contexts, has spurred a mix of praise and criticism in the media; indeed, the analysis of debates around this success has become a way to discuss socio-economic and political issues in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on archival research and interview data, this paper discusses the historical development as well as the present configuration of the Japanese Buddhist panorama in Austria, which includes Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren Buddhism. It traces the early beginnings, highlights the key stages and activities in the expansion process, and sheds light on both denominational complexity and international entanglement. Fifteen years before any other European country (Portugal in 1998; Italy in 2000), Austria formally acknowledged Buddhism as a legally recognised religious society in 1983. Hence, the paper also explores the larger organisational context of the Österreichische Buddhistische Religionsgesellschaft (Austrian Buddhist Religious Society) with a focus on its Japanese Buddhist actors. Additionally, it briefly outlines the non-Buddhist Japanese religious landscape in Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 740s in Japan, the emperor established Buddhist temples in nearly all the provinces, in which three Buddhist scriptures were chanted to avert natural disasters. Tōdaiji, in the recently constructed capital, was the head temple of a network of Temples of Bright Golden Light and Four Heavenly Kings to Protect the State. The principal Buddhist scripture followed in these temples was the Golden Light Sūtra, translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in Tang China at the beginning of the 8th century. This article investigates the history of an understudied example of one of these temples, called Bonshakuji. Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) repurposed it in 786 after the introduction from China of novel rituals to protect the state. It had among the most important Buddhist temple libraries, which came to rival perhaps only that of Tōdaiji through the 12th century. I also examine how and why scholar officials and powerful monastics, particularly those associated with the so-called esoteric Tendai and Shingon temples of Enryakuji and Miidera, and Tōji and Daigoji, respectively, utilized the library of Bonshakuji and older and novel state protection texts kept there to preserve early Japanese state-supported Buddhist worldmaking efforts long after that state had become virtually bankrupt.

Traditional historiography of Japanese Buddhism presents the Muromachi period as an era of triumph for Zen, and of decline for the previous near-hegemony of Esoteric Buddhism. However, for the Shingon school, the period from the late Middle Ages to early Edo period was rather a phase of expansion, especially in the more remote locales of Eastern Japan. Focusing on a text authored during the fifteenth century, this article will analyze how this idea of the outskirts or periphery was integrated with the process of creation of orthodoxy in local Shingon temples. In doing so, it will shed new light not only on the evolution, but also on the epistemological role of discourse relating to heresy, and on their role in the legitimation of monastic lineages.

This study examines the use, adaptation, modification and omission of astronomical and calendrical elements in early Japanese Mikkyō (ninth century) in large part from the perspective of exact sciences. Shingon and Tendai inherited a Sinicized system of Indian astrology from their respective beginnings, but the significance of this fact in the study of Japanese religions is underrecognized despite the reality that astrology was both studied and technically required in Mikkyō. This study will examine how Mikkyō negotiated the demand for orthopraxical use of Indian models with the contingent realities of only possessing in practice a Chinese calendar and system of observational astronomy. Japanese monks were compelled to observe Indian astrology according to their own scriptures, which by extension necessitated knowledge of Indian astronomy, but substitutions and omissions had to be made in the absence of the required resources and knowledge.

This research examines the propagation of Japanese Buddhism in China in the first half century of 20c. From the Japanese government's point of view, Buddhism is a useful "device" to understand local society and to make propaganda or penetrate into local society in China. In 1920, Japan organized religious groups including Buddhism to make some movements on cultural exchanges and friendship activities with Asian countries and colonies including China. In the 1930s, Japan occupied Manchuria and built the puppet state, Manchu-kuo. Buddhism and its organization were the important "device" to manage the Japanese society there and were expected to penetrate in Chinese society. However, it was so difficult to set some goals on Chinese local society. This research illustrates the processes in the negotiation about the right of propagation of Japanese Buddhism in China, with the Chinese government, and introduces the views and observations on Chinese religious society by Japanese Buddhism, in order to consider the factor of "religion" on Chinese modern history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the important role played by roadways in the expansion of Buddhism in ancient Japan which is defined as late seventh through early ninth centuries. Topics covered include the emergence of connectivity in Japan and the darker side of a networked society, the Japanese state as a highway network, and the rise in temple construction alongside road construction.

New approaches to Buddhist doctrine and practice flourished within and across diverse lineages and sub-lineages in early medieval Japan. The earlymodern and modern sectarianization of Japanese Buddhism, however, has tended to obscure the complex ways that the very idea of orthodoxy functioned in this fluid medieval environment. In this article, I explore attempts to account for the diversity of views regarding] nenbutsu orthodoxy in treatises composed by scholars monks affiliated with Mt. Kōya and Mt. Hiei. In particular, this article contextualizes how these monks constructed the idea of an esoteric nenbutsu by drawing upon earlier taxonomies developed in the Tendai school as well as the East Asian esoteric Buddhist corpus. Ultimately, this study concludes that the esoteric nenbutsu was not the provenance of a particular school or sect, but rather served as a polemical construct designed to subsume the diversity of approaches to nenbutsu praxis as monks in diverse lineages competed with one another to define esoteric Buddhism in the early medieval context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern studies of esoteric Buddhism in medieval Japan, the so-called Tachikawa lineage has played a central role in defining heretical or heterodox practice. Founded in the early twelfth century, this minor and local lineage of the Shingon school underwent a series of transformations, eventually becoming a model for all heresies in Japan. In medieval Japan, the term "Tachikawa" was irredeemably associated with explicit sexual practices, especially in the writings of the Mt. Kōya monk Yūkai and his successors. These polemical critiques of Tachikawa as a deviant lineage and teaching developed into a tradition of textual study that sought to establish an orthodoxy in the Shingon school. This critique was later applied beyond the Shingon sectarian context to instances of heresy in the Jōdo Shin school and, eventually, Christianity. This heresiological process gradually resulted in a multilayered, "moving concept" of Japanese heresy, which came to fruition during the nineteenth century with the introduction of the Western ideas of religion and heresy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of legends and rituals centered on oni (demons) as a mode of place-making in early modern Japan. Focusing on evidence from Shinano (present-day Nagano prefecture), it begins with medieval oni narratives centered on Mount Togakushi and then turns toward Edo period adaptations that ushered in a host of new sites. I argue that this type of engagement with popular narratives played a vital role in place-making strategies by fostering new modes of ritual, economy, and identity as well as connections with the rest of the country. My analysis focuses on a twofold process by which these developments took place: first, the creation of local legends inspired from well-known oni tales; and second, the implementation of Buddhist rituals that promoted the legends while simultaneously placating the malignant spirits they resurrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores how the Buddhist layman Ōuchi Seiran (1845-1918) developed his discourse regarding lay Buddhism as being an essencially Japanese characteristic and a necessary alternative to the clerical Buddhism practiced hitherto. In 1899, in the context of the revision of the Unequal Treaties signed by Japan and foreigner powers, Seiran elaborates the idea that the Dharma carries out a social role originally transmitted and executed by the legendary Shōtoku Taishi, a layman himself. This shows that the laity (zaike) must be responsible for the protection of the Dharma under the imperial system. By interpretating the Japanese form of Mahāyāna Buddhism as an evolved development of the Buddha's teaching and by locating the laity as legitimate practitioners over priests, Seiran makes his own "evolutionary theory' of a lay, imperialist and superior Japanese Buddhism. These arguments locate Seiran as one of the voices that were aiming to modernize Buddhism, and at the same time, validating the capacity of Buddhism to support the imperial government while being a moral guide for its time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic Buddhist altars have long provided symbolically and materially rich media for venerating the dead in Japan. However, as Japanese household structures and funerary rites are unsettled in the contemporary era, Buddhist altars (butsudan) are rapidly being reinvented and digitalized. In this article, we describe the new technologies harnessed in butsudan production, the sensory experiences they offer, and their abilities to both reform and reinforce traditional networks of ancestral obligation. Despite promising death rituals that are more personal, secular, and affordable, the development of digitally enhanced material memorialization is still very much a work in progress in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth encounter issues of religion in the process of identity formation. However, most prior studies have focused on Christian youth in Western counties. This study examined the relationship between identity formation and religious beliefs in the Eastern national context where Buddhism and non-institutional folk religions are prevalent. Participants were 969 Japanese youth (51.3% female; Mage = 20.1). Both literal and symbolic religious beliefs were included and both a variable- and person-oriented approach were used based on the three-factor identity model. The results from the variable-oriented approach (i.e., identity processes) demonstrated that identity commitment was positively associated with literal religious beliefs, whereas reconsideration of commitment was positively associated with both literal and symbolic religious beliefs. Findings from the person-oriented approach (i.e., identity statuses) confirmed these results. Overall, this study highlights the importance of religious beliefs in the process of identity formation among youth in an Eastern national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]