Introduction for Beginners

What is Japanese Buddhism?

Introduction, Acculturation, Reculturation

Photo by on

When people first come to Japan, they inevitably visit some Buddhist temples. Buddhism is everywhere, from the sights tourists enjoy to the rituals for the dead, from the scrolls visitors see in museums to the relationship Japanese people have with the cherry blossoms.

However, speaking of a unified, singular “Japanese Buddhism” or “Japanese Buddhist philosophy” is not without problems. Do such expressions refer to “Buddhism in Japan” or to a “Japaneseness” of Buddhism in Japan? Is there such a thing as a Buddhist tradition specific to Japan? Is it still a kind of Buddhism? Is it really philosophy or something that questions philosophy? Does it really raise questions about philosophy or something else?

There is no definitive answer to such questions, and authors who talk about Japanese Buddhism are used to promote a kind of skepticism. This is the case, for example, with Richard K. Payne when he writes in a chapter of The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy:

“Japanese Buddhism” is not something discovered but, rather, something made, an artifact of both popular and academic discourse. Such a claim, of course, does not imply that there are not indefinitely many things that…