Overview
The following statistics on the religious identification of the Japanese people issued by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1978 suggest one of the most important characteristics of their religious lives - inclusiveness: Shinto - 99 mil.; Buddhism - 88 mil.; Christians - 1 mil. For a nation's whose population in 1978 was about 125 million, the statistics make clear that there is a strong overlap between adherents to Shinto and Buddhism. Indeed, there is a saying in Japan that a person "is born Shinto and dies Buddhist.
The inclusive character of Japanese religion dates to about the 6th century CE when Buddhism first arrived from China via Korea. With the introduction of Buddhism, the term Shinto began to be applied to the traditional religious practices of the Japanese people. Prior to that time there had been no need to "name" Shinto because it could not be separated from the Japanese way of life.
Through the following centuries,
Shinto and Buddhism existed beside each other with one or the other
gaining greater favor among the imperial court and/or the common people
in different historical eras. Indeed, Shinto and Buddhism influenced
each other and, in some instances such as Shugendo, became mixed together.
Here we will focus on both Shinto and Buddhism and the various schools
that developed along with the uniquely Japanese Shugendo tradition.
A tradition unique to Japan, Shugendo in developed from a combination of ancient Japanese folk traditions and various elements of Chinese religions -- Tantric Buddhism, Yin-yang school, and Daoism. Its predecessor in Japan was Sangaku shinko, a tradition of mountain ascetics who would master spiritual power from living in the mountains.
Amaterasu
Giri
Ise Shrine
Izanagi, Izanami
Kami
Kamidana
Kojiki
Matsuri
Motoori Norinaga
Meji Restoration
Nihon Shoki
Ninigi
Norito
Obon
purification
School of National Learning
Jinja
Torii
Shugendo practitioners called "yamabushi" cultivated and dispensed this power for every imaginable human need. Because the yamabushi directed their attention to and met the needs of the common people it became very popular among the lower-classes beginning in the twelfth century until the Meiji Restoration.1 The tradition utilized chanting incantations and sutras, meditation, pilgrimages, fasting, and standing or sitting under waterfalls.2 This latter practice is closely related to the ritual purification that is central to Japanese Shinto.
The sacred text, Sutra on the Unlimited Life of the Threefold Body, claims to be a direct transmission to the Buddha from Mahavairocana, who in turn heard it from "the beginningless and endless original Buddha who is one mind and one thought." That Buddha in turn heard teachings from "the beginning and endless original Buddha of no mind and no thought." The sutra claims this Buddha to be "above and beyond all."3
As is common in esoteric Buddhism, Shugendo practitioners us meditative concentration to achieve a direct experience of reality. This experience then awakens the Buddha-nature in us and we become the Buddha. This direct experience of reality often is cultivated by hardship and suffering, especially those difficulties experienced living and moving in mountain setting. The hardship and suffering become the means by which the ego is penetrated and attachment to the world is broken.
According to scholars, both Tendai and Shingon Buddhism
are products of this tradition and their mountain monasteries provided
the setting by which monks could attain samadhi.
Bushido
Butsudan
Chanoyu
Daimoku
Honen
Jizo
Kannon
Koan
Kukai
Nembutsu
Nichiren
Noh
Pure Land
Saicho
Samurai
Shotoku
Way of art
Zazen