[6] Originating in India, Buddhism arrived in Japan by first making its way to China and Korea through the Silk Road and then traveling by sea to the Japanese archipelago.

[10] The Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) provides a date of 552 for when King Seong of Baekje (now western South Korea) sent a mission to Emperor Kinmei that included an image of the Buddha Shakyamuni, ritual banners, and sutras.

[11] According to the Nihon Shoki, after receiving the Buddhist gifts, the Japanese emperor asked his officials if the Buddha should be worshipped in Japan.

They were divided on the issue, with Soga no Iname (506–570) supporting the idea while Mononobe no Okoshi and Nakatomi no Kamako worried that the kami of Japan would become angry at this worship of a foreign deity.

Based on traditional sources, Shōtoku has been seen as an ardent Buddhist who taught, wrote on, and promoted Buddhism widely, especially during the reign of Empress Suiko (554 – 15 April 628).

[14] A popular quote attributed to Shōtoku that became foundational for Buddhist belief in Japan is translated as "The world is vain and illusory, and the Buddha's realm alone is true.

They included individuals like Ekan (dates unknown), a Koguryŏ priest of the Madhyamaka school, who (according to the Nihon Shoki) was appointed to the highest rank of primary monastic prelate (sōjō).

There were also groups of unofficial monastics or priests (or, self-ordained; shido sōni) who were either not formally ordained and trained through the state channels, or who chose to preach and practice outside of the system.

As before, Buddhist institutions continued to play a key role in the state, with Kanmu being a strong supporter of the new Tendai school of Saichō (767–822) in particular.

[37] Saichō, who had studied the Tiantai school in China, established the influential temple complex of Enryakuji at Mount Hiei, and developed a new system of monastic regulations based on the bodhisattva precepts.

This includes the practice of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, which focuses on the contemplation and chanting of the nenbutsu, the name of the Buddha Amida (Skt.

[64] Additionally, it was during this period that monk Nichiren (1222–1282) began teaching his exclusively Lotus Sutra based Buddhism, which he saw as the only valid object of devotion in the age of mappō.

Nichiren believed that the conflicts and disasters of this period were caused by the wrong views of Japanese Buddhists (such as the followers of Pure Land and esoteric Buddhism).

[72] Indeed, Zen monastic codes feature procedures for "worship of the Buddha, funerals, memorial rites for ancestral spirits, the feeding of hungry ghosts, feasts sponsored by donors, and tea services that served to highlight the bureaucratic and social hierarchy.

[76] The Royal court and elite families of the capital also studied the classic Chinese arts that were being taught in the five mountain Rinzai temples.

The five mountain temples also established their own printing program (Gozan-ban) to copy and disseminate a wide variety of literature that included records of Zen masters, the writings of Tang poets, Confucian classics, Chinese dictionaries, reference works, and medical texts.

They eventually came into conflict with the Tendai warrior monks of Enryakuji in what became known as the Tenbun Period War, in which all 21 major Hokke (Nichiren) temples were destroyed, along with much of Kyoto.

[87] During the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu set into motion a series of reforms which sought to increase state control of religion (as well as to eliminate Christianity).

[90] In the Edo period, Buddhist institutions procured funding through various ritual means, such as the sale of talismans, posthumous names and titles, prayer petitions, and medicine.

[93] Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) laid a strong emphasis on kōan training as the original pedagogical means of his tradition, combining it with a somatic practice by drawing on ideas from Chinese medicine and Daoism.

184–186 Also notable was the publication of an exceptionally high quality reprint of the Ming-era Tripiṭaka by Tetsugen Doko, a renowned master of the Ōbaku school.

Numerous figures in the Ōbaku, Shingon, Shingon-risshū, Nichiren, Jōdo shū and Soto schools participated in this effort to tighten and reform Buddhist ethical discipline.

There had been much pent-up anger among the populace because the Tokugawa danka system forced families to affiliate themselves with a Buddhist temple, which included the obligation of monetary donations.

The government edict of April 1872 ended the status of the Buddhist precepts as state law and allowed monks to marry, to eat meat and stopped the regulation of tonsure and dress.

[110] Kiyozawa Manshi's Seishin-shugi (Spiritualism) movement promoted the idea that Buddhists should focus on self-cultivation without relying on organized Buddhism or the state.

He was a prolific author of around 120 books, including Shinri kinshin (The Guiding Principle of Truth) and Bukkyō katsu ron (Enlivening Buddhism).

They attempted to force Buddhist schools to remove from their doctrines any language or idea that revealed anything less than full allegiance to the emperor or that diminished the significance of Shintō kami.

For example, during the 1940s, "leaders of both Honmon Hokkeshu and Sōka Gakkai were imprisoned for their defiance of wartime government religious policy, which mandated display of reverence for state Shinto.

Another intellectual field that has attracted interest is Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyō), associated with Sōtō Zen priests like Hakamaya Noriaki (b.

[c] The artistic inspiration from Greek floral scrolls is found quite literally in the decoration of Japanese roof tiles, one of the only remaining element of wooden architecture throughout centuries.