The Three Types Of Buddhism In Japan

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Buddhism, since its earliest time, has traveled all across the Asian continent and the interpretations of its practices and beliefs have changed to suit the needs of the local communities that practice it; Japan is no exception to this. Ever since the adoption of Buddhist practices, many different forms of Buddhism have been created on the islands of Japan. Some of the more well-known versions from the islands are those founded by Nichiren, Shinran, and Dogen. To see how these three forms of Buddhism differ from one-another, one must look at several things: how each of these types of Buddhism were founded, their views on Mappo (the latter days of the law), how they each view the path to enlightenment, and what type of followers did each of …show more content…
To begin, Nichiren was originally a monk from the Tendai sect of Buddhism and had spent a lot of time studying at the temple on Mt. Hiei. After coming to the conclusion that the most important path to enlightenment was through the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren began to publicly denounce and criticize the other sects of Buddhism which espoused other ideas on enlightenment; this action led to strong reactions from those who he had criticized and even led to him being exiled a couple of times. After his return from exile, Nichiren had built a temple in Minobu (present-day Yamanashi Prefecture) along with his students; that temple is called Kuon-ji. After his death, Nichiren’s top priests, known as the six senior priests, would split up and form their own lineages of schools based on Nichiren’s …show more content…
Hiei. While training as a Tendai monk at the temple on Mt. Hiei, Dogen started to question the sect’s teachings on enlightenment; he would wonder why (for example), if humans are already in possession of enlightenment (based on the concept of original enlightenment found in Tendai Buddhism) deep within themselves, did they feel the need to go and search for enlightenment through other methods? After coming to the conclusion that he would not find the answers he sought on Mt. Hiei, Dogen would leave the mountain and travel to China. After learning about the practice of using koan (riddles) from a monastery in China, Dogen would come to dislike the practice, eventually finding his way to Mt. Tendo in order to learn about a unique type of Zen Buddhism. He would later bring his new-found knowledge back to Japan and write the Zazengi, an instructional piece designed to teach the ways of performing zazen (sitting meditation); this new form of Zen Buddhism being called Soto. However, similar to what had happened with Shinran’s Jodo Shinshu, Dogen’s teachings on Zen Buddhism came under attack as the Tendai sect began to try and suppress his teachings. Due to this, Dogen left Kyoto and founded a temple of his own in (what is presently known as) the city of
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