Table Of ContentBuddhism in Japan
With an Outline of Its Origins in India
Bodhidharma, by Soga Jasoku. From the Daruma Triptych,
late fifteenth century. Height 87 cm. Tötoku-in Tempte,
Kyoto.
Buddhism in Japan
With an Outline of Its Origins in India
By
E. Dale Saunders
Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania Press
A mon maitre
Monsieur Charles Haguenauer
professeur ä la Sorbonne
en temoignage de ma respectueuse gratitude
Copyright © 1964 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
First Pennsylvania Paperback edition published 1971
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-10900
ISBN: 0-8122-1006-9 (paper)
ISBN: 0-8122-7411-3 (cloth)
Printed in The United States of America
Foreword
THE FOLLOWING HISTORY of Japanese Buddhist Doctrine is
neither exhaustive nor detailed. If anything, it may be called
"selective.'' My aim has been to provide an historical frame-
work, based on the noteworthy points of Buddhist Doctrine,
which the reader may use as a point of departure for further
reading. Although the following pages focus on the evolution
of the Doctrine in Japan, it is, of course, impossible to limit a
study of what is, after all, a "foreign" religion for the Japanese
to Japan alone. Therefore, the history has been divided into
two parts: Part I, giving the general outlines of the Doctrine
as it evolved in India; and Part II, presenting a more detailed
treatment, according to sects, of Buddhism in the Japanese
islands from earliest times until the twentieth century. The
evolution of Buddhism in China, certainly pertinent to Jap-
anese religious history, has been omitted, though I have made
specific reference to the Chinese phase under the various Jap-
anese sects whenever I felt that such information served to fill
out the history of a sect in Japan. Chinese Zen, for example,
has been accorded considerably more space than the con-
tinental antecedents of other sects.
In general, the Sanskrit names of elements of the Buddhist
Tripitaka have been preserved in Part I, while Japanese tran-
scriptions have regularly been used in Part II. When necessary,
in Part II, the Sanskrit title has been given in parentheses after
the Japanese. It will be noted that each sütra title is followed
5
6 Buddhism in Japan
by the letter Τ and a numeral. The Τ refers to the Taishö
edition of the Chinese Tripitaka and the numerals to the list-
ing in the Taishö edition as given in the tables of the Höbö-
girin, Dictionnaire encyclopedique du bouddhisme d'apres les
sources chinoises et japonaises. Sütra readings have also been
based on this source.
Since, as was noted above, the present history is meant to
provide a point of departure for further reading, a bibliog-
raphy has been appended. Here too, the bibliography is not
exhaustive but selective in nature. It will be noted that sections
on Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism have been included for the
benefit of those wishing to read on these subjects, even though
they have not been treated extensively in the text. Quotations
and references in the text have been kept to a minimum. They
may be consulted in an appendix.
Quite a number of Sanskrit and Japanese names are used in
the following pages. Sanskrit being to Buddhism what Latin is
to Christianity, it has been impossible to avoid the basic tech-
nical terms in their original language, as well as in Japanese.
A note concerning the treatment and pronunciation of these
words may be of assistance.
In general, both Sanskrit and Japanese words have been
italicized in the main body of the text only on first usage. In
Japanese words the macron has been omitted from common
place names, i.e., Tokyo and Kobe. With the exception of the
macron, diacritical marks have been omitted in Sanskrit words
whose transliteration, although not technically exact, has been
changed to comply with English pronunciation. This holds
true of sütra titles also.
Generally speaking, Sanskrit vowels have long and short
forms, all pronounced roughly as in Italian. An exception is
the short a, which sounds like the u in but (long a, correctly
written ä, sounds like the a in father). Long syllables contain a
Foreword 7
long vowel written with a macron [ά], e, or o; a dipthong; or
a vowel followed by two consonants, except h. The presence of
h indicates aspiration, and th sounds always like the th in
fathead. Accent falls on the penult if it is long; if it is short,
accent shifts to the first long syllable toward the beginning of
the word : tathägata, upanishad.
Pronunciation of Japanese words should present no diffi-
culty. Generally speaking, there is no tonic stress; consonants
are as in English, vowels as in Italian.
Lastly, I should like to express my sincere appreciation to
those of my friends who have helped me in the preparation of
this text: to Schuyler Cammann, Chimyö Horioka, and
Bernard Frank who gave me the benefit of numerous sugges-
tions, and to William McGuire who did much for the technical
preparation of the manuscript. I am indebted to all of them.
E.D.S.
Castello San Peyre
Opio (A.M.)
August, 1960
Contents
Foreword 5
Part I : The Indian Background 13
Pre-Buddhist Notions 15
Life of the Buddha 18
Sources 31
Buddhism in India 45
Doctrine 51
Mahäyäna 70
Tantrism 75
Extension of Buddhism 82
Part II : Japanese Buddhism 89
The Introduction of Buddhism to Japan 91
Nara Period (710-784) 101
Heian Period (794-1185) 134
Kamakura Period (1 185-1333) 185
Post-Nichiren Period (1300-1600) 238
Tokugawa Period (1600-1868) 246
Meiji Period (1868-1912) 255
Survey of Japanese Buddhism 261
New Religions 265
Notes 287
A Selected Bibliography 289
Statistics on Religions 297
Chronologies 301
Glossary of Indian Terms with Their Japanese
Equivalents 307
Index 321
