Summary by Bruce Maltz. Edited by Mark Unno. Tuesday, February 05, 2002

Kazuo OSUMI, "Kamakura Buddhism"

The Kamakura Period [1192-1333] signaled a shift from Heian [aristocratic] Buddhism of Kyoto and Nara to military [shogunate] rule, with a corresponding rise of Japanese religious movements of Pure Land, Zen and Nichiren. The old established Buddhist schools [Hosso, Kengon, Ritsu, Tendai, Shingon] were guilty of corruption and collusion with vested interests. Their emphasis on cumbersome rituals and incomprehensible doctrinal formulations tended to neglect laypersons who were seeking religious pietism and salvation in the newly emerging social order. The renewed influence of Chinese Buddhism attracted the samurai class while cults of Amida spread among the common people. Leaders of the new schools of Buddhism [shin bukkyo, as opposed to kyo bukkyo] come out of the reform traditions of Tendai but these reformers did not cleanse the old monastic establishments of Mt. Hiei, Mt. Koya and Nara. The new Buddhism was not "one of ceremonies and mysteries but religions of piety and spiritual exercise. Dogma gave way to personal experience, ritualism and sacerdotalism gave way to piety and intuition" [Anesaki, History of Japanese Religion, p. 168.]

The five main figures of Kamakura Buddhism were Honen [1133-1212] of the Pure Land School, Shinran [1173-1262] of the True Pure Land School, Nichiren [1222-1282] of the Nichiren School, Eisai [1141-1215] of the Rinzai Zen School, and Dogen [1200-1253] of the Soto Zen School. These charismatic founders transformed Buddhism [the Chinese cultural import] into Japanese Buddhism [the ethos of the Japanese national identity]. The central motif was to experience the certainty of salvation, but nationalism and Shinto beliefs were strong conditioning factors.

The new cults of Buddhism suffered some form of persecution from the established Buddhist schools. The founders of the new cults usually felt that sanctification and enlightenment via the means of precepts, traditional meditation rituals and knowledge were practically unattainable, in light of mappo [the last of three declining ages in the East Asian view Buddhist history]. Honen advocated the exclusive practice of recitation of the nembutsu [Namu Amida Butsu] and sole reliance on the compassion of Amida [and the accompanying Pure Land Sutras]. Shinran went even further and championed ta-riki [other power] exclusively. Ippen [1239-89], founder of the Ji [Times] sect, followed the pattern of shamanistic holy men [hijiri] and spent his life as a wandering sage [yugyo shonin] extolling the Pure Land path of saying the nembutsu. In Jodo and Shin, Amida became the central Buddha, not simply one of five Buddhas. Nichiren advocated the sole reliance on the Lotus Sutra and the daimoku [recitation of the title of the Lotus Sutra, i.e. Namu Myo Ho Renge Kyo]. Nichiren was also intent on destroying Pure Land, Shingon, Ritsu and Zen in order to establish a true "Buddha land" in Japan.

The main Zen schools were Rinzai, Soto and Fuke. These schools catered to upper classes, they made cultural contributions that are now identified with Japan, and they also transplanted Neo-Confucian thought to Japan.

Ultimately, all the new schools developed into religious, social and political institutions. Indigenous religious traditions [Shinto] were synthesized into Japanese Buddhism. Conversely, traditional schools [Tendai, Shingon] initiated political and religious creativity in their sects in reaction to the challenge and threat of the new Buddhist movements of the Kamakura period.