Abstract

In the study of the history of religions, it is only natural that when a religion enters a new country, the focus of study is on the manner in which the new religion changes the society into which it entered. However, to do so exclusively misses a very important parallel development, i.e., how the new religion is changed by the culture it encounters. 

In the case of Buddhism’s entrance into China it is easy to point to such evident physical changes as the transformation of an Indian bell-shaped stupa into a multi-storied Chinese pagoda, or the gender change of the Indian male bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara into Guanyin, typically depicted in Chinese iconography with feminine features. Given these readily apparent, physical changes it is not surprising to learn that they were accompanied by doctrinal developments resulting from Buddhism’s interaction with such traditional, pre-Buddhist Chinese cultural expressions as Confucianism and Taoism.

On the one hand, it is true that Japan, as a society in East Asia, shares a deeper cultural affinity with China in comparison to the greater cultural differences between China and India. Nevertheless, as this presentation will attest, there are major differences between the development of Buddhism in China and Japan despite the fact that China was the wellspring of Japanese Buddhism. This presentation is dedicated to an elucidation of these differences and, whenever possible, an explanation as to why these differences came about.

The presentation will begin with a description of Buddhism’s initial entrance into Japan, focusing on the early influence the Japanese indigenous religion of Shinto exerted on the acceptance of Buddhism. To some degree it can be said that the changes made to Sinicized Buddhism due to the influence of Shinto would last to the present day. 

Beyond Shinto’s influence, this presentation will focus on the changes that occurred to both Pure Land Buddhism (Jōdo-shū) and Zen/Chan in Japan. For example, in the case of Pure Land Buddhism what was it that caused the split of that form of Buddhism into separate sects, i.e., the emergence of True Pure Land Buddhism (Jōdo-shinshū). Even more importantly, how did this split contribute to the emergence of a married clergy, to the point that nearly all clergy in Japan today are married regardless of their sectarian affiliation.

As for Zen, what was it about this form of Buddhism that made it attractive to the emerging warrior class (samurai) in Japan. What made it so attractive that it became the preferred spiritual practice of Japan’s modern Imperial Army officers during World War II even as Japan invaded China and other Asian countries. These and many other developments will be considered in this presentation, not least of which is the question of why many today in Japan consider traditional Buddhism, now fully a Japanese faith, to be in serious, even terminal, decline.

Speaker’s Bio:

Brian Daizen Victoria is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and a 1961 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds a M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Sōtō Zen sect-affiliated Komazawa University in Tokyo, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Religious Studies at Temple University.

In addition to Zen Terror in Prewar Japan: Portrait of an Assassin (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), Brian’s major writings include a 2nd, enlarged edition of Zen At War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Zen War Stories (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003); an autobiographical work in Japanese entitled Gaijin de ari, Zen bozu de ari (As a Foreigner, As a Zen Priest), published by San-ichi Shobo in 1971; Zen Master Dōgen, coauthored with Prof. Yokoi Yūhō of Aichi-gakuin University (Weatherhill, 1976); and a translation of The Zen Life by Sato Koji (Weatherhill, 1972). In addition, Brian has published numerous journal articles, focusing on the relationship of not only Buddhism but religion in general to violence and warfare.

From 2005 to 2013 Brian was a professor of Japanese Studies and director of the AEA “Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program” at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Brian currently resides in Kyoto, Japan where he is writing a new book on Uchiyama Gudō, a Sōtō Zen priest executed in January 1911 due to his opposition to the Russo-Japanese War and embrace of socialism. Brian is a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.

Please click below to see a video of a talk given by Prof Victoria entitled “War, Zen Buddhism and Academia” at an IAFOR-sponsored conference in Kobe, Japan in Fall 2016.

War, Zen Buddhism and Academia with Brian Daizen Victoria