Shapers of Japanese Buddhism

About this book

More than thirteen centuries of clergy laity and social conditions interacted to mold Japans Buddhism. Todays resulting characteristics which distinguish it from its mainland sources include a proliferation of independent sects emphasis on religion for lay members and de-emphasis of clerical codes. The twenty main biographies and seventy-five sketches presented in this book reveal both the individual and social aspects of Buddhist evolution and in Japan spanning from the sixth through twentieth centuries. They cover the many separate interchanges that brought Buddhist texts and practices from Korea and China as well as the innovations that arose in Japan.