Only by becoming Buddhist could they advance, one of the most famous cases being Hachiman bosatsu (a kami-cum-Bodhisattva). The kami were already part of the spiritual landscape, so they had to be fitted in somehow. In a reversal of what one might expect, the native kami were ranked below the imported deities in shinbutsu-shugyo syncretism. Protectors known as -ten, such as Bishamonten, Marisihiten, Benzaiten.Boddhisattvas (bosatsu in Japanese), notably Kannon, Jizo and Miroku.Shakyamuni, Amida Nyorai, Dainichi Nyorai, Yakushi Myorai). Enlightened beings known as Nyorai (historical Buddha i.e.As if the eight myriad kami of Japan were not enough, temple statues include a whole range of deities drawn China and India, ranked into four groupings: Nonetheless the legacy is clear.Īs I’ve come to see on my round of Zen temples, far from ‘Nothingness’ the Zen imagination is peopled by a populous universe. Some believed they were ‘masters of the kami’, while others may have been agnostic (as are many today, calling themselves ritualists rather than believers). The worship of kami by Buddhist priests has been viewed as a ‘skillful means’ by which to achieve their ends. In Japan Daoism was replaced with its local equivalent, Shinto. In China the three teachings were of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism. Hachiman dressed as a Buddhist priest in search of enlightenment He did, spending six years there and returning to spread Zen in Kyushu (he also brought back noodles, namely udon). Like other kami, Sugawara’s spirit was integrated into Zen as a protector of temples, though it was thought he needed Buddhist instruction to achieve true enlightenment.Įnni Ben’en, founder of Tofuku-ji, was visited by Michizane in a dream and told to go to China to study meditation. The Chan master Wuzhun Shifan (1177-1249) is said to have transmitted his patriarchal robe to Michizane, who posthumously became the kami Tenjin. Thereafter the emperor dreamt that Amaterasu was none other than the Buddhist deity, Dainichi (literally, Great Sun).Ī later Buddhist sect, Zen, became associated with Sugawara no Michizane, who was one of the last to go to China to study in Heian times. On the seventh day after the offering, the voice of Amaterasu was heard to say that thanks to the monk’s devotion she had just achieved salvation. A famous medieval account tells how Emperor Shomu asked the Buddhist priest, Gyoki, to offer a relic of the Buddha at Ise. At one time there was hostility among kami supporters to the imported religion, but this was soon suffused into mutual recognition.
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