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Chapter One Institutional Buddhism under Warrior Rule the warriors who struggled to unite Japan under their military rule during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries understood that their ability to govern effectively meant controlling the nation’s powerful Buddhist institutions and aligning themselves with the faith’s spiritual authority. The actions they took in these regards had profound ramifications on the character of the practice of Buddhism thereafter in Japan. This chapter explores the use of religious institutions by these warriors, especially the first five Tokugawa shoguns, under whose direction most of the officially sanctioned Buddhist temples of the early modern era were erected. Buddhist Policies of the Momoyama-Period Military Leaders The first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, based his strategy for subjugating Buddhist temples on those of the warrior generals who first began the process of unifying the nation during the Momoyama period. The initial unifier of that era, Oda Nobunaga, gained authority over Buddhist institutions at a heavy price. He demolished many important temple complexes and treated clergy mercilessly. Nobunaga did not have enmity against all Buddhists, just those he perceived as threats to his hegemony. At the time Nobunaga came to power, numerous Buddhist sects had existed in Japan for centuries, each appealing to different types of followers. Nobunaga distrusted the esoteric (Tantric) Tendai and Shingon sects patronized by the old elite warrior and aristocratic clans since the Heian period (794–1185). Both sects were founded in the ninth century by monks who traveled 18 | buddhism in the arts of early modern japan to China and returned with new doctrines. Tendai (Ch. Tiantai), named after the mountain headquarters (Mount Tientai) of the sect in southern China, was founded by Saichō (posthumous name Dengyō Daishi, 767–822). Its doctrine is inclusive and eclectic, embracing esoteric and Zen meditative practices as well as elements of Pure Land beliefs (discussed below), and it stresses devotion to the highly influential Lotus Sutra (Jp. Hokke kyō or Myōhō renge kyō; Skt. Saddharma pundarīka sūtra; discussed later in this chapter), all of which paved the way for the formation of new populist sects in the thirteenth century. Shingon (Ch. Zhenyan; the “True Word” or “mantra” sect) was established by Kūkai (posthumous name Kōbō Daishi, 774–835). Its secretly transmitted doctrine allows for the possibility of attaining enlightenment in this life, not some future existence, to followers who learned its complex visualization rites that were focused on schematic mandalas and incorporated chanting, meditating, and ritualized hand movements. As it spread among the populace, its priests came to function like shamans, performing divination rituals and offering believers talismans and special rites as prayers for practical benefits as well, such as good health and material success. By the Momoyama period, their success at proselytizing resulted in their temples accumulating huge tracts of arable land, and consequently great wealth, which their militant monks vigorously defended.¹ Nobunaga also attacked the powerful, wealthy, fortress-like Osaka head temple, Honganji, of the Jōdo Shin sect (the True Pure Land sect; Jōdo Shinshū), commonly known today simply as the “Shin” sect. This sect was a particularly militant denomination whose leaders refused to surrender autonomy to a secular leader. It was one of the largest denominations of the Pure Land sects, founded in the Kamakura period (1185–1336), that proselytized most heavily to commoners. The basic tenet of the Pure Land sects espouses an easy path to salvation, especially attractive to the masses of commoners in premodern Japan who, though literate in native Japanese, could not read Buddhist texts, which were written in Chinese. Believers could attain rebirth after death in the Western Pure Land Paradise, presided over by the buddha Amida, the Buddha of Light, who resides in the Western Paradise (Skt. Amitābha), through pure faith in him, as demonstrated in simple chanting of his name (reciting the nenbutsu). By Nobunaga’s time the Shin sect had attracted the largest numbers of followers of any Buddhist denomination, and Nobunaga’s successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi , saw the benefit in placating its supporters, so he relocated its headquarters temple, Honganji, to Kyoto, in large part to better oversee it. In contrast, his usurper, Tokugawa Ieyasu, recognized that the Shin sect’s power could threaten his authority, so he divided it into two branches, both remaining headquartered in Kyoto. The Ōtani school (Shinshū Ōtani ha) head temple is Higashi (East) Honganji, and the Honganji school (Shinshū Honganji ha...

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