Buddhism in Japan

traditions of Buddhism popular in Japan

branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Pure Land

Kṣitigarbha (, , Wylie: sa yi snying po) is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb". Kṣitigarbha is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity o

, formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan affiliated with the Soka Gakkai religious movement. It is generally considered centrist. From 1999 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2025, it served in government as the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

thumb| () by Kanjuro Shibata XX. Some artists draw with an opening in the circle, while others close the circle. In Zen art, an is a circle hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express the Zen mind, which is associated with enlightenment, emptiness, freedom, and the state of no-mind.

wood plaque deposited in a Japanese shrine or temple to ask for a wish

are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally "sacred lot", these are usually received by making a small offering and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. , vending machines sometimes dispense .

thumb|right|250px|Central Asian bhikkhu|Buddhist monk teaching a Chinese monk. [[Bezeklik Caves, 9th–10th century; although Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired monk was a Tocharian, modern scholarship has identified similar Caucasoid figures of the same cave temple (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).]]

thumb|300px|An ornate butsudan with open doors displaying an enshrined Amida Buddha. A Butsudan in the [[Jodo Shinshu Buddhism tradition. (At Osamu Dazai Memorial Museum)]] thumb|Close-up view of the inner altar with the painted scroll of the Buddha

two wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha standing at the entrance of Buddhist temples in East Asian Buddhism

yearly set of nine sacred ritual dances and music

pre-Meiji era travelling performers

Buddhist mantra

thumb|200px|right|A gorintō on top of the Mimizuka with Siddhaṃ inscriptions ("five-ringed tower") is a Japanese type of Buddhist pagoda believed to have been first adopted by the Shingon and Tendai sects during the mid Heian period. It is used for memorial or funerary purposes and is therefore common in Buddhist temples and cemeteries. It is also called ("five-ringed stupa") or , where the term sotoba is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word stupa. The stupa was originally a structure or other sacred building containing a relic of Buddha or of a saint, then it was gradually stylized in vari

thumb|250px|Nikkō Tōshō-gū enshrines [[Tokugawa Ieyasu under the posthumous name of Tōshō Daigongen.]]

Mikkyō (, from ), or Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, is the lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism transmitted to Japan, primarily in the early Heian by Kūkai, and to a later extent by Saichō and his successors such as Ennin. It consists of complex systems of icons, meditative rituals, and ritual languages; distinct from the exoteric (, 顕経) schools.

thumb|An example of Butsuzō Honzon in the Pure Land tradition featuring [[Amida Buddha.]]

thumb|right|A depiction of a Tennin. thumb|A man with an irezumi tattoo of a Tennyo.

thumb|Painting of the Amida Buddha descending from heaven in a raigō procession (14th century) is a pivotal concept in Pure Land Buddhism, referring to the belief that Amida Buddha descends from the Pure Land of Sukhavati to guide the mindstreams of a devotee to the Pure Land at the moment of death. This spiritual event is viewed as a literal escort by the Buddha, ensuring the deceased avoids the pitfalls of the lower realms of rebirth. Often accompanied by a celestial retinue of bodhisattvas, including Seishi and Kannon, Amida is said to appear on gold and purple clouds (紫雲) to the dying per

Japanese folk tale

A hōkyōintō and its parts|thumb A is a type of pagoda, so called because it originally contained the sūtra (or ). A Chinese variant of the Indian stupa, it was originally conceived as a cenotaph of Qian Liu, the King of Wuyue.

This is an article on Buddhist rankings. For the artist, see Yamazaki Sōkan.

type of Japanese shrine

The is an ascetic practice performed by Tendai Buddhist monks. The practice involves repeatedly walking a route on Mount Hiei, the location of the Tendai school headquarters, all the while offering prayers at halls, shrines and other sacred places. The longest observance of this practice takes 1000 days to complete, spread over seven years.

Japanese painting with Buddhist theme

former Japanese political party (till 1998)

Japanese new religion

Japanese plague deity, historically conflated with Susanoo

Myōjin (明神 'shining deity', 'illuminating deity', or 'apparent deity') or Daimyōjin (大明神 'great shining/apparent deity') was a title historically applied to kami ('Japanese deities') and, by metonymy, their shrines.