Buddhism in the Edo period

Vajrayāna (), otherwise known as Mantrayāna ("Mantra Vehicle"), Guhyamantrayāna ("Secret Mantra Vehicle"), Tantrayāna ("Tantra Vehicle"), Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a vehicle in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition that emphasizes esoteric practices and rituals aimed at rapid spiritual awakening. Emerging between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in medieval India. Vajrayāna Buddhism incorporates a range of techniques, including the use of mantras (sacred sounds), dhāraṇīs (mnemonic codes), mudrās (symbolic hand gestures), mandalās (spiritual diagrams), and the vi

thumb|Kitsune|Foxes sacred to Shinto kami Inari, a [[torii, a Buddhist stone pagoda, and Buddhist figures together at Jōgyō-ji, Kamakura]] Shinbutsu-shūgō (, "syncretism of kami and buddhas"), a.k.a. the Shinbutsu-konkō (, "jumbling up" or "contamination of kami and buddhas"), is the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism that was Japan's main organized religion up until the Meiji period. Beginning in 1868, the new Meiji government approved a series of laws that separated Japanese native kami worship, on one side, from Buddhism which had assimilated it, on the other.

thumb|right|A komusō (monk of the Fuke sect) wearing a basket hat (天蓋 tengai or tengui) and playing the shakuhachi, as depicted by J. M. W. Silver thumb|right|The entrance to Myōan-ji temple in Kyoto. Myōan-ji, a subsidiary of [[Tōfuku-ji, was the head temple of the Fuke sect, founded by the komusō Kyochiku Zenji.]]

policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism pursued by the Meiji government of Japan

thumb|right|Terakoya school in the Edo period|upright=1 were private educational institutions that taught reading and writing to the children of Japanese commoners during the Edo period.

was a position within the system for the administration of religion that existed from the Muromachi period to the Edo period in Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were always fudai daimyōs, the lowest-ranking of the shogunate offices to be so restricted.

Japanese grouping of Buddhist deities

, "single-minded school," was a sect of Japanese Pure Land Buddhists whose history remains obscure.

Bokuseki (墨跡) is a Japanese term meaning “ink trace”, and refers to a form of Japanese calligraphy (shodō) and more specifically a style of zenga developed by Zen monks.

System of voluntary and long-term affiliation between Buddhist temples and households

right|thumb|300px| pasted on a shrine gate in Gifu, Gifu|Gifu

political incident in the early Edo period Japan

thumb|The lyrics of a song in the book, (Gekkin Gakufu; 1877) annotated in tō-on pronunciation