Los orígenes, difusión y conexiones interreligiosas en torno a las cuentas de oración: un caso de estudio de la evangelización de Japón

Praying with a string of beads is not exclusive to Catholicism. Various Asian religions have had a similar tradition since before the advent of Christ. This paper addresses the parallels between different religious traditions, as well as the origin, formation and spread of the Holy Rosary and its variants called “crowns.” It also analyzes the intersections between Buddhist and Catholic prayer traditions during the period of the evangelization of Japan (1549-1639). To this end, it draws on a theoretical framework aimed at interpreting the acceptance of Christianity from the point of view of ordinary people, by comparing the similarities and differences between the beliefs, practices, and organizational structure of popular Buddhism (in particular, Jōdo-shū and Jōdo-Shinshū, branches of Pure Land Buddhism) and those of Catholicism.

Japanese American Buddhism

Japanese Buddhism was introduced to the United States at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, but the development of Japanese American Buddhism, also known as Nikkei Buddhism, really began when Japanese migrants brought Buddhism with them to Hawaii and the continental United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been influenced by, and has reflected, America’s sociopolitical and religious climate and the US relationship to Japan, to which generations of Japanese Americans, such as Issei (literally, first generation, referring to Japanese immigrants), Nisei (second-generation American-born offspring of the Issei), and Sansei (third generation), responded differently. While adapting to American society, Japanese American Buddhists maintained their cultural practices and ethnoreligious identity. The history of Japanese American Buddhism discussed in this article spans from the late-19th Century to the 1970s and is divided into three major periods: the pre-World War II, World War II, and the postwar eras. Japanese American Buddhism is derived from the various Buddhist organizations in Japan. The Nishi Hongwanji denomination of Jōdo Shinshū, a form of Pure Land Buddhism known as Shin Buddhism in the West, is the oldest and largest form of ethnic Japanese Buddhism in the United States. In Hawaii, Nishi Hongwanji founded the Hompa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii (HHMH) in Honolulu in 1897. On the continental United States, it established the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA) in San Francisco in 1898, currently known as the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA). Other Japanese Buddhist organizations also developed in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. They include the Jōdo-shū, another sect of Pure Land Buddhism; Higashi Hongwanji, another major denomination of Jōdoshin-shū; Sōtō-shū, a Zen Buddhist school; Shingon-shū, known as Kōyasan Buddhism; and Nichiren-shū. The characteristics of Japanese American Buddhism changed significantly during World War II, when approximately 120,000 persons of Japanese descent living in the West Coast states were incarcerated because of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The postwar period witnessed a rapid transformation in the status and visibility of Japanese Buddhism in the United States. This transformation was driven by the promotion of ethnonational Buddhism by Nisei and by the growth of interest in Zen Buddhism among the general American public. The positive reception of Japanese Buddhism in the United States reflected and reinforced the transformed relationship between the United States and Japan from wartime enemies to Cold War partners. While they experienced greater receptivity and interest in Buddhism from nonethnics, they could no longer practice or espouse Jōdo Shinshū teachings or adapted practices without clarification. Debates concerning the authenticity of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism and Japanese American Buddhist practices were interwoven within a longer history of American Orientalism. By the 1960s, Japanese American Buddhist communities were transformed by the addition of a small but vocal nonethnic membership and a new generation of Sansei Buddhists. Demands for English-speaking ministers resulted in the creation, in 1967, of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, the first graduate-level training program in the United States endorsed by Nishi Hongwanji. This article is an overview of Japanese American Buddhism with a focus on the development of the Nishi Hongwanji Shin Buddhist organizations in the United States. English scholarship on the development of other Japanese Buddhist organizations in the United States is still limited. Throughout the history of Japanese American Buddhism, Nikkei Buddhists negotiated with America’s political institutions and Christian churches, as well as with Euro-American Buddhists, over Buddhist and cultural practices to maintain and redefine their ethnoreligious tradition. Buddhist temples provided the space for them to gather and build a community of shared faith and cultural heritage, discuss their place and the role of Buddhism in American society, and express their concerns to America’s general public.

Jōdo Shinshū in the UK

This article outlines the history of Jōdo Shinshū in the UK, and asks why it has remained little known there despite being one of the largest schools of Buddhism in Japan, with sizable overseas branches in the Americas. I argue that this is due, at least in part, to the absence of a settled Japanese migrant population in Europe, in contrast to the Americas, where Jōdo Shinshū has been sustained historically by its ethnic Japanese base, although this has changed somewhat in recent years. Another important factor is the unfamiliarity of “other power” Buddhism in Europe. With its emphasis on reliance on Amida Buddha, rather than more familiar forms of Buddhist practice like seated silent meditation, Jōdo Shinshū challenges popular conceptions of Buddhism outside Asia, and this may affect its appeal in a European context.

Tokyo—An Irish Burmese Monk in Imperial Japan

In 1902 the Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka left Burma for Tokyo, hoping to take part in a planned sequel to the Chicago World’s Parliament of Religions of 1893. Although the event did not take place, Dhammaloka was involved in the formation of the International Young Men’s Buddhist Association (IYMBA), based in a Jodo Shinshu university. The chapter explores this event and Dhammaloka’s other activities in Japan, locating them within wider Japanese religious politics. While his anti-Christian polemic was at odds with the ecumenical “world religions” frame of his hosts, and he found himself at odds with or dismissed by various significant figures, he came away from the experience dedicated to an international Buddhist practice, which he would in fact promote more effectively than the IYMBA proved capable of doing.

Diplomatic Salvation: Buddhist Exchanges and Sino-Japanese Rapprochement

Beginning in the ruins of Buddhist sacred sites in China, Richardson and Scott unearths the reconstruction of post-imperial Sino-Japanese relations through the history of Buddhist exchanges. Building on important new trends in the diplomatic history of early Cold War East Asia, Richardson and Scott move well beyond the focus on Japan-PRC economic relations to minkan religious networks which tied Japan and China throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In so doing this chapter sheds light on the central role of temple priests and religious groups such as Jōdō shinshū and Sōka gakkai, illustrating how Buddhism and religion were pragmatically deployed to bypass official obstacles to bilateral relations. Ultimately, this chapter deepens our understanding of how Buddhist religious and cultural heritages were mobilized to build trust and cooperation beyond the violence of imperial wars. In memorializing war dead, and in returning the remains of forced laborers, religious leaders played an important role in normalizing relations between Japan and the PRC.