[Buddha-l] Religious, But is it the power of Kings?

[Bob Zeuschner]

Hi Lance --
The text books seem in agreement that Buddhism was first introduced into 
Japan from Korea at the highest levels. The ruling clan believed that 
some natural disasters resulted from their rejection of Buddhist 
scriptures and images, and so they adopted Buddhism.
The ruling clans initiated the process and folk or popular Buddhism was 
to develop much later.
However, this is not my area of primary expertise and I welcome the 
input of the Japanese specialists.
Bob

L.S. Cousins wrote:
> Bob,
> 
> But do we really know that ? If it is like elsewhere, the historical 
> records we have don't tell us much about any except the upper classes. 
> Could it not be that Buddhism had some presence in lower class groups 
> already before this. Would our sources tell us about this if it did ?
> 
> Lance
> 
>> Hi Joy --
>> I think the best example that I know of a religion taking hold from 
>> the "top-down" would be Japan. Buddhism was adopted by the ruling 
>> clans in the 700s (most likely understood as a form of Shinto) and it 
>> took quite a while for later forms of Buddhism to grab hold to the 
>> lower classes (especially Pure Land, Nichiren & Zen).
>> Bob
>> Dept. of Philosophy