A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism

Download A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118608313
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (186 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism by : William E. Deal

Download or read book A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism written by William E. Deal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism offers a comprehensive, nuanced, and chronological account of the evolution of Buddhist religion in Japan from the sixth century to the present day. Traces each period of Japanese history to reveal the complex and often controversial histories of Japanese Buddhists and their unfolding narratives Examines relevant social, political, and transcultural contexts, and places an emphasis on Japanese Buddhist discourses and material culture Addresses the increasing competition between Buddhist, Shinto, and Neo-Confucian world-views through to the mid-nineteenth century Informed by the most recent research, including the latest Japanese and Western scholarship Illustrates the richness and complexity of Japanese Buddhism as a lived religion, offering readers a glimpse into the development of this complex and often misunderstood tradition

Japanese Temple Buddhism

Download Japanese Temple Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824829670
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japanese Temple Buddhism by : Stephen Covell

Download or read book Japanese Temple Buddhism written by Stephen Covell and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-09-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been many studies that focus on aspects of the history of Japanese Buddhism. Until now, none have addressed important questions of organization and practice in contemporary Buddhism, questions such as how Japanese Buddhism came to be seen as a religion of funeral practices; how Buddhist institutions envision the role of the laity; and how a married clergy has affected life at temples and the image of priests. This volume is the first to address fully contemporary Buddhist life and institutions—topics often overlooked in the conflict between the rhetoric of renunciation and the practices of clerical marriage and householding that characterize much of Buddhism in today’s Japan. Informed by years of field research and his own experiences training to be a Tendai priest, Stephen Covell skillfully refutes this "corruption paradigm" while revealing the many (often contradictory) facets of contemporary institutional Buddhism, or as Covell terms it, Temple Buddhism. Covell significantly broadens the scope of inquiry to include how Buddhism is approached by both laity and clerics when he takes into account temple families, community involvement, and the commodification of practice. He considers law and tax issues, temple strikes, and the politics of temple boards of directors to shed light on how temples are run and viewed by their inhabitants, supporters, and society in general. In doing so he uncovers the economic realities that shape ritual practices and shows how mundane factors such as taxes influence the debate over temple Buddhism’s role in contemporary Japanese society. In addition, through interviews and analyses of sectarian literature and recent scholarship on gender and Buddhism, he provides a detailed look at priests’ wives, who have become indispensable in the management of temple affairs.

Buddhism and Modernity

Download Buddhism and Modernity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824884582
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Buddhism and Modernity by : Orion Klautau

Download or read book Buddhism and Modernity written by Orion Klautau and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan was the first Asian nation to face the full impact of modernity. Like the rest of Japanese society, Buddhist institutions, individuals, and thought were drawn into the dynamics of confronting the modern age. Japanese Buddhism had to face multiple challenges, but it also contributed to modern Japanese society in numerous ways. Buddhism and Modernity: Sources from Nineteenth-Century Japan makes accessible the voices of Japanese Buddhists during the early phase of high modernity. The volume offers original translations of key texts—many available for the first time in English—by central actors in Japan’s transition to the modern era, including the works of Inoue Enryō, Gesshō, Hara Tanzan, Shimaji Mokurai, Kiyozawa Manshi, Murakami Senshō, Tanaka Chigaku, and Shaku Sōen. All of these writers are well recognized by Buddhist studies scholars and Japanese historians but have drawn little attention elsewhere; this stands in marked contrast to the reception of Japanese Buddhism since D. T. Suzuki, the towering figure of Japanese Zen in the first half of the twentieth century. The present book fills the chronological gap between the premodern era and the twentieth century by focusing on the crucial transition period of the nineteenth century. Issues central to the interaction of Japanese Buddhism with modernity inform the five major parts of the work: sectarian reform, the nation, science and philosophy, social reform, and Japan and Asia. Throughout the chapters, the globally entangled dimension—both in relation to the West, especially the direct and indirect impact of Christianity, and to Buddhist Asia—is of great importance. The Introduction emphasizes not only how Japanese Buddhism was part of a broader, globally shared reaction of religions to the specific challenges of modernity, but also goes into great detail in laying out the specifics of the Japanese case.

Shapers of Japanese Buddhism

Download Shapers of Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Kosei Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9784333016303
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (163 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Shapers of Japanese Buddhism by : Yusen Kashiwahara

Download or read book Shapers of Japanese Buddhism written by Yusen Kashiwahara and published by Kosei Publishing Company. This book was released on 1994-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than thirteen centuries of clergy, laity, and social conditions interacted to mold Japan's Buddhism. Today's resulting characteristics, which distinguish it from its mainland sources, include a proliferation of independent sects, emphasis on religion for lay members, and de-emphasis of clerical codes. The twenty main biographies and seventy-five sketches presented in this book reveal both the individual and social aspects of Buddhist evolution and in Japan, spanning from the sixth through twentieth centuries. They cover the many separate interchanges that brought Buddhist texts and practices from Korea and China as well as the innovations that arose in Japan.

The Japanese Buddhist World Map

Download The Japanese Buddhist World Map PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824890051
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Japanese Buddhist World Map by : D. Max Moerman

Download or read book The Japanese Buddhist World Map written by D. Max Moerman and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries Japanese monks created hundreds of maps to construct and locate their place in a Buddhist world. This expansively illustrated volume is the first to explore the largely unknown archive of Japanese Buddhist world maps and analyze their production, reproduction, and reception. In examining these fascinating sources of visual and material culture, author D. Max Moerman argues for an alternative history of Japanese Buddhism—one that compels us to recognize the role of the Buddhist geographic imaginary in a culture that encompassed multiple cartographic and cosmological world views. The contents and contexts of Japanese Buddhist world maps reveal the ambivalent and shifting position of Japan in the Buddhist world, its encounter and negotiation with foreign ideas and technologies, and the possibilities for a global history of Buddhism and science. Moerman’s visual and intellectual history traces the multiple trajectories of Japanese Buddhist world maps, beginning with the earliest extant Japanese map of the world: a painting by a fourteenth-century Japanese monk charting the cosmology and geography of India and Central Asia based on an account written by a seventh-century Chinese pilgrim-monk. He goes on to discuss the cartographic inclusion and marginal position of Japan, the culture of the copy and the power of replication in Japanese Buddhism, and the transcultural processes of engagement and response to new visions of the world produced by Iberian Christians, Chinese Buddhists, and the Japanese maritime trade. Later chapters explore the transformations in the media and messages of Buddhist cartography in the age of print culture and in intellectual debates during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries over cosmology and epistemology and the polemics of Buddhist science. The Japanese Buddhist World Map offers a wholly innovative picture of Japanese Buddhism that acknowledges the possibility of multiple and heterogeneous modernities and alternative visions of Japan and the world.

A History of Japanese Buddhism

Download A History of Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Global Oriental
ISBN 13 : 9004213317
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A History of Japanese Buddhism by : Kenji Matsuo

Download or read book A History of Japanese Buddhism written by Kenji Matsuo and published by Global Oriental. This book was released on 2007-12-13 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First study in English on Japanese Buddhism by a distinguished scholar in the field of Religious Studies will be widely welcomed.The main focus is on the tradition of the monk (o-bo-san) as the main agent of Buddhism, together with the historical processes by which monks have developed Japanese Buddhism as it appears in the present day.

Encyclopedia of Buddhism

Download Encyclopedia of Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136985956
Total Pages : 1396 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (369 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Buddhism by : Damien Keown

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Buddhism written by Damien Keown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 1396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflects the current state of scholarship in Buddhist Studies, its entries being written by specialists in many areas, presenting an accurate overview of Buddhist history, thought and practices, most entries having cross-referencing to others and bibliographical references. Contain around 1000 pages and 500,000 words, totalling around 1200 entries.

Behold the Buddha

Download Behold the Buddha PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824879996
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Behold the Buddha by : James C. Dobbins

Download or read book Behold the Buddha written by James C. Dobbins and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Images of the Buddha are everywhere—not just in temples but also in museums and homes and online—but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. In Behold the Buddha, James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons in temple settings long before the advent of museums and the internet. Although widely portrayed in the last century as visual emblems of great religious truths or as exquisite works of Asian art, Buddhist images were traditionally treated as the very embodiment of the Buddha, his palpable presence among people. Hence, Buddhists approached them as living entities in their own right—that is, as awakened icons with whom they could interact religiously. Dobbins begins by reflecting on art museums, where many non-Buddhists first encounter images of the Buddha, before outlining the complex Western response to them in previous centuries. He next elucidates images as visual representations of the story of the Buddha’s life followed by an overview of the physical attributes and symbolic gestures found in Buddhist iconography. A variety of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other divinities commonly depicted in Japanese Buddhism is introduced, and their “living” quality discussed in the context of traditional temples and Buddhist rituals. Finally, other religious objects in Japanese Buddhism—relics, scriptures, inscriptions, portraits of masters, and sacred sites—are explained using the Buddhist icon as a model. Dobbins concludes by contemplating art museums further as potential sites for discerning the religious character of Buddhist images. Those interested in Buddhism generally who would like to learn more about its rich iconography—whether encountered in temples or museums—will find much in this concise, well-illustrated volume to help them “behold the Buddha.”

The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism

Download The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780887060618
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (66 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism by : David Edward Shaner

Download or read book The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism written by David Edward Shaner and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a pioneering study, David Shaner uses the resources of phenomenology to penetrate Buddhist philosophy in terms of Kūkai and Dōgen. In addition to this original and rigorous methodology, his work offers insights into some fundamental difficulties intrinsic to comparative studies. The problem of the relation between body and mind is a prime example. Shaner's observations shed a brilliant light on these traditional antinomies as they may be resolved or, more accurately, dissolved when seen in their appropriate contexts. In addressing these issues, the study also contributes to the understanding of common features that underlie the various doctrines of Japanese Buddhism. This work will appeal to both East and West phenomenologists, philosophers interested in the mind-body problem, scholars of comparative philosophy, and students of Japanese philosophy and religion.

Japanese Buddhism

Download Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780700702633
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japanese Buddhism by : Charles Eliot

Download or read book Japanese Buddhism written by Charles Eliot and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by Sir Charles Eliot (1862-1931) one of the great scholars of Eastern religion and philosophy, this book provides an in depth account of the history of Buddhism in Japan.

Seeking Sakyamuni

Download Seeking Sakyamuni PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226391159
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Seeking Sakyamuni by : Richard M. Jaffe

Download or read book Seeking Sakyamuni written by Richard M. Jaffe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-05-20 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth century. In the richly illustrated Seeking Śākyamuni, Richard M. Jaffe reveals the experiences of the first Japanese Buddhists who traveled to South Asia in search of Buddhist knowledge beginning in 1873. Analyzing the impact of these voyages on Japanese conceptions of Buddhism, he argues that South Asia developed into a pivotal nexus for the development of twentieth-century Japanese Buddhism. Jaffe shows that Japan’s growing economic ties to the subcontinent following World War I fostered even more Japanese pilgrimage and study at Buddhism’s foundational sites. Tracking the Japanese travelers who returned home, as well as South Asians who visited Japan, Jaffe describes how the resulting flows of knowledge, personal connections, linguistic expertise, and material artifacts of South and Southeast Asian Buddhism instantiated the growing popular consciousness of Buddhism as a pan-Asian tradition—in the heart of Japan.

Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism

Download Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824827717
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (277 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism by : Jacqueline I. Stone

Download or read book Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism written by Jacqueline I. Stone and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2003-05-31 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan’s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily life—eating, sleeping, even one’s deluded thinking—is the Buddha’s conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts. Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan’s medieval period. Jacqueline Stone’s groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of “corruption” in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between “old” and “new” Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that “original enlightenment thought” represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between “old” and “new” institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.

Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism

Download Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780195350999
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (59 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism by : Mark L. Blum

Download or read book Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism written by Mark L. Blum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rennyo Shonin (1415-1499) is considered the "second founder" of Shin Buddhism. Under his leadership, the Honganji branch grew in size and power, becoming a national organization with great wealth and influence. Rennyo's success lay in conveying an attractive spiritual message while exerting effective administrative control. A savvy politician as well as religious leader, ennyo played a significant role in political, economic, and institutional developments. Though he is undeniably one of the most influential persons in the history of Japanese religion, his legacy remains enigmatic and largely overlooked by the West. This volume offers an assessment of Rennyo's contribution to Buddhist thought and the Honganji religious organization. A collection of 16 previously unpublished essays by both Japanese and non-Japanese scholars in the areas of historical studies, Shinshu studies, and comparative religion, it is the first book to confront many of the major questions surrounding the phenomenal growth of Honganji under Rennyo's leadership. The authors examine such topics as the source of Rennyo's charisma, the soteriological implications of his thought against the background of other movements in Pure Land Buddhism, and the relationship between his ideas and the growth of his church. This collection is an important first step in bringing this important figure to an audience outside Japan. It will be of significant interest to scholars in the fields of Japanese religion, Japanese social history, comparative religion, and the sociology of religion.

Critical Buddhism

Download Critical Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317157605
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (171 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Critical Buddhism by : James Mark Shields

Download or read book Critical Buddhism written by James Mark Shields and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the relative calm world of Japanese Buddhist scholarship was thrown into chaos with the publication of several works by Buddhist scholars Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, dedicated to the promotion of something they called Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo). In their quest to re-establish a "true" - rational, ethical and humanist - form of East Asian Buddhism, the Critical Buddhists undertook a radical deconstruction of historical and contemporary East Asian Buddhism, particularly Zen. While their controversial work has received some attention in English-language scholarship, this is the first book-length treatment of Critical Buddhism as both a philosophical and religious movement, where the lines between scholarship and practice blur. Providing a critical and constructive analysis of Critical Buddhism, particularly the epistemological categories of critica and topica, this book examines contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics in order to situate Critical Buddhism within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought.

The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy

Download The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9048129249
Total Pages : 737 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (481 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy by : Gereon Kopf

Download or read book The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy written by Gereon Kopf and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume introduces the central themes in and the main figures of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. It will have two sections, one that discusses general topics relevant to Japanese Buddhist philosophy and one that reads the work of the main Japanese Buddhist philosophers in the context of comparative philosophy. It combines basic information with cutting edge scholarship considering recent publications in Japanese, Chinese, English, and other European languages. As such, it will be an invaluable tool for professors teaching courses in Asian and global philosophy, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the people generally interested in philosophy and/or Buddhism.

Japanese Buddhism

Download Japanese Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136775528
Total Pages : 486 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (367 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japanese Buddhism by : Sir Charles Eliot

Download or read book Japanese Buddhism written by Sir Charles Eliot and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written as a companion to Eliot's 3-volume Hinduism and Buddhism this text begins with an overview of Buddhism as practiced in India and China before presenting an in depth account of the history of Buddhism in Japan. It follows the development of the Buddhist movement in Japan from its official introduction in AD 552, through the Nara, Heian and Tokugawa periods, detailing the rises of the various Buddhist sects in Japan, including Nichiren and Zen. Thoroughly researched and well-written, it was the last work published by Eliot, one of the great scholars of Eastern religion and philosophy at the time.

Experimental Buddhism

Download Experimental Buddhism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824838343
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Experimental Buddhism by : John K. Nelson

Download or read book Experimental Buddhism written by John K. Nelson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, it is one of the first studies to give readers a sense of what is happening on the front lines as a growing number of Buddhist priests try to reboot their roles and traditions to gain greater significance in Japanese society. The book profiles innovative as well as controversial responses to the challenges facing Buddhist priests. From traditional activities (conducting memorial rituals; supporting residences for the elderly and infirm; providing relief for victims of natural disasters) to more creative ones (collaborating in suicide prevention efforts; holding symposia and concerts on temple precincts; speaking out against nuclear power following Japan’s 2011 earthquake; opening cafés, storefront temples, and pubs; even staging fashion shows with priests on the runway), more progressive members of Japan’s Buddhist clergy are trying to navigate a path leading towards renewed relevance in society. An additional challenge is to avoid alienating older patrons while trying to attract younger ones vital to the future of their temples. The work’s central theme of “experimental Buddhism”provides a fresh perspective to understand how priests and other individuals employ Buddhist traditions in selective and pragmatic ways. Using these inventive approaches during a time of crisis and transition for Japanese temple Buddhism, priests and practitioners from all denominations seek solutions that not only can revitalize their religious traditions but also influence society and their fellow citizens in positive ways.