JAPANESE BUDDHISM: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Early difficulties

Despite the faith of Umako and others in the miracle-working powers of the Buddha, not everyone in Japan was pleased with the new religion. Clans that had based their power on their role in native ritual were particularly distressed. Accused of offending the kami (native deities), the Buddhist converts were blamed for a plague that was spreading through Japan. Soldiers stormed into Umako's house, burned the chapel there, and hurled the remains of the statues into a nearby canal. But opponents of Buddhism were unable to hold out for long against the new religion's advocates, who found it useful to promote the monarch--already considered a descendant of the highest-ranked kami--as a delegate of the Buddha.

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Yakushi, the healing Buddha, was widely revered in early Japanese Buddhism. The Yakushi cult attracted many followers in later ages as well, and was particularly popular in the Aizu region in the Heian and Kamakura periods. This wooden image of Yakushi dates from the early Kamakura period, and can be found at Chūzenji in Kitakata. (Photograph courtesy of Mr. Tabe Yoshio.)

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