Religious Practices of the Samurai
Like most Japanese of their time, the samurai followed Buddhist religious teachings as well as the practices of Japan’s native belief system, Shinto.
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By the mid-sixth century, when it reached Japan, Buddhism had spread from India throughout China, Southeast Asia, and Korea. In 552, Buddhism was introduced to Japan by the ruler of a kingdom in southwest Korea. Under patronage from the Japanese emperor and nobility, hundreds of Buddhist temples were constructed in Japan throughout the Nara (645–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods.
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Another, quite different sect with many samurai adherents was Zen Buddhism. Introduced to Japan from China in the twelfth century, Zen is a form of Buddhism that stresses seated meditation and pondering of koan—paradoxical statements or questions—as practices leading to enlightenment. Zen’s rapid acceptance in Japan was another response to the search for religious alternatives in the Latter Day of Buddhist Law. The military leadership, based in Kamakura, was particularly welcoming to Zen, supporting the activities of Chinese and Japanese monks and sponsoring the establishment of several major temples in the east during the thirteenth century. This patronage continued throughout the period of rule by the Ashikaga shoguns, accounting for the great concentration of Zen temples in Kyoto, where their capital was located.
Describing the connection between Zen principles and samurai values, the historian Martin Collcutt writes:
With its emphasis on discipline and self-reliant effort, Zen was temperamentally suited to warriors, who on the battlefield required skill and courage. The ultimate goal of Zen is, of course, spiritual awakening and the attainment of Buddhahood, but the concentration and equanimity fostered by the practice of meditation and the directness of mind and expression called for in koan encounters were of great practical use to even the most unenlightened samurai.3
Many samurai practiced meditation, alone and under the tutelage of Zen monks, and the concentration required by this practice became a guiding principle for martial arts and military discipline. But Zen was also important as a conduit for many cultural activities, including the “Way of Tea” and ink painting, that were later associated with warrior life. For example, the fourth Ashikaga shogun commissioned one of the most famous Zen paintings of his age, Catching a Catfish with a Gourd, to illustrate a famous koan. The shogun’s deep connection to the Zen community is further demonstrated by the fact that thirty eminent Zen monks wrote inscriptions above the painting to comment on its content. Other leading warriors collected Chinese ceramics and ink paintings, introduced to Japan through the Zen monasteries.