What Makes Japanese Buddhism So Unique ?

When Buddhism reached the Far East, its architecture attained a degree of perfection in harmony with the elements. In Japan, people have always communicated with the kami, powerful nature spirits. The encounter between the world of kami and Buddhism gave rise to an unprecedented, syncretic architecture. In Sakurai, a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist monastery demonstrate this cohabitation of the sacred. Mount Miwa has always been venerated as the dwelling place of the divinity Okuninushi, the great land master. At the foot of the mountain, the presence of kami is marked by a tori, a symbolic gateway that separates the physical world from the spirit world. Here, in Omiwa Shrine, kami are omnipresent. There are millions of them throughout the archipelago, and they've always been part of the Japanese people's lives. Shinto, or the way of the gods, represents the ensemble of these beliefs and animistic cults. Mr. Hiraoka Masahiko is the Shinto priest of Omiwa Shrine. In Japanese beliefs, the mountains, rivers, and sea are all hallowed. We believe the mountains, grass, and trees are filled with life. When we look at the legends, human beings, like nature, are born divinities. And that is why nature and human beings are considered brothers and sisters. In the early days of Shinto beliefs, architecture was limited to small temporary shrines scattered on the mountain. They housed nature spirits that people could visit to worship. When Buddhism reached Japan, the spirit cult transformed into a formal religion, Shintoism. With the discovery of the concept of sacred architecture, the Japanese created sophisticated constructions. Because it's located on one of the great mountains where kami dwell, Omiwa Shrine has the architectural feature, unlike other shrines, of not having a main building as its central focus. The compound here just has smaller buildings for those who come to pray to the mountain. There is no center building in Omiwa. The mountain itself serves as a sacred shrine. Shintoism has borrowed Buddhist architecture's structures, massive forms, and interconnected volumes. But it invented a new aesthetic style. The buildings are made entirely of natural wood and require constant upkeep and restoration. As in India, the Japanese deities don't like things to look run-down. Buddhism did not replace animist beliefs in Japan. Even today, most wedding ceremonies are performed in Shinto shrines in homage to the union of Izanagi and Izanami, the deities who created Japan by piercing the waters with their heavenly spear. When Japanese people are face-to-face with nature, they feel everything is alive. They have a keen sense of the cycle of life, being born, growing old, and dying. While Shinto is the pantheistic world of nature spirits, Buddhism places man within the cycle of time. Nearby, on the sacred mountain, is one of the oldest Buddhist structures in Japan. Tenzan's buildings were constructed shortly after the first Buddhist missionaries came to Sakurai from Korea in the 6th century. Captivated by the new religion, the emperor ordered the construction of this temple, thus introducing continental architecture to the archipelago. Kensuki Hanafusa is a resident priest at the Tenzan shrine. At the time, Japan was still a young country and various schools of thought had been imported from the continent. It's rare for Japanese culture to keep something it adopts as it is. It likes to change and adapt things to make them its own. The history of Tenzan is a perfect example of this. Originally a Buddhist temple, it became a Shinto sanctuary. Indeed, Shintoism and Buddhism, Japan's two official religions, have lived together for centuries. It turned out to be easy to combine Shintoism and Buddhism because even though each religion has its own way of looking at things, they do have a lot of things in common. When Buddhist architecture reached these lands, it quite naturally adapted to the hilly topography. Dominique Buisson, art professor, photographer, and author of works on Japanese architecture, has studied this emblematic monument of Japanese syncretism. In the Buddhist relationship with Shintoist nature, the name of the game is basically making architecture disappear and blend into the geography and the topography of the place. The buildings became smaller and different levels in space were explored. Gradually, the architecture, while remaining very Buddhist, took on a Shinto spirit. Buddhist architecture from the early days retained building principles from China and Korea. The only difference with the continent is that here, there was no stone, no bricks, only wood. So they built with wood and trees set the scale. The thousands of pieces of wood were all obviously assembled without nails. They used only dowels and joinery. The art of carpentry, an age-old skill the Japanese have become masters of. They developed systems of elaborate wooden joints and made spectacular adjustments in order to build ever bigger and taller structures. The Tenzan Shrine boasts a remarkable tower, the only 13-story pagoda in Japan. The quadrangular wooden edifice is a culmination of how the shape of the Indian reliquary evolved as it moved across Asia. First, the stupa in Myanmar, then the Chorten in Mongolia, and finally the pagoda in China and Japan. When Buddhism came to Japan, it was still reliquary. But before long, it would become a mere constituent of Buddhism's iconic buildings. After that, it became practically an aesthetic element. The pagoda is actually an extremely sophisticated assembly of wood, consoles, and internal structural elements with a central pillar that can shift and adjust when the ground moves during earthquakes. This creates that famous snake dance, the undulating movement that allows the buildings to resist. In Buddhism, as in Shintoism, sacred architecture expresses above all the power and intense beauty of nature.