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Buddhism in Japan

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September 2025

September 21, 2025

The Beat Zen Movement: When Zen Became Cool

The Beat Zen movement was one of the more unlikely developments in all of Western...

August 2025

August 03, 2025

The Statue That Survived the Hiroshima Bomb

The statue stood on Hijirigaoka, a hill overlooking the Japanese city of Hiroshima. When the...

December 2024

December 03, 2024

Buddhist Holidays in December: A Short and Confusing Guide

The world's many religions observe many holy days in December other than Christmas and Hanukkah....

August 2024

August 21, 2024

Zen and the Martial Arts: A Short History

Everyone knows that Zen and the martial arts go together, right?  Well, sorta kinda. In...

August 01, 2024

The Marathon Monks of Japan

The marathon monks of Enryakuji, a historic Buddhist temple complex in Japan, are famous for...

February 2024

February 08, 2024

The Warlord and the Tea Master

I've been writing about Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries, and before moving on...

June 2023

June 09, 2023

The First Buddhist Same-Sex Wedding

The first Buddhist same-sex wedding (that we know of) took place in about 1970 in...

May 2023

May 25, 2023

Tina Turner’s Buddhism

Tina Turner (1939-2023) was a force of nature, and her music touched countless people. She...

March 2023

March 26, 2023

How the Meiji Era Changed Japanese Buddhism

The Meiji Era, which began in the late 19th century, utterly upended Japanese Buddhism. Sweeping...

March 24, 2023

Buddhist Nuns of Japan vs. the Patriarchy

The Buddhist nuns of Japan, like their sisters in other parts of Asia, struggled against...

March 18, 2023

The First Japanese Buddhist Nuns: A Contentious Story

The first Japanese Buddhist nuns were not welcome in Japan. It's recorded that three Japanese...

February 2023

February 17, 2023

How Hercules Reached Japan

Heracles was a hero of ancient Greek mythology. He's better known to most of us...

January 2023

January 15, 2023

Ikkō-ikki: Buddhism and the Japanese Peasant Revolts

Ikkō-ikki was a name given to peasants' revolts in 15th and 16th century Japan. Most of...

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