Period
Medieval Japanese
1185–1600
The age of military rule, war and disaster, when new Buddhist movements such as Pure Land, Zen and Nichiren each selected a single practice as the way to liberation.
The medieval period began with the Minamoto victory of 1185, which led to Japan’s first military government, and lasted through the sixteenth century. Unrest, disasters and famine convinced many that Buddhism was in its last, degenerate age, and talented monks left Mount Hiei to start new schools aimed at ordinary people. Hōnen’s Pure Land, Dōgen’s Zen and Nichiren’s movement shared a strategy of selection: rather than embrace the whole tradition, focus on one teaching or practice.
- Traditions
- Japanese
Philosophers
None yet.
Sources
- Thomas Kasulis and Raquel Bouso, Japanese Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy