Introduced into China, A.D. 720, it is known as the
Yoga-chara school.
K[=o]b[=o] finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able to
swallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the long
process of the digestion of Shint[=o], Japanese Buddhism became
something different from every other form of the faith in Asia. Noted
above all previous developments of Buddhism for its pantheistic
tendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any Shint[=o] god,
demi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous stage of existence of
some Buddhist being of corresponding grade.
For example,[24] Amateras[)u] or Ten-Sh[=o]-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess,
becomes Dai Nichi Ni[=o]rai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in
the bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Ki[=o]to and Kamakura. Ojin, the
god of war, became Hachiman Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the
Eight Banners. Adopted as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto
warriors of mediaeval times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have
this popular deity outside their pantheon.
For each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in Japanese
pronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these Bodhisattvas became
a Dai Mi[=o] Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, and was represented as an
avatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous ages, when the Japanese were
not yet prepared to receive the holy law of Buddhism.
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