On the contrary, in Japan there are vastly greater
diversities of sect, principle, teaching and discipline.
Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics.
The date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the Japanese
scholars is B.C. 1027--the day and month being also given with
suspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama had attained
Nirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana or the doctrine of
the Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute of Buddhist ontology in
nine chapters, was composed, the title of which in English, is, Book of
the Treasury of Metaphysics. It had such a powerful influence that it
was called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book.
This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit _kosa_, a store, is eclectic, and
contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with
selections from those of others. It was translated in A.D. 563, into
Chinese by a Hindu scholar; but about a hundred years later the famous
pilgrim, whom the Japanese call Gen-j[=o], but who is known in Europe as
Hiouen Thsang,[5] made a better translation, while his disciples added
commentaries.
In A.D. 658, two Japanese priests[6] made the sea-journey westward into
China, as Gen-j[=o] had before made the land pilgrimage into India, and
became pupils of the famous pilgrim.
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