years of prohibition, Buddhism reorganized itself as a
religion that was concerned with funerals and the moral
education of the citizens of the new Japanese state.
Buddhist appropriation of Japanese
local deities
The Buddhist appropriation of local kamiis not a typ-
ically Japanese phenomenon: Local guardian gods and
fertility gods are worshiped at Buddhist monasteries
throughout Asia. Monastery gods are perhaps the orig-
inal forms of adoption of local divinities in a Buddhist
context. The interactions between Buddhism and lo-
cal deities in Japan went through several phases, ac-
cording to patterns that seem to be common to most
Buddhist cultures. Japanese kamiwere first subjugated
or converted to Buddhism, then transformed into
dharma protectors, and finally organized in a hierar-
chical structure, a phase that involved a redefinition of
the place of the kamiin the Buddhist cosmology as
manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
At first, local kami were envisioned by Buddhists as
dangerous entities that needed to be saved from their
deluded condition and guided toward enlightenment;
this implied acts of subjugation or conversion. Two
legends exemplify this stage well. One day in 763 the
kamiof Tado village is said to have manifested itself
through an oracle and requested to be converted so as
to be liberated from its kamicondition. A Buddhist
monastery (jinguji) was built in the area where the
kamiresided, and special services were held for the
kami’s salvation. Another tale reports how a giant tree,
believed to be the abode of a kami,fell to the ground
and rolled into a river, where it was carried by the cur-
rent. Every time the tree was stranded, epidemics
struck the area. Finally, a Buddhist monk cut the fallen
tree into pieces and carved three images of the BO-
DHISATTVAKannon (Avalokites ́vara) out of them (one
of these images is said to be the Kannon at Ishiya-
madera near Kyoto). Immediately, the epidemics
ceased and the images generated good fortune and
miracles. In both tales local kamiare described as dan-
gerous, violent entities, and sources of calamity to the
local people. In contrast, Buddhism is presented as a
pacifying and ordering force. At a subsequent stage,
converted kamiturned into protectors of the Bud-
dhadharma and guarantors of the peace and prosper-
ity in their respective locales. Kamiwere also gradually
organized into a hierarchical structure, with the deities
of twenty-two imperially sponsored shrines at the top,
regional shrines at the middle, and village shrines at
the bottom. There were in addition various orders of
local deities that granted particular kinds of protection.
These stages (subjugation or conversion of local di-
vinities, their inclusion within the Buddhist system as
protectors, and their redefinition as manifestations of
sacred, translocal Buddhist entities) are usually pre-
sented as moments in a linear process of evolution, but
it is important to emphasize that in practice they
amounted to different modes of interaction rather than
separate historical stages. As such they often over-
lapped. A local kamicould be seen as a manifestation
of a buddha or a bodhisattva, but at the same time it
functioned as the protector of a specific locale, and
Buddhist rituals were performed in front of it to se-
cure its salvation.The field of Japanese local deities and
its complexity
Kamiare usually understood as local, autochthonous
Japanese deities. They are often described in animistic
terms as supernatural forces abiding in natural entities
such as trees, rocks, mountains, and waterfalls. How-
ever, the situation in premodern Japan was more com-
plicated. Not all kami were animistic entities. In fact,
scholars can identify a historical variety of kami,in-
cluding royal deities, divinities of local clans (more or
less related to royal deities), village spirits (which often
had no name and no clearly defined shape), and im-
ported deities (from India, Korea, and China). Royal
deities, in particular those listed in the Kojikiand the
early eighth-century Nihon shoki(Chronicles of Japan),
were worshipped by the emperor as part of his sacer-
dotal duties. Interestingly, Buddhism was largely
unconcerned with those deities, except for the most im-
portant ones among them—the kami of the Ise shrines.
Japanese Buddhists devoted great efforts instead to do-
mesticate and incorporate within their system local
tutelary spirits. Clan divinities were largely treated as
tutelary deities, and as such they were included in the
Buddhist system in the ways discussed above.
In premodern Japan there were a large number of
local tutelary deities (chinju), ranging from household
gods (such as the deities of the hearth), to village gods
(such as paddy deities, ta no kami), to provincial and
national protectors such as HACHIMAN, Kumano, Ka-
suga, and Sanno. The sanctuaries of these gods were
normally affiliated with major Buddhist institutions
(such as the large monasteries in Nara and Kyoto),
were sponsored by the royal court and local gentry,
and were often centered in sacred mountains whereSHINTO (HONJISUIJAKU) ANDBUDDHISM