divination, oracles, and the calendar. These became
embedded in Japanese folk religious structure: Cycles
of lucky and unlucky days and years became part of
folk religious consciousness, commemorated through
rituals and practices, including the drawing of oracle
lots and rituals for preventing misfortunes, that were
carried out at Buddhist temples. Buddhist festivals—
such as the summer Obon or Festival for the Sprits of
the Dead—also became part of the annual round of
observances followed by the Japanese.
Buddhism, folk religion, and the dead
Perhaps the main area of interaction between Japan-
ese folk religion and Buddhism has been in relation to
the spirits of the dead, ANCESTORSand concepts of
other worlds. Before the advent of Buddhism, folk tra-
ditions envisaged the spirit as departing from the body
at DEATHbut remaining essentially tied to this world
and reluctant to depart from its kin. Although the spir-
its of the dead could become benevolent protective
deities, they were also inherently dangerous and fear-
some, capable of possessing the living or afflicting them
in various ways; the realms of death were dark and per-
ilous. Buddhism offered more sophisticated and ulti-
mately more positive visions of what lay beyond death,
and offered means of subduing possessing spirits and
pacifying the dead through rituals conducted by priests
and, especially in earlier times, by ascetics who claimed
exorcistic powers. Such notions and practices were
readily assimilated into a folk tradition in which
shamanic practitioners (including members of moun-
tain cults who were deeply influenced by Buddhism)
played a vital role in the religious life of ordinary peo-
ple. Such practitioners continue to exist, and the new
religions that have emerged in more recent times have
drawn extensively from this folk/Buddhist shamanic
tradition.
Buddhist funerary rituals offered a means of avert-
ing the dangers of pollution by purifying the dead of
their sins and leading them safely from this realm to
the next, thus transforming their spirits into benevo-
lent ancestors existing in a mutually beneficial rela-
tionship with their living kin. Buddhism’s concepts of
other realms, of HELLSfor the wicked and REBIRTHin
the Pure Land for the virtuous, offered a moral vision
of death and the beyond, while its rituals offering merit
transference from the living to the dead enabled the
living to aid their departed kin in the afterlife.
While these Japanese concepts of death and the an-
cestors show an obvious Buddhist influence, it is also
clear that folk concepts have had an impact on Bud-
dhism in Japan. The notion of the spirit of an ances-
tor being led elsewhere yet remaining in close contact
with the living depends upon an implicit belief in an
after-death existence that appears to conflict with stan-
dard Buddhist notions of transmigration—a dilemma
never resolved in Japan, where Buddhist sects may ar-
ticulate both concepts simultaneously—and represents
a folk transformation of Buddhism. The relationship
between the living and the dead remains central to
Japanese Buddhism, which since early medieval times
has been the primary medium through which death
rituals and ancestor veneration have been carried out.
Most Japanese households continue to use family
Buddhist altars to memorialize their ancestors and
most Japanese continue to envisage the dead through
ideas framed by Buddhist rites and deeply influenced
by folk beliefs.Folk religion, Buddhism, and worldly benefits
Another major area of folk-Buddhist interaction con-
cerns Buddhism’s reinforcement and expansion of ex-
isting folk beliefs about the role of figures of worship
in providing worldly benefits (genze riyaku). In pre-
Buddhist Japan spiritual entities such as clan tutelary
deities were petitioned for protection and aid; adapt-
ing to this tradition, Japanese Buddhism portrayed its
figures of worship—BUDDHAS and BODHISATTVAS
such as Bhaisajyaguru (Japanese, Yakushi; the buddha
of healing) and Avalokites ́vara (Kannon; the bo-
dhisattva of compassion)—as powerful agents capa-
ble of granting benefits and interceding to heal illness
and provide happiness and good fortune to those who
worshiped them. Buddhist sutras, notably the LOTUS
SUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA) provided ac-
counts of miraculous happenings and promises of
worldly benefits for those who follow the Buddhist
way. Such notions have consistently been emphasized
by proselytizing Buddhist itinerants and priests who
have composed numerous stories and miracle tales re-
lating to Buddhist figures of worship. Icons and stat-
ues of popular figures such as Avalokites ́vara and
sacred places such as temples have been portrayed in
such stories as sources of spiritual power and benefits
that can be accrued by all. Buddhist temples have be-
come primary sites for making petitions for worldly
benefits, and primary sources of protective devices
such as talismans and amulets, which are widely used
in Japan. In the provision of worldly benefits there are
few if any distinctions between “elite” monastic cen-
ters and “popular” temples; often the two are synony-FOLKRELIGION, JAPAN