dhism often seems marginal to public life, it remains
central to private life through its role in the care and
commemoration of the family dead.
Contemporary organization
The representative institution of contemporary Bud-
dhism is the local temple, which serves as the resi-
dence of a married cleric and his family. The temple
is supported by a lay membership, for which it pro-
vides a calendar of rituals and festivals, occasional pas-
toral care, and especially funerals and memorial
services. Such local institutions usually represent
branch temples (matsuji) of the many denominations,
or schools (shu), into which Buddhism is divided.
These organizations, registered with the government
as religious corporations (shukyohojin), are typically
centered in a main temple (honzan), which serves as
symbolic and administrative headquarters. The larger
denominations, which can claim thousands of local
temples, may include several monastic centers, as well
as parochial schools and universities. Whether large
or small, the denominations operate as independent
religious entities, with their own clergy and real prop-
erty, their own distinctive scriptures and rituals, and
their own lay membership. There is no significant ec-
umenical body that governs the Buddhist community
as a whole. Hence, in institutional terms, Japanese
Buddhism is simply the sum of its denominations, and
being a Buddhist means being a member of one of the
denominations.
The various Buddhist organizations are typically di-
vided into two categories: denominations that trace
their origins to ancient and medieval times, and the
so-called new religions (shin shukyo), founded in mod-
ern times. The former category is often understood as
consisting of six sets of denominations, grouped on the
basis of their historical association with particular tra-
ditional forms of Japanese Buddhism: (1) denomina-
tions based at temples in the ancient capital of Nara
(e.g., the relatively small Hossoshu, Kegon shu, Ris-
shu, and Shingon risshu); (2) denominations associ-
ated with the Tendai tradition; (3) denominations
associated with the Shingon tradition; (4) denomina-
tions associated with the Pure Land form (e.g., the
large Jodo shu, and still larger Honganji and Otani
branches of the Jodo shinshu); (5) denominations as-
sociated with Zen (e.g., the large Sotoshu, the small
Obaku shu, and the various branches of the Rinzai
shu); and (6) denominations associated with the tra-
dition of NICHIREN(e.g., the Nichiren shuand Nichi-
ren shoshu). These groupings do not typically reflect
institutional affiliations; contrary to common usage,
there is no organization that could be called, for ex-
ample, the Zen school or the Pure Land school.
In the category of new religions, there is a wide va-
riety of organizations, from small local groups, to large
national, and even international, bodies such as the
SOKAGAKKAI. A few date back to the mid-nineteenth
century; most of the largest, such as Soka Gakkai,
Reiyukai, and Risshokyoseikai, were founded during
the first half of the twentieth century and flourished
following World War II; still others arose in the last
decades of the twentieth century, the most recent
sometimes being referred to as the “new new religions”
(shin shin shukyo). Occasionally these organizations
represent lay movements within a traditional denom-
ination (such as Shinnyoen within a branch of Shin-
gon or, until 1991, Soka Gakkai within Nichiren
shoshu), but for the most part they are wholly inde-
pendent bodies, typically founded and run by a lay
leadership. The older, more established organizations
function much like the traditional denominations in
providing services to a stable membership of lay house-
holds; the newer groups tend to be tailored somewhat
more to the spiritual aspirations of individual converts.
Some organizations base their teachings primarily on
texts of the Buddhist canon, perhaps most often on the
LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA); others
have developed a distinctive scriptural corpus, which
may combine traditional Buddhist material with ele-
ments drawn from other sources. Indeed, within the
broad category of new religions are organizations, such
as the notorious Aum shinrikyo, so eclectic in their be-
liefs and practices that it is difficult to identify them as
Buddhist.
If the identification of some of the new religions as
Buddhist may mask their more complex religious char-
acters, the standard division of contemporary Bud-
dhism into traditional denominations and new
religions may also obscure as much as it reveals. The
category of traditional denominations, for example,
may suggest an orthodox, historically sanctioned her-
itage reaching back into premodern times, yet many of
the contemporary forms of these denominations owe
much to the same modern developments that pro-
duced the new religions. By the same token, the ten-
dency, ascribed to the new religions, to incorporate into
their Buddhism elements drawn from other sources,
such as Shintoand popular religion, has an ancient his-
tory common to all the traditional denominations.JAPAN