246 CHAPTER TENNara Buddhism was primarily a state cult, with little impact on the
general populace, but Buddhist ideas and practices at this time did begin to
penetrate Japanese folk religion in three forms. The first was the Nature Wis-
dom school (Jinenchishu), whose members-some of them Buddhist
monks-sought Buddhist-like Awakening in the mountains and forests using
non-Buddhist, "natural" ascetic practices. The second form included ubasoku
(from the Sanskrit upiisaka), the "private monks" or "unordained monks,"
charismatic religious leaders who combined Buddhist teachings with native
Japanese shamanic practices, such as healing and divination. In this form we
can see the predecessors of the new religions of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. The third form, which was also to have long-term impact, was the
integration of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs (Strong EB, sec. 8.2.2). Certain
karni were alleged to have encouraged the construction ofBuddhist temples,
in return for which they were declared to be bodhisattvas, so that shrines to
them could be constructed in the temple compounds. This arrangement,
which began as ad hoc inter-kami politics in the eighth century, was later
given a theoretical justification in the ninth century, when both the Tendai
and Shingon sects explained that the Shinto kami were actually nirmiit;takiiya
(emanation bodies) of the great Cosmic Buddhas (see Section 5.5.1).
During this period, Buddhism's main impact on lay life, at least in aristo-
cratic circles, was felt in its advocacy of nonviolence. Hunting for sport was
abandoned, and cooks began to develop a Japanese vegetarian cuisine. The ar-
tisans imported from China to work on temple construction also influenced
Japanese arts and crafts not only in temples but also in the court and in private
homes.
Close relations between state Buddhism and the court eventually led to
the thorough corruption of the former. The inke system, whereby wealthy
clans could receive income from land they had donated to monasteries, meant
that monasteries became closely tied to the interests of their sponsors. The
insei system, whereby an emperor could abdicate the throne, ordain as a monk,
and yet continue to rule from behind the scenes, brought political intrigue di-
rectly into the monasteries. The government decrees ordering a certain num-
ber of men ordained as monks every year ensured that the monasteries would
remain fully staffed, but also brought into the orders men with no real reli-
gious vocation. Eventually, a monk by the name ofDokyo, having worked his
way up the political hierarchy as the paramour of the Empress Koken
(r. 7 49-58), was accused of trying to usurp the throne. Although banished
after the empress's death, he was apparently not the last monk to get overly in-
volved in political affairs, for in 794 the capital was removed to a remote place
to isolate the government from the political machinations of the Nara monas-
teries. Ten years later it was again moved, to Kyoto, thus beginning a new era
in Japanese history.