Pure Land Buddhism in America Pure Land Buddhism is a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism that centers on the Buddha Amitābha (Amitāyus in Sanskrit, Amituo in Chinese, and Amida in Japanese). The teachings have traveled from India to China and other East Asian countries. In the Mahāyāna pantheon, Amitābha is a bodhisattva who vowed to assist all sentient beings in achieving liberation before attaining Buddhahood himself. Pure Land Buddhists believe that through faith in Amitābha, one can be reborn into his paradise, known as the Sukhāvatī or the Pure Land of Perfect Bliss, located in the West, to attain enlightenment. In fifth-century China, Pure Land practices such as reciting principal Pure Land sutras, creating images of Amitābha, and praying to be reborn in his paradise became popular. By the seventh century, Chinese Pure Land Buddhism had entered Japan, and its accessible doctrines and practices made it one of the most popular Buddhist faiths. Regardless of their sectarian affiliation, many followers look to Amitābha for help in times of need, such as during dying and their ancestors’ memorials, believing that the Buddha would respond compassionately to all who recite his name. Hōnen (1133-1212) was a scholarly monk recognized as the founder of Pure Land teachings as an independent sect in Japan: Jōdo. Inspired by the influential writings of Chinese scholarly monk Shandao’s (613-681), Hōnen believed that ordinary people could strive for their salvation by exclusively practicing the invocation of Amitābha’s name (nembutsu, “I take refuge in Amida Buddha”), believing in his vow, and relying on his mercy to ensure rebirth in the Pure Land. After Hōnen, Shinran (1173-1263) was the most important priest to elaborate on aspects of Pure Land teachings, which gave rise to a new denomination: True Pure Land Sect (Jōdo Shinshū). Shinran agreed that it was impossible for common folks to work for their own salvation and that even a criminal could gain Amitābha’s mercy without engaging in rigorous ascetic or moral perfection. He believed that “one calling” on Amitābha’s name, instead of Hōnen’s suggestion of many invocations, was sufficient for being reborn in the Pure Land here and now. Shinran considered the Pure Land as nirvana because the faith transferred by Amitābha was part of his own enlightenment. His interpretation simplified Hōnen’s messages of having absolute faith in Amitābha and encouraged his followers to reject other Buddhist divinities. Shinran’s followers created Shin Buddhism, the True Pure Land Sect. In 1321, Honganji (Temple of the Original Vow) was created, where Shinran was buried. The mausoleum was attended by Shinran’s grandchildren, whose direct descendants dominate the hereditary head abbot of Honganji. The Pure Land sects became the most tightly organized Japanese Buddhist denominations. In [Page 221] the fifteenth century, Honganji was powerful enough to mobilize thousands of low-ranking samurai and farmer followers to fight against regional warlords until the 1580s. However, internal succession disputes and interventions from Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) led to the split of Honganji. In 1582, the legitimate successor established West (Nishi, Honpa) Honganji in Kyoto, while his disowned son created East (Higashi) Honganji in 1602. East Honganji faced institutional instability due to controversies and disputes since the 1860s. Today, the Shin is the largest Buddhist sect, and Hōnen’s Jōdo sect remains the second largest in Japan. West Honganji is the largest of all the Pure Land branches, with temples in North and South America and Europe. The Pure Land and Zen sects maintain strong institutional and sectarian identities in Japan and abroad. The Zen sects focus on meditation and attract educated individuals who prefer self-discipline and self-reliance (jiriki) for awakening. On the other hand, the Pure Land sects emphasize faith and reliance on the saving grace of Amitābha (tariki), which appeals to a wider variety of income brackets and ethnic groups. In the United States, Shin Buddhism remains primarily an ethnic religion for Japanese Americans. The majority of Asian Buddhists in America are Chinese and Japanese, and they mainly reside on the West Coast and in Hawai’i. The Chinese were the earliest Asians to arrive on the West Coast, with tens of thousands coming from 1849 to the 1880s. Unlike Buddhism in Japan, Chinese Buddhism has no clear sectarian boundaries since the tenth century and views chanting and meditation as complementary practices for gaining awakening. In China, people generally follow a mix of religious practices, honoring deities from Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and folk beliefs and celebrating various holidays. Chinese Americans continue this syncretic tradition without always adhering to one particular faith. The anti-Chinese legislation, starting with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, reduced the Chinese population in the United States. The younger generations, who tended to have large families, gradually increased the population. Buddhists in China did not send missionaries to nurture their immigrant communities in America, which weakened Buddhist ties among second and third-generation Chinese Americans. As the younger generations lost interest in their religious heritage, temples in Chinatowns were abandoned from the 1930s onward (Chandler 1998, 16-17). The Japanese provided greater support for their immigrants compared to the Chinese. In the 1870s, Japanese immigrants started arriving in Hawai’i and the mainland to work as agricultural laborers. A large number of Japanese immigrants arrived on the West Coast by the 1890s, coinciding with the decline of Chinese Buddhism, which began to lose its popular influence. Japanese Buddhist propagation began first in Hawai’i, and the first unofficial West Honganji temple was built in 1889, nine years before Hawai’i became a United States possession. In 1897, West Honganji dispatched priests to investigate the immigrants’ religious life and launched their official propagation. In 1898, they sent the first superintendent to Hawai’i, where they built the Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawai’i (HHMH). On the West Coast, Japanese immigrants proliferated by the late 1890s, which warranted a Buddhist mission. In 1898, West Honganji sent priests to San Francisco, where they discovered that over half of the immigrants had a Shin Buddhist background. The priests built the first Buddhist temple in San Francisco and created a Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA), a lay organization inspired by similar Christian institutions. In 1899, the Honganji began regularly sending priests to San Francisco, where they mobilized the pioneering Japanese Americans (Issei) to develop YMBA and temples along the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego. This effort was particularly significant as the Japanese population tripled from 24,326 in 1900 to 72,157 in 1910, with about two-thirds having a Shin Buddhist background (Prebish 1999, 21). In 1905, the Japanese Exclusion League in San Francisco started to limit Asian immigrants. To appear less foreign, the director of the Shin (kantoku) changed the name of the YMBA (along with the Honganji Branch Office in the same building) to the Buddhist Church of San Francisco (BCSF) and allowed the affiliated organizations to identify as Buddhist churches. In 1907, the Gentlemen’s Agreement restricted In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 2 immigration to the wives and children of Japanese men already residing in the country. This hindered the growth of BCSF and resulted in the formation of a stable, familyfocused Japanese community, which nurtured strong connections with the BCSF temples. These temples were bustling with activity and housing events such as bazaars, dance parties, baseball games, movies, funerals, weddings, memorial services, and Sunday services. In rural areas, temples served as the heart of the community, with some even starting newsletters to connect isolated communities, especially those in agricultural areas. They founded the Buddhist [Page 222] Women’s Association (Fujinkai) to involve females in those activities. This growth led to the construction of a headquarters building in San Francisco in 1914 by the BCSF, which then changed its name to the Buddhist Mission of North America (BMNA). The organization adopted a constitution and had representatives from all twenty-five temples. These organizations remained under the authority of the West Honganji headquarters, whose head abbot, by tradition, is a direct descendant of Shinran. The legislative and administrative body in Kyoto carried out routine management and dispatched directors to supervise the overseas branches until World War II. The international outreach of East Honganji has been smaller in scale compared to that of West Honganji. In 1916, East Honganji started to expand on the mainland when several Shin communities in California split from West Honganji and sought a different affiliation. However, West Honganji continued to thrive. In 1918, the BMNA director was promoted to bishop (sōchō), and HHMH, which was increasing, established a bishop of the Hawai’i District. The Kyoto headquarters prioritized the expansion of HHMH over BMNA, considering Hawai’i to be Japan’s future territory. By 1924, the number of Japanese immigrants in Hawai’i had reached 125,368. In response, the HHMH built over 33 missions throughout the Hawai’i Islands (Ama 2011, 36-37). The HHMH focused on teaching Shin doctrines, while the BMNA temples primarily served the Issei, who dominated the temples’ policy- and decision-making and supported the Japanese immigrants into the 1920s. In the early 1920s, concerns about growing Japanese immigrants on the West Coast led to the Oriental Exclusion Act in 1924. This act prevented Japanese immigrants born outside of the United States or who were not already citizens from obtaining citizenship. As a result, Japanese immigration came to a halt, and over 100,000 Japanese Americans were isolated for several decades until the wartime internment. Surprisingly, this legislation led to an increase in the number of non-Japanese American converts to Buddhism. Many BMNA ministers introduced the basic tenets of Śākyamuni (the historical Buddha) to the American public until the late 1930s, as there was less competition from other Buddhist denominations on the mainland. The legislation encouraged many previously hesitant Japanese Americans to embrace Buddhism and bond together for welfare and security. The temples began offering social and cultural services such as Japanese language schools and rotating credit systems to help preserve Japanese culture and provide mechanisms for adaptation and prosperity. By 1931, BMNA had thirty-three temples with fifty-nine ministers, a Sunday Dharma school for American-born Japanese, and a scouting program. The temples also sponsored athletic leagues, Boy Scout troops, and American-style dances. In the face of anti-Japanese and anti-Buddhist pressure from mainstream American society, the BMNA underwent significant change and innovation, especially as In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 3 second-generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) reached adulthood and began to take over from the Issei around 1920. Shin temples began to adapt to the needs of Nisei members by incorporating more English-language elements, which had a lasting impact on the religious community. In the 1930s, a training program for English-speaking ministers was launched in Kyoto. As a result, in 1934, more English and Protestant equivalents were used to express Buddhist terms and Shin doctrines and practices. For example, sōchō became “bishop,” kaikyōshi or jūshoku became “minister,” Bukkyōkai became “church” or “temple.” Terms associated with religious services, such as juzu or nenju became rosary-like beads, while koromo, the robe worn by the priest, was retained. Abstract and historical terms such as “karma,” “nirvana,” “Mahāyāna,” and “Hinayāna” were Anglicized in Sanskrit. The BMNA officials also ended the rituals celebrating Japan’s imperial holidays and standardized a form of services influenced by both American and Japanese practices. Additionally, the 1930s saw an increase in the involvement of Shin women in temples and their interactions with their Japanese coreligionists (Ama 2011, 59). Despite BMNA’s move towards Anglicization and Americanization, many Nisei distanced themselves from Buddhism without necessarily converting to Christianity. Unlike West Honganji, which had a rigorous expansion, East Honganji had less organizational control over its clergy and congregation and fewer churches on the mainland. Until WWII, East Honganji sent twenty-four ministers to Hawai’i and thirteen to the mainland, whereas West Honganji dispatched more than 400 ministers to the HHMH and BMNA (Ama 2011, 145, 167). The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led to the immediate detention of influential Japanese Americans. Although BMNA issued formal statements of loyalty, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started investigating Japanese Americans. By June 6, 1942, approximately 111,170 citizens of Japanese descent had [Page 223] been interned in camps across the United States. Of these, 61,719 were Buddhist, with the majority being Shin Buddhists (Seager 2012, 79). The camps required the use of English, leading to English-speaking Nisei ministers taking on more prominent roles in the community. The internment experience decisively influenced and Americanized the Shin institutions. In February 1944, Shin Buddhist ministers convened at the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah and decided to change the name of BMNA to the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA). Later that year, they voted to sever all ties to Japan, redefine their relationship with West Honganji in Kyoto, and restructure the BCA organization to give more power to the Nisei. The position of BCA bishop also became an elective office. After the war, Japanese Americans, including the members of the BCA, returned to everyday life and began to resettle. Some returned to the West Coast, while many moved to the Midwest or the East Coast, which led to BCA’s expansion. Temples closed during the war were reopened, and many Japanese Americans rebuilt their businesses to recover from the wartime financial difficulties. By 1960, BCA had proliferated and established new temples on the East Coast. In October 1965, the Immigration and Naturalization Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, abolished the previous quota system based on national origin and allowed immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. A year later, BCA created the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS) in Berkley, California, to train all ministerial candidates. In 1968, a Canadian-born Nisei was In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 4 selected as bishop, and for the first time in the history of American Shin Buddhism, the inaugural ceremony was held in the United States rather than at West Honganji in Japan. In the 1960s, the BCA emerged as a small, ethnically distinct group that was part of the American middle class. In 1971, BCA built its modern headquarters in San Francisco, managing two major educational centers: IBS in Berkeley and the American Buddhist Academy in New York City. Since 1980, BCA has struggled with declining membership and ministries as an ethnic Buddhist community. In 1985, IBS became an affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of religious institutions following the Judeo-Christian tradition to increase its influence. In 1986, Alfred Bloom was appointed Dean and head Professor at IBS. After Bloom’s retirement in 1994, Richard K. Payne filled the position. IBS offers an MA degree in Buddhist Studies, provides all the requirements for ordination in Shin Buddhism, and publishes the Buddhist Studies journal Pacific World. The Chinese, like other Asians, benefited greatly from the postwar immigration bills and the increased quota in the 1990s. Many new immigrants from Mainland China knew little of Buddhism. However, European and American monks, nuns, and Buddhist masters from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia were willing to teach them. By 1990, there were about 125 Chinese American Buddhist organizations. In contrast to the Japanese, people in China have vastly different languages, cultures, and customs. However, in the United States, Chinese immigrants tend to choose a new identity associated with some of the Chinese American communities to continue their Chinese heritage selectively. Many have embraced Christianity, while others claimed no religious affiliation, making it difficult to estimate the number of Chinese Buddhists, especially since they often mix Buddhism and other faiths and practices in their spiritual life. Chinese Americans have the longest history among Asian Americans, but the present Chinese Buddhist organizations are very young, with the majority being built after 1970. Almost all the Chinese American Buddhists who prefer devotional chanting to meditation have followed the Pure Land practice. Only one or two dozen regularly visit a temple, making it difficult to estimate their number. However, during Chinese New Year and other important holidays, thousands of Chinese Americans celebrate part of the day at one of the temples (Chandler 1998, 17-20). For four or five generations, Shin Buddhism and BCA have negotiated to live in two worlds—a Buddhist world rooted in East Asia and an American world heavily influenced by Christianity. In the postwar era, the Japanese American communities “have not been culturally renewed, for they lack the large and reinvigorating presence of new immigrants,” as Japan’s economic success has led to a demand for labor. As a result, Japanese Americans have become predominantly native-born, with 72% being citizens by birth in 1980 (Takaki 1989, 421). The BCA has faced challenges such as institutional inertia, financial deficits, and declining membership. Similar to ethnic Jews, BCA members have found that their gradual integration into the mainstream middle class has often resulted in a loss of ethnic and religious identity. To address these challenges, BCA is now focusing on attending to the needs and sensibilities of younger generations. While maintaining the importance of sectarian doctrines and traditions, BCA leaders have reformed the temple conservatively and progressively [Page 223]. In the mid-1990s, many Shin temples chose to continue the Sunday service while removing their congregational Christian elements of worship, placing a renewed emphasis on traditional In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 5 rituals. The temple sponsors sports and events that promote Japanese cultural traditions. They also focus on the temple’s cultural roles, such as promoting the Japanese language, to preserve the community’s religious and ethnic identity. Many administrative functions are carried out by democratically elected members rather than appointees or senior officials. Unlike Japan, where most Shin temples are owned by families who pass down to eldest sons on a hereditary basis, the BCA hires Shin ministers to serve the congregations. As an ethnic religion, Pure Land teachings remain popular in Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese American Buddhist communities. However, they are less popular in the religious life of the West than Zen Buddhism, which has gained followers with its meditation practice and publications. In American popular culture, Pure Land is generally viewed as a lay devotional practice, with its symbols and rituals considered similar to Christianity. The BCA remains the largest of the overseas Shin organizations, with over 60 temples and approximately 16,000 members across the United States, but it has yet to attract a significant convert membership. Due mainly to its small size and sense of decorum, BCA is often overlooked in the debates about immigrants, converts, and the future of Buddhism in the United States. Despite its minority status in the Buddhist community, it is at the forefront of Americanization, and its beliefs and practices resonate with other immigrant Buddhist communities. (Updated in 2020) Aihua Zheng Further Reading Ama, Michihiro. 2011. Immigrants to the Pure Land: The Modernization, Acculturation, and Globalization of Shin Buddhism, 1898-1941 (Pure Land Buddhist Studies). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Ama, Michihiro. 2011. “Shin Buddhist Women in America.” Religion Compass 5, no. 5: 180–191. Fields, Rick. 1992. How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America. 3rd ed. rev. and updated. Boston (Mass.): Shambhala. Kashima, Tetsuden. 1977. Buddhism in America: The Social Organization of an Ethnic Religious Institution. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Prebish, Charles S., and Kenneth K. Tanaka, eds. 1998. The Faces of Buddhism in America. California: University of California Press. Prebish, Charles S. 1999. Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press. Seager, Richard Hughes. 2012. Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press. In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 6 Takaki, Ronald T. 1998. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown. Tweed, Thomas A. 2000. The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture & the Limits of Dissent. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. In Race and Ethnicity in the United States: From Pre-contact to the Present, volume 4: 220-224. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, October 2019. 7