PSA 2 (5 points): It is difficult to trace the early stages of the important process by which
Buddhism was made compatible with Shinto and thus became more easily acceptable to the
Japanese. The first clear indication of this appears in the middle of the Nara period more than two hundred years after the official introduction of Buddhism to Japan in a biography of Fujiwara Muchimaro. Please read this source (as below) and write a short analysis in 130-150 words. Consider these questions: 1) What is the authors religious standpoint?
2) Is the Buddhism-Shintoism relation reflected by this source similar, or different
from, the Buddhism-Daoism relation in China around the same time? Why? And 3) Can
you use this case to comment on the religious landscape of East Asia before 1000?
[Source 2] In the year 715, Fujiwara Muchimaro had a dream in which a strange
man appeared and said, Since you revere the teachings of the Buddha, please build
a temple for my sake. I beg of you to fulfill my request and save me, for my past
karma has caused me to be a Shinto deity for a long time. Now I place my trust in
the way of the Buddha, and I wish to perform meritorious acts for my happiness.
Thus far, I have not been able to obtain the proper causes and conditions for this,
and therefore I have come to speak with you.”
Muchimaro was suspicious and thought that the man might be the Kibi deity.
He wanted to say something in reply but found himself unable to speak. Then he
woke up from his dream. He offered a prayer, saying, The ways of the gods and men
are different. What is obvious to the one is obscure for the other. Who was that
strange man appearing in my dream last night? If he should prove himself to be a
deity by showing me a sign, then I shall surely build a temple for him. At that point,
the deity picked up a monk named Kume Katsuashi and placed him at the very top
of a tall tree. That, he said, was the sign. Muchimaro then realized the truth and built
a temple, which is now a part of a Buddhist-Shinto shrine complex in Echizen
Province.
