JJRS > Volume 25 Issue 1-2 Teaching Assemblies and Lay Societies in the Formation of Modern Sectarian Buddhism

Ikeda Eishun

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This study surveys the emergence of teaching assemblies and lay societies in the Meiji era. These small organizations played a decisive role in the formation of modern sectarian institutions, before the various sectarian prescriptions and temple rules were established. These groups mediated between the clergy and laity and fostered a debate on sectarian identity with eloquent responses to the growing hegemony of head temples. Rapid development of the teaching assemblies and lay societies during a period when the relationship between religion and the state was tense also illustrates the fact that groups of like-minded people were seeking new ways to express their beliefs outside the confines of sectarian Buddhism. By using original documents this article shows the evolution of the Zen denominations within the larger context of the legal framework that shaped all Buddhist denominations, and depicts how the divisions between sects and branches were reshuffled several times before stabilizing in their present form.