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The newly founded sects of the Kamakura Period focused on Kyoto during the Muromachi Period. They curried favor with the ruling samurai, and while spawning more and more factions, expanded their religious influence. Some groups became powerful enough to rival political authorities Seeing that these immensely powerful religious institutions were obstacles to the unification of the country, Oda Nobunaga led armed assaults on Mt. Hiei, Mt. Koya, Ishiyama Honganji, Kofukuji in Nara and other temples, his modus operandi being to raze a temple to the ground if its priests refused submission. Oda’s successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi took different approaches with the temples. On some occasions, he would lay siege, and on others, offer protection, but always with the goal of weakening a temple’s position. The Tokugawa Shogunate outlawed Christianity as a means of maintaining the status quo. A commissioner of temples and shrines was appointed to administer temples and monasteries, and all families were required to maintain a certificate of Buddhist temple registry. These measures allowed systematic supervision of temples. Laws were passed forbidding temples from engaging in sectarian rhetoric, which effectively eliminated proselytizing. Freedom of religion did not exist.
However, in keeping with their master’s example, the
Daishonin’s true and direct disciples of the Fuji school ignored these
prohibitions by disseminating the Daishonin’s teachings throughout
Japan. Although religious persecution was fierce, it could not daunt the
spirit of the Daishonin’s disciples, who worked to protect and preserve
the True Law for future generations. |
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