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Welcome to Japanese Religion Online!

Self-Test Questions

Chapter 1

1.   How does studying Japanese religion help one to understand Japanese culture?

2.   How might studying Japanese religion help one understand Japanese politics or corporate culture?

3.   What are the two main sources of the Japanese language?

4.   How do you understanding the meaning of religion as a human phenomenon?

5.   What is the theoretical expression of religion?  Give an example from Japanese religion.

6.   What is the practical expression of religion?  Give an example from Japanese religion.

7.    What is the sociological expression of religion?  Give an example from Japanese religion.

8.    How is religion expressed in art?  Give an example from Japan.

9.    How are religion and ethics related?  Give an example from Japan.

10.  How do many Japanese combine Buddhism and Shinto in their lives?

Chapter 2

1.   What is the Daijosai?

2.   What is a matsuri?

3.   What figure does the Great Buddha of Nara represent?

4.   What is the meaning of the mandala in the Toji Shingon temple?

5.   What are the basic teachings of the Tendai school?

6.   What is the basic teaching of Pure Land Buddhism?

7.   What is a major practice of Zen Buddhism?

8.   What is the chief practice of Nichiren Buddhism?

9.   What does the Martyrs' Monument in Nagasaki commemorate?

10.  What are the “new religions” of Japan?  Give an example.

Chapter 3

1.   Why is the Grand Shrine of Ise important?

2.   What does the term kami mean?

3.   Describe Inari shrines.

4.   What is the significance of the Meiji shrine and others to recent historical figures?

5.   Why is the Yasukuni shrine controversial?

6.   What are some major common features of the Shinto year?

7.   Give and briefly explain five keynotes of Shinto.

8.   How is Shinto worship typically conducted?

9.   What is the Shinto creation myth?

10.    Summarize the cycle of myths involving Amaterasu.

Interlude

1.   Outline the traditional life of the Buddha.

2.   Give the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, and briefly summarize their meaning in your own words.

3.   What are the Three Refuges?

4.   What is meant by the Middle Way and Nirvana?

5.   Present five significant differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.

6.   How do you understand the “cosmic buddhas” in Mahayana Buddhism?

7.   How do you understand the Mahayana concept of the bodhisattva?

8.  Why are Mahayana meditational and devotional practices so diverse?

9.   What is the key notion of Yogacara or “Mind Only” philosophy?

10. What is meant by “original enlightenment”?

Chapter 4

1.   What are the major stages of Japanese culture before the introduction of Buddhism?

2.   What are four major cultural influences on Japan?

3.   Present the traditional account of the introduction of Buddhism.

4.  Why is Prince Shotoku important?

5.  When did Confucianism first come into Japan?

6.   How were Buddhism and Shinto reconciled?

7.   Describe the Buddhism of the Nara period in the capital.

8.   What was the Buddhism of the countryside like, and what role did obasoku priests have?

9.   What was the role of Gyogi in building the Great Buddha of Nara?

10.  What was the scandal involving the Empress Koken and Dokyo, and how did it bring the Nara  

       period to an end? 

Chapter 5

1.  What spiritual values seemed to most affect Heian court society?

2.  Who was the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan?

3.  What are Shingon's essential teachings?

4.   What are its major practices?

5.   What is meant by mikkyo or esotericism?

6.   Who was the founder of Tendai in Japan?

7.   What is the basic text, and what are the basic teachings, or Tendai?

8.   How were Shinto and Buddhism combined in Heian Japan?

9.   Give an example of a Shinto court rite kept separate from Buddhism.

10.  Present three examples of Heian period popular religious beliefs and practices.

Chapter 6

1.  What is meant by mappo and why was the concept important?

2.  Summarize the main values of the samurai class.

3.  How would you characterize the spiritual quest of the Kamakura era?

4.  In Pure Land teaching, what is the role of Amida Buddha?

5.  What were the basic distinctive teachings of Honen?

6.  What were the essential distinctive teachings of Shinran?

7.   What was the Ikko ikki?

8.   Summarize the life and basic teachings of Nichiren.

9.   What are the Six Places of Rebirth?

10.  What is the fundamental appeal of Nichiren Buddhism?

Chapter 7

1.  Describe the basic Zen experience as you understand it.

2.  What Buddhist teachings are basic to Zen?

3.  What are key points in the life and teaching of Eisai?

4.   Contrast the fundamental emphases of Rinzai and Soto Zen. 

5.   Outline the life and formative experiences of Dogen.

6.   What are the essentials of Dogen's teaching?

7.   What is characteristic of the arts traditionally associated with Zen?

8.   What is the relationship of Bushido to Zen?

9.   Discuss the lives and perspectives of two major Zen poets.

10.  Why has Zen had a special appeal in the West?

Chapter 8

1.  What was the religious situation during the sengoku or “country at war” period?

2.  Describe the arrival of Christianity in Japan, and its reception.

3.  Why was Christianity later persecuted?

4.  What social philosophy underlay the Tokugawa period?

5.  Briefly outline three variants of Tokugawa Confucian philosophy.

6.  What were the basic principles of Kokugaku, or nationalistic Shinto thought?

7.  What were some main features of popular philosophy in the Tokugawa era?

8.  Why do you think the Ise mairi, or pilgrimage, was so popular?

9.  Give examples of rural popular religion in the Tokugawa period.

10.  Do the same for urban religion.

Chapter 9

1.   What were the reasons for the Meiji restoration?

2.   What religious ideology was used to support the Meiji restoration and Japan's modernization?

3.   What changes did government policy toward religion undergo in early Meiji?

4.   How did Shinto develop during the Meiji period?

5.  What opportunities did this period present Buddhism?

6.  What reception did Christianity have on its return in Meiji Japan?

7.   Why was the end of the Tokugawa and Meiji periods productive of “new religions” and sectarian Shinto?

8.    How was ideology concerning the Emperor expressed between 1868 and 1945?

9.   What was state policy toward religion during World War II?

10.  How did the various religions respond to it?

 

Chapter 10

1.  What are the basic concepts and activities of Shugendo?

2.  How did Tenrikyo originate?

3.  What are Tenrikyo's basic teachings and practices?

4.  Describe briefly the following new religions:  Konkokyo, Omoto, Seicho no Ie, World Messianity, PL Kyodan.

5.  What are the fundamental teachings and practices of Soka Gakkai?

6.  Why do you think Soka Gakkai was so successful in the postwar period?

7.  Summarize the other new religions of the Nichiren group: Reiyukai and Rissho Kosei Kai.

8.  Why do you think many of the “new new” religions tend to be based on esoteric rather than Nichiren Buddhism?

9.  Outline the Aum Shinrikyo crisis, and discuss the “Aum effect” on Japanese religion as a whole.

10.  List several common characteristics of the Japanese new religions.

Chapter 11

1.  What were the policies of the postwar Occupation toward religion, and what impact did this period

     have on Japanese religion?   Consider Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity separately.

2.  What changes have the postwar period brought about for women in Buddhism?

3.  How has “Critical Buddhism” tried to reassess the relation of Buddhism and Japanese culture?

4.  In what ways has postwar Japanese religion shown continuity with the past?

5.  How does Japanese religion facilitate a desire for individual spiritual achievement?

6.  How does it support the also-present yearning for close-knit group experience?

7.  What does it mean to say that Japanese religion is something done, not just thought or believed? 

8.  What is the meaning of mizuko kuyo services?

9.  What is the significance of New Years in Japan today, and how is it celebrated?

10.   What seem to be some religious or spiritual themes in contemporary Japanese popular culture, especially youth culture?

 

 
       

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