An interesting but exceedingly difficult problem is the one as to what place Zen Buddhism has in Japanese culture. The answer to this question is peculiarly difficult because Zen Buddhism is not and has not been the sole religion of Japan, but during the greater part of its long history in this land it has been closely bound up with Shinto and Confucianism; so that even today, though it is officially separated from Shinto, a great many Japanese are Shintoists, Confucianists and Buddhists at one and the same time. Some writers speak of Shinto as the root, Confucianism as the branches and leaves, and Buddhism as the flowers and fruit of the tree of Japanese civilization (Dumoulin and Heisig 45). This conception is not altogether wrong, for it is true that historically Shinto comes first, and that in organizing legal and educational institutions Confucianism has played a prominent part, and that finally the chief contribution of Buddhism lies in the realm of art, philosophy and religion. But since art, philosophy and religion are not only the flower and fruit of a civilization but also in turn become the root and branches of the succeeding stages, Buddhism has been a real part of the roots, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit of the Japanese tree of life. That is, its influence has been so profound that there is no aspect of Japanese life which has not been greatly modified by it.
Among the major contributions which Buddhism made to Japanese life we must place first and foremost the fact that it has been a vehicle of the higher civilization of the continent. This was true not only during its beginnings in this land when it so obviously was the means of bringing in the wealth of Korean and Chinese culture, but down to the Tokugawa period the Buddhist monks and priests continued to be the chief means by which Japan kept in touch with the rest of the world (Eliot 112). The point cannot be overstated, for just as truly as Christian missionaries from Europe and America have been the apostles of a superior civilization to the backward nations of the world, so have the Buddhists often been to Japan the messengers of progress and light. In a real sense has Buddhism been the "Light of Asia," and perhaps no part of Asia has received as much through it as has Japan (Eliot 115). However, it does not mean that Japan would have remained in darkness if it had not been for the religion of the Buddha. But the history of Japan having been what it was, it is correct to say that Buddhism has been a determining factor, and that the sources of Japanese culture have been either directly or indirectly mainly Buddhist.
In the field of art it is more correct to say that Zen Buddhism created certain branches of Japanese art than simply that it influenced them. Thus Japanese architecture, sculpture and painting are what they are because Zen Buddhism has made them so. Music and poetry have also been influenced, though perhaps to a lesser degree.
If in the field of architecture we were to remove from these pine-clad hills and valleys the Buddhist temples, monasteries and flights of stone steps leading up to them, very little of grandeur or beauty would remain. The average Japanese house seems to be a development of the primeval hut and as a work of architecture it cannot claim a very high place. What makes it attractive is not any architectural feature but rather the cleanliness, neatness and simplicity of the interior; or it may be its picturesque environment. The Shinto shrine, too, cannot be said to rank very high, though the shrine entrance, the Torii, may be regarded as a real work of art. But it is really only when we come to Buddhist buildings that Japanese architecture can make any claims.
In the field of sculpture Japan is relatively much richer, and it has many elements of Zen Buddhism. What existed of this art before the introduction of Zen Buddhism may be classed with the crude clay figures produced by most primitive peoples (Izutsu 54). It is surprising in what a short time really world masterpieces in bronze, clay and wood were produced. The world's largest bronze statue belongs to Japanese Buddhism of the eighth century. It is true that this does not rank so very high as a work of art, but there are many smaller relics of that period which do rank high. And not only during that first period did the Buddhist sculptor carve his ideals in wood and bronze, but all down through the centuries he dominated this art. The thousands and tens of thousands of images and statues which are to be found in temples, temple grounds, along the highways and byways, in cities, towns and villages, in valleys, on hills, mountain sides and mountain peaks, -- all these are the handiwork of the Buddhist artists (Izutsu 101).
And if Zen Buddhist ideals have guided the chisel and the knife, they have also inspired the pencil and the brush. In a land of such natural beauty as Japan one would naturally expect the painter to be inspired largely by his wonderful environment, but instead of that, practically all the older schools of painters were inspired by Chinese masterpieces introduced by Zen Buddhism. Thus one student of the subject says that "it may safely be asserted that not one in twenty of the productions of these painters, who to the present day are considered to represent the true genius of Japanese art, was inspired by the works of nature as seen in their own beautiful country." (Dumoulin et al 88). In fact the very neglect of perspective in landscape paintings and the "impossible mountains" in these are well-known characteristics (Eliot 76). It may be that the very exquisiteness of the scenery in Japan has made the artist despair of ever producing it on canvas, and so instead he seeks only to suggest it, leaving everything but a few bold strokes marking the outline to be supplied by the imagination.
Zen can be a religion without being religious. The live Zen quality thrives on indirection, not going obviously but deviously. This may explain the love of the dragon, lurking in bronze miniature on tiny islands in gardens; larger on eaves.
The oldest Japanese painting, dating as it is believed from the seventh century, is a mural decoration in Horyuji, a Buddhist temple near Nara (Dumoulin et al 121). Practically all the leading schools down to the present day had their birth in a Buddhist atmosphere. Thus the great painters, Cho Densu and Josetsu, the most famous names in the most glorious period of Japanese painting, were Buddhist priests (Izutsu 45). The great men who succeeded them and founded independent schools, all kept true to the old traditions and preferred the models introduced from China by the Buddhist monks from century to century to the infinitely more perfect models which nature itself supplies to every artist in Japan. Thus while Zen Buddhism has created and nurtured the art of painting in Japan, it may also be said to have hindered the highest development in that it has imposed a slavish adherence to classic Buddhist models, and only occasionally have artists been able to break away from this tyranny, and paint as they really saw with their own eyes (Eliot 98).
The influence of Zen Buddhism on music, the most subtle of the arts, it would be difficult for any one not a real student of oriental music to estimate. One of the best authorities on the subject of the scale in Japanese music says that it consists "of five notes of the harmonic minor scale, the fourth and the seventh being omitted, because, as there are five recognized colors, five planets, five elements, five viscera and so on, there must also be five notes in music." (Dumoulin et al 99). Being written in the minor key its dominant note is that of melancholy and despair, and not that of joy and victory. Because of this, Japanese music, whether influenced by Zen Buddhism or not, is after all a real expression of that pessimistic philosophy of life of which Zen Buddhism is the best formulation. As one's understanding of this philosophy of life grows, one's ears also become more sympathetic with the music of it, and especially do one's ears respond to the one distinctively Buddhist instrument of Japan, namely, to the rich, mellow tones of the temple bell. Thus, "The suspended bell of Japan gives forth a voice of the most exquisite sweetness and harmony -- a voice that enhances the lovely landscapes and seascapes, across which the sweet solemn notes come floating on Autumn evenings, and in the stillness of Summer's noonday hazes. The song of the bell can never be forgotten by those that have once heard it. Their notes seem to have been born amid the eternal restfulness of the Buddhist paradise, and to have gathered, on their way to human ears, echoes of the sadness that prepares the soul for Nirvana." (Eliot 143).About the Author:
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