This is a scholarly study of the evolution of Mahayana Buddhism in Japan. Chapters include; Mahayana; The Stage on which Sakyamuni made his Appearance; The Buddha and his Greatest Disciple; The Pre-Christian Expansion of Buddhism; Pusityamitra; The New Testament in Touch with the East; Alexandria and Antioch at the Time of Christ; The Legend of St. Thomas; The Call from China; Buddhism just before the Coming of Christianity; Asvaghosha; Nagarjuna; The Missionaries of the Han; China in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Centuries; Buddhism during the Nara Period, and more.

List of transactions, v. 1-41 in v. 41.

This seminal work was the first comprehensive study of modern Shinto, the religion of Japan, in both its state and sect forms. It is of particular interest for its account of the evolution of Shinto into a vital political force in the period leading up to World War II.

This latest volume of leading figures in the history of Anglo-Japanese relations offers a classic menu of personalities, themes and events (in all 25 contributions). Contents include the writings of the Cambridge scholar Carmen Blacker and leading historian William Beasley; British military observer and Times reporter of the Russo-Japanese War General Sir Ian Hamilton; philosophers Arnold Toynbee, Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw; the Chosu students Inoue Kaoru and Yamao Yozo who were later key figures in the Meiji period modernization of Japan; and Walter Dening, scholar and missionary. Subjects treated include horse breeding and horse-racing, the Japanese influence on British architects, the beginnings of golf in Japan and Japanese gardeners in Britain.

Justification for the writing of this book lies in the twofold fact of the existence of a practically open field and the special importance of a knowledge of Shinto in reaching an adequate understanding of contemporary Japan—politically, socially and religiously. Since the publication in 1905 of W. G. Aston's notable work, Shinto, The Way of the Gods, no study of this subject, aiming at comprehensiveness of design, has appeared in the English language. Special aspects have been dealt with by different writers but no attempt at a historical survey such as would place the salient facts of the total situation in the hands of the serious Western student of Oriental affairs has been made. Aston's book is still standard but it is not easy to procure and deals mainly with the Old Shinto of the classical age. It antedates some of the most important modern developments. The present volume is offered in the humble hope that it may assist in the meeting of a genuine need in the sphere of interest of which it treats. First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.