Buddhism And Japan Outline Essay

Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits

Introduced by a mission from Korea in 552 C.E., Buddhism has long been a central theme in Japanese artwork. Since the king of Paekche, a kingdom in the South East of the Korean peninsula, first gave the Japanese emperor a bronze Buddha statue, the Buddhist art forms that were periodically introduced from China and Korea were tempered in the crucible of local custom and usage, to yield a rich tradition of religious art.

Stability and balance is also achieved through the incorporation of the vertical and horizontal planes. In the southwest facade of the building the vertical slits are balanced with the horizontal planes created by the cubes, cornice and the ornamental horizontal band that runs halfway through the walls. These vertical and horizontal planes further dictate a rhythmic continuity throughout the building. Building's scale is rather modest in comparison to its site and the surrounding landscape and the smooth texture of the facade helps its integration to the environment. (Figure 4)

Throughout History, there have been many different groups or events that are still widely known today. Groups of people such as the Indians or Vikings are popular groups which are referenced constantly in today’s society. However, none of these groups is more known or referenced than the Japanese Samurai. Originating in 646 AD, these Japanese warriors developed from a loose organization of farmers to the dominant social class in Feudal Japan. Along with their dominant military and political standing, the samurai brought with them a unique code or moral belief that became the core of Samurai culture. Because of this, the Samurai and their principles still affect modern day Japanese society with social customs today

Albert Einstein once said, “the religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal god, avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.”# Many great minds like Albert Einstein have converted or become Buddhists. Many people from the west are turning their attention towards Buddhism because of the Buddha’s simple way to life and the lack of worship or prayer to a divine being.

based on the style of stone statues. The figures of Buddhist art of Sui Dynasty have broader

In this essay, I will compare and contrast two sacred spaces; Ise Jingu of Japan and the Great Stupa in India. First I will describe the sacred spaces and their artistic features, values and importance. Afterwards, will come the analysis comparing the two in architectural design and decisions, rather than the difference of religious belief or purpose.

The reliefs belonging to the sacred or"ceremonial" category consist of panels depicting a sacred tree, a human

Outline signs incorporated an inward back deck board, more extensive wheel openings, bended side glass, and S-bended rooftop columns on the notchback.

The second representation of the Heian period I chose to include in the elegant robes on the unidentified female was the Byodoin Temple because it’s a noteworthy example of Buddhist Pure Land architecture. The temple (including its garden) represents the Pure Land Paradise, which was also influential on future temple construction. After doing some further reading, I learned that Byodoin was initially built in 998 as a countryside retreat villa for Fujiwara no Michinaga, the powerful politician, and was not actually intended to be a temple; however, Michinaga's son ended up turning Byodoin into a temple and was the one who ordered the construction of its most spectacular feature, the Phoenix Hall. Despite the building being given another official name, it was nicknamed Hodo almost immediately after its construction in 1053 because of its shape and the two phoenix statues on its roof. In fact, the significance of this structure is still present today as its hall is now featured on the back of the Japanese ten yen coin (Byodoin Temple,

The fact that the structure is lifted provides many functional advantages. As the pilotis raise the building off the ground, it allows circulation beneath the house, which can act as a protection against dampness, free the building site, and allow a driveway, parking space, or a garden to extend beneath the house. The pilotis provides many advantages, which are supported with the new constructional possibilities. The artistic moments as well as the extended usefulness are the result of those ‘recherches assidues’ and those ‘acquits de laboratoire’. The same area is also gained on the flat roof. This area is known as the next point, which is the roof garden. This is to balance the green area that was consumed by the building and substituting it on the roof, a building should give back the space it takes up on the ground, which is then used for domestic purposes. Free plan is the next point, which means the floor space can be arranged freely without the concern for supporting walls into rooms. Replacing interior load-bearing columns from walls dividing the space, and moving the structure of the building to the exterior is a way to achieve this. Le Corbusier designed an open floor structure called the Dom-ino house in which the model removed load-bearing wall and the supporting beams for the ceiling. This invention was most unexpected at time; it was a ‘forecast of the potentialities of reinforced concrete, of mass-production, of human scale, of the modern factory.’ The

Japan 's indigenous religion is Shintō, and its customs are enmeshed in Japanese culture. It is animistic, seeing gods and spirits in everything. This leads to a deep respect for human harmony with the environment. Many Ghibli films contain jinja, or shrines, and torii, or sacred gates, which are used to pay respect or give offerings in Shintōism. Ghibli films also contain kami, spirits that reside in all things. Princess Mononoke is filled with a kami (Odell 28).

“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future; it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” Albert Einstein (Buddhism)

New structure and informal by Cecil Balmond talks about Continuous and crisscrossing space that spirals upwards looks like a series of cubes that have been inset into one another such formation produce new, chaotic spirals and the structure builds on itself and remains free within this framework. Cecil Balmond had explored the different ways of creating and developing new forms through careful discovery by new and innovative techniques such as structural solution for roofing, overlapping of points for roofing and rotating disc Balmond explores the idea of a generic pattern in the tilling of the walls that transports into the structure from ornamentation to substance.

“It’s a rounded court enclosed by a low gallery supported by 124 white marble columns”. A pavilion aims into the court at each frontier, where the walls are elegantly ornamented, and the arched roof is illuminated. The colonnade is covered with white marble, and the square with colored tiles, while the walls are board up from the ground with blue and yellow tiles, with a border above and below of enameled blue and gold. The columns sustaining the roof and gallery are placed