This thesis deals with the myth of Maitreya, the next Buddha to come. The myth is traced from its earliest emergence in the Buddhist scriptures, briefly through its metamorphosis in China, with a view to presenting its evolution in Japan. The myth's history in Japan spans thirteen centuries, and as a result it is interesting to explore it in its historical context to see how the myth evolves and changes according to the exigencies of the times. Buddhism has in many ways been synthesized into the Japanese indigenous Shinto context, with the result that the myth of Maitreya has emerged not simply as a Buddhist figure, but a pan-Japanese phenomenon very much responding to the Japanese ethos of "world-mending". This underlying current has become particularly strong in the twentieth century with the result that Maitreya has become a vehicle for social rectification as well as hope.
