With the implementation of the mandatory Buddhist temple registration system in the Tokugawa period, some Buddhist temples gained stable, economic support for providing funerary services. Without this support Buddhist temples had to focus their activities on the secular needs of the ordinary people. The popular Buddhist deities with healing powers and the associated miracles became the main asset of these temples. The paper, by comparing the early-modern and (post) modern worship at the Sōtō Zen Kōganji temple in Tokyo shows that not only the trans-sectarian and trans-national appropriation of the popular Healing Jizō Bodhisattva helped to contribute to this Zen temple’s success, but the main trigger for its success derived from its immediate social and economic surroundings in the adjacent Jizō Street market.
Abstract 78 Introduction 79 1. On the Growth of Zen Buddhism 80 2. How Did Sōtō Zen Prayer Temples Emerge? 83 3. Case Study: Kōganji Temple and the Popular Faith in the Togenuki Jizō 86 4. The Temple’s Appropriation of Popular Faith in the Togenuki Jizō 87 5. The Modernizing Environment and Its Impacts on the Kōganji Temple 91 6. The Temple and the Jizō Street Market Strategies 94 7. Religious, Social, and Economic Motivations for the Visits 96 8. Observation of the Worship Ritual 96 9. Talks with Togenuki Jizō’s Visitors 99 Conclusion 100 Bibliography 102
