se four sects and some smaller ones were all introduced
during a period of 156 years. Thereafter, for a space of 387 years,
there was no addition to the number: things remained stationary until
1196, when Honen began to preach the doctrines of the Jodo sect, and
in the space of fifty-six years, between 1196 and 1252, three other
sects were established, namely, the Zen, the Shin, and the Nichiren.

THE TWO GROUPS OF SECTS

In what did the teachings of the early groups of sects differ from
those of the later groups, and why did such a long interval separate
the two? Evidently the answers to these questions must have an
important bearing on Japanese moral culture. From the time of its
first introduction (A.D. 522) into Japan until the days of Shotoku
Taishi (572-621), Japanese Buddhism followed the lines indicated in
the land of its provenance, Korea. Prince Shotoku was the first to
appreciate China as the true source of religious learning, and by him
priests were sent across the sea to study. But the first sect of any
importance--the Hosso--that resulted from this movement does not seem
to have risen above the level of idolatry and polytheism. It was a
"system built up on the worship of certain perfected human beings
converted into personal gods; it affirmed the eternal permanence of
such beings in some state or other, and it gave them divine
attributes."* Some of these were companions and disciples of Shaka
(Sakiya Muni); others, pure creations of fancy, or borrowed from the
mythological systems of India. It is unnecessary here to enter into
any enumeration of these deities further than to say that, as helpers
of persons in trouble, as patrons of little children, as healers of
the sick, and as dispensers of mercy, they acted an important part in
the life of the people. But they did little or nothing to improve
men's moral and spiritual condition, and the same is true of a
multitude of arhats, devas, and other supernatural beings that go to
make up a numerous pantheon.

*Lloyd's Developments of Japanese Buddhism, "Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol. XXII; and Shinran and His Work, by
the same author.

It was not until the end of the eighth century that Japanese Buddhism
rose to a higher level, and the agent of its elevation was Dengyo
Daishi, whom the Emperor Kwammu sent to China to study the later
developments of the Indian faith. Dengyo and his companions in 802
found their way to the monastery of T