, also ''Ritsu school'', is one of the six schools of Nara Buddhism in Japan, noted for its use of the

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions remai ...

textual framework of the Dharmaguptaka, one of the early schools of Buddhism. The Ritsu school was founded in Japan by the blind Chinese priest

Jianzhen Jianzhen (; 688–763), or Ganjin in Japanese, was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times. Ganjin finally came to Japan in the year 753 and ...

, better known by his Japanese name ''Ganjin''. Ganjin traveled to Japan at the request of Japanese priests, and established the

Tōshōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple of the Risshū sect in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Classic Golden Hall, also known as the '' kondō'', has a single story, hipped tiled roof with a seven bay wide facade. It is considered the archety ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

. During the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

, the Ritsu sect was divided into schools at Tōshōdai-ji,

Kaidan-in is a Rinzai temple in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was founded by Ganjin in 761. Together with Tōdai-ji in Nara and Yakushi-ji in Tochigi Prefecture, it was one of Japan's three official ordination halls during the Nara period. H ...

Saidai-ji or the "Great Western Temple" is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples in the city of Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The temple was first established in AD 765 as a counterpart to Tōdai-ji and it is the main tem ...

, and

Sennyū-ji , formerly written as , is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. For centuries, Sennyū-ji has been a mausoleum for noble families and members of the Imperial House of Japan. Located within the temple grounds are the official tom ...

. However, during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, the Ritsu sect was incorporated within the

Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...

sect by decree of the Japanese government. Today only

, which resisted the government measures, retains its identity as a Ritsu temple.

References

Bibliography

* Bunyiu Nanjio (1886)
A short history of the twelve Japanese Buddhist sects
Tokyo: Bukkyo-sho-ei-yaku-shupan-sha, pp. 20–31 Schools of Buddhism founded in Japan Buddhism in the Nara period {{Japan-reli-stub

See also

References

Bibliography