The Japanese noun is a word of Buddhist origin and uncertain

etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...

. It has several meanings, all but a few directly linked to

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. It can refer to: *A person who has achieved ''

satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, "comprehension; understanding". It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, ''satori'' refers to a deep experience of '' kenshō'', "seeing into one's true nature ...

'' (state of enlightenment) and has therefore become a "buddha".Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version (In Buddhism, the term "buddha" in the lower case refers to a person who has become enlightened (i.e., awakened to the truth).)New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition, 2005, Oxford University Press, Inc.The term is also sometimes used to represent Buddhism as a whole. For example, the expression {{nihongo, "''kami'' and ''hotoke''", 神と仏 draws a distinction between Japanese ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' and the enlightened beings of foreign Buddhism. *The historical

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

himself *The statue or the name of a buddha *The laws of Buddhism *Figuratively, the performing of a Buddhist memorial service. The '' Eiga Monogatari'' for example contains a sentence in which the term is used in that sense. *In common parlance, a dead person; someone's soul *Figuratively, a benevolent person or someone dear to one's heart *''Hotoke'' can also be a person's name or a nickname. It is for example a female character in the '' Heike Monogatari'' and

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

Kōriki Kiyonaga's nickname.

Notes

References

Buddhist philosophical concepts Buddhism in Japan ja:仏