Religion - Shinto, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism in Japan
As any student of religion can tell you, it is never a cut and dried history to research. There are always powerful individuals who promote a way of life for their own reasons, different points of view on the same religion, and changes as the culture changes. The same is true for Japan.
In the early days of Japanese history, there was a general worship of nature. Locals would put out offerings to their local sea, mountain, hill, lake, ocean, whatever it was that brought them nourishment. Those who did a lot of ocean fishing might pray to the ocean to be kind to their fishing ships. Those who lived by a river that flooded might pray that the river would stay calm.
When the connections with China became great, and Buddhism became swarming into Japan, these local nature worshippers decided they needed a "name" to hold onto their existing way of life. The name they chose was "Shinto". It was not an organized religion - simply a care and love for the nature of an area.
In comparison, Buddhism was about eternal suffering, and a quiet acceptance of that fate. The Buddhist point of view is that:
Life is suffering
Suffering comes from desire
To stop desire is to stop suffering
Many waves of scholars and priests brought Buddhism over from China to Japan, and it became quite popular. Different famous teachers brought in different new ideas. Eisai enjoyed koans, or "mind-bending riddles" and popularized those. Dogen (1200-53) loved meditation, known as zazen. As Buddhism grew and changed, the branch known as Zen Buddhism became more and more popular. Where Buddhism was about suffering and serious study, Zen Buddhism was more about acceptance, meditation and enlightenment.
Zen Buddhism also absorbed many aspects of shinto - the love of nature, the acceptance of the good and bad that nature offers, the love of simple, natural items. Zen Buddhism became a part of the tea ceremony and many art styles.
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