Buddhism in Japan introduction of the two schools that had perhaps the greatest impact on the country: the schools of Pure Land Buddhism, promulgated by evangelists such as Genshin and articulated by monks such as Hōnen, which emphasize salvation through faith in Amitābha and remain the largest Buddhist sect in Japan (and throughout Asia); and Zen, promulgated by monks such as Eisai and Dōgen, which emphasize liberation through the insight of meditation, which were equally rapidly adopted by the upper classes and had a profound impact on the culture of Japan. Additionally, it was during the Kamakura period that the influential monk Nichiren
Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Buddhism as an independent sect in Japan known as Jōdo-shū. Today Pure Land is an important form of Buddhism in Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam. Pure Land schools make up almost 40 percent of Japanese Buddhism practitioners with the most temples, second to Chan schools. These schools were influenced by the thought that humans could no longer understand the dharma by themselves. Contemporary Pure Land traditions see Amitābha expounding the Dharma in his buddha-field (Skt. "buddhakṣetra"), or "pure land", a region offering respite from karmic transmigration. Amitābha's pure land of Sukhāvatī is described in the "Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra"