Buddhism in Japan movement to eradicate Buddhism and bring Shinto to ascendancy arose throughout the country due to the strong connections of Buddhism to the Shōguns. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), after a coup in 1868, Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion. Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat as well as a challenge to stand up to. Buddhist institutions had a simple choice: adapt or perish. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, trying to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese
Buddhism in Japan being the words of the Buddha. It was introduced to Japan as Jōjitsu in 625 by the monk Ekwan of Goryeo. In Japan, it was classified as one of the three approaches of East Asian Mādhyamaka instead of a separate lineage. was one of the . 654: Dōshō introduces . Yogācāra is based on an early Indian philosophy by masters such as Vasubandhu. Practices of this lineage are also known as "consciousness-only" since they teach that all phenomena are phenomena of the mind. The East Asian Yogācāra school of Buddhism was founded by Xuanzang (玄奘, Jp. "Genjō") in China c.