Buddhism in Japan four Pure Land schools, three Zen schools (Rinzai, Sōtō and Ōbaku), and Nichiren. During the war, this was halved to 28 branches, but the law enforcing this was repealed following the end of the war, allowing former branches to return. Further, since then, many groups have split off from existing branches. 625: Introduced into Japan. The (formerly known as the *"Sātyasiddhi") is considered to be an offshoot of the Bahuśrutīya, an Indian Sautrāntika school of Nikaya Buddhism; however, the "Tattvasiddhi"s position was also close to that of the Sthavira nikāya. They were distinguished by a rejection of abhidharma as not
Critical Buddhism epistemology." Critical Buddhism targeted specifically certain concepts prevalent in Japanese Mahayana Buddhism and rejected them as being non-buddhist. For example, Matsumoto Shirō and Hakamaya Noriaki reject the doctrine of Tathagatagarbha, which according to their view is at odds with the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination. Critical Buddhism became known to Western scholarship due to a panel discussion held at the American Academy of Religion's 1993 meeting in Washington, DC with the title "Critical Buddhism: Issues and Responses to a New Methodological Movement", which led to an English collection of essays. Critical Buddhism Critical Buddhism (Japanese: 批判仏教, hihan bukkyō) is