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 During the war, this was halved to 28 branches, but the law enforcing this was repealed following the end of the war, allowing former branches to return.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
Faith in Buddhism bird-like deities and violent spirits which previously were the focus of pre-Buddhist cults became guardians of the Buddhist teaching. This process of adopting deities as part of Buddhism often occurred when Buddhist devotees or monks did not fully renounce their former devotions when embracing Buddhism. In the early Pāli scriptures, as well as in some customs in traditional Buddhist societies, traces can still be found of the period that Buddhism competed with "nāga" worship and assimilated some of its features. In some Buddhist countries like Japan, a perspective arose of the human world as a microcosm of the macrocosmic realms