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
Zen organisation and institutions According to Bodiford, "Zen is the predominant form of Buddhism because of dharma transmission": Bodiford distinguishes seven dimension which are discernible in both family relationships and in dharma lineages: The family-model is easier recognized when East Asian languages are being used, because the same terminology is used to describe both earthly and spiritual family relations. In Soto, dharma transmission establishes a lifelong relation between teacher and student. To qualify as a Zen priest, further training is required. In Rinzai, the most common form of transmission is the acknowledgement that one has stayed in the monastery for a certain amount of