RESUMO:
O Budismo nipônico desenvolveu características particulares, por um lado, devido a fatores históricos e sócio-culturais, por outro, a combinações religiosas bastante específicas, especialmente sua relação de interdependência com o Xintoísmo e as crenças populares. Este artigo apresenta uma breve história do Budismo no Japão como base para se entender suas características fundamentais, sua modernização e sua transnacionalização no último século. O Período histórico Kamakura (1185-1333) recebe atenção especial por sua importância no processo de renovação e formação de um Budismo com feições genuinamente japonesas, bem como por servir de fonte de inspiração para novos movimentos religiosos. No entanto, o autor sustenta que a modernização do Budismo japonês resultou da combinação de três fatores mais recentes: o impacto da civilização ocidental e o contexto político-religioso do Período Meiji (1868-1912) até a II Guerra Mundial; as críticas internas e externas ao Budismo; e as novas perspectivas abertas com o fim da Segunda Guerra. Com uma história de quase catorze séculos, o Budismo japonês ultrapassou as fronteiras do Japão e de sua diáspora. Atualmente, esse Budismo é um dos mais atuantes e divulgados no Ocidente, particularmente o ramo Zen e alguns neo-budismos da tradição Nichiren. Na última parte do artigo são apresentados alguns fatores explicativos da expansão global do Budismo com feições nipônicas.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE:  Budismo, Japão, modernização, transnacionalização religiosa.

ABSTRACT:
Japanese Buddhism has developed particular features due to historic and socio-cultural factors as well as to specific religious combinations, particularly its interdependent relationship with Shinto and the folk religions. This article presents a brief history of Japan’s Buddhism as a basis to understand its main characteristics, its modernization and transnationalization in the last century. The historic Period of Kamakura (1185-1333) is highlighted here because of its importance in the process of renewal and formation of a Buddhism with a genuinely Japanese flavor, and for serving as a source for new religious movements. However, the author maintains that the modernization of Japanese Buddhism resulted from a combination of three more recent factors such as the impact of Western civilization and the political-religious context of the Meiji era  (1868-1912) up to WW II; internal and external criticism to Buddhism; and the new perspectives that opened to this tradition after the WW II. With a history of almost fourteen centuries, Japan’s Buddhism has surpassed the borders of Japan and its diaspora. Nowadays, this Buddhism (particularly its version of Zen and some new movements which sprang from the Nichiren tradition) is certainly one of the most active and propagated forms of Buddhism in the West. In the last part of this article, there are some explanations for the global expansion of Japan’s Buddhism.
KEYWORDS:  Buddhism, Japan, modernization, religious transnacionalization

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ABSTRACT:
Japanese Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185-1333) witnessed a unique expression of a democratic vision, in spite of the doctrinal differences, among the distinct Buddhist schools  in Japan.
On the one extreme we could find Honen’s Amidism, which emphasized the importance of the mere recitation of nembutsu, as the way of salvation. Tendai and Shingon schools were a case in point in the importance they attached to the recitation of Amida’s name and, therefore, their relying on Tariki or reliance on another’s (Amida) force.
On the other extreme, we could find Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen sect, and who was uncompromising concerning the sole importance of Zazen or sitting meditation as a way to attain the truth. Dogen represents the relying on Jiriki or depending on one’s own strength.
However, although both Honen and Dogen seem to represent two different ways of approaching the theory of Buddhism, they share a unique trait. Both of them were revolutionary for the epoch and the place in which they lived, since they both rejected outright any discrimination against women, poor and uneducated people. This democratic attitude represents a remarkable characteristic of the Kamakura period, where iconic figures like Honen and Dogen embrace a modern way of thinking, which was unthinkable not only in Japan, but in the world as a whole, at that time.
KEYWORDS: Amidhism , Zen, selfsalvation (jiriki), heterosalvation (tariki), Popular Buddhism

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RESUMO:
Neste artigo eu analiso as práticas religiosas dos nikkeis e dos não-nikkeis que seguem o zen budismo. Eu sustento que as múltiplas influências que as práticas religiosas dos nikkeis sofreram desde que chegaram ao Brasil, juntamente com o recente forte interesse pelo budismo na sociedade brasileira deram origem à práticas religiosas crioulizadas. Utilizo o conceito de crioulização para enfatizar a idéia de que a identidade não é formada por uma síntese perfeita de duas ou mais culturas, mas emerge de um processo dinâmico de troca e interação. Neste contexto, o conceito de crioulização ilumina as várias maneiras em que os imigrantes japoneses e seus descendentes sobrepõem um ‘vocabulário’ religioso brasileiro sobre sua ‘gramática’ budista, enquanto que não nikkeis fazem uso de sintaxes católicas, espiritistas, afro-brasileiras e da nova era, como matrizes para um novo vocabulário budista. 
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: zen-budismo, crioulização, budismo étnico e de conversão, nikkeis.

ABSTRACT:
In this paper I analyse the religious practices of Japanese Brazilians and non-Japanese Brazilians who adhere to Japanese Zen Buddhism. I argue that the multiple influences that have shaped Japanese-Brazilians religious practices since these immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908, along with the recent strong interest in Buddhism in Brazilian society have given rise to creolised religious practices. I use the concept creolisation to underscore the notion that identity is not formed through a seamless synthesis of two or more worlds, but rather emerges from a dynamic process of exchange and interaction. In this context, the concept of creolisation can shed light on the various ways in which Japanese immigrants and their descendants have overlaid a Brazilian religious ‘vocabulary’ onto their Buddhist ‘grammar’, while non-Japanese Brazilians use Catholic, French Spiritist, New Age, or/and Afro-Brazilian syntaxes as matrices for new Buddhist vocabulary. Accordingly, while Buddhism in the West is regarded as typically fractured between ‘ethnic’ (defined as devotional and/or repository of the group’s cultural identity) and ‘convert’ (characterised by meditation and rational study of Buddhist texts) practices, I contend that this is not applicable to Brazil. This paper examines several cases where the boundaries between the religious practices of the two congregations blur revealing deep creolisations.
KEYWORDS: Zen-Buddhism, creolisation, ethnic and convert Buddhism, Japanese descendents

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