A paperback, B5 size, 232 pages.

A book of magnificent scope that can be held with one hand and read while strap-hanging in a Japanese commuter train (depending on your wrist-strength and powers of concentration). This is the first English edition was published in 2000, eleven years after the author, Professor Tamura’s death. The author hoped that this book would be read as a cultural and intellectual history of Japan. Anyone interested in the history of Japanese culture and society will find it useful and enjoyable to read.

This book was originally published in Japanese as a serious of articles in 1967 under the title “Hyakumannin no Bukkyou-shi” (A History of Japanese Buddhism for a Million Readers). This was later published in book form as “Nihon no Bukkyou-shi Nyuumon” (An Introductory History of Japanese Buddhism).

The book begins with the birth of the historical Buddha and ends with a discussion of post-war Buddhism, the new religions and the author’s thoughts on their future. Obviously, a book of such scope must proceed at a fair gallop in such a small volume. My first impression was like a stop motion film in a nature documentary. Various Buddhist sects rise and fall and rise and fall again in rapid succession as they seek to serve the political elite or the poor and the dispossessed- and at the same time, jockey for position with rival sects and other religions. The book certainly repays a second reading, for it has much to offer in the way it considers Buddhism’s relationship with Shinto and Christianity, as well as various intellectual, social and political trends.

Probably because the book was intended as a popular, readable history, it lacks a bibliography and a glossary. Nonetheless a bibliography or at least a list of recommended reading, and a glossary of key terms in Japanese characters as well as English would be very helpful to those in whom the book has sparked a lasting interest in Japanese cultural or religious history.