Jainism in Japan

Jainism, unlike the closely related Buddhism, is a minority religion in Japan. At present, there are three Jain temples in Japan,[1] with the Kobe Jain temple being the most famous one. Jainism is growing in Japan, more than 5,000 ethnic Japanese families in Japan have converted to Jainism.[2]

Japanese Jains
Mahavir swami Jain Temple in Kobe
Total population
5000 families
Languages
Japanese Language
Indian Languages
Religion
Jainism
Part of a series on
Jainism
Religion portal

History

Forty Japanese students were sponsored by the Government of India in the early 1950s to live and study in India. Some of them studied Navinaya in Varanasi and Gujarat, which led to new interest in the study of Jainism in Japan. One of the accomplishments was the first Japanese book by Minakata Kumagusu to simplify and translate the concepts of Jainism into Japanese for use by the common people in Japan.[3]

See also

References
  1. "2009 Jain Diaspora Conference, Los Angeles, USA". Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  2. "Thousands of Japanese making a smooth transition from Zen to Jain". Hindustan Times. 23 February 2020.
  3. Mehta, Dr. Manish (2013-03-19). "Article Archive | 9th Jaina Studies Workshop - Jainism And Modernity - A Manish Mehta Report". Herenow4u.net. Retrieved 2013-09-14.

Further reading
  • A Japanese take on Jainism (in English)- kamit.jp
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.