Buddhism's arrival in Japan
Buddhism (仏教, Bukkyō) arrived in Japan in the 6th century CE, officially in 552 CE when the Korean kingdom of Baekje sent a Buddhist statue and sutras to the Japanese emperor. It merged with existing Shinto beliefs to form a distinctly Japanese religious culture. For over a millennium, Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines coexisted on the same grounds.
Buddhist symbols appear throughout Japanese daily life: in temple architecture, cemetery markers, seasonal festivals, flower arranging, martial arts philosophy, and the Chinese characters (kanji) used for countless spiritual concepts.
Key Buddhist symbols and their kanji
蓮 (hasu/ren — lotus): The lotus grows in muddy water but blooms immaculately — symbolising enlightenment emerging from the world of suffering. It appears in nearly all Buddhist art. 法輪 (hourin — dharma wheel): The wheel of the law, representing the Buddha's teachings and the cycle of rebirth. 梵字 (bonji — Sanskrit seed syllables): Sanskrit characters inscribed on gravestones and temple pillars, each representing a different Buddha or bodhisattva. 卍 (manji): A Buddhist symbol of good fortune and the eternal cycle, used to mark temples on Japanese maps.
空 (kuu — emptiness/void): One of Buddhism's central concepts — the recognition that phenomena have no permanent, independent existence. The same character means "sky" in everyday Japanese. 縁 (en — karmic connection): The Buddhist concept of interdependence — nothing exists without causes and conditions. Used in everyday speech for chance meetings and relationships.
The 卍 symbol (manji) on Japanese maps marks Buddhist temples. It is distinct from the Nazi swastika — it rotates in the opposite direction and carries no connection to European fascism. International versions of Japanese maps sometimes replace it with a pagoda symbol to avoid misunderstanding.
Buddhist influence on Japanese language
Buddhism contributed enormous numbers of words to the Japanese language, many of which are used without any religious awareness: 刹那 (setsuna — an instant, from Sanskrit ksana), 因縁 (innen — fate/karma), 阿弥陀 (amida — Amitabha Buddha, source of the lottery game amida-kuji), 有難う (arigatou — thank you, literally "it is difficult to exist" — acknowledging the rarity of good fortune).
Explore spiritual kanji
See the kanji for soul, destiny, eternity, and more.