Buddhist temples were meant to be halls of truth, places where the Buddha’s teachings are imparted and practiced and centers where those whose lives are sustained by that truth can gather. But in the Edo period, temples came to be supported not by individual believers but by the parish, or danka, system. Temples became places where memorial services for parishioners’ ancestors were held…

This short and easy-to-read cultural history pays especial attention to the wider, non-Buddhist forces and trends which shaped the history of Buddhism in Japan.