In Accordance with the Times: Yamada Etai and the Transformation of Tendai Buddhism

Yamada Etai (1895–1994) oversaw the most important postwar changes in Japanese Tendai Buddhism during his twenty years as zasu, or head priest. In Accordance with the Times presents his long and momentous life as a window into the development of modern Tendai. Recounting Yamada’s early training and his ascent through the temple ranks, it introduces the school’s major institutional issues, practices, and traditions over the last century.

The Pacific War profoundly shaped both Yamada and the Tendai organization, and it proved foundational to his later work as zasu. One of his most radical changes was to shift Tendai away from its traditional focus on monastic practice and the care of lay members’ ancestors and toward the salvation of everyday practitioners in the here and now by emphasizing the search for peace and happiness in daily life. Further chapters explore Yamada’s popular writings on Buddhism as a religion of salvation and his efforts to reestablish Tendai at the center of the Japanese religious world. Through the Light Up a Corner Movement and interfaith initiatives such as the famous World Religious Summit, held on Mt. Hiei in 1986, he reached out to new religious movements and other world faiths.

Yamada strongly affirmed that Tendai must be an open religion—one attuned to the needs of the times and devoted to the happiness of all—if it was to survive into the twenty-first century. In Accordance with the Times offers the first history of contemporary Tendai Buddhism, as told through the life of this transformative figure in modern Japanese religion.

• Stephen G. Covell, Author

  Stephen G. Covell is the Mary Meader Professor of Comparative Religion in the Department of World Religions and Cultures at Western Michigan University.