 Along with the ideas of Buddhism and Hinduism, the culture of Indian deities travelled across the whole of Asia. Very interestingly, more than 80% of Japanese gods are originally Indian gods. This close relationship between the people of India and Japan has not been known to most people. Well-researched books on the subject are also not available. Most of Japanese don't know. For example, I live in Kichijoji in the outskirts of Tokyo. This Kichijoji literally means temple of Kisho goddess. And Kisho is originally Lakshmi. So thus I came from Lakshmi town. This should be recognized by Japanese people, the bottom of Japanese culture. Indian culture is very strongly imprinted and developed in the Japanese way. The Todaiji Temple at Nara is one of the oldest and most revered temples of Japan. The 48 feet high Verochana here is the largest bronze statue in the world. Already in the 8th century, Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhi Sena has arrived in Japan. And he inaugurated the eye-opening ceremony of great Buddha of Todaiji Temple in 752. Bodhi Sena and Buddhist temple went to a temple nearby Daianji where they started teaching Sanskrit in Japan for the first time. When the Japanese studied Sanskrit in the 8th and 9th centuries, Sanskrit was synonymous with the Siddham script. This was used for writing Sanskrit since the 5th century in India. Thus Japan and India were very closely connected. If you go to Japanese tomb, you may find Siddhan letters. No Japanese can read these letters written on the tomb timber. And again in Japan there is Koya San temples. In this Koya San temples they have still Siddhan Sanskrit school. Many monks are learning this Sanskrit but Sanskrit is Siddhan letters. So perhaps Japan is a time capsule of Indian culture. Already India disappears. There is a deep relationship between Kana, the Japanese alphabet and Sanskrit. The Japanese wrote Sanskrit through simplified Chinese characters which developed into the Japanese alphabet, Kana. And this Japanese alphabet, the pronouns, A-E-U-A-O, like Sanskrit exactly as the Sanskrit. In Japan they also use the Indian letters for writing of sacred syllables or bidaksharas which have the power of mantras. Every Buddhist monastery in Japan has a seal in which there is a bidakshara, a sacred syllable, as a short name of the monastery. There are some words in Japanese which are derived from Sanskrit like O-Seva, from Seva service. And there are about 100 Sanskrit words which are used in Japanese. Most of the Japanese they are using that but without knowing that that is originally from Sanskrit. Suppose like they call the Buddhist temples at Thera. Thera means it is from the Pali term. Thera means a Buddhist monk, a bhikkhu, having 10 years experience. In the words of His Excellency Mr. Yasukuni Enoki, As I come from the Japanese Lakshmi town, it is no great surprise to me to find that Japanese life is full of so many Hindu deities. Japanese people are unaware of their origins. One of the most revered deities of Japan is Saraswati. There are scores of shrines built to her. In many ways the original concept of Saraswati and her association with the natural order and good fortune are very well preserved in Japan. She is often visualized as a sacred body of water. In Japan we find the continuance of so many early ideas of Indian philosophy. The annals of the Todaiji Temple mentioned that the celebration of the worship of Lakshmi and Saraswati was held for the first time in this temple in 722 A.D. Ever since it has been an annual celebration. In 1836 Saito Satchio wrote a guide book to the Edo area or modern Tokyo. Saraswati was mentioned as the most popular deity here at that time. In 1934 Lady Chibin Sonyo felt that she had become an incarnation of Saraswati. She started writing in Sanskrit though she had never studied the language. She founded the Benten Shoo, Saraswati sect. This sect holds water as divine as it is the abode of Saraswati. We are reminded that Saraswati is the personification of the great river which once flowed in India. Benten Shoo also worships her to bestow eloquence and learning. Worship of Lakshmi was done to ensure the peace of the land. Wind and rain in good season, good harvests, joy of the people and the good of all sentient beings. The great intellectual genius of Japan was Kokai or Kobo Daishi of the 9th century. He learnt the Sanskrit script from the Kashmiri Acharya Pragya. Kobo Daishi placed emphasis on the knowledge of Sanskrit. He said that the Japanese have had to rely upon translations to study Buddhism. However, the true words in the original language are exceedingly important. Every word has a profound meaning. The Japanese people use Sanskrit when they pray. Suppose in Sanskrit they say, Om Saraswati Swaha. In Japanese it becomes Om Saraswati Kei Swaka. In Japan they are preserving the old Indian tradition because they are following the ancient scriptures. They are also doing the puja and the mudras as well as the sadhana. There is nothing called Japanese or Japanese elements in these. It is the Indian-Buddhistanthrak tradition. The Vajrayana Buddhist traditions of Japan trace their knowledge back to India, to Nagarjuna and other great Acharyas of the Nalanda University. Nagarjuna is known as Gujiu in Japan. Without his teaching, the Buddhism of the great vehicle would not have existed. The Lotus Sutra is a major spiritual creation with a profound impact on life in Japan. It was translated from the Sanskrit by Kumara Jiva 1600 years ago. This is a temple that follows the Lotus Sutra. The Sutra is originally from India and goes back to the teachings of the Buddha himself. It started from India and came to Japan. A temple is dedicated to the deity Indra in the Shibamata area of Tokyo. It is a most important Indra shrine today. This temple has 200,000 visitors on the New Year alone. There would be about 2 million visitors every year. Varuna has been worshipped in many temples in Japan to prevent droughts, typhoons and floods which occur often in Japan. A shrine was dedicated to Varuna in the Fudodo Sanctuary in Tokyo in 1836. The temple also has a representation of Kamadeva. He is worshipped by many young couples. There are many temples dedicated to Yama in Japan. The sound of the word Yama became Ema as the name traveled and came to Japan. It is the most ancient temple to Lord Ganesha which has been in use for the last thousand years. Young boys and girls go there to be successful in their courtship. Merchants go there to gain success in their business. The oldest which has been continuously in worship for the last thousand years. I don't think anywhere in the world we have a temple to Lord Ganesha who has been there in constant worship for the last millennium. In the 7th century, Prince Shotoku created the nation state of Japan after vanquishing his rivals. He took the term Teno for emperor from Sanskrit texts. And at the same time he also wrote down a constitution for his country in 17 articles. Article 3 of the constitution clearly points out that the constitution is being based on the 3 Ratna the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. This is the first Asian constitution ever written. The important point is that its consecration was done with a Sanskrit text which is called the Ushnisha Vijaya Dharani. The Sanskrit manuscript used for the consecration of the constitution would have been obtained from the Hindu kingdom of Champa in Vietnam. Havan or Homa continues in Japan where it is called Goma. Goma in the Shingon and Tendai Buddhist sects of Japan has striking parallels with early Hindu rites of Agni worship. There are also deep similarities with the later Tantric tradition. The Havan is perhaps conducted in Japan at least as often as in India. The Tantric Shingon School of Japan sings Sanskrit hymns. To this day followers of the sect perform their worship in 1200 temples throughout Japan. Esoteric Buddhism is from India and the big philosophy of the universe is, of course, from India. Vajrayana Buddhist worship in Japan is similar to Tibetan Buddhist worship. However, the Japanese tradition has preserved some early Vajrayana rites. A study of Japanese Buddhism helps to fill some gaps in our understanding of the development of Buddhism. There are four types of Shingon mantras of Fudo Mew in Japan. These are the mantras used in Japan which are not in the Japanese language. They are taken from the Sanskrit language of India. In Sanskrit, Fudo is called Achalanatha. He seems to have his origin in the Hindu deity Shiva. The Mew is called Vidya Raja in Sanskrit. Here it can be safely stated that Fudo Mew has his origin in the Hindu deities of India. Achsutra compares the cosmic force of the mantra with the mighty roar of a rising flood. The mantras were transcribed into ideograms and to conserve their full power they were also written in Siddham. Indian letters to a Japanese are sacred and stand for divine beings. To this day, the Japanese write mantras in Siddham. This booklet contains prayers in Sanskrit that are commonly used in Shingonshu or esoteric Buddhism. It is written in Japanese but the mantras are in Sanskrit. It is used in many ceremonies in Buddhism. Priests learn the intonation and how to pronounce it by using this booklet which has Sanskrit and also has Japanese letters to convey the sounds of the Sanskrit words. Every god has his own Bijakshara. People also worship that Bijakshara. Every temple gives much importance to those Bijaksharas because they are equal to God. Visitors bring an album, we call it Shinchon. The visitors go to various temples and collect these Siddham stamps in the albums. These albums are like holy books for the people. We belong to a Zen Buddhist monastery and we strive hard to sever the bond of birth, senility, disease and death. The bond which is the cause of all suffering. As the Buddha said, desire is the root cause of pain in the world and should be overcome. This forms the basis of our ascetic practices which come down to us from the Shakyamuni himself. Bodhidharma, he transmitted Zen. Zen leader has been transmitted to Japan also and it is one of the most important sects in Japan. Mist surrounds the legend of Bodhidharma. Tradition points out that he was a prince of Kanchipuram in South India. The Japanese form of his name is Bodhidharma. It is very close to the Tamil form which is Bodhidharma. Zen was introduced in the 6th century. It was a wordless tradition directly pointing to the human mind and the perception of one's true nature. Zen was taken to Japan in the 12th century by Isai. Its influence on Japanese art, attitudes and language has been profound. Zen Buddhism became very popular because it says that life is a fleeting phenomenon. And the samurai, when they went to war they were never sure that they will come back. In this feeling they go to war and there is no fear of death. So fearlessness in war was a very important contribution of the Zen tradition. And when we sit down in a Zen monastery we have to really do very hard penance. And hard work in Japan is perfection. So the Zen tradition gave them a perfection in work. Force became a very important part of the modern development, perfection in everything. When I visited India for the first time I made sure to visit places like Nalanda University, Bodhigaya and also the garden path trodden by the Shakyamuni himself. I felt happy to see the university where Tripitaka masters used to come and study during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Whatever Buddhism we practice now has its roots in India. And without Indians there would be no Buddhism in Japan. So many deities are common in India and Japan and people are worshipping them in both the countries. The hearts of the Indian people and the Japanese people have the same base. Japan is the one country where Buddhism is flourishing in all its facets. Here technology and transcendence are living together. The deep-rooted spirit of Buddha's teachings energize the Japanese people. Buddhist temples are numerous and vast numbers of people visit them every day. Besides the Buddha, so many ancient Indian deities and practices are preserved in these temples. And Indian feels quite at home in Japan.