Sôtô Zenshû in Brazil: The Crioulization of daily practices

Abstract

Sôtô Zenshû was the first Japanese Buddhist school in Brazil that attracted members from outside the nipo-Brazilian community. At the same time several immigrants converted to Catholicism, some even before leaving Japan. More recently, Buddhism in general and Zen in particular witnessed resurgence due to the growing popularity of New-Age-spirituality. Arguing that the related religious field has promoted mechanisms of “creolization” the article is interested in the ways through which Japanese immigrants have incorporated a Brazilian religious “vocabulary” into their “Buddhist” grammar while Buddhist converts without a Japanese ethnical background refer to syntaxes associated with Catholicism or New-Age-Spirituality.