The Buddha’s Dues

Abstract This article discusses a few aspects in the intellectual history of the system of taxes (and related economic interactions) in support of Buddhist organizations, their members, and their activities in premodern Japan. We will look at the concepts of debt toward benefactors (Jp. on 恩 ), with reference to an early scripture about social formation and primitive accumulation on the one hand and the early Japanese state’s taxation system on the other; of economic activity as merit-making (Jp. kudoku 功徳 ) (generating good karma); and the nature of offerings (Jp. kuyō 供養 ) as a later combination of the two. In particular, we will attempt to answer the following questions: How did the concepts of debt toward benefactors look like and how did they change over time? How did the idea of economic activity as merit-making develop? How and why were these two concepts combined in the form of offerings later on?