Buddhism in Japan from a Global Historical Perspective in the Early 12th-Century Fusō ryakki

Schley examines the Fusō ryakki (c. 1094), a private chronicle that provided the first sustained overview of Buddhism in Japan while situating it in relation to India, China, Korea, and beyond. Unlike earlier chronicles confined to the Japanese court, the Fusō ryakki integrates Buddhist temporality—such as dating from the Buddha&s;s parinirvāṇa and references to mappō—with Chinese dynastic and regional events, creating a rare premodern attempt at ‘global’ history. Schley argues that while its global scope is limited and often filtered through courtly and clerical concerns, the text nonetheless reveals an unusually broad historical horizon for 12th-century Japan, linking local Buddhist developments to wider East Asian and world historical frameworks.