Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the “Submit my answers” button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

“Shinto” means the ________.
a) way of the gods
b) shaman tradition
c) way of the kami
d) spirit tradition

Question 2:

For ________ after death, a person will be considered an “ancestor.”
a) 3 years
b) 12 years
c) 33 years
d) 108 years

Question 3:

In Japan the bodhisattva of compassion is ________.
a) Guanyin
b) Kannon
c) Amida
d) Amaterasu

Question 4:

________ is NOT a reason for approaching the kami.
a) Resolving a dispute
b) Asking for a child
c) Success in school
d) Honouring Buddha

Question 5:

The burial mounds for the ancient rulers of Japan are called ________.
a) kofun
b) mappo
c) nara
d) tariki

Question 6:

The Todaiji temple is ________.
a) a Shinto temple
b) the largest wooden building in the world
c) the only Daoist temple in Japan
d) the location of a famous lantern festival in late summer

Question 7:

In Japan today, ________ is usually depicted as female.
a) Jizo
b) Izanagi
c) Hachiman
d) Kannon

Question 8:

The key Buddhist text brought from China to Japan, by Saicho and Kukai, is the ________.
a) Heart Sutra
b) Kojiki
c) Lotus Sutra
d) Nihon Shoki

Question 9:

Shinto priests and priestesses developed code words for referring to Buddhist concepts ________.
a) so that the two traditions do not get mixed up
b) so the Shinto tradition can acknowledge the concepts but keep a distance from them
c) in order to prevent non-adepts from understanding the esoteric teachings
d) the Shinto clergy did not develop any code words for referring to Buddhist concepts

Question 10:

Honen ________.
a) thought that people were living in an age of mappo
b) thought that people should spend more time meditating
c) founded the Tendai Buddhist tradition
d) was exiled for breaking his vows of celibacy and marrying

Question 11:

The Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism is associated with ________.
a) chanting the nembutsu
b) sudden enlightenment
c) Amida Buddha
d) Dogen

Question 12:

The prominent “new religion” based on Nichiren’s teachings is ________.
a) Aum Shinrikyo
b) Jodo Shinshu
c) Shinnyo-en
d) Soka Gakkai

Question 13:

________ teachings were thought to promote societal harmony and stability in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, through attention to relationships.
a) Buddhist
b) Shinto
c) Confucian
d) Daoist

Question 14:

________ does NOT bring about the conditions for receiving benefits from the spirits and deities.
a) Asking a ritual specialist to conduct rituals at a shrine
b) Performing rituals at a family altar in the home
c) Attending a poetry reading
d) Attending a grand festival (matsuri)

Question 15:

Amaterasu is ________.
a) the god of light
b) the imperial kami
c) a shogun ruler
d) a bodhisattva of compassion

Question 16:

The four distinct classes in Tokugawa society are ________.
a) samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants
b) lord, serf, samurai, and clergy
c) samurai, merchants, serf, and clergy
d) farmers, artisans, clergy, and lord

Question 17:

Bushido is the way of ________.
a) the warrior
b) harmony
c) the farmer
d) the kami

Question 18:

Kamikaze means ________.
a) heavenly deities
b) divine sky
c) powerful deities
d) divine wind

Question 19:

Current trends in Japanese religious practice include an increase in Buddhist priests’ engagement with ________.
a) meditation
b) chanting
c) social services
d) textual studies

Question 20:

Today, many young people in Japan ________.
a) don’t care about anything religious at all
b) have individual interests but are leery of institutionalized religion
c) are flocking to new religious movements
d) are continuing the traditions that have been found in Japan for centuries

Higher Education

World Religions: Eastern Traditions, Fourth Edition—Chapter 7