The characteristic feature of Buddhism in Japan consists in the emphasis laid on the universal communion to be realized and the dedication of one’s own wisdom and merit to one’s fellow beings. This universalism was indeed an ideal never dreamt of before by the Japanese, and this religion of all-embracing love and salvation gave the people a wider and deeper comprehension of human life, an aspiration for an incomparably broader communion than had been taught by Shinto or Confucianism.