Japanese religions in the United States: History and current practices

She was an ordinary middle-aged American in my Japanese class and there was nothing striking about her, but she was different from other students. One day, she brought a scroll of the Soto Zen lineage. She was an ordained Soto Zen priest.; I was quite ignorant about Japanese religions in the United States. Being a Catholic, I thought that Japanese religions, Buddhism and Shinto, were part of Japanese culture, not an object of the spiritual pursuit.; Encountered with this American female Zen monk, I started to research and discovered that there were many practitioners of Japanese religions in the United States and numerous intriguing stories during transmission. The paper will discuss about Jodo Shinshu, which came to America in the late 19th century; Zen, which became popular in the fifties; and lastly, the new religion, Soka Gakkai International, which has the largest membership in America.