ABSTRACT
Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism is a tradition some 800 years in development. It was transmitted to the West initially through the immigrant Japanese people who came to work on sugar plantations in Hawai’i or to seek their fortunes in other occupations beginning in the late nineteenth century. It is found chiefly in Hawai’i and on the west coast of the North American mainland, as well as in Brazil and Peru in South America. Small congregations can be found scattered over the continent as a result of dispersion in the Second World War. Being largely ethnic in character, it has not been as well known as Theravada, Tibetan or Zen traditions in the West.
