s consciousness in the ascent to Truth (Tsunoda, et al. 110).
When political power could not be nourished by Buddhism or support shifts in Buddhist doctrine, nor ignore institutional or doctrinal decay, then Buddhism's influence declined, or the very structure of Buddhism changed so that it would be placed upward on the hierarchy of Japanese society. Rivalry between Tendai and Shingon sects of esoteric Buddhism is one indicator of this; Kukai's doctrine of the Ten Stages put Buddhist sects in order of importance, with the Chinese sects of Confucianism and Taoism near the bottom of the religious enlightenment scale and Kukai's Shingon esotericism at the top.
Esoteric Buddhism is the classical school of Buddhism, which flourished until 1571, when the Tokugawa shog
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