Ritsu (Jap.; Skt., vināya). Codes of discipline which govern the Buddhist monastic life. The vinaya were compiled about 100 years after Śākyamuni Buddha's death and transmitted orally until they were put down in writing in the 1st cent. BCE, forming the Vinaya-piṭaka of the Tripiṭaka. The version that prevailed in E. Asia was the Ssu-fen lü (Vinaya in Four Parts), translated into Chinese between 410 and 412 by Buddhayaśas (no Sanskrit original or Tibetan translation exists). There were several other vinaya texts translated and utilized, all of Hīnayāna origin, but the Ssu-fen lü became standard, and became the basis of the Ritsu school in Japan, one of the six schools of the Nara period, based on Lu-tsung (see BUDDHISM IN CHINA), and introduced by Ganjin. When the compound, kai-ritsu is used, ritsu (vinaya) refers to an objective code of disciplines, and kai (śīla) denotes precepts to be undertaken voluntarily, such as the Five Precepts. Thus monks and nuns observe both kai-ritsu, whereas lay believers take on only the kai. Two main schools survive: Ritsu, whose centre is the Tōshōdaiji; and Shingon-ritsu, whose centre is the Saidaiji.

Ritsu and ryō. The written criminal and civil codes that were the foundation for the imperial bureaucracy of Japan from the early 7th to the 12th cents.

The ritsu were essentially disciplinary sanctions of a penal character. The ryō were prescriptive regulations for the organization of governmental administration. A distinctive feature of the Japanese bureaucracy, however, was the establishment of a second branch with prestige superior to that of the Department of State. This was the Jingikan or ‘Department of Shinto’ with jurisdiction over the cult of the national gods (kami). The ritsu-ryō government dissolved in the 12th cent., being replaced by shogun military rule.

In Japanese music, ritsu and ryō are scales drawn from Buddhist chant.