This thesis presents translations and analyses of three related Japanese Buddhist tales from the late Heian (794-1185) period. These tales are found in two collections of didactic "explanatory tales" entitled, Sanbo ekotoba [special characters omitted], "Illustrations of the Three Jewel", and Homotsushu [special characters omitted] "Collection of Treasures". These three tales show remarkable thematic and narrative debt to a canonical Chinese Buddhist scripture entitled Liu du ji jing and furthermore, each of these tales have their origins in two well known Indian tales of great antiquity, a Buddhist "birth tale", the Vessantara Jataka and the beloved Hindu epic, Ramayana. The Japanese tales present themselves as tales of the historical Buddha's previous lives as a Bodhisattva in pursuit of the six perfections, yet also contain echoes of an early Indic socio-religious context in which renunciant sramana criticized and rejected aspects of orthodox Brahmanical religion pertaining to socially stratified caste, sacrifice and notions of duty, despite their having been no analogous religious history in Japan. These tales are a remarkable example of the way in which Buddhist literature preserved and transmitted elements of Indic culture that were absorbed and integrated with specific regional sensibilities as authentic expressions of a monolithic Buddhist tradition.