The article discusses Buddhist terminology in Italy, which is home to a burgeoning community of recent converts to Buddhism, particularly the international Soka Gakkai sect, which originated in Japan. The author notes that most of the terms used by Italian adherents to this sect are borrowed directly from Japanese, the (primarily Roman Catholic) Italians being unable (and perhaps even unwilling) to press their traditional religious vocabulary into the service of a new religion, largely because many of the converts to Buddhism did so out of dissatisfaction with the religion of their birth. Nonetheless, the Italian religious sphere bears the imprint of Roman Catholicism so strongly that Italian Buddhists find themselves faced with a dilemma; either they find themselves adopting purely Japanese vocabulary and even social conventions, or approach the new religion encumbered with baggage from Roman Catholicism. Neither approach is entirely satisfactory, but a third way, a middle course, has not yet arisen.