Download Zen and Japanese Militarism

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Tille of DISsertatIOn.
ZEN AND JAPANESE MILITARISM:
A CRITICAL INQUIRY
INTO THE ROOTS OF "IMPERIAL WAY-ZEN"
Author
Brian Andre Victoria
Read and Approved by
01 December 1995
Date submitted to Graduate Board
Accepted by the Grclduatc Board 01 Temple
Date .
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IveNly III parlJal fulhllmcnl 01 the leqlllrClIlelll, 101 rhe
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degree of Doctor ol' Phtlo!>ophy.
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(Dean ot' Graduatc School)
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ZEN AND JAPAN ESE MI LITARISM:
A CRITICAL I NQUI RY I NTO THE ROOTS
OF " I MPERIAL WAY-Z E N "
A Dissertation
Submitted to
the Temple University Graduate Board
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
by
Brian Andre Victoria
May, 1996
©
CopYrig ht
by
Brian And r e Vi ctOria
1 99 6
A l l Rig hts Reserved
iii
ABSTRACT
ZEN
T i t l e:
AND
JAPAN ESE
MILITARISM:
A
CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ROOTS O F
I M PE R IAL WAY- ZENII
Ca ndidate's Name:
B r i a n A. V i c t o r i a
Degree:
Doctor of P h i l osophy
Temple U n i v e rs i ty, 1 9 96
M ajo r Advi s o r:
Dr. Charles Fu
I n I m p e r i a l Japan of the 1 9 3 0s , a loosely o rganized
movem e nt arose within the Sata and Rmz a l Zen sects which
was known variously as "Im p e r i a l Way- Zen," " I m p e ri al St ate­
Zen, II o r " I m perial Military-Zen.
The thrust of this m ovement
was to place meditation power (J.
zenjO- rtk ll *¥�t.J), coupled
with t h e s p i rit of s e lf-disc ipline and self-sacrifice derived
from Zen training, at the disposal of Japan's armed forces.
"Im p e r i a l Way- Zenll was itself only a subset of a larger
p a n-Buddh ist movement known as "Im p e r i al Way-Buddhism." T h i s
latter m ovement was supported by all of the sects composing
institutional Buddhism.
I t s doctrinal foundations rested on the
iv
tWin pillars of total subservience to the state in the person of
the E mperor and the Identification of war as an act of Buddhist
compassion.
T h i s dissertation examines both of these movements with
particular emphasIs on " I m per i a l Way- Zen " and seeks to explain
how It was possible that Buddhism, a religion with non-violence
as one of Its fundamental precepts, could have been interpreted
so as to support the war policies of I m p e r i a l Japan.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT
IV
PROLOGU E
viii
CHAPTER
1
METHODOLOGY
2
THE ATTEM PTED SUPPRESSION
OF BUDDHISM
35
EARLY BUDDHIST SOCIAL
FERMENT
60
3
4
5
6
7
1
UCHIY AMA GUDO - RADICAL
SOTO ZEN PRIEST
113
I NSTITUTIONAL BUDDHISM'S
REJECTION OF PROGRESSIVE
SOCIAL ACTION
1 45
THE I NCORPORATION OF
BUDDHISM INTO THE JAPANESE
WAR MACHINE
1 60
BUDDHIST RESISTANCE TO
JAPANESE M I LITARISM
1 81
vi
8
9
10
11
12
THE EM ERGENCE OF " IMPERIAL
WAY-BUDDHISM"
207
THE EM ERGENCE OF " IMPERIAL
STATE-ZEN "
243
THE POST-WAR JAPANESE
RESPONSES TO " I M PERIAL
WAY -BUDDHISM"
342
THE POST-WAR JAPANESE
RESPONSES TO " I M PERIAL
STATE-ZE N "
371
ISSUES AWAITING FURTHER
RESEARCH
41 6
REFERENCES CITED
428
viI
PROLOGUE
Chapters Two Throug h Fou r
It is a central thesis of this dissertation that the
h i sto rical roots of both " I mpe ri a l Way-Z e n "
and
" I mpenal Way-Buddhism " can be clearly traced back
to at least Japan's M e ij i period and the reaction of
i nstitutional Budd hism's leaders to both the S i no­
Japa nese and Russo-Japa nese wa rs .
The fi rst fou r
content chapters of this dissertation are designed to
support and val idate this claim.
Chapter Two, liThe Attempted Suppressio n of
Buddhism , " beg i ns with a brief i ntroductio n to the
general
state of Buddhism
Japan's
m o dern
period,
Restoration of 1 8 6 8 .
t h at ,
i ro ni c a l ly,
as this rel igion entered
start i n g with
the M e iji
It produces evidence to show
the semi- offic i a l
viii
s u p p re s s i o n
of
Buddhism that accompanied the M e iJ i Restorat ion was
responsi ble for the first overt institut ional Buddh ist
support for the new govern ment and its expansionist
and a nti-Christian policies.
That is to say, Buddh ist
leaders hoped that by identifying themselves with the
nationalistic aspirations of the new government they
wou ld not only escape conti nued persecution but
benefit, once again , from official fav o r. After a number
of false starts, their efforts did in fact gain them at
least a modicum of such favor. The cost of this favo r,
however,
was
i n c o rporat i o n
i nto a
g overn m e n t­
sanctioned, and State Shin to- do m i n ated,
re l i g i o u s
h i e ra rchy.
Chapter Th ree, " Early Buddhist Social Ferment"
outl ines the attempt by Buddhist leaders to come to
grips with the Impl ications of Japan's emergence o n
the world stage, especially Buddhist responses to the
IX
religious and secular challenges of the West as well as
the ongoing criticisms of domestic voices .
one
hand,
O n the
Buddh ist lead ers " redisc overe d "
their
h i storical commitment t o soci al p h i l anthropy . Their
efforts were, however, often of a type designed to W i n
offic i a l favor by assuaging some of the worst soc i a l
effec ts of J ap a n ' s rapid m dustri a l i zation , t h e reby
lessen mg the danger of reb e l l i o n fro m the lower
c lasses.
Farsighted Buddhist leaders also responded to the
need to adopt the " scientific attitude" of Western
leClrning, even with regard to the study of Buddh ism
itself. Here , too, however, the motivation was, at least
in part, defensive in nature, for the Buddhist leadership
recognized that without e mbrac ing Western learning
they would be unab le to counter the intellectual threat
x
posed by now legal ized Christian missions with their
attendant educational and philanth ropic activities.
The need to counter perceived threats from abroad
was most clearly demonstrated by the Buddh i st
leaders h i p ' s near u n a ni mous support for the S i noJ apanese War and especially for the Ru sso-J a p a n ese
War. The latter war In particu lar brought forth one of
the first recorded attempts on the part of Zen sectanan
leaders to employ both their doctri ne and practice in
the wa r effort.
The seeds of " Imperial Way-Zen " a re
clearly shown to date back at least to this era.
As Chapter Four, "Uch iya m a Gudo - Radical Soto
Zen Priest" demonstrates, the preceding comments do
not mean there was total unani mity with i n Buddhist
(or Zen ) ran ks w ith regard to the leadership's progovernment and pro-war positions.
On the contrary,
the i nvolvement in the High Treason I ncident of 1 9 1 0
XI
of a number of Buddhist priests of various sects, chief
of who m was Soto Zen priest Uch iya m a Gudo, reveal
that a small but active nu mber of Buddh ists at the
g rass- roots l evel we re opposed to their l eaders '
u n reserved support for the government's expansionist
p o l i c i es .
As
C h a pter
F ive ,
" I nstitut i o n a l
Bu d d h i s m ' s
Rejection of Progressive Social Action, " reveals, it was
the perceived threat posed by these g rass-roots " antigovernment" and
the
Bud d h i st
"unpatriotic" Buddhists that caused
l e a d e rs h i p
to become
eve n
m o re
enthusiastic and unconditional i n their support of the
g overnment's pol icies.
Buddhist leade rs, it will be
shown, were determined that their rel igion would never
again be subject to persecution for being "un-Ja p a n ese "
o r e ither u nwilling o r unab l e to co ntribute to the
development of I mperial Japan.
xiI
Chapters Six Through Nine
C h a pters Six t h ro u g h N i ne a re designed to
demonstrate the second major pro positi on of this
dissertation, i.e. that the " Imperial Way-Zen" movement
was neither an i ndependent nor Isolated entity but,
rather, was the Zen version, or subset, of a b roader
p a n - B u d d h i st move m e nt known as " I m pe ri al W ayBuddhism . "
It does this, however, withi n the context
of continuing the chronological narrative that was begun
in the fi rst fou r content c hapters.
Chapter Six, "The I ncorporation of Buddhism i nto
the J apanese War Machine ( 1 9 1 3 - 1 9 3 0 ) , " reveals the
way i n which institutional Buddhism became ever more
t i g ht ly i nterwoven with, a n d supportive of,
the
g overn ment's ongoing expansionist pol icies o n the
Asian continent, especially in Korea and northern China.
This c ha pter reveals the i ncreasing role pl ayed by
xii i
leaders of both the Rinzai and Soto Zen sects with i n
i nstitutional Buddh ism in Justifying t h e identification
of Buddhist doctri ne and practice with a martial spirit
and warfare.
In
a d d i tion
to
the
pro-war
d o c t ri n a l
I nterpretations, Chapter Five also Includes a discussion
of the purpose and scale of the continental " missionary"
efforts undertake n by all of Japan's major Buddhist
sects, Zen i ncluded . What becomes clear is the manner
in which these ostensib ly rel ig ious effor ts were i n
reality merely one aspect of the Japanese government's
attempt to win the allegiance and acquiescence to its
rule of its colonial subjects. The manner in which the
Zen sects readily accepted their ro le in this pan­
Buddhist effort is a harbinger of their later role i n the
" Imperial Way-Buddhism" movement.
xiv
Chapter Seven, " Buddhist Resistance to J apanese
M i l i ta r i s m , "
d e m o nstrates
that
t h e re
was
sti l l
resistance at the g rass-roots level to i nstitutional
Buddhism's col laboration with the government's war
policies.
Whi le the o rg a n ized resistance wa s ,
nu mencally speaking, stronger than that at the time
of the High Treason I ncident, it was no more effective
than its predecessor.
Once again, its leaders were ostracized by the
i nstitutional Buddhist hiera rchy and imprisoned by the
g ov e rn me n t ,
res i st a nce.
effectively destroYi ng
a l l o rg a n ized
W h at l ittle i ndividu a l res istance that
l ingered on was, by its very nature, easi ly suppressed .
Chapter E ight, "The Emergence of ' I mperial Way­
Buddhism ' , " detai ls the emergence in the 1 9 3 05 of the
pan-Buddhist movement by the same name. It describes
the doctri n a l foundations of this movement which
xv
rested on the twin pillars of the total and complete
subservience of the Buddha Dharma to the state in the
person of the Emperor and the identification of war as
an act of Buddhist compassion. According to the authors
of this movement, many of whom were Zen-affil i ated,
Japan had the responsibility as the most adva nced, if
not the world's only, truly Buddhist cou ntry to lead
backward and Ignorant ASian countries l i ke China out
of the d ar kness in which t hey we re enveloped .
If
viole nce and warfa re we re necessary to accomplish
this, Mahayana Buddhism supported such acts as both
Just and compassionate.
The fi nal chapter in this g roup is Chapter N i ne ,
"The Emergence of ' I mperial State-Zen' . " While, a s wi ll
be seen, the title of this chapter is a more historically
accurate term than " I mperial Way-Zen , " the essence
of this movement as a Zen-based subset of the larger
XV I
" I mperial Way-Budd hism" movement is clear.
That is
to say, it shares all of doctri nal positions of the latter
movement while stressing some unique attributes such
as the identification of Zen doctnne and practice with
the warnor ethos .
The Identification of Zen as the an imati ng spirit
of the traditional J apanese warrior is offered as the
normative standard to which J apan's I mperial soldiers
shou ld aspi re.
Thus do men steeped i n Zen training
l i ke Capta i n Sugimoto Goro come to be eulog i zed as
the epitome of the alleged unity between Zen and war.
Thus do Zen masters of both the Rinz ai and Soto sects
exert themselves to the utmost to place meditation
power (J. zenJo-rikil*¥'iE.tJ), coupled with the spirit of
self-d isci p l i ne and self-sacrifice d e rived from Zen
tra i n i ng , at the d i sposal of the Imperial m i l i tary,
especially its officer corps. In fact, Zen leaders attempt
xv i i
to inculcate both civil ians and soldiers alike with the
warrior spIrit which they claIm as their own .
Chapte rs Ten Throug h Twe lve
With J apan's surrender i n August 1 945 both the
" I m pe ri a l Way-Budd h i s m "
and
" I mperi a l Way-Ze n "
movements came, formally at least, to a n end, for there
was no longer any need to support a failed war effort.
Thus, the three final chapters
may be viewed as a
" Postscn pt" to the dissertation proper. I n adding these,
the author looks at the question of how J ap anese
Buddhist l eaders, particularly Zen leaders, viewed, i n
retrospect, thei r p ro-war interpretations of Buddhism
and Zen.
Chapter Ten, liThe Post-War Japanese Responses
to " Impe ria l-Way Buddhism , " examines the responses
by a number of Buddhist leaders and sects to the general
question of Buddh ist war responsib i l ity.
XVIii
As might be
e x pecte d , the state me nts of i n d iv i d u a l
B u d d h ist
leaders run the gamult from those l ike D.T. Suzuki who
blame Shin tofor having created the concept of a "sacred
war,
II
to those who condemn wa rtime Buddhism for
h aving abandoned what they i dentify as its pacifist
tenets.
In this regard, the war-related statements of
three other ( non-Zen) sects of institutional Budd h ism
which a re I ncluded in this chapter are more consistent
i n that they all express deep reg ret for their wa rtime
c o m p l i c i ty .
C hapter
E l ev e n ,
"The
Post-W a r
Japanese
Responses t o ' I mperi al State-Zen ' , " begins with a n
examination IO f the post-war statements made b y a
number of Zen Buddhist leaders, all of whom, to some
degree or other, were personal ly i nvolved i n Japan ' s
war effort.
Not su rp risingly, the g reater the wartime
leadership role of the personalities i nvolved was, the
xi x
more they attempt to find " some good" in J apan's war
efforts.
I n terms of an i n-depth discussion of Zen and
B u d d h is m ' s war responsib i l i ty, however, it is only
Ichikawa H akugen who attempts to employ the tools
of scholarly analysis.
I n l i g h t of this dissertation's thesIs, what is
significant about I chi kawa 's critique, and that contained
wit h i n the Soto Zen sect' s 1 9 9 2 Declaration of War
Responsib i l ity, is that both recog nized the h i storical
roots of Buddhist war compl icity reaching back at least
to the MelJ I penod . Furthermore, they both recog nized
Zen 's connection to this effort as one part of a larger
pan-Buddhist movement. Ichikawa, however, went even
fu rther b ack in J apanese history to search fo r the
origins of Buddhism's subservience to the state, while,
at the same time, examining Buddhist doctri nes and
practices that allegedly promoted that subservience.
xx
I n Chapter Twe lve,
" I ssues Awa i t i n g F u rt h e r
Research, " the author reiterates that this dissertation
represents no more than the first step in attempting
to come to grips with Japanese Budd hism's (and Zen's)
complicity in J apan's war policies.
He suggests a reas
of research which should, if followed, shed fu rther l ight
on
the
h i sto r i c a l
and
d o ctri n a l
o ri g i ns
of this
phenomenon and chaJ lenges future students to b u i l d
on this work.
XXI
CHAPTER
1: M ETHODOLOGY
A ppro ac h
T h i s dissertation
IS
a h istoncal study of a Buddhist
movement in Japan which eXisted during the 1 9 3 0s and early
1 940s. T h i s movement, known by a vanety of names, was
most commonly referred to as either IIl m p e r i a l State-Ze n ll
(J. Kokoku-Zen /��1ij!) or II l m p e r i a l Way-Zenll (J. Kodo-Zen
/��1ij! ).
The historical approach used i n this dissertation is
b ased upon the m ethodological principles of two noted
h istori a ns, David H ac ke tt Fisc h e r and G e orge Boas. I n his
book, Historians' Fallacies, F i sc h e r describes the histori a n
a s IIsomeone (anyone) who asks an open-ended question
about past events and answers it with selected facts which
are arranged in the form of an explanatory paradigm" (x v).
I n formu lating the question this h istorical study seeks
to answer, t he author accepts the basic pre m ise that the
1
Buddhist rel igion i n its most basIc formulation, I.e. the Four
N o b l e T ruths and H o l y E i g h tfo l d Path, neither condones nor
advocates either viole nce o r warfa re .
The author fi nds
support for this position in the words of the noted Buddhist
scholar, W a l p o l a Rahu l a. l n his book, What The Buddha Taught,
R a h u l a wrote:
Buddhis m advocates and p reaches non-violence and
peace as Its universal message, and does not approve
of any kind of violence or destruction of life. Acc o rd i n g
t o Buddhism there IS nothing that can be called a 'Just
war' - which IS only a false term coined and put into
c i rcu l at i o n to justify and excuse h atred, c ru e l ty,
violence, and massacre ( 84) .
A s this thesIs will demonstrate, the Buddhist movement
i n question did In fact approve of both violence and the
destruction of life i n the name of a Japanese " ho ly war. "
Thus, the question this thesis seeks to answer i s s imply
this - how did the Zen Buddhist leaders of this m ovement
J ustify their support for the war policies of their gover nment
duri ng the P a c i f i c W a r period ( 1 93 1 -4 5 ) 7 That is to say, in
2
light of the fu ndamental Buddh ist prohibition agai nst the
taking of l ife, how we re these leaders able to convi nce
themselves, let alone others, that their support of Japa n's
war policies was i n accordance with the teachings of their
fa ith?
I n seeking to answer the preceding question, the author
has adopted a narrative approach to his subject matter.
In
selecting this approach he has been guided once again by
F i sc h e r who wrote: " N a rra t i o n is . . . one of the more common
and most characteristically historical forms" ( 1 3 1 ) .
Thus,
he will address the question at hand by tel l i ng a story, for
as
F i s c h e r continued:
M os t h i stori ans te l l stori es in t he i r wo rk .
Good
histori ans te l l true stories. G re a t h isto rians, from
time to time, te l l the best true stories which their
topics and problems permit ( 1 3 1 ) .
T h i s author i s u nder n o i ll usion that h e i s a " g reat
h istorian." Yet, he does seek to provide the reader with a
3
clear, straightforward, and understandable explanation of
the Zen Budd hist movement In q uestion , espec i a l ly I ts
doctri nal positions and interpretations wh ich facilitated i ts
support of the Japanese government's war policies.
This
said, it should be noted that, as F i sc h e r stated: "A story
explains how and what - not why" ( 1 3 0 ) .
I n any h istorical study, especial ly o n e deali ng w i t h a
controversial topic, it is tempting for the author to explain
not o n ly "what" some person or g roup of persons did or
said, but to speculate "why" they did or said it as well. The
author has sought to aVOId this slippery slope, for as F i s c h e r
noted:
H istori a n s have often used motivational explanations
i n their work . Al m o st a lways, they have used them
badly. P ro b l e m s of motive in academic h i stori o g ra p h y
tend t o b e hopelessly m i re d i n a sort of simple-minded
m o ra l i z i n g which is equally objectionable from a n
ethical and a n empirical point of view ( 1 87).
4
I f the author can claim to have avoided the temptation
to speculate on the motives of the leaders of the movement
in question, he does not claim to have escaped from all the
" h istori a ns' fallacies" F i s c h e r cautioned against. I n spite of
t h e a u thor's best I ntentions, this dissertati o n is clearly
guilty of having comm itted a number of such fal lacies.
Of
those of which the author is aware, the following three are
of partIcular note:
1) T h e T e l e sc o p i c F a l l ac y.
S i m p l e stated, this is
the fallacy which "makes a long story short" (147). As has
al ready been noted, this dissertation is fu ndamental ly about
the h istorical relationship of Buddhism and Zen to violence
a nd warfare .
Of the more than 2,500 yea rs of Buddh ist
social h istory, this dissertation covers less than 100 y e a rs ,
i . e . 1868-1945, in only one nominally Buddhist country. To
look
at
t his
p e ri o d
in
iso l a t i o n
fro m
i ts
h istorical
antecedents is to suggest that such phenomena as " I m p e r i a l
5
Way-Zen" can be explained by the events of the M e iJ i period
and thereafter.
A t its worst, it is to suggest that these
p henomena were no more than momentary aberrations of
either modern Japanese Buddhism or i ts leaders .
I n any
event, this d issertation is o n ly one small part of a very
long and complex historical relationship that will req u i re
far more research before the 'whole story' can reason ably
be said to have emerged.
2). T h e R e d u c t i v e Fallacy. This is the fal lacy which
" re d u ces
c o m p l e x i ty
to
s i m p l i c ity,
or
d iv e rs ity
to
u niformity, In causal explanations" ( 1 7 2 ) . I t occurs, as F i sch e r
noted, when "causal explanations . . . a re constructed l i ke a
s i ngle cham and stretched taut across a vast chasm of
complexity" ( 1 7 2 ) .
I n trying to illumi n ate the e mergence
of the preceding phenomena it is deceptively easy to look
at only those events and persons who a p p e a r to be i n a
direct and unbroken chain of causal precursors.
6
H i st o r i c a l events, let alone human beings, are far more
complex than a d issertation l i ke this one can do justice to.
I n an attempt to show some of the complexity of the Buddhist
response to Japan's m i l itary actions , this d i ssert a t i o n
contains sections on both Buddhist resistors as wel l as
collaborators. On which ever side of the line these Buddhists
found themselves, their motivations were far more complex
than can be presented here . F u rthermore, their l ives and
acco mplishments shou ld be evaluated on more than simply
their relatio nship to violence and warfare.
Due to the focus
of this d issertation, however, such a holistic evaluation of
t hese leaders is missing.
3) T he F a l l acy of E th noc entri sm.
T h i s is the fal lacy
" committed by a historian who exaggerates the role of h is
own g roup i n its interaction with other groups" ( 2 2 6 ) . The
author is p a i nfu l ly aware of t he e ase with which the
inhabitants of Engl ish-speaking countries condemn Japanese
7
" m i l itarism" if not "fascism . "
Thus, s i mply to identify
Buddhist leaders as supporters of Japa n's mi l itary effort is
to identify them as i ncarnations of " evi l . "
The h i dden
assu mption i n all of these defin i tions is that those who
were opposed to Japan's military actions represented truth
and Justice, freedom and democracy.
W e re that the case, how can one explai n the fact that
at time of the P a c i f i c war's expansion in 1 9 4 1 , numerous
ASian (and African) cou ntries had long been reduced to the
status of colonies of Western countries. Th i s status was, of
course, achieved through the use or threat of viole nce
agai nst the native peoples. The question must be raised as
to what role the various religious leaders of these Weste rn
cou ntries pl ayed i n their own cou ntry's " i mperi a l istic
aggression . "
We re those Western Christian l eaders who
e i t h e r o p e n l y o r tacitly supported
I mp e r i a l i s m
" ev i l
persons"? Fu rthe rmore, i s the phrase under which s o many
8
Western wars have been fought, i.e. "F o r G o d and Country,"
an accu rate representation of the teachi ng s of Jesus of
Nazareth?
A s i nteresting as wou ld it would be to explore questions
l i ke the above, they are fa r beyond the purview of this
dissertation and must be put aside for consideration i n future
studies. A s already noted, the author began this dissertation
with a question. Y e t as F i s c h e r pointed out, while a h istorian
must begin his or her research with a question:
T h e re can be no questioning In a sophisticated sense
without hypothesizi ng, and no systematic test i ng of
hypotheses without the construction of hypothetical
models which can be put to the test (3 ) .
I n a s much as the author i s himself a Buddhist, t he first
hypothesis put forward i n the cou rse of h is research was
p articularly attractive .
T h i s i nitial hypothesis assumed that
t hose clerical and academic leaders of the move ment i n
q uestion represented some kind o f " radical fringe" w h o were
9
not representative of the whole of J apanese Zen leadership
at that time. I n the cou rse of research into the backgrou nd
of t h is movement, however, this hypothesIs had to be
d i scard ed , fo r, as will be seen, there IS overwhel m i ng
eV i d e nc e
that
the
war-co n d o n i n g
p ri n C i p l e s
of
this
movement enjoyed the overwhelming, even total , support
of the clerical and academic leadership of Japa n's two major
Zen sects, i .e. the R i nz a i and So to sects .'
The second hypothesis tested was that the move ment
in qu estion was sti ll in some sense a " radical fri ng e "
movement i n that ItS wa r-condoning poliCies were l i mited
to the two major Zen sects alone . That IS to say, that the
Zen tradition i n Japan, With ItS long h istorical connection to
the p re m od e rn Japanese warrior class, had in some way, or
at some time , departed from the teach i ng s of the other
major Japanese Buddhist sects of the day.
Once again this
hypothesis had to be abandoned in the light of m assive
10
evidence which indicated that the leadership of rut of Japa n 's
major Buddh ist sects co ndoned their gove rnment's war
pol icies.
Was, then, the support for Japan's war poliCies exh ibited
by a whole range of Japanese Buddhist leaders a phenomenon
l i mited to the Pac i fi c War penod alone?
Once again, the
author's research forced him to disavow this hypothes is,
for he found fi rm evidence that the roots of the Bu ddhist
leadershi p ' s support for poliCies of war r eached back at
least as far as the M e iJ i period ( 1 8 6 8- 1 9 1 2 ) and the S i n oJapa nese W a r of 1 894-9 5 .
There is also evidence which
suggests that the roots of this phenomenon reach eve n
further b ack i n history, though a n i nvestigation of this
question is beyond the confines of this dissertation.
With this background in mind, the author is now ready
to state the thesis of this dissertation.
N a m e ly, that the
1 9 30s phenomenon known as "I m p e ri a l Way-Zen " (et. al . )
11
was i n the first i nstance representative of a b road, eve n
u nani mous, base of support for Japan's war pol icies not
m erely by the clerical and academic leaders of the Zen
trad ition i tself, but by the leaders h i p of a l l of J a pa n's
traditional Buddhist sects .
I n other words, the "I m p e r i a l
Way-Zen" movement was neither an independent nor Isolated
entity but, rather, was the Zen version, or subset, of a broader
pan-Buddhist movement known as "I m p e ri al Way-Buddh i s m "
(J. KoclO- Bukkyo/ �m1A�). F u rt hermore, the roots of both
movements may be clearly traced to at least Japan's M e iJ i
period and the Buddhist leadership's reactions to both the
S i n o-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars.
I n asserting the above thesis, it is necessary for this
dissertation to investigate not only the "I m p e ri a l Way-Ze n "
movement itself but the larger pan-Buddh ist moveme nt,
i . e . " I m p e r i a l Way-Buddhism , " of which i t was a p a rt .
F u rt h e rm o re, it i s equally necessary t o i nvestigate the
12
modern historical roots of these movements i n Japa n's M e ij i
period .
A s F i s c h e r has observed, " N a rrative involves the
idea of connectedness among relevant events" ( 1 6 2 ) .
I t would take many volumes to write a complete history
of all the events associated with " I m p e r i a l Way-Zen " let
alone the larger movement of which It was a part. Thus, the
" relevant" events for this dissertatio n are those which help
to answer the question posed at the beginning of th iS section,
i.e. how did the Zen Buddhist leaders of this movement Justify
their support for the war pol icies of their government duri ng
the P a c i f i c War period ( 1 93 1 -4 5 ) ?
T h e focus o f this dissertation, then, i s on the i d e a s
espoused by the leaders of the two movements I n question
with added reference to their modern h istorical precedents.
I n that sense this dissertation may be described as " a history
of ideas. "
H e re the phrase " a history of ideas" is taken to
mean, as per G e o rg e Boas' definition, "the h istory of beliefs,
13
assertions of either fact or policy" (20). Boas fu rther pOi nted
out that Ideas may also be "plans of action" ( 7 ) . That
say, "they are ideas of something that
IS
IS
to
intended, which, it
is hoped, W i ll be realized In the future. They thus are all ied
to ideas of policy" (7 ) .
C e rt a i n l y the ideas expressed by Buddhist/Zen leaders
during Japan's long modern period of recu rri ng wars may
well be viewed as ideas of "intent" and " hope" to be II realized
in
the
fu t u re . "
Furthermore,
t h is
d i s s e rt a t i o n
will
demonstrate that the Ideas of these leaders were closely
" all ied to ideas of policy," I.e. government war policies. F o r
t h i s reason their ideas we re necessarily both d escriptive
and normative i n content.
The author is fu rther i ndebted to Profe s s o r Boas for
two additional comments. The first of these is as follows.
I t is clear that before one can write the h istory of an
idea one must disentangle it from all the ambigu ities
that it has acqu ired i n the cou rse of time. One must
14
expect to fi nd it appearing In contexts that vary from
age to age. One must not be puzzled to find it used as
a basis for praise and blame ( 2 2 ) .
I n the author's OpIniOn, It wou ld be appropriate t o add
the fol lowi ng sentence to the above : " N o r should one be
puzzled to find it used as a basIs for d istingu ishing good
from evil , or nght from wrong . "
I n appreciation o f Boas' comments, the author has begun
this d i ssertation with a le ngthy mtrod u ctlon to those
pol itical and s o c i e t a l pressures In modern Japan which aided
in the fo rmati o n of the then dominant ideas conce rning the
relationship of Buddhism/Zen/relig ion and warfare .
As the
final portions of the d issertation make clear, however, this
exercise i n
" d isenta n g l e [me nt] " could (and Ideal ly should)
have started fa r earl ier than the beg i n n i n g of t h e M e iJ i
Restora t i o n of 1 8 6 8 . A s a l ready noted, the relationship
between Buddhism, violence and warfare has a very long
history, spanning some 2 , 5 00 years.
15
L i m i t a t i o n s of space,
let alone the author' s expertise, simply make it i mpossible
to d i se ntangle all that needs disentangling .
It
IS
to be
h oped , however, that it represents at least the first step
in the process.
A second reason underl i n i ng the l e ngthy, and rather
broad, introduction is, as stated in the dissertation's thesis,
the assertion that the ideas expressed by Zen l eaders of
the 1 930s and 40s were, on the whole, not u nique to that
school of Buddhism. The dissertation's nar rative W i l l s how
that while there may have been certain u nique aspects to
the ideas expressed by Zen leaders of that e ra , they were,
I n their b ro adest formu latio ns , very s i m i l a r to t hose
expre ssed b y the leaders of i nstitution a l Buddhism as a
whole.
I n the author's opinion, there has long been a tendency
i n some circles of Buddhist scholarship, especial ly i n the
W est, to see Zen Buddhism as somehow having transcended
16
the lim itations of time and place, or havi ng tra nsce nded
q u estions of mora l choice
and
resp on s i b i l ity.
This
dissertation makes i t clear that modern Zen leaders have
transcended none of these things.
The author is also indebted to Boas for the fol lowi ng
comment:
The Olympian objectivity which would be the Ideal for
the historian of ideas IS seldom achieved. I n d e e d there
is g round for thinking that it cannot be achieved, for if
one is dealing with an idea that has stirred up men's
sou ls, one IS bound to have taken sides, to have shared
to some extent I n the emotions stimulated ( 23).
The Ideas expressed by Ze n/Buddhist leade rs I n this
d issertation have clearly "stirred up men's souls . " To give
but one example, even now the question of moral, let alone
l eg a l , responsibili ty for Japan's wartime actions conti nues
to be a sou rce of deep and often bitten dissension both
i nside and outside J apan, even
war's conclusion.
now - fifty years after the
The 1 9 9 3 "State ment of Repentanc e,"
17
issued by the headquarters of the Soto Zen sect and
i ntroduced later, is but one example of the ongoing "stirring
up" goi ng on within Japanese Buddhist ci rcles.
The author confesses tnat he, too, has had h is " soul
sti rred " by the ideas expressed i n this dissertation.
I n as
much as he IS an ordai ned Soto Zen Buddhist priest with i n
the Mahayana school o f Buddhism, his personal faith i s rooted
not only In the Fou r N o b l e Truths and H o l y E i g htfo l d Path of
fundamental Buddh ist doctri ne, but also In t he Mahayana
i deas o f Bodhisattvahood
as expre ssed i n t h e "Fo u r
Bodhisattva Vows ."z F o r the author, the essence o f Zen
Buddhism is expressed i n Zen M a ster Degen's (J. ��, 1 2005 3 ) famous dictum from his m a s t e rwo rk, the Shobogenzo
(J. iEj::iD.RiI ). He wrote:
To study the Way IS to study the self,
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.
To be enlightened by all thi ngs is to remove the
barriers between one's self and others (Y o k o i 5).
18
I n the above formu lations of Buddhism, the author finds
noth ing which wou ld support Budd h ism's endorsement of
either wa rfare or violence.
I n fact, as mentioned at the
outset of this section, basic Budd h ist doctrine po i nts to
the very opposite position.
Thus, the author must confess
to a deep personal abhorre nce of the war-co n d o n i ng
doctrinal interpretations issued by Japan's modern Buddhist
leaders up through 1 9 4 5 .
Inev i t a b l y, then, the question of
possible personal b ias ra ises Its ugly head.
R ecog n i z i ng the possibil ity of such bias i nfecti ng this
dissertation, the author has taken the somewhat u nusual
step of placing extended quotations from the Buddhi st
leaders I n question I n the dissertation proper.
T h i s is done
In the first i nstance to assure the reader that the quotation
has not been taken out of context. A s F i s c h e r has stated,
19
The meaning of any empirical statement depends upon
the co ntext from which it is taken. No h i sto rical
state ment-in-evi dence floats freely outside of time
and space (63 ).
Second ly, as stated above, the author does accept a
respons i b i lity to exp l a i n to the reader exactly how the
Budd h ist leaders in question J ustified t heir suppo rt fo r
Japan's war policies . By allowing them to speak at length,
in their own words (in translation ) , the author also hopes to
avoid what F i s c h e r identified as the " historian's fal lacy, "
I . e. " the error of assuming that a man who has a g iven
historical experience k nows It, when he has it, to be all
that a historian would know it to be, with the advantage of
historical perspective " ( 209 ) . A s author, it would have been
a simple exercise to offer a personal i nterpretation, a nd/or
summary, of the al leged mean ing of the remarks of t he
Buddhist leaders in question. Had he done so, however,
20
w h at
g u a ra ntee
wo u l d
the
re a d e r
h ave
that
such
i n terpretations o r sum maries were valid?
A fu rther issue i n this regard was a statement made
to the author in 1 9 7 1 by P ro fe s s o r Yo k o i Kakudo (m#-:J1i:ii1t
d . 1 9 7 2 ) a professor of Buddhist Stu d i es at Komaz awa
U n ive rs ity.
He stated, "Hi s t o r i c a l phenome na, e speci a l ly
those charged with emotion, cannot be adequately j udged
u ntil a hundred years, at least, has elapsed after the event."
The truth of this state ment would seem to be born out, as
mentioned above, by the ongoing inabil ity of both the lay
and scholarly communities to come to anything approachi ng
a unified judgement of the P a c i fi c W a r, let alone W.W. I I as a
whole. A t this point i n time, the author bel ieves no one is
better qualified to i nterp ret and/or j udge the rem a rks of
the Buddhist leaders i n question than the reader.
I n addition to the lengthy quotations i ncluded in this
d issertation , the reader will also fi nd quotations from a
21
wide variety of Buddhist leaders, both within and without
the Zen tradition, over a period spanning more than one
hundred years.
These wide ranging quotes are offered as
evidence fo r the author's thesis concerning the historical
depth and pan-Buddhist breadth of the support offered by
Japan's Buddhist leaders for their nation's war policies from
the M e lJi pe riod up through 1 9 4 5 .
I n the Interest of both
h istorical accu racy and fairness, however, reference IS also
made to those pockets of resistance to war that did eXist,
as least momentarily, among small g roups of lay and clerical
Buddhists. The existence of t hese s hort-l ived, periphera l
g roups, however, i n n o way weakens the thesis concerning
the war-co ndoni ng thou g ht and actions of Budd h i s m ' s
leadership a t the time.
I f anything, the very weakness of
the Buddh ist voices of opposition serves to u nderscore
the near, if not total, war-condoning unanimity of the then
Buddhist leadership.
22
Ort h o g ra p h i c C o m m e n ts
On a more pragmatic note, the reader shou ld be aware
that speci alized Buddh ist and Japanese terminology has been
used only to a l imited deg ree, when it see med important
fo r understanding.
Japanese names are written i n the
traditional Japa nese way, family name first and perso nal
name last.
Furt h e r, mime with standard p ractice, a l l
Japanese words, including family and personal names, have
been rom a n i zed with a macron mdicatmg a long vowel, e.g.
Soe n. The only exceptions to this are those few words, e.g.
Tokyo, that are best known i n Eng lish writing without this
sign.
Because s o m any o f t h e persons described i n this
d issertation are Buddhist priests, the author has chosen
not to identify each and eve ry one with such titles as
"R eve re n d" or "Venerable. "
However, when their p riestly
status is rel eva nt, it wi l l be ide nt ified in
23
the text.
F u rt he rm o re, after having been introduced for the first time,
they are normal ly identified i n the text by only their p riestly
name, rather than their family name.
Thus, someone l i ke
Om o r i Ze n k a i becomes simply Ze n k a i after he has been
i ntroduced the first time. On the other hand, a person known
to have no priestly status, e.g. TOJ o H i d e k i, will become
TOJ o after the first reference .
With reg a rd to Chinese terms, the modern pinyin
ro m a n i zation has been used throug hout except for those
few terms, e.g. Ch'an, that are more commonly known to
English readers in the Wade- G i l e s system of ro m a n lz a t l o n .
Sanskrit t e rm s have been transliterated according to the
standard system used by I n d o l o g i sts, with two exc e pt i o ns
for those diacritic marks that were not in the author's wordprocessi ng software, i .e. "sh" is used i nstead of "s, " e . g .
Shakya m u n i, and the dot under " m " has been added manually,
e.g. Samgha.
24
Ac k'1 CI wi e d g e m e n t s
I n his 1 9 9 1 book The Japanese A rt of War, the noted
Buddhist scholar and translator, Thomas C l e a ry, makes the
fol lowing observation:
I t may seem odd . . . t h at in spite of the Widely
acknowledged I nfluence of Zen on Japanese cu lture
and personality, virtually no critical study of Zen i n
modern Japan has ever been made ( 1 1 6 ) .
The author of this d issertation believes that C l e a ry
was, and remains, correct i n his assessment, especially when
it comes to materials available in English.
T h i s said, there
have been, of late, partial attempts to address this problem.
These include such works as C h ristopher Ives' Zen A wakening
and Society, published in 1 9 9 2 , and Wi nsto n K i n g 's Zen and
the Way of the Sword, published in 1 9 93 . N e i t h e r of these
books, however, claims to be a critical study of m odern
Zen .
25
The recently re leased work , Rude A wakenings: Zen,
the Kyoto School & the Question of Na tionalism, edited by
J a m e s W. H e i s i g and John C. M a ra l do, does touch on relevant
Issues In that it is a collection of' some fifteen a rticles
focusing on the relat ionship between t he
Zen-Influenced,
but i ndependent, Kyoto School of P h i l osophy and Japanese
nationalism.
Its narrow focus, however, means that It, too,
is not a general critical study of the type C l e a ry discussed.
The closest thing approachi ng the type of critical work
C l e a ry has In mind IS, In fact, not a book on Zen at all.
It
was written by J am e s Keeta l a r and published i n 1 9 90 u nder
the title, Of HeretiCs and Martyrs in Meijl Japan - Buddhism
and its Persecution. As its title suggests, it IS pan-Buddhist
in nature. I t does, however, contain very valuable information
on early modern Zen history duri ng the M e iJ i period ( 1 8 6 81 9 1 2). This said, its focus is on the early years of the M e ij i
period when a" of i nstitutional Buddhism, i ncluding the Zen
26
sects, was subject to quasi-governmental suppression.
In
spite of Its relatively na rrow focus, It has been of major
assi stance to the early parts of this d issertation .
This
assistance is gratefu l ly acknowledged.
The author would also be remiss if he did not mention
an a rticle by R o b e rt Sharf which appeared in 1 9 93 in the
Journal, His tory of Religions. E n titl ed, "The Zen of Japanese
N a t i o n a l ism," Sharf focused on the roles of S u z u k i D a isetz
and the Kyoto School of P h i loso p hy i n deve lopi n g a n d
expressing modern Japanese national ism, especially t o the
West. Although I find his study h istorical ly l i m ited, I am
nevertheless mdebted to him for a number of i n s i g ht s which
m ight otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Return i n g briefly to C l e a ry, he also goes on to explain
why, at least I n his mi nd, these critical studies on modern
Zen have not been done. He writes:
27
A review of academic and sectaria n work on Zen
Buddhism quickly brings to light one central fact: that
the stock of d i rect i nfo rm ation on this subject IS
extremely l imited and fragmentary. This i nformation
g ap, furthermore, does not exist only in the realm of
the classics, but even i n what can be learned about
modern Japanese Zen from easily accessible sou rces
where the language barrie r is considerably less th an
that presented by the classics. Some reasons for this
are not far to seek, being visible i n the narrow scope
of sectarian and academic speci a l i z a t i o ns ( 1 1 6).
W i th regard to these comments, the author can attest
fro m personal experience as to the extremely limited and
fragmentary n atu re of the direct information available. P a rt
of this IS due to the nature of Japan's modern h istory. That
is to say, masses of materials were lost due to the fie ry
conflagrations in which Japan's major cities were engu lfed
as a resu lt of wartime bombings. Added to this is the fact
that due to wartime shortages there was not only a shortage
of written materials, but what was pri nted was done so on
paper of i nferior quality that sim ply disi ntegrated over
the i ntervening years.
28
O v e r and beyond the above was the ever present reality
of g overnment censors h i p .
A s t h i s d i ssert a t i o n w i l l
d e m o n strate, t h e J a p a nese p o l i ce were eve r ready,
begi n n i ng as early as the M e iJ i period, to ban o r destroy
those writings by any organization, Buddhist I ncluded, that
did not adhere to or promote the g overnment' s policies.
Thus, the wntten record that does exist is, for the most
part, a reflection of what was politically acceptable .
I n the
postwar years it was exactly t h i s political correctn ess that
became a sou rce of emb arrassment to som e B u d d h ist
organizations, and once again materials were destroyed .
D e s p i t e this background, the author of this dissertation
h as been fortu nate in a number of ways. The first is that he
had the opportunity over a period scanning some twenty-five
yea rs to search for the necessary background m aterials,
espec i a l ly
in
the
s e co n d - h a n d
bookstores of Tokyo ' s Kanda d istrict.
29
B u d d h i s t- o ri e n t e d
Second ly, h e was
g ive n generous access to the l ibra ry collections at both
Komazawa U n i ve rs i ty (affi l iated with the Soto Zen sect)
and H anazono U n i v e rs i ty (affiliated with the R i n z a i Zen
sect). I n the case of the Soto sect, this i ncluded access to
a book that had been banned by the sect's headquarters as
late as 1 9 9 3 .
B y far the gre atest source of assistance to the author
has been that provided both di rectly and Indirectly by the
l ate Professor I c h i kawa Hakugen of Hanazono U n ive rs ity.
W h i l e Prof. I c h i kawa was yet alive, the author had the
opportu n ity to personally discuss with h i m many of the
issues covered i n t h i s dissertation.
M ore than any other
single i nd ividual in Japan, before or si nce, he had amassed
a repository of m aterials deal i ng with Buddhist - State
relations i n general, and Zen - State relations i n partic u la r,
from as early as the Tokugawa period.
30
Before his death Prof. I c h i kawa managed to publish a
g reat deal of the material he had gathered over the years.
T h i s material i n turn has only recently been repri nted in
the form of his collected works.
As the latter part of this
dissertation wil l demonstrate, Prof. I c h i k awa was much more
than J ust a cataloguer of i nfo rmation.
He neither avoided
making norm ative Judgements when he bel ieved they were
called for nor fa iled to raise thoug htfu l and p rovocative
questions about Zen's past and future .
T h i s d issert at i o n
would have been much more d i fficu lt, if n o t i mpossible,
without
P ro f .
I c h i k awa' s
ta n g i b le
and
i nta n g i b l e
contributions, both i n l ife and i n death.
T h i s dissertation concerns an era which i s difficult to
exami ne; for, i n hi ndsight, the foibles of the principals a re
so g l a ringly visible.
Yet, the author recognizes that this
statement may wel l be true for any era .
That is to say,
t hose who come later wi l l always be left to wonder how
31
thei r predecessors cou ld have possibly believed and acted
as they did. I n the end one can o n l y express the hope that
we a re w i l l i ng to learn fro m the p ast, w h i le honestly
ack nowledging our own present-day potential for moral
fa i l u re .
32
En d n ote s
'Acco rd i n g to Dale Saunder's book, Buddhism in Japan,
publ ished i n 1 964, the Soto Zen school had nearly 1 5 , 000
temples populated by close to 1 6 , 000 priests and more
than 6 . 7 million adherents. By comparison , the R i n z a l sect,
d iv i d e d
mto
e i g h t m aj o r s u b-sects,
had
a
total
of
approximately 5 , 000 temples with nearly the same number
of priests and 2.2 million adherents. F m a l l y the Ob aku sect
h ad only J ust over 5 00 temples with some 700 priests and
1 0 0 , 000 adherents.
Altho ugh this l atter sect i s not
specifica l ly covered in this dissertation, t h e re i s no
evid ence to suggest that
it
acted any differently towards
the Japa nese gove rnment's war pol icies than its l a rger
cousins ( 2 9 7-98).
2The four Bodhisattva Vows are as fol lows:
1.
Althou g h sentient beings are numberless, I vow to
save them all.
33
2. Although the passions are endless, I vow to uproot
them all.
3. Althou g h the entrances to the Dharma are manifold, I
vow to master them all.
4. Although nothing can surpass the Way of the Buddha,
I vow to realize it.
34
CHAPTER 2: THE ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION OF
BUDD H I SM
I nt ro duct i o n
Every religion seeks to proclaim a truth which
transcends the world, but is enmeshed in the very world
It desires to transcend. Every religion seeks to remake
the world In its own image, but it is always to some
extant remade in the Image of the world. This is the
tragedy of religion. (Bellah 196)
Buddhism
is a
re l i g i o n which
has
a
h istory of
a pp roxim ately 1 5 00 yea rs i n Japan, havi ng fi rst been
i ntroduced from Korea in the middle of the sixth century.
By the Tokugawa era (1 600- 1 8 6 7 ) , Buddhism had become
" the established religion of the State" (An e s a k i 260) . This
meant that each and every household in the country was
req u i red to affi l i ate itse lf with one or another nea rby
Buddhist temple.
The result was an explosive g rowth of
Buddhist temples, from only 1 3 ,037 temples during the
35
Kamaku ra p e riod ( 1 1 8 5 - 1 3 3 3 ) to 4 6 9 , 9 3 4 d u ri ng the
To kugawa (Kitagawa 1 64).
There were, however, a n u m ber of h i dden costs
associated with Buddhism's establishment as a state religion.
First of all, as Be l l a h has pointed out, "this [mandatory temple
affi liation] impl icated a large part of the Buddhist clergy i n
t h e social structu re o f t h e Tokugawa state , and made
membership i n a sect a matter of politica l obligation rather
than rel igious conviction" ( 5 1 ) .
This is hardly surp rising
si nce the ang i nal cata lyst for establishing Buddhism as a
de facto state religion in the first place was the Tokugawa
reg i m e ' s determ i nation to both expel Ch ristianity from
Japan and i nsu re that indigenous religious i nstitutions, like
a l l other i nstitutions i n society,
we re fi rmly under its
contro l .
I nstitutional Buddhism was itself b rought u nder contro l
b y t h e government through such policies a s d ividing the
36
powerful Shin (Tru e Pure Land) sect i nto two branches,
popularly known as the N i s h i Honganj i and H i g a s h i HonganJ i
after their respective head temples. The Tokugawa reg i me
further made sure that every temple i n the land, no matter
how humble, was made subservient to a higher grade temple
in a pyramidal fashion, with an all powerful centra l temple
(honzanl *LlJ) at the top. While sectarian differences were
a llowed, each sect was held responsible for t h e actions of
both its l ay and clerical adherents.
A second, and perhaps more severe, hidden cost to
I nstitutional Buddh ism was what B e l l a h has d escri bed as
the "general lethargy and u n c reativeness of Buddhism I n
the Tokugawa period" ( 5 1 ). A n es a k l was even less flattering
when he wrote: "The majority of the Buddhist clergy were
obedient servants of the Government, and in the long period
of peace they gradually became lazy, or else effeminate
i ntriguers" ( 26 0 ) .
37
This same theme was fu rther developed by K i tagawa
when he pointed out: "While some of the clergy, l ivi ng i n
richly e ndowed temp les, turned their energy to learn m g ,
m any took advantage o f t h e i r sem i-political p re rogatives
to suppress their helpless p arishioners" ( 1 6 5 ) .
After
descri b i n g some of these corru p t p riestly activities,
Kitagawa goes on to note, somewhat omi nously, "the moral
and spi ritual bankruptcy of established Buddhism inevitably
b rought criticism and rebellion from within and without"
( 1 66).
Clearly the d ay of reckon ing for Buddh ism was
approach i n g .
Govern ment Measures Di rected Towa rds Bud d h i s m
On January 3 , 1 8 6 8 the young Emperor M e ij i issued a
proclamation announcing that he was resu ming the rei ns of
government though , as Hugh Borton has pomted out, "on ly
very l i mited power had actually been restored to the throne"
(80).
Nevertheless, a scant three months later, on April 6,
38
1 8 6 8 , the Emperor promulgated the Charter Oath, a document
consisting of five articles which clearly expressed the antlfeudal aspirations of the new government.
The Charter Oath states:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Councils widely convoked shall be established, and
all affairs of State decided by public discussion.
All measures, govern mental and soc i a l , s h a l l be
conducted by the united efforts of the governi ng
and the governed.
The unity of the Imperial and the feudal governments
shall be achieved; a l l the people, even the meanest,
shall b e g iven fu l l opportu nities for their aspirations
and activities.
Al l absurd usages of the old regi me shal l be abolished
and all measu res conducted in conformity with the
righteous way of heaven and earth .
Knowledge shall be sou ght for a l l over the world,
and t h u s s h a l l be p ro m o t e d t h e i m p e ri a l
p o l i ty (A n e s a k l 331 ).
Though the preceding seems, as far as Buddhism is concerned,
to be innocuous in its content, Article 4 was a harbinger of
the i mpending storm. What, exactly, were the " absurd usages
of the old regi me" that were to be " abolished" ?
39
The answer was not long in coming, for only a few days
later the fi rst of the "Separation Edicts" (shinbutsu hanzen­
re if �iA:j!lJ?;t{f;), designed to separate Buddhism from Shinto,
were issued by a newly established governmental bureau
known as the Office of Rites
(t$mliii ) . This first edict stated
th at all Buddhist clencs of any type were to be removed
from Shinto
shri nes throug hout th e nation.
Hencefo rth,
only bona fi d e Shinto priests were to allowed to carry out
admin istrative duties related to shri nes.
I n a second edict, issued less than two weeks after the
first, the use of Buddhist names for Shinto deities ( kami f
�) was prohibited .
Not only that, Buddhist statuary could
no longer be used to represent Shinto deities, or, for that
matter, even be present i n a shrine compou nd.
Whatever
their orig inal i ntent may have been, these edicts were often
i nterpreted at the local and
reg ional levels as meaning
40
that anything having to do with Buddhism cou ld and shou ld
be destroyed.
In his h ighly detai led, and well-resea rched book on
this period, Of Heretics And Martyrs In Meiji Japan, J a m e s
Kete l a a r
p o i n ts
out
that
these
s e p a ra t i o n
e d i ct s
"n e c e s s a r i ly included a s a n integral part o f their formulation
a direct attack on Buddhism" ( 9 ) . This IS because, first of
all, nearly eve ry member of the Office of R ites was a n
active proponent o f "National Learning" (��) . ThiS school
of thought taught that whi le both the Japanese nation and
throne were of divme origin, this origin had been obscu red
and even sul l i ed by fore i g n accretions and i nfluences,
especially those coming from China. Adherents of this school
believed one of the first and most i mportant jobs of the
new government was to cleanse the nation of these foreign
accretions, Buddhism first and foremost.
41
Just how effective this "cleansing" was can be seen i n
K e te l a a r's reference t o the closing of over 40,000 temples
nationa l ly, coupled with the destruction of cou ntless temple
a rtifacts and the forced laiclzatlon of thousands of priests
(7).
O nce aga i n ,
however, it shou ld be noted that the
e nforcement (and i nterpretation ) of the Separatio n Ed icts
was, in general, left up to the reg ional authorities.
Hence,
those a re as where there was the g reatest support for
N ational Learning among local and regional officialdom where
a lso those areas where the greatest destruction occu rred.
In the former Satsuma domain (present-day Kagos h i m a,
southe rn M i y a z a k i , and Okinawa) , whose l e aders h i p had
p l ayed a l eadi ng
ro le i n the Restoration movement,
Buddhism had almost d isappeared by the end of 1 8 6 9 . That
is to s ay, approximately 4, 500 Buddhist temples a n d halls
h ad been elimi nated ( K ete l a a r 6 5 ) . The priests housed in
these temples we re retu rned to l ay l ife, with ( fo rmer)
42
priests between the ages of eighteen to forty-five being
im mediately drafted i nto the newly formed I mperial Army.
Those over fo rty-five were sent to become teachers i n
d o m a i n a l schools while those under eighteen were sent back
to their fa milies (Kete l a a r 57).
I nstitutional B u d d h i s m ' s Response
I n the face of these very real threats to Its continued
existence, it did not take some elements of i nstitut ional
Buddhism l o n g to i nitiate a senes of cou ntermeasu res . One
of the first of these was undertaken primari ly by the H i g as h i
Hong anJi and N i s h i HonganJ i branches of the Shi n sect.
On
t h e surface, a t least, I t was a rather surprising m easure , i .e .
l e n d i n g su bstantial amou nts of money to t h e t h e n cash­
starved M e iJ i government. As Kete l a a r has noted, however,
these two branches " hoped to bring about a relation with
the government that would be less hampered by b a n n i ngs
and restrictions" ( 7 1 ) .
43
The same two branches also took the lead i n the summer
of 1 8 6 8 in forming the Allia nce of United [Budd h ist] Sects
for Ethical Standards ( Shoshu Dotoku Kaim ei/a*ili!f?dtl ).
This was an unprecedented action for i nstitutional Buddhism
s i nce u nder the p revious Tokugawa reg ime a l l Buddhist
t ra n s-sectarian organizations had been banned.
This new
o rg a n izati o n p ledged itself, fi rst of a l l , to work fo r the
unity of I mperial Law (Raja Dharma/ Ij� ) and Buddhist Law
(Buddha Dharma/ -1bj�) .
Secondly, it cal led for Christianity
to be not only denounced, but expelled from Japan.
As K i s h l moto pointed out in his book, Japanese Religion
in the MeiJl Era, Buddhist leaders " planned to revive their
faith by aligning themselves with the i ncreasing nationalistic
sentiment" ( 1 4 6 ) .
They perceived that o n e way of
d e m o n st rat i n g t h e i r use fu l ness to the
nation's
new
nationalist-i nclined leaders was t o support a n anti-Christia n
44
campaign which came to be known as haja kensel (i.e. refuting
evi l [Christianity] and exa lting righteousness [iBl�flHJjiE ]).
As early as September 1 7 , 1 8 6 8 the new Ministry of
State responded to the above noted " positive actions" o n
t h e p art of Buddh i st l e a d e rs b y send i n g
a private
communique d i rectly to the H igashi HonganJ i and N i s h i
HonganJ i b ra nches of the Shin sect.
Kete l a a r POints out
that this letter contained a condemnation of those members
of the Imperial court who wrongfu lly, and i n contradiction
to Empero r M e ij i's Will , were persecuting
Buddhism .
The
letter fu rther notes, that in so doi ng, these "foul mouthed
r e b e l s . . . a ntagonize the general populace" ( 1 3 ) .
Just how antagonized the general populace had become
IS
s hown by the strong p rotest actions that a rose i n
o pposition to the repressive, anti-Buddhist measu res of
local authorities. These p rotests started in Toyam a i n late
1 8 70, and were fol lowed by two riots i n M i kawa (present
45
A i c h i prefecture) and I s e ( present M i e prefecture) i n 1 87 1 .
I n each of the fol lowi ng two years there were also two
m ajor p rotests i n widely scattered parts of the country.
Kitagawa points out that the 1 8 7 3 protests in three
counties of Echizen (present F u ku i prefecture ) , " d ev e l op e d
i nto a l arge-scale peasant revolt, which h ad t o be quelled
by government troops" ( 2 2 6 ) .
Kete l a a r m ai ntains that It
was t he se p rotests w h i c h fi n a l ly fo rced t h e central
g overnment, out of their " deep fea r of the power of a n
enraged peasant popu lation," t o pay serious attention to
the plight of Buddhists ( 7 ) . A n e s a k i comments on this period
by sayi n g , " some [ me mbers of the Government) real ized
t h at an e ntire suppression of Buddhism was neither desirable
nor possible" ( 3 3 5 ) .
A solution had to be found.
46
Resolution of the Confl ict
The First Atte mpt
The first major change in the M e ij i government's policy
toward Buddhism came in early 1 8 7 2 .
It was at this time
that what was then known as the Ministry of R i t e s
(�m�)
was transformed Into the Ministry of Doctri ne (�$� ) . This
new m i n istry was g iven administrative respons i b i l i ty for
such things as the building or closing of both Shin to shri nes
and Buddhist temples, the approva l of all p riestly ra nks
and p rivileges, etc.
By far its most important fu nction,
however, was to propagate the "Great Teaching" ( daikyo/ *�) which had been developed the previous year.
A n e sa k i
identifies the three pri nciples of this teaching as fol lows:
1.
2.
3.
The p ri nciples of reve re nce fo r the ( nation a l )
Deities a nd of patriotism shall b e observed.
The heavenly Reason and the Way of Humanity shall
be p romu lgated.
The Throne shall be revered and the authorities
obeyed. ( 3 3 5 ) .
47
C h a rged with p rom u l g ati ng these p r i n c i ples,
the
M i ni stry of Doctri ne created the position of Doctri n a l
I nstructor (Kyodoshoku/ �ijJGl). These I nstructors were to
o p e rate t h rough a
natio n-wide
netwo rk of Te ac h i n g
Academies ( Kyoin/ft.l�) which would b e established i n both
Buddh ist temples and Shinto shrines.
The significance to
Buddhism of this development is that for the fi rst ti me
Buddhist priests we re g iven perm ission to serve in this
State-sponsored position, together, of course, with Shinto
priests and scholars of "National Learn ing . "
Ket e l a a r pointed out that "the creation of the position
of [ Doctrinal] I nstructor was a thinly veiled attempt by the
state to create, in fact, a de facto state priesthood; those
u n c e rtified by the state were barred fro m any p u b l i c
lecturing or ceremoni al duties, a s wel l a s from residence i n
any shrine o r temple." Nevertheless, as Yos h i d a commented:
"Buddhists . . . e a g e rl y took advantage of this new opportunity
48
as a way of escaping from the i r miserable condition "
(8ukkyoshi 83).
How successful Buddhists were in taking advantage of
this opportunity can be seen in the fact that eventu ally
more than 8 1 ,000 of a total of some 1 03 , 000 officially
recog nized Doctri nal I nstructors were Buddhist p riests.
Shi n-sect affili ated priests numbered nearly 2 5 ,000 and
were the largest single group (Kete l a a r 1 05).
Inclusion into a new state rel igion, however, carried a
heavy price for Buddhists, for this new state religion was
clearly Shinto inspired and controlled.
Thus, all Doctn nal
Instructors were expected to wear Shinto
ro bes, recite
Shinto prayers, and perform Shinto rituals. Further, although
the famous Pure Land sect temple of ZOJ oJ i (flJ:..ff ) in Tokyo
was chosen as the administrative center, i .e. the Great
Teaching Academy, for the national doctrine system, it was
required to be extensively renovated for its new role.
49
Z oj oj its ' renovation' i ncluded replacing the statute of
Buddha Amida on the main altar with four Shin to d e i ties
(kamil � ) and bu i l d i n g a Shinto gate ( toriil1fAJ�) at the
entrance to the temple.
Yoshida noted that the Buddhist
leadership was so anxious to support this new scheme that
they even arranged to have their subord i nate
temples pay
the renovation costs (Bukkyoshi 87-8 8 ) .
I n spite of this auspicious beginning, however, K itagawa
pointed out that " inevitably, friction arose between Buddhist
and Shinto elements [within the national doctrine system ]
a n d a s the anti-Buddhist movement began t o subside the
B u ddhist l eaders aspired to be emancip ated from Shinto
domination " ( 2 29) .
An additional cause of this friction was an announcement
m ade on April 2 5 , 1 8 7 2 by the Ministry of State (i:: i& og).
This a n nouncement, known as Order No. 1 3 3 , stated that
Buddhist priests could,
if they so desired, eat meat, get
50
married, g row the i r h a i r long, or wear ordi nary clot h i n g .
Althoug h this decision neither p ro h i bited a nyt h i n g , nor
ordered anythmg, it was seen by many Buddhist l eaders as
another attack on Buddhism. They u nderstood, as K et e l a a r
m ade clear, that Order No. 133 re p re s e n t e d a n extension of
the earlier separation of Shinto and Buddhism, that
IS
to
say, "to i nclude the separation of Buddhism from the state
itself" ( 6 ) .
The strong Buddhist opposition to this measure i ncluded
numerous
sect a r i a n
p rotest
meetings
and
petitions
criticIzing the M mistry's decision, at least one o f which was
signed by over two hundred Buddhist p riests.
Som e angry
p riests eve n we nt d i rectly to the M i nistry's offices to
express the i r oppositio n .
I ronically, as R i c h a rd J a ffe has
noted, Order No. 133 was one directive that had been taken
at the request of a Buddhist, the influential So to Zen sect
p riest Ot o r i S e sso (��JTV 1 8 1 4- 1 904) (47 1 ) .
51
Ot o r i was in a unique position to make his views known
since, at the time the new M imstry of Doctri ne was created,
he had been asked to serve as a representative of Buddhist
clerics (though he himself was required to return to lay life
d u ri n g the duration of his government service ) .
Ot o r i's
overa l l goal was t h e ending of the gove rnment's a ntlBuddh ist policies.
Like his Budd hist contemporaries he
believed that the best way of achieving this goal was to
demonstrate Buddhism 's useful ness to the state, specifically
through the promulgation of the Great Teaching.
Ot o r i recogmzed that because, then current regulations
to the contrary notwithstanding, a large number of Buddhist
priests were already married ( and therefore technically, at
least, cri minals) they were In no position to become either
Doctrina l I nstructors o r effective ly fight Christia n i ty.
In
his mind, " by l ifti ng the ban against marriage [et. al.], the
Buddh ist clergy wou l d be free to re nder their services to
52
the nation" (J affe 473 ). Protests or not, Ot o r i was successfu l
in this reform effort, and the new law remained.
In light of their defeat, Buddhist leaders came to realize
that they had to free themselves not only from Shinto control
but government control as well .
Once again the Shin sect
played a l e a d m g role. It was leaders of this sect, particularly
in the person of S h i m aJ I M o k u ra i (A%±t!! � =/ 1 8 3 8- 1 9 1 1 ) , who
led the movement for change.
M o ku ra i was p arti c u l a rly
well sU ited to the challenge, not least of aU because he had
p e rso n a l ly led troops in s u p port of the
Resto ra t i o n
movement.
As early as 1 87 2 , S h i m aj i wrote an essay while i n Paris
critical of the three principles contai ned in the
Teaching.
G re at
His basic position was that there was a fundamental
difference between governance (s e iliaT.) and religion ( kyol
�). As Kete l a a r has written, it was this essay that "sparked
53
what came to be cal led the movement for the Separation of
Rel igion and Ru le s el kyo bunri / [1{ft?tM)" ( 1 25).
It wou ld be some years before S h i m aJ i and t hose who
agreed with h i m would have a dlscernable impact on the
M i nistry of Doctri ne.
Eventually, however, at the beginning
of 1 87 5 , "the Shin (True Pure Land) sects of Buddhism were
perm itted to leave the G re at Doctri ne move ment, a n d
shortly afterward the enti re i n stitut i o n of the Great Doctrine
itself was abolished " ( K itag awa 2 2 9 ) . A new solution had to
be found.
The Second Attem pt
The Buddhists were not the o n ly rel igi ous g ro u p to
b enefit fro m changing government pol icy.
As K itagawa
noted, as early as 1 8 7/ a diplomatic m ission se nt to the
West, headed by Senior M inister Iwaku ra To m o m i ( 1 8 2 5-83 ) ,
h a d recom mended that If Japan were t o successfully revise
54
its treaties with the Western powers it would have to adopt
a policy of religious freedom ( 2 1 2 ) .
The Western powers were, of course, most concerned
about the ongoing prohibition of Christianity In Japan. Thus
d i d the govern ment, in 1 8 7 3 , reluctantly a b o l i s h t h i s
prohibition, resulting in a rapid increase in the numbers of
both Western Christian missions and missionaries e nteri ng
the country.
Even as they conti nued their own struggle to
free themselves from government control, however, m any
Buddhist leaders took this occasion to renew and deepen
their earlier attacks against Christianity.
a l l ied
t h e m se lves
with
I n so doing , they
Shinto, Confu c i a n a n d ot h e r
nationalist leaders ( Kitagawa 229).
S h i n toists, too, were undergoing changes at this time.
As Kete l a ar mentions, Shinto 's strongest su pporte rs, i . e .
the proponents of National Learning, h a d demonstrated to
M e ij i political leaders that they were " too religious to rule"
55
( 1 30).
This, i n tu rn, led to a reduction i n the i r political
power as evidenced by the 1 872 changes in the government's
re l igious pol icy toward Buddhism.
Yet, key members of
the gove rn ment we re sti l l dedicated to the p roposition
that one way or another the empero r system, as an
"i m m a ne ntal theocracy" with roots i n the ancient state,
should be used to legitimate the new gove rnment.
The
question was, i n the face of earl ier failu res, how cou ld this
be accompli shed?
Part of the answer came in 1 8 8 2 when the g overnment
'divided' Shinto into two parts, one part consisting of c u l t i c
(Em p e ro r- re l at e d )
p ract i ces a n d t h e oth e r so-c a l l e d
' religious' practices.
While the religious side of Shin to, i.e.
Sect Shinto ( Kyoha Shin to/ ��ffl��) , received nothing from
the government,
the c u l t i c side of Shinto, which came to
be known as "State Shinto " (IE�[� ]�m) , received both
56
fi n a n c i a l
subsidies
and
various
other
g ove r n m e n t a l
p ri v i l e g e s .
The government maintai ned this policy was Justified
because c u l t i c practices rel atin g to the Empero r were
patriotic in natu re, not re ligious.
Even today there a re
some Japanese Buddhist scho l a rs who support this position.
P ro fe s s o r S h i b ata Do k e n of Soto Zen
sect-affi l i at e d
Komazawa Un iversity, for example, maintains t h a t " g iven
the fact that Japan is a country consisting of a u nitary
people, with shared customs and mores, the assertion that
[State ] Shinto
was not a re ligion can be sa nctioned, at
least to some degree" ( 1 9 5 ) .
Kitagawa, however, asserted that " 'State Shin to ' was
esse nt i a l ly a newly concocted re l ig i o n of ethnocentri c
nationalism" ( 2 1 3 ) . I n a similar vein, H e l e n H a rd a c re p rovided
a more detailed description.
She referred to:
57
S t a t e Shi nto as a syste m i c p h e n o m e n o n t h a t
enco mpassed government su pport of and regulation of
shri nes, the emperor's sacerdotal ro les, state c reation
and sponsorsh ip of Shi nto rites, construction of S h i nto
shrines i n Japan and i n overseas colonies, education for
schoolchildren in S h i nto mythology plus their compulsory
participation in S h i nto rituals, and persecution of other
re l i g i o u s g roups on the g rounds of their e x h i b i t i n g
d is respect for some aspect o f authorized mythology
(6).
I rrespective of how it is evaluated, it is clear that the
creation of State Shinto served as a mechanism to facil itate
the government's recog nition of what Kete l a a r termed, "a
necessary ideo logical plurality" within Japa nese society
(1 31 )
.
That is to s ay, with a
p owerful ' non-re li g ious'
legitimization of the new o rd e r in hand, the leaders of the
M e ij l g overn ment could now address the question of
' religious freedom,' somethi ng which was i mplied i n the call
by S h i m aJ i and others for the Separation of Rel igion and
Rule.
58
The final, formal
resolution of the relig ious question
appeared i n the M e iJ i Constitution of 1 88 9 . Chapter Two,
Article Twe nty-Eight read as fol lows : "J apanese subj ects
shall, with i n l i mits not prejudicial to peace and order. and
not antagonistic to their duties as subjects. e nJ oy freedom
of re lig ious belief" ( Ital ics m i n e ) (M atsu nami 1 3 6 ) .
appeared that
wo u l d
now
It
"within li mits " Buddhism, Christianity et. al.
be
free of govern m e n t
i nt e rfe re nce
or
suppression . As will be seen i n the next chapter, however,
appearances can i ndeed be deceiving.
59
CHAPTER 3 :
EARLY BUDDHIST SOCIAL FERM ENT
I n t ro d u c t i o n
With
regard t o Article Twe nty-Eig ht o f the M e iJ i
Constitution, Kete l a a r gave this harsh assessment: " [ It] in
fact g u a ra ntees not h i ng ; during this p e riod there is, I
suggest, a prominent emphasis on knowledge over bel ief,
duty over faith, and education over rel igion " ( 1 3 2 ) . K itagawa
IS only somewhat less harsh when he stated that the M e iJ i
g overn m e n t had g iven
re l ig i o u s freedom a
" nominal
guarantee" ( 2 1 3 ) .
Kitagawa went on to explain that i n havi ng created a n
artifici a l concept called " State Shinto " a n d then identifying
it as a cult of national moral ity and patriotism, applicable
to all religions, the M e iJ i government's religious policy was
" nothing
but an ingenious (and dangerous) attempt at
su peri mposing ' i m m a n e ntal theocracy' on the constitutional
guarantees of rel igious freedom " ( 2 1 3 ) .
60
Kete l a a r poi nted out that there we re stili m a ny
i nfluential people both within and without government who
believed, as d i d Professor I noue TetsuJ i ro (#J:!f;�aB/ 1 8 5 5 1 944) of Tokyo University, that "religion by its very nature
is ' prejudicial to peace and order,' and those who p ractice
it w i l l necessarily be ' a ntagonistic to t h e i r duties as
subjects" ( 1 3 2 ) . Yo s h i d a added that it was I noue's writi ngs
w h i c h l a i d the p h i losop h ic a l g rou ndwork fo r the M e lJ i
government's 1 890 " I mperial R e s c ri p t on Education" ( Kyoiku
chokugo/ �W*b�) , a document which proclaimed loyalty to
the Throne and fi lial piety to be the cardinal virtues to
which all I mperial subjects shou ld adhere (Bukkyo shakaishi
1 78).
It was u nd e r these c i rcu mstances that J ap a nese
Buddhists, with their newly won rel ig ious freedom, l i m ited
though it was, attempted to develop what came to be known
by the late 1 880s as "New Buddhism " (shin b ukkyo/ *fiiA� ).
61
New Buddhism was desig ned to answer the anti-Buddh ist
critique of the early and middle years of the M e iJ i period.
That is to say, it set out in the first instance to show that
priests and temples could make a valuable contribution to
the n ation's social and economic l ife.
was
" fo re i g n-born , "
Buddhism
Further, although It
cou l d
st i l l
e ffe ct ively
promote loyalty to the Throne, patriotism, and national u nity.
And l astly, though someti mes masked i n mytho logical
t e rm i no l ogy,
i ts
basic
d o ctri n e s
were
not
m e re
" superstition" but, on the contrary, were ful ly compatible
with Western science and technology, then bei ng so rapidly
mtroduced mto the country.
Bearing this in mind, the following will serve as a b rief
i ntroduction to this New Buddhism, a movement Notto T h e i l e
h a s c o m p a red with t h e si xteenth century P rotestant
Reformation of Christianity ( 1 9 5 ) . To the extent that this
analogy is valid, however, it should be noted that many of
62
the activists i n this movement were moderate reformers
loya l to their respective sects, though there we re others
whose radical views wou ld eventually l ead them to b reak
with traditional I nstitutional Buddhism.
Buddhist Responses to the West
The early M e iJ i period critique of Christi anity, which
continued on through the end of the era, may be considered
one of i nstitutional Buddhism's first responses to the West.
It was, however, certainly not the only respo nse .
For
example, refe rence has a l ready been made to S h i m aJ i
M o k u ra i 's visit to the West In 1 872, a visit which also i ncluded
a p i l g ri m age to the holy sites of both C h ristian ity i n
Jerusalem and Buddhism i n I ndia.
A n e s a k i remarks that
"this was the first instance of a Japanese Buddhist visiting
the original home of his religion " ( 3 3 7 ) . H e was accompanied
on his tour, the first of many such priestly study tours to
63
the West, by fou r other priests from the N i s h i Honganj i
branch of the Shin sect.
What drew these priests to the West was a general
desire to better understand what had by then become o ne
of
M e iJ i
society ' s
p ri n c i p a l
goals,
enlig htenment" ( bunmei kaikahtpJJrm:re ).
n a m e ly
" cu lt u ra l
As Kete l a a r made
clear, however, they also had more mu ndane a ims, one of
which was " i mmed i ately usable tools for the critique of
Christianity in Japan" ( 1 2 6 ) . In the fal l of the same year the
H i g a s h i HonganJ i branch, anxious not to fall behind its rival,
also sent its own contingent of priests to Europe.
It was a H i gashi HonganJ i priest by the name of N a nJo
Bun'yu (��3t!t/ 1 849- 1 9 2 7) who became a pioneer i n studying
Buddhism in accordance with Western academic sta ndards.
In 1 87 6 he went to Oxford to study Sanskrit under the famed
"Orientalist, ll F r i e d ri c h M a x M u l l e r ( 1 823-1 900). Nanjo would
su bsequently pub l ish a n u mb e r of sch o l a rly wo rks o n
64
Buddh ism i ncluding the 1 8 8 3 Catalogue of the Chinese
Translations of the Buddhist Tripitaka.
As i ncreasing numbers of Japanese Buddhists pursued
their stu dy of Buddhism i n the West, they encountered a
new form If not of persecution then at least of discrimination.
That IS to say, as R o b e rt Sharf has noted:
The early generation of European "Orienta list scholars
. . . a I I too often held "true" and " pure " Buddhism to be
"early Buddh ism, " which they i m p l i c i t l y o r explici t ly
believed to be long dead i n Asia . Specifically, early
Buddhism was identified with the Buddhism of the P a I i
Canon , and the p revai li ng tendency among Western
scholars was to view the Mahayana [schoo l ] of East
ASia as degenerate, sy ncretic, and corrupt ( 1 8 ) .
Faced With this situation, i t i s not s u rp rising that
"Japanese Buddhism . . . set out to recast the terms by
which it had been defined in the West" ( Kete l a a r 1 63 ). One
example of this effort is provided by Daisetz T. S u z u k i (�*
*�/ 1 870- 1 9 66 ) .
Although he would later become best
known for his writings on Zen, one of his first major works
65
I n English was e ntitled, Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism,
published i n 1 908. R o b e rt Sharf characterized this work as:
A ram b l i n g and h i g h ly i d e a l i z e d i nt ro du ct i o n to
Mahayana doctnne - a cu rious blend of scholarship and
a p o logetics . . . . Suzuki insists that Buddhism is not a
dogmatic creed but rather a ' mysticism' that res p o n d s
t o the deepest yearn i ng s in man and yet rema i ns I n
ful l accord with the findings of modern science ( 1 9 ) .
Suzu k i 's work as an apologist for Mahayana Buddhism
is not surp rising in view of h is earlier schol arly activities,
the maJonty of which were ded icated to the promotio n of
this school of Buddhism and its sub-branches in both the
E ng l is h and Japanese languages.
In fact, S u z u ki's fi rst
,
scholarly effo rt had been the translation i nto Engl ish of the
Ven. Shaku Soen's ('R*a\:/ 1 8 5 9- 1 9 1 9 ) address to the World's
Parl iament of Rel igions convened as p a rt of the 1 893's
World's Fair i n Chicago, I l i n o i s. Soen, abbot and head of the
E n g a kuji branch of the R i n z a i Zen sect, was very much a
New Buddhist in that he had determinedly set out to acquire
66
a modern Western education fol lowmg completion of his
traditional Zen training.
As Wayne Yokoyama has noted, Soe n's decIsion to
attend the Pa rliament "had great consequences, for it set
in motion the chain of events that wou ld alter the rel igious
consciousness of the Western world considerably" ( 1 3 1 ) .
His paper, entitled "The Law of Cause and Effect, As Taught
by the Buddha," was read to the audience by the Parliament's
chairman, the Rev. John H. Barrows.
It was not, however, Soen's elucidation of the Buddhist
doctrine of co-dependent ongination which had such a great
effect on both those in attendance and those who later
read about it in the newspapers.
Rather, it was the simple
fact that such an event was taking place at all. As T h e i l e
has written :
T h e parliament became a magnificent demonstration
of the power of rel igion and of harmony between
d iffe re nt fa iths.
For the fi rst t i m e i n h istory
67
re p resen tat ives o f a l l the maj o r re l i g i o ns were
g athered u nder the same roof i n peaceful conference
( 2 1 9).
Soe n,
it should
be noted, was only o ne of eight
representatives of Japanese Buddhism, three of whom were,
l i ke h i mself, Buddhist priests affiliated with various sects
w h i l e the others were i nterpreters and laymen.
As T h e i l e
further noted, however:
Behind the surface of rel ig ious sympathy, cooperation,
and common fronts agai nst com mon enem ies, there
existed a p rofound discord between the Western,
general ly Christian, and the Eastern, Buddhist and Hindu,
delegates ( 2 20).
Yasubuchi Banryu ( j\�.tm"R/ 1 848- 1 9 2 6 ) , a S h i n priest
and delegate from Kumamoto, went so far as to state that
i n l ight of this underlying tension, the Buddhist delegates
saw themselves engaged in a " peaceful war. " A war in which
Buddhism would emerge "havi ng won the greatest victories
and the g reatest ho nor" (3 5-40, 44-45).
68
Given the strong Christian influence manifested i n the
overa l l
c o nfere n c e ,
Yasubuchi ' s
asserti o n
somewhat exaggerated, If not se lf-se rv i n g .
m ay
see m
K e te l a a r,
however, put it i nto a Japanese perspective when he pointed
out:
The numerous post-Parliament press releases in Japan
were characterized by an unbridled optimism as article
aft e r a rticle asserted the J OYous and u n h i n d e re d
promulgation o f Mahayana Buddhism among Westerners
satu rated with material comforts but sadly lacking i n
the life o f the spirit ( 1 5 2 ) .
The M e iJ i Buddhists at the Parliament were not content
with m erely presenting conference p apers. Though most of
them had only rud i me ntary Eng lish language skills, they
sti l l went o n to hold meetings, with the h e l p of their
i nterpre ters, throughout Chicago (and later the U.S.) i n public
halls, coffeehouses, and churches, distributing l iterally tens
of thousands of pamphlets discussi ng various aspects of
Mahayana Buddhism.
69
"The 'fo rmless fo rm ' of Eastern [ i . e . Mahayana ]
Buddhism,
[the Japa nese Buddhist delegates] determ i ned,
was p recisely the u n i ve rsal p ri nciple needed to recast
Buddhism as a world rel igion" ( K ete l a a r 1 6 3 ) . Writing only
a few years later, In 1 89 9 , Anes a k i M asaharu (Mi�iE�/ 1 8 7 3 1 949),
one o f the most noted Buddhist scholars o f that
period, would further develop this theme when he wrote:
"Our Nation [Japan ] is the only true Buddhist nation of
all the nations in the world. It is thus u pon the shoulders
of this nation that the responsibility for the unifi cation
of E aste rn and Western thought and the conti nued
advancement of the East falls" (Bukkyo seiten shiron
1 7).
B u dd h ist Respo nses to Do mestic Critics
The Buddh ist delegates to the World' s Parl iament of
Religions returned to Japan as conquering heroes.
"They
were feted and paraded and travel led the countryside giving
speeches on the mate rial marvels of the West and on thei r
o w n e q u a l ly m a rve l o u s successes i n p ro m u l g a t i n g t h e
70
teachi ng of the Buddha" ( Ket e l a a r 1 7 1 ) . An observer of the
time, Oha ra K a k i c h i (*JmlliS) , fu rther applauded thei r efforts
by stating that It was now possible for " Buddhism I n Japan
i n the Far East to turn the wheel of the Dharma i n America
i n the Far West" ( 5-6) .
What particu larly impressed domestic observers had
been the ability of the Japanese delegates to not only hold
their own against t h e far g reater n u mber of Christ i a n
partici p ants, b u t t o express the national istic aspi rations
of the J apanese people in the process. H i ra i Ki nzo (:iJL#�=
/d . 1 9 1 6 ) , a lay Buddhist and the delegation's only fluent
English speaker, provided the best example of what was
possible in this regard.
H i ra i's paper was entitled "The Real Position of J apan
Toward Christianity. " It began with a defe nse of the Tokugawa
Shogunate's banning of Christian ity in the seve nteenth
century as a legitimate response to the possibility of Japan's
71
being colonized by nations proclaimi ng themselves to be
Christian.
He went on to point out that once again In the
Me iJ i period al legedly Christian nations threatened h is
country through their I m p o s i t i o n of unequal treaties which
u n i l at e ra l ly g u a ra n teed
t hese
nations
e xtraterrito ri ality a nd tariff regu l ations .
the
In
rights
of
conc l u d i n g ,
he i nvoked America's founding fathers a n d the preamble to
the U.S. Declaration of I ndependence in d efe nse of h is call
for true equality among nations.
Kete l a a r noted that in
hiS speech
H i ra i had
" 'out-
C h ristianized' the Christians and 'out-America n i zed ' the
Americans" . . . succeed i n g I n driving home his pomt as few
foreign delegates were able to do" ( 1 70). The fact that the
p red o m i n a ntl y American audience had cheered H i ra i at the
conclusion of his speech was used as further evidence i n
Japan to s how just how effective Buddhists cou ld b e i n
advancing the nation's interests abroad.
72
Based on their success i n America, the Budd h ist
delegates, especi a l ly Yatsu buchi Banryu, eagerly called for
I ncre ased missionary work as they travel led and spoke
t h roughout the cou ntry .
Yatsu buchi e m p h a s i ze d the
i mportance of both foreign l a ng u ag e and secular education
for aspi ri ng miSSionaries, not to mention rigorous spiritu al
training.
He advocated that such missionaries shou ld first
work among Japanese Immigrants to other nations, but he
also saw other uses for them, one of which was, Significantly,
to provi de spi ritu a l tra i n i n g for the Japa nese m i l itary.
" ' Flashing l ike a sword and glittering like a flower' . . . the
I m perial Army and Navy can, l ike the faithfu l M uslims who
defeated the RUSSians in the Cri mea, or the soldiers of the
Hongan-J i who held back the armies of Nobunaga, face a l l
tri a l s a n d t ri b u l ations w i t h confi d e n ce a n d stre n g t h "
(Kete l a a r 1 68).
73
Yasu buchi and his col leagues were not the first to call
for Buddhist missionary work.
Even i n the darkest d ays of
the repression of Buddhism in the early M e ij i period, the
Shin sect had actively participated i n the M e iJ i government's
effort to colonize the northern island of H o k k a i do , an area
that was then only nominally under Japanese control.
The
H i g a s h i HonganJ I branch imtially despatched over 1 00 priests
to this northern outpost a nd spent over 3 3 ,000 ryo
constructing roads.
in
As Ketelaar noted , liThe Hongan- J i
temple complex . . . saw H o k ka i do as an opportunity to
prove the worth of Buddhism to the nation and to that end
lobbied aggressively for the ri ght to participate in the
colonization" ( 69 ) .
Furthermore,
based o n the success o f this 'internal'
missionary work, the Higashi HonganJ i branch sent a g roup
of priests headed by the Ve n. Ogurusu Kocho ( /J\�@jfim) to
establish a temple i n Shang hai, China i n June, 1 8 7 6 .
74
Yet
another g roup headed by the Ve n. O k u m u ra Enshin C�t-t p:J/t:.\ )
was sent to Korea i n September of the followi ng year.
As
D a ito S atos h i (j(�C, b. 1 9 6 5 ) has noted:
"These missionary activities were carried on in close
col laboration with the Japanese state, as part of Japan's
policy i n the M e iJ i period of advancing onto the [Asian]
continent . . . . I n fact, after the S i n o-Japanese War [of
1 89 4-9 5 ] these missionary efforts became so closely
associated with Japan's conti nental policies that after
each war [Japa n fo u g h t ] the m i ssion a ry e ffo rts
expanded accordingly " ( 5 8 ) .
Ogu rusu, mentioned above, was not si mply i nterested
in missionary work abroad.
In 1 8 8 1 he wrote: " Priests of
t h i s sect should use aid to the poor as a method of
propagati ng the faith" ( Meikyo shlnshl). Ogurusu , in common
with many of his contemporaries, understood that the New
Buddhism they aspired to had to become active in charitable
works.
Yos h ida poi nted out that this interest came as a
result of the threat the Buddhists recognized from p rimari ly
Protesta nt-based c h a rities.
75
" W h i le poi nti n g o u t t h e
s h a l l ow n ess of t he i r [ C h risti a n ] tea c h i n g s ,
[ t h e N ew
Buddhists] had to recognize the re markabl e effectiveness
of t h e i r p h i l a nthropy as a means of p ropagati ng thei r
religion" (Bukkyo shakalshI 44).
Shaku Soen was also active in this debate, arguing that
Buddhists should ove rcome the p ractical supe ri o rity of
Christia nity by "establ ishing schools for the poor, charity
hosp i t a l s ,
a n d refo rm atori e s ; o rg a n iZ i n g work a m o n g
soldiers a n d cri minals; correcti ng the corruptions o f society;
and engag i ng in active work in eve ry department of l ife
(Japan Evangelist No. 3 ) .
position was
Yet another advocate of this
I noue E n ryo ( #J: FJ 7 / 1 8 5 8- 1 9 1 9 ) , who was
both a Buddhist scholar and reforme r.
T h e i l e noted that
"I noue . . . hoped to outdo the Christians by copying their
educational i nstitutions, hospitals and reformatories" ( 1 9 8 ) .
Yet, for a l l their desi re to e m u late Ch ristian social
work, the New Buddhists did not change the i r ove ra l l
76
negative attitude towa rd Christianity.
I no u e i n particul a r
was o n e of the most a rticulate o f the anti-C h risti a n
Buddhists. I n discussing I noue, Kitagawa pointed out:
I n ouye criticized the "irrationality" of Ch ristianity and
pra ised the " rationality" of Buddhism . H is arguments
were based on a simple comparison drawn between
the theism of Christian ity and the nontheism of
Buddhism. The latter, according to I nouye, was i n
harmony with Western philosophy and science.
H owever, h is so-cal led impartial comparison of [the]
two rel ig ions was motivated by his o bjections to
Christianity, the religion of the strong Western nations
and i nseparable from the political structures of these
nations (230).
I n January 1 889 I noue Joined with other M e ij i Buddhist
l e a d e rs,
i nc l u d i n g S h i maJ i M o k urai a n d the p ro m i n e n t
Buddhist layman Ou chi Se i ra n (*��m/ 1 845-1 9 1 8 ) , t o form
a new popular Buddhist org an ization, the "United Movement
for Revering the Emperor and Wo rsh ipping the Buddha "
(Sonno Hobutsu DaidodanAJm$�A*� f!lJ ) . The o rgan ization's
prospectus described its purpose as fol lows :
77
The goal of t h i s organization is to p reserve the
prosperity of the Imperial Household and i ncrease the
power of Buddhism. The result will be the perfection
of the well-being of the Great Empire of Japan. . . . The
t i m e -honore d spiritual foundation of our Empire is the
Imperial Household and Buddhism. The i ndependence
and stability of our Empire cannot be maintained if so
much as the slightest injury IS Inflicted upon It. How
can true patriots not be i nspired and aroused to defend
against such injury? (Daido Shinpo).
I n concrete terms the founders of this new organization
hoped to exclude Christians from all positions of power i n
society, espeCially those connected with politics.
Towa rd
this end they worked to induce some 1 3 0 , 0 0 0 Buddhist
priests throug hout the cou ntry to become politically active
and ensure the election of Buddhist candidates. As Yos h i d a
has poi nted out, however, some members, especially those
l ivi ng in reg ions where the Shin sect was strong, went so
far as to violently disrupt religious services in local Christian
churches (8ukkyoshi 1 88). In light of this Th e i l e stated:
With the establishment of Sonno Hobutsu Daidodan the
pote ntial e x c l u s i o n i sm and aggressive anti-Ch ristian
78
character of Buddhist nationalism became manifest and
was developed i nto a concrete strategy. . . . Even
t h o u g h i ts s t ra t e g y [ u l t i m a t e l y ] fa i l e d , t h e
po l i ti c i z a t l o n of the Buddh ist-Ch nstian controversy
i n t roduced a new stage in the relationship between
the two rel igions, as violence increasingly dominated
the political climate of this period " ( 1 07 ) .
The d i sruptive a nd sometimes v i o l e nt tactics of
regional Buddhists resulted in both severe co ndemnation
in the press as wel l as pol ice intervention.
It also turned
out to be a political liabil ity and was therefore rel atively
short-l ived . J ust as it died out, however, It was rep laced
by violence on a far, f a r greater scale. This time the violence
was employed by the Japanese state itself, for the nation's
leaders had decided to go to war.
Buddhi st Responses to J apanese Expansion Abroa d
S i n o-Japanese War
( 1 894-9 5 )
The S i n o-Japanese War formal ly began i n August 1 894.
I n discuss i ng the war, lenaga Sa b u ro (�;}(�aB), a noted
historian of modern Japan, wrote the followi ng:
79
Government leaders . . . started the quest for glory by
fighting China for hegemony in Korea. Dom ination of
Korea became a national goal shared by successive
administrations and the public at large ( 6 ) .
The " public at l a rge, " of course, i ncluded Japa n's
Buddhist leaders. About them Kitagawa had this to say:
From the Si no-Japanese War . . . onward, the leaders of
established Buddhist schools col laborated very closely
with ethnocentric nationalism ( 2 3 1 ) ,
K itagawa went on to note that by this time I n oue E n ryo
had turned into "a spokesman for the Imperial Way (kodo/fi!
is) , ''
One example of this is a book he published i n 1 8 9 3
entitled a "Treatise o n Loyalty and Filial Piety" ( Chuko katsuron) . I n this work I noue wrote that due to the existence of
the Imperial Household, Japan, its land and its people were,
l ike the Emperor himself, all "sacred and holy" ( 6 1 -66 ) .
I noue went o n to assert that in Japan, unlike China, let
alone the West, loyalty (to the Sovereign) and filial piety
were one and the same.
This was because a l l Japanese
80
were offspring of the Imperial Fami ly.
Thus, the I mperial
Family was the " head family" of all Japanese, whic h is to
say, the E mperor and his subjects were all part of lIone
large family" ( 6 6-70 ) . This led I noue to conclude:
From ancient times, sacrificing one's physical existence
for the sake of the Emperor and the country was aki n
to discarding worn-out sandals. . . . It is this un ique
featu re of our people which has caused the radi ance of
our national polity and produced the supre me beauty
of our national customs (71 ).
The fol lowi ng year I noue publ ished an a rticle o n the
' ph ilosophy of war' which, not surprisingly,
Kitagawa found
to be IIstrongly militaristic in temperll ( 2 3 1 ) .
With regard to the war itself, the N i s h i- Honganj i branch
of the Shin sect was one of the first to comment. As early
as 3 1 July 1 894, the sect's headquarters issued the following
statement. It read in part:
Since the occu rrence of the recent emergency in Korea,
the head of our branch has been deeply concerned about
the situation, acting on the truth of repaying one's
debt to the country through absolute l oyalty to it i n
81
accordance with the sect's teaching that the Law of
the Sovereign is paramount. . . . Believi ng deeply i n
the saving power of Buddha Amitabha 's vow, and certain
of reb i rth in His Western Parad ise, we will remain
calm no m atter what emergency we may encounter,
for there IS nothing t o fear . . . . We must value loyalty
[to the Sovereign] and fil ial piety, work diligently, and,
confronted with this emerge ncy, share in the tri als
and tribulations of the nation ( Honzan rokuJi ).
F o r its part, t h e J od o (Pu re Land) sect established, i n
1 8 9 5 , the "Assembly to Repay [One 's] Debt to the Nation"
(Hokoku glkai/ ¥ll OO .�) . It's purpose was defined as follows:
The purpose of this assembly shall be, i n accordance
with the power of rel igion, to benefit both those in the
m i l it a ry and the i r fa m i l i es, to conduct m e m o ri a l
services on behalf of fallen p at riots, a n d t o p rovide
rel ief for thei r famil ies and relatives (Jodo Kyoho).
As to the merits of the war itself, Yos h i d a pointed out
th at, a mong Buddh ists,
" there was al most no peace
m ovem e nt, fo r Buddh ists , espe c i a l ly, l acked the social
awareness necessary for a peace movement" ( Bukkyo
shakaishi 2 2 8 ) .
What Buddhist leaders did have, however,
were various ways of Justifying the war.
82
One line of reasoning was based on Japanese Buddhism's
supposed preemi nent position within all of Asian B uddhism.
Thus, an editorial entitled " Buddhists Du ring Wartime, " which
appeared i n the 8 August 1 894 issue of the newspaper Nojin,
pointed out that Japanese Buddhists had a duty to " awaken "
Chi nese and Korean Buddhists out of their Indifference to
the war, an I nd i ffere nce, the editorial a l l eg e d , w h i c h
ste mmed from the pessimistic nature of the Buddhism which
existed i n these two countries .
Only a few days later, i n the 1 6-1 8 August issue of the
same newspaper, Mori N ao k i (��m) expanded on th is theme
In an article entitled "The Relationship of Japanese Buddhists
to the Crisis In China a nd Korea. "
He identified both Indian
and Thai Buddhists as being i ndiffere nt to the development
of their own countries, once again because of the pessimistic
nature of the Buddhism found there .
Mori then went on to
advocate that Japanese Buddhists consider the battlefield
83
as an a rena for p ropagation of the faith, holding high the
banner o f " benevolence and fidelity."
Coupled with the above was the viewpoint rep resented
In an editorial, entitled " Buddhism and War, " appeari ng i n
the 2 5 July 1 8 9 4 issue of the newspaper Mitsugen Kyoho .
This editorial began by acknowledg i ng that the destruction
of all weapons of war was the Buddhist ideal.
It then went
on to assert, however, that when a war was foug ht for a
"Just cause,"
it was entirely appropriate for Buddhists to
support it.
Another p roponent of this point of view was Shaku
U nsho (�R3P.«/ 1 827-1 909), a Shingon sect priest and pioneer
of M e iJ i Buddhist charitable activities. In an article e ntitled
"A Discussion On the Compassionate Buddh ist Pro h i b ition
Against Killing , " which appeared i n the same newspaper as
above o n 25 January 1 8 8 5 , he stated that there were two
types of war: a "Just war" and a "lawless war" (bosenl alB).
84
While Buddh ists should oppose the second type of war, they
should support, as in this case, a just war because such a
war prevents humanity from fal ling i nto misery.
In ending this d iscussion of the Budd hist reaction to
the S i no-J apanese War, it
IS
noteworthy that despite a l l
these assertions of Buddhist war support, it was actu ally
Japanese Christians who took the lead In such pra c t i c a l
activities a s providing medical help for wou nded so ldiers
and rel ief for fam i l ies who had become poverty-stricken
as a result of the war. T h e i l e states:
The patriotic fervo r of the Christians natu rally made a
g reat impact on public opi nion. . . . The Buddhists a lso
expressed admiration for the strenuous efforts of the
Christians, and g radually engaged I n the work among
the soldiers. Because of their slow and rather passive
response, however, they were often criticized for poor
patriotic spi rit ( 1 71).
The fervent patriotism of Japanese Christians became
the catalyst for not only a new ( and positive ) relationship
85
with the state but with i nstitutional Buddhism as we l l .
S p e c i fi c a l l y :
C h risti a n patri otism brought a n ew c l i m ate which
p romoted Buddhist-Ch ristian cooperation, e mphasized
the spiritual solidarity with the East, and enabled both
rel igions to "entrench themselves in the same citadel
of nationalism as It was expressed in an editori a l i n
the Buddhist Soto kyoho (Th e i l e 1 73 -4).
II
I ronically, it was war-ge nerated patriotism, and the
death and destruction which it entailed, that provided the
i n itial sti m u l u s for a reconciliation between these two
rel i gions, r e l i g i o n s which had for so long been bitter foes.
R u s s o-J apanese Wa r
< 1 904-5)
Japa n ' s victory over China brought with it not only
i ncreased power over affairs on the Korean peninsula, but
the island of Taiwan , torn from China, became its fi rst
overseas' colony.
w e re
met,
Not all of Japan's territorial ambitions
h owever,
due to the so-ca l l e d Tri p a rtite
I ntervention of 1 8 9 5 . That is to say, three Western powers,
86
led by Russia with the support of France and Germany, forced
Japan to g ive up its newly won control of the Liaotung
peninsula, i n what would have been its fi rst colony on the
Asian mainland.
Japan
reg a rded
this
i n te rve n t i o n
as
a
national
humil iation a nd was more determmed than ever t o develop
its military machine. For example, it added six new divisions
to the regular army in 1 8 9 6 , thereby doubling its fi rst-line
strength .
In addition, i n 1 8 9 8 , it organized both caval ry
and artil lery as mdependent brigades, while at the same
time establishing factories for the domestic p roduction of
modern armaments.
By 1 903 Japan could also claim to have a modern navy
with some seventy-six major war vesse ls, i ncluding four
battlesh i ps, sixteen cru isers, and twenty-th ree destroyers .
As B e a s l ey pOinted out: liThe Triple I ntervention . . . s e rv e d
87
to ral ly Japan for a nother advance, despite the fu rther
measu re of hardship that this entailed" ( 1 64).
I n this atmosphere the need for continued support of
the m i l itary was also recogn ized by Buddhist leaders .
In
1 8 9 8 , for example, H i gawaglshi Kanichi (T�iiJ�.-) edited a
book e ntitled Proselytizing the Military ( Gunjin Fukyoli¥.A
$�) . As Yos h i da has noted, the purpose of this work was to
forcefully advocate the usefulness of Buddhism i n i mparting
courage to soldiers o n the battl efield ( Bukkyo shakaishi
230).
Just how seriously i nstitutional Buddhist leaders wou ld
soon take their responsibility i n thiS regard is attested to
by the fol lowi ng comments:
The war effort of Buddhist leaders was appreci ated by
the government, as evidenced by the case of Ota n i Koz u i,
chief abbot of the N i s h i- HonganJ i . . . who was com mended
by the emperor for the important role he played in keeping
u p m o ra l e d u ri n g the Russo-J apanese War ( 1 9 04-5 )
[Kitagawa 23 1 ].
88
Before turning to the Ru sso-Ja panese War itself,
however, It is important to note that the short period of
peace which lasted from 1 8 9 6- 1 903 was also a time for
Buddhist scholars to turn their attention to the theoretical
side of the re lationship between Buddhism, the state, and
war.
I nterestingly, it was the twenty-six year old Buddhist
scholar and student of Zen, D.T. Suzu ki, who took the lead i n
this effort. I n November 1 89 6 , Just one month before having
h i s I n itial enlightenment experience ( L e . kenshol Jt11) , he
publ ished a book entitled A Treatise on the New [Meaning
of] Religion (Shinshukyo- ron/*fi*�Ili).
I n h i s book Suzuki covers a wide vari ety of topics,
examining eve rything from the meaning of rel i g ious faith
to the relationship of religion and science. He does, however,
d evote an entire chapter ( Chapter 1 5 ) to "The Relationshi p
o f Religion and the State. " I f only because Suzu k i 's views i n
this area are s o l ittle known I n the West, It is I nstructive
89
to take a careful look at his comme nts.
i mportantly, however,
Much m o re
as wil l be seen in fol lowi ng sections,
the views that Suzuki expressed p a ral l e l , with s o m e
v a n atlons of c o u rse, t h e rati o n a l e t h a t i nstitu t i o n a l
B u dd h i s m ' s l eaders wou l d subsequently g ive for t h e i r
support o f Japa n's war efforts up through the e n d of the
Pacific War.
For that reason alone, they deserve very close
atte ntion .
S u z u k i beginS h iS discussion with the statement:
At first g lance it m ight be thought that religion and
the state are I n serious confl ict with one another. For
example, the state is built upon differentiation [or
d iscri m i nation] while re l igion takes the position that
everything is equ al . Religion takes as its final goal
the realization of a universal Ideal while the u ltimate
goal of the state is to p re s e rve itself. . . . ( 1 34).
Suzuki goes on, however, to state that categones like
the above only appear to be i n opposition to e ach other.
For example, he claims that "equality without differentiation
is 'evil equal ity', whi l e differentiation without equal ity is
90
' evil differentiation ' . " From this and other examples he then
concludes, fi rst of all, that " re l igion and the state must
necessarily support each other if they a re to ach ieve
wholeness. "
Secondly, "religion should, first of all, seek to
preserve the existence of the state, abiding by its h istory
and the feelings of its people" ( 1 3 6-37 ) .
Professor K i r i t a Kiyohide (b. 1 94 1 /� EElm�) of Kyoto 's
R i n z a i Ze n sect-affi l i ated Hanazono U n iversity recently
wrote a monog raph entitled "D. T. Suzuki and the State, "
which was included i n the book, Rude A wakenings. As the
title of his monograph suggests,
K i r i t a reviewed S u z u k i's
i de as on the relationship between rel igion and the state
and was disturbed by the last statement quoted i n the
preceding paragraph.
He noted that the statement "seems
to lead to an acceptance of state supremacy" ( 5 4) .
K i ri t a also criticized further statements made by S u z u ki
i n the same chapter. About these K i ri t a said: " His [Su z u k i 's]
91
rather 'Zen-like' approach to rel ig ion and his abstract notion
of the way nations operate seem far too unreal istic" ( 5 4 ) .
T h e statements K i ri t a referred t o , a s q u oted i n h is
monograph, are as fol lows:
The i nterests of rel igion and the state do not conflict
but rather aid and support each other in a quest for
wholeness . . . . The problem is easily resolved if one
thinks of re ligion as an entity with the state as its
body, and of the state as something developmg with
rel ig ion as its spirit. In other words, religion and the
state form a unity; if every action and m ovement of
the state takes on a rel ig iOUS character and if every
word and action of rel igion takes on a state character,
then whatever is done for the sake of the state i s
done for religion, and whatever i s done for h e sake of
religion is done for the state ( 5 3-4) .
I n spite of li mited criticisms of S u z u k i's thought, K i r i t a
went on, after introducing additional m aterial, to come to
the conclusion that "from his youth and throughout h is life
S u z u k i never regarded the state as absolute and never placed
the state above the i nd ividual " ( 6 6) . A few pages later he
92
a d de d :
" [Suzuki]
was not a n a t i o n a l ist o r n at i o n a l
s u p re m a c ist" (72).
Leaving aside for the moment the question [to be
revisited in Chapter Ten ] , of whether or not K i r i t a is correct
i n his conclusions, t here remains the question of why he
c hose to avo id a ny d i scussion o f the t h ree s e m i n a l
p a ragraphs which i m mediately fo l low his last q uote fro m
S u z u ki's work.
These two paragraphs, i n their entirety,
a re as follows :
If we look at this [unified relationship between rel igion
and the state] from the point of view of i nternational
m o ra l ity, we see that the p u rpose of m a i n t a i n i n g
soldiers and e ncou ragi n g t h e m i l ita ry a rt s is n o t to
conquer other countries or deprive them of their rights
or freedom. Rather it is done o n ly to p reserve the
existence of one's country and p revent it from being
e nc roached upon by o bstreperou s heathe ns. T h e
construction o f b i g warships and casting o f giant cannon
is not to enlarge one's personal gain and trample on
the wealth and profit of others. Rather, it is done only
to p revent the h istory of one ' s country from being
d isturbed by injustice and outrageousness. Conducting
com merce and working to i ncrease production is not
for the purpose of building up material wea lth in order
93
to subdue other nations. Rather, it is done only in
o rder to deve lop more and more human knowledge
and bring about the perfection of morality.
Therefore, if a l awless country comes and obstructs
o u r commerce, or tramples on o u r ng hts, this is
someth ing that wou ld tru ly interrupt the p rogress of
all of humanity. I n the name of rel igion our cou ntry
could not submit to this. Thus, we would have no choice
but to take up arms, not for the purpose of slaying the
e nemy, nor for the purpose of p i llaging cities, l et
alone for the purpose of acquiring wealth. I nstead, we
wo u l d si m p ly p U n is h the peo ple of the country
rep resenting i njust ice i n o rder that J u stice m i g h t
p revail. How is i t possible that we could seek anything
fo r ourselves? I n any event, this is what is called
religious conduct. As long as the state takes care not
to lose this moral sense, one can anticipate the step
by step advancement of humanity a nd the fulfilment
of universal ideals.
The morality of the i ndividual toward the state is similar
to this. That is to say, in peacetime one works diligently,
day and night, seeking to promote the advancement of
[ s u c h e n de avo rs] as a g ric u l t u r e , manufacturing,
commerce, art and science, and technology. I n so doing,
one must not forget that the purpose of these many
e ndeavours is the advancement of all humanity. This
is what is called " peacetime religion . " However, at the
time of the commencement of hostilities with a foreign
cou ntry, then marines fight on the sea and soldiers
fight in the fields, swords flashing and cannon smoke
b e l c h i ng. moving this way and that. In so d oi ng, our
94
soldiers reg ard their own lives as being as l ight as
goose feathers while their devotion to duty is as heavy
as Mt. Taishan [ i n China] . Sho uld they fall on the
battlefield they have no regrets. This is what is called
" religion during a [ national] emergency." This religion
doesn't necessarily have to be described by [the words]
"Buddha " or "God . " Rather, i f one si mply discharges
one's duty according to one's position [in society], what
action could there be that i s not rel i gious in nature?
( 1 3 9- 1 40, Italics mine)
K i ri t a' s
concl usions
n o tw i t h s t a n d i n g ,
Su zu ki's
i ntegrated and unified view of the state and rel igion meant
that even in war with "swords flashing and cannon smoke
belching," the state, "fighting obstreperous heathens, " could
be doing the work of religion.
Even if the preceding were
taken as representing no more than Suzuki's " theoretica l "
position, h istorical events wou ld soon revea l J ust h ow
seriously his theory was taken by M e ij i Buddhist leaders .
Shaku Soe n was one of the M e ij i Buddhist leaders who
subsequently demonstrated Just how easy it was to bridge
the gap between theory and practice . Shortly afte r the
95
beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1 904, Soe n
went to the battlefield as a Buddhist chapla i n attached to
the First Army Division. As to why he did so, he stated:
I wished to have my faith tested by going throug h the
g reatest horrors of l ife, but I also wished to i nspire, if
I cou ld, our val iant soldiers with the e n n o b l i n g thoughts
of the Buddha, so as to enable then to die on the
battlefield with the confidence th at the task I n which
they a re engaged is great and noble. I wished to convince
them of the truths that this war is not a mere slaughter
of their fel low-bei ngs, but that they are combati ng an
evil, and that, at the same time, corporeal annihilation
rea l ly means a rebirth of [the] sou l , not i n heaven,
i ndeed, but here among ourselves. I d id my best to
impre ss these ideas upon the soldiers' hearts (Zen for
Americans 203) .
W h i le on the battlefield Soe n even found t i me to
compose a number of poems.
Representative of these i s
the following:
Here, marching on Nan- Shan,
Storming its topmost crest,
Have thousands of brave men
With dragon v a l o r pressed.
Before the foe my heart
Is calmed, composure-blessed,
96
While belching cannons sing
A lullaby of rest (Zen for Americans 203).
Soen also had a very clear idea of the relatio nship of
Buddhism to war.
Again, because of its seminal content, it
is quoted extensively, thoug h not completely, here .
Soe n
wrote:
Buddh ism provides us with two entrances through which
we can reach the citadel of perfect truth. One IS the
g ate of love (karuna) and the other the gate of
knowledge (prajna) . The former leads us to the world
of particul ars and the latter to realm of the absolute.
By knowledge we aspire to reach the summit of spiritual
enlightenment; by l ove we strive to rescue ou r fel low­
creatures from mise ry and crime. View the vicissitudes
of things from the u nity a nd eternity of the rel ig ious
standpoi nt, the Dharmadhatu, and everything is one, is
on the same plane, and I learn to neglect the worldly
d i st inction m ad e between friend a nd foe, tragedy and
comedy, war and peace, s a msara and n i rva n a, passion
(kle9a ) and enlightenment (bodhi ) . A philosophical
calm pervades my soul and I feel the contentment of
N i rv a n a. For there is nothing, as far as I can see, that
does not reflect the glory of Buddha. . . . In this world
of particulars, the noblest and greatest thing one can
achieve is to combat evil and bri ng it i nto complete
subjection. The moral principle which guided the Buddha
throughout his twelve years of preparation and in his
forty-eight years of religious wanderings, and which
97
pervades his whole doctrine, however varied it may
be when practically applied, is noth i ng e lse than the
subjugation of evil . . . . War IS an evi l and a great one,
indeed . But wa r against evi ls must be unfl i nchi ngly
prosecuted ti ll we attai n the fi nal aim. In the present
hostil ities, i nto which Japan has entered with g reat
reluctance, she pursues no egotistic pu rpose, but seeks
the subjugation of evils hostile to civilization, peace ,
and enlightenment. She deliberated long befo re she
took up arms, as she was aware of the magnitude and
g ravity of the undertaking. But the firm conviction of
the J ustice of her cause has endowed her with an
indom itable cou rage, and she is determ ined to carry
the struggle to the bitter end.
Here is the price we must pay for our ideals - a p rice
paid in streams of blood and by the sacrifice of m any
thousands of living bodies. However determ ined may
be our resolution to crush evils, our hearts tremble at
the sight of this appalling scene . . . . Were it not for the
consolation that these sacrifices are not b rought for
an egotistic purpose, but are an inevitable step toward
the final realization of enlightenment, how could I , poor
mortal, bear these experiences of a hell let loose o n
earth? (Zen for Americans 1 99-203) ( Italics mine ) .
The significance of the i ndividual soldier i n this Il hell
let loose on earthll became, as might be expected, a recurrent
theme in Buddh ist discussions on warfare from this time
onwards. About this Soe n had the following to say:
98
There is but one g reat spirit and we i ndividuals are its
te mporal manifestations. We are eternal when we do
the wil l of the great spi rit; we are doomed when we
protest agai nst it i n our egotism and ig nora nce. We
obey, and we l ive. We defy, and we are thrown i nto the
fire that quencheth not. Our bodily eXistences a re
l i ke the sheaths of the bamboo sprout. For the growth
of the p lant it is necessary to cast one sheath after
another. It is not that the body-sheath is negligible,
but that the spirit-pl a nt is more esse ntial and its
wholesome growth of paramount importance . Let us,
therefore, not absolutely cling to the bodily existence,
but, when necess a ry, sacrifice It for a bette r thing.
For this is the way in which the spiritual ity of our
being asserts itself.
This bemg the case, war is not necessari ly horrible,
provided that it is fought for a Just and honora b l e cause,
that it is fought for the maintenance and real ization of
noble i deals, that it is fought for the upholding of
humanity and civilization. M any material human bodies
may be destroyed, many hu mane hearts be broken, but
from a broader poi nt of view these sacrifices are so
m a ny ph [o ]en ixes consu med in the sacre d fire of
spi rituality, which will arise from the smoulderi ng ashes
reanimated, ennobled, and glorified . . . . We Buddhists
a re not believers i n fiction, superstition, or mythology.
We are followers of truth and fact. And what we actually
see around us is that the departed spirits are abiding
right among ourselves, for we have the most convincing
testi mony of the fact in our i nmost consciousness which
deceives not. They descend upon us, they dwell within
us; for are we not being moved by the i r courage,
99
ea rnestness, self-sacrifice, and love of cou nt ry? D o
w e not feel supernatu ra l ly i nspired a n d strengthened
in our resolution to fol low them and to complete the
work they have so auspiciously started? . . . . I am by
no means trying to cover the horrors and evils of war,
for war is certainly hellish. Let us avoid it as much as
possible. Let us settle all our i nternational difficulties
in a more civilized manner. But if it is unavoidable, let
us go i nto it with heart and soul, with the firm conviction
that o u r sp iritu al descendents w i l l ca rry out a n d
accomp l ish what we have failed personally t o achieve.
. . . Mere lamentation not only bears no fruit, it is a
product of egoism, and has to be shunned by every
enlightened mind and heart (Zen for Americans 2 1 1 -1 4) .
I n evaluati ng Soe n 's words a s expressed above, it should
be borne i n mind that, at least in the R i n z a i Zen tradition ,
they represent the thought of a fully enlightened Zen master.
That is to say, Soe n had completed h is R i n z a i-style Z e n
training, based o n the meditative use o f kaan (�*) , a t the
u nusually early age of twe nty-fo u r.
He had therefo re
received dharma transmission i n the form of inka sham e i
(I=PPJiiElVJ), signifying h is complete en lightenment, from his
master, I m a g it a Kosen (��t�J I I / 1 8 1 6-92).1 Further, if there
1 00
seems to be an echo of Suzu ki's thinking in Soe n's words, it
should be noted that Suzuki was not only the latter's disciple,
but he was also the translator of the above passages.
One passage of Soen's that S u z u k i did not translate
comes from a somewhat surprising source, the great Russian
writer Leo Tolstoi. Because of his own pacifist views, T o l st o i
h a d hop ed to enlist the a i d o f a noted Japanese Buddhist
leader to JOin with h i m in condemnmg the war between the
two nations.
He had therefore requested Soe n to join h i m in this
effort, only to rece ive the fol lowi ng reply which rea d in
p art:
Even though the Buddha forbid the taking of l ife, h e
also taught that u ntil a l l sentient beings a r e u nited
together through the exercise of i nfi nite compassion,
there wi l l never be peace . Therefore, as a means of
b ri n g i n g i nt o h a rm o ny t ho s e t h i n g s w h i c h a re
i ncompati ble, killing and war are necessary (Heimin
shimbun, No. 39).
1 01
Soe n was not, of cou rse, the only Buddh ist priest to go
to the battlefield. All of the major Buddhist sects assigned
not only chaplains but also m e d i cs to accompany the troops
abroad.
Similarly, Soe n was not the only Buddhist leader to
j u stify the war fro m what purported to be a Buddh i st
viewpoint. I noue E n ryo , for example, had this to say shortly
before the formal outbreak of hostilities:
Buddhism is a teaching of compassion, a teaching for
l iving human beings. Therefore, fighting on b e h a l f of
l ivmg humans bei ngs IS in accord with the spi rit of
co mpass ion. In the event hostilities break out between
Japan and Russia, it is only natural that Buddhists should
willingly fight, for what is this if not repaying the debt
of gratitude we owe the Buddha ?
It goes without saying that this is a war to protect the
state and sustain our fellow countrymen. Beyond that,
however, it is the conduct of a Bodhisattva seeking to
save u ntold millions of l iving souls throughout China
and Korea from the jaws of death . Therefore Russia is
not only an enemy of ou r country, but it is also the
enemy of the Buddha.
I n Russia state and rel igion are one, and there is no
religious freedom. Thus, rel igion is used as a chain i n
order to unify the [ Russian] people. Therefore, when
1 02
they [the Russian people] see O r i e n t a l s, they a re told
that the latter are the bitter enemies of their religion.
It is for this reason that on the one hand this is a war
of politics and on the other hand it is a war of rel igion .
. . . If theirs is the army of God, then ours is the army
of the Buddha. It i s i n this way that Russia is n ot only
an enemy of our country but of the Buddha as we" . The
peoples of China and Korea are also O rie nta ls, the same
" M o n g o l i a n " ra c e as o u rs e l v e s . T h u s , t h e s e
golden- [hued] peoples are our b rothers and s isters,
for we are one fam ily. Ou r rel igions, too, have been
one from the beginning. Therefo re, putting Russians to
death i n order to save our family members is not only
our d uty as citizens, but as fel low Buddhists. . . . The
reason that Buddhism is still in existence in our country
today is due to the protection offered by the emperors
down through the ages, starting with Prince Shoto ku .
B u d d h i s m wou l d n ot exist [ i n J apan ] without the
devotion of the I mpenal family. When looked at from
this viewpoi nt, it is only natu ral for Buddhists t o fig ht
to the death i n order to repay the debt of g ratitude
they owe to the Buddha and the Emperor (Enryo kowashu
2 9 9-302) [ Italics mine ] .
With regard to I no u e, M iya moto Shoson ( �:2t(iE!j/ 1 8 9 3 1 9 8 3 ) , a noted contemporary Buddhist scholar and p rofessor
emeritus of Tokyo University, had this to say:
I no u e E n ryo . . . was an innovative Buddhist scholar who
d evoted himself to the modern ization and edificatio n
1 03
of Buddhism. He was also a theoretical thi nker and
activist . . . who first uttered the phrase "protect the
nation and love the truth " (gokoku airi!ll OOIl�I) [229] .
I n contrast to this positive evaluation, It will be recalled
that K itagawa noted that by the 1 890s I no u e had "turned
I nto a spokesman for the I mperial Way" ( 2 3 1 ) .
Further,
Kitag awa added in a footnote: "Inouye's Buddhist a p o l o g e t i cs
reflected the national istic aspirations of the people during
the 1 880s" ( 2 3 0 ) .
Perhaps he should h ave added, " and
there after. "
Kete l a a r offered perhaps the most penetrating analysis
of the p reced i n g Budd hist priests and scholars when he
wrote :
This trend among late M e ij i sectarian Buddhists toward
what we can call yet another attempt to unite religion
and politics (seikyo itchi), this time based upon a new
s c i e n t i s m of cooperative global evolution, carried with
it consequences . . . r a d i c a l l y in oppositio n to some of
the fundamental tenets of Buddhism. This new s eikyo
ichi is, distinct from the early M e ij i attempt leg islated
by t h e g overn m e n t, i n it i ated by t h e B u dd h ists
themselves and all the more lasting because of it ( 1 7 2 ) .
1 04
By the end of the R u sso-Japanese War i n Septem ber
1 905,
the foundation had been laid for what woul d become
i nstitutional Buddhism's basic themes re lating to Japan's
ongoing m i litary activities.
They m ay be summari zed as
fo l l ows :
I)
2)
3)
Buddh ist participation I n Japan's wars is e nt i rely
a p p ro p riate because these wars a re being fou g ht
fo r a "J ust cause . "
Japa n ' s wars a re , i n fact,
expressions of Buddhist compassion.
The enemies of Japan, the " obstreperous heathens "
as Suzu k i calls them, are the enemies of the state,
the Buddha , human progress, peace , enlighte n ment
et. al..
Fighting "to the death" with them is an
opportun ity to repay the debt of gratitude owed to
both the Buddha and the Emperor.
The J apanese Army is comprised (or, at least, ought
to be c o m p ri se d ) of te n s of t h o us a n d s o f
Bodhisattvas, ever wil l i ng t o sacnflce their l ives as
so many "goose feathers. " Their goal i n this IS not
only the defe n s e of their country but the rescue of
fel low members of the " Mongolian race" fro m the
hands of Western, white, and Christian i mperialists .
As will be seen i n the following sections, though the
names of the Buddhist scholars and priests might change,
these t hemes, with some variations a nd additions, wou l d be
1 05
repeated ove r and over i n the fol lowi ng years, employing
i ncreasi n g l y J i n g o i s t i c language and ever s h ri l l e r vOices.
G iven the envi ronment that had been created, it is not
surp rising that A n e s a k i concluded his discussion of l ate
M e iJ i Buddhist leaders with the observation that they had
" g ladly accepted the role of tools of the Government. "
He
further noted that both they and their S h i nto counterparts
p rovided a n " easy-going serviceab leness to the ru l i ng
classes backed by their glorification of the regime" ( 3 9 1 -9 2 ) .
Fina l ly , the actual fighting that too k p lace o n the
battlefields of the Rus so-Japanese War laid the fou ndation
of one of the more salient features of Japanese Buddhism
in the followi ng years . That is to say, the close connection
that was believed to exist between a so ldier's Buddh i st
faith and his prowess on the battlefield. D. C. Holtom points
out that in selecti ng troops for the crucial attack on Port
Arthur, m i l itary leaders p u rposely selected u n its " from
1 06
Kanazawa and Kumamoto, districts where Buddhism is strong"
( 1 49).
As to why a strong faith in Buddhism should make a
difference on the battlefield, the noted Shin sect scholar
Osuka Shudo had the fol lowing to say i n a book published
on
April
2 0,
1 905
entitled
II A
G e n e ra l
S u rvey
of
Evangelization during Wartime" (ti�ffiim*i! ) :
Reciting the name of Buddha Amita makes it possible
to march onto the battlefield, firm in the belief that
death will bring rebirth i n Parad ise. Being prepared
for death, one can fight strenuously, knowi ng that it is
a J ust fight, a fight employing the compassionate mind
of the Buddha, a fight of a loyal subject. Tru ly, what
could be more fortu nate than knowing that, should you
die, a welcome awaits In the Pure Land [of Buddha
Amita ] . ( 1 3 1 -3 2).
T a i to Satoshi has pointed out that the N i nth Division
from Kanazawa did indeed take Shudo's words to heart. That
is to say, at the crucial battle for Port Arthu r, they recited
Buddha Amita 's name as they charged the enemy l ines. The
result was eventu a l victo ry, but at a cost of 1 5 , 6 0 5
1 07
casu a l ities to the mse lves and cou ntless Russ i a n deaths
( 1 32).
The Shin sect was not alone i n attempting to p rovide
added martial prowess to J apan's soldiers.
The Zen sect,
too, sought to play a role, a role which can fi rst be observed
in the reminiscences of Sawa ki Kod o nR*OOiS/ 1 88 0- 1 9 6 5 ) ,
o n e o f Japan's best known modern Soto Zen m asters a n d
scholars .
For many Western Zen practitioners, Kodo will be
best known as the fou nder of a lay Zen training c e n te r at
A n t a iJ i temple (3i:��) , located in Kyoto.
In his book entitled Sawaki Koclo kiki kaki , Kodo fi rst
talked of the hardships he endured as a d raftee i n the mil itary
j u st p ri o r to the Ru sso-Japanese War.
With the war's
outbreak, however, Kodo went to the battlefield where he
states:
I and my comrades gorged ourselves o n killing people.
Especially at the battle of Baolisi temple, I chased our
enemies i nto a hole where I was able to pick them off
1 08
very effi c i e ntly.
Beca use of t h i s , my company
commander req uested that I be g iven a letter of
commendation, but it wasn't issued ( 6 ) .
As to how his comrades felt about h i s accomplishment,
Kodo records the fol lowing conversation among them:
"Who the hell is that guy? "
" He's only a Zen priest"
"I see. Just what you 'd expect from a Zen p riest.
A man with guts" ( 6 ) .
I n this simple conversation can b e seen what i s perhaps
t h e fi rst modern reference to the effectiveness of Zen
training on the battlefield. As fol lowing sections will reveal,
however, it was certai n ly not to be the last reference to
this topic.
I n fact, even during the war there was a much
more notable personage whose Zen training was thought to
have contributed to his martial prowess .
This personag e
was no l ess t h a n General N o g i M a re s u k e (P.J**A/ 1 8 4 9 1 9 1 2 ) , commander o f the Third Army a n d one of the war's
g re atest heroes.
1 09
N o g i had previously received i nstruction and undergone
koan training with the noted R i n z a i Zen master N ante nbo (
i¥J�./ 1 839- 1 925). Sharf described Nantenbo hi mself as " a
staunch nationalist a n d p artisan t o the J apanese m il itary"
( 1 1 -1 2).
In his personal re m e m b rances, N antenbo reca l led
havi n g explai ned to N o g i that the essence of Zen was
contai ned I n the single word J ikl ( d i re ct/� ) . Though one
word, J i k i had three interrel ated yet disti nct meamngs: 1 )
movi ng forward without hesitation, 2 ) direct tra nsmission
from m ind-to-mind, and 3 ) yamatodamashii (the spirit of
J apan/�TJl) (Kasu mi 1 68).
Sharf summed up the relationsh i p between
Zen and
the Russo-Japanese War period as follows:
I t clearly served the i nterests of late M e ij i Zen
apo logi sts to identify the " essence of Zen" with both
the "spirit of bushido [the way of the warrior] " and the
"spirit of Japan," notions then replete with connotations
of imperial conquest and uncond itional obedience to
the emperor" (1 2 ) .
110
As will be seen shortly, there is much more to be said
about
the
re l a t i o n s h i p
yamatodamashii, and Zen .
b etwe e n
bushido
(m:±im:)
,
Before p reced i ng with t h at
discussion, however, it is important to take note, as is done
i n the fol lowing section, that not .9l1 M e iJ i Buddhists were
supporters of what Kitagawa referred to as "eth nocentric
national ism" ( 2 3 1 ) .
111
E n d note
'There has been debate with i n Zen circles as to whether
the s a t ori (1'8 U ) experience of Zen is the equivalent of Buddha
Shakya m u n i ' s
e n l ightenment.
own
e x p e ri e nce
of
" awa k e n i n g , "
I.e.
For Soen, however, there was noth ing to
debate. He stated: "To say the Buddha had a sa tori experience
sounds as if we were talking about a Zen monk, but I think
i t i s permissible to say that a monk's attai n i n g sa ton
corre s p o n d s to the
B u d d h a ' s awa ke n i n g e ffo rtlessly"
(Eastern Buddhist, XXVI, No. 2, 1 4 1 ) .
112
C HAPTER
4:
UCH IYAMA G U DO-
RADICAL SOTO Z E N
P R I EST
General
I nt ro d u c t i o n
The reader w i l l recall from t h e p revious chapte r a
discussion by Anesaki Masaharu regard i ng the resolution of
the conflict between the M eiJi Gove rn ment and J a p a n ' s
traditional Buddhist sects. He noted that by the end of the
MelJ i period, Buddhist leaders had "gladly accepted the role
of tools of the Govern ment. "
Together with their Shinto
cou nterparts, they provided an "easy-going serviceableness
to the ru l i ng classes backed by their g lonfication of the
regime" ( 3 9 1 -9 2 ) . As already noted, similar comments have
been made by Kitagawa, Yoshida, Theile, and Scharf among
others .
This
said,
it
is
i m p o rtant
to
note
that
t h es e
characterizations, or rather generalizations, were not meant
as blanket statements.
Kitagawa, for example, points out
113
that "there were even a few Buddhists active i n the socialist
and anarchist movements, and some who at least worked
closely with members of such movements" ( 2 3 2 ) .
That is
to say, there were some Buddhist p riests who not o n ly
o pposed t h e i r g overn ment's
I nc re a s i ng ly i m p e ri a l i s t i c
policies , but actually sacnficed the i r l ives i n t h e process
of doing so.
Th is chapter Wi l l focus on one such group of " radica l "
Buddhists.
I n terms o f their actua l numbers, which was
qu ite sma ll, it may be argued that any focus on this g roup
is u nwarranted.
This and the fol lowing chapter wi l l make
clear, however, that i n spite of their lack of numbers, they
had a significant i mpact on the Buddhist leaders of their
time, espec ially as these leaders continued to fo rmulate
thei r i ndividual and col lective responses to Japan ' s m i l itary
expansion abroad and political repression at home.
114
Radical Buddh ist Pri ests and the " H i g h Treason
I ncident"
It is the H igh Treason I ncident (*�.i!f) of 1 9 1 0 that
first brought to l i g ht the existence of politically radical
Buddhist priests .
Specifically, there we re fou r Buddhist
p ri ests who were fi rst arrested , and then convicted, for
their a l l eged participation in a conspi racy to k i l l one o r
more members o f the Imperial fami ly.
These fou r were
part of a l arger g roup of twenty-six in all who were also
convicted of the same crime.
Of the four priests, the Ve n. Uchiyama Gudo <r*.IIlJ ll m:)
was the only one to be executed.
The remaining thre e
were also initia lly sentenced t o death, but later had their
sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
Of these three,
all would eventually die in p rison, though the Shin (True
Pure Land) sect priest, the Ven. T a k a g i Kenm ei (�*IiBJl)
115
died at his own hands.
The remaining two were a second
Shin priest, the Yen. S a s a k i
Dogen
({tr:q *m:JC)
1
and a
R i n z a i Zen sect priest, the Ye n. M i n e o Setsu do (.�I1'i�) .
The focus here is on only one of the fou r priests i n
question, namely the Yen. U c h iyama Gudo, because, first of
all,
space limitations preclude a detai led exa m inatio n of
all fou r. Secondly, as his execution indicates, the authorities
clea rly considered Gudo to be the "worst" of the fou r. This
is not surprising for, of all the priests, Gudo was the most
a ctively I n vo lved
in
the
movement w h i c h t he M e iJ I
g overnment fou nd so reprehensible.
Lastly, there is simply
more i nformation available about Gudo than any of the others.
It should be noted, however, that there is, quantitatively
speaking, l ittle information avai lable even about Gudo, let
alone the other three p riests .
Regrettably, this holds true
especially with regard to the relationship a ny of the fou r
saw betwee n the Buddha
Dharma
116
and their own social
activism. On the one hand, it must be recognized that none
of these fou r regarded themselves as specialists in e ither
B u d d h ist d o ctri ne o r soc i al/po l i t i c a l /eco n o m i c theory .
Rathe r, as Buddh ist pri ests, they b e l i eved they were
attempting to address the social roots of the suffe ri ng
they saw around them.
It shou ld also be noted that the Japanese government
attempted, even before their convictions, to tu rn a l l of
those allegedly i nvolved in the High Treason Incident i nto
" non-persons.
II
One example of this was the fact that the
e nt i re court p roceedi ngs we re conducted b e h i n d close d
doors with no p ress coverage allowed, for to do s o , the
Government argued, would be " . . . p rej u d i c i a l to peace and
o rder, o r to the ma intenance of public moral ity
.
.
. II
(Notehelfer 1 86).
In yet another example of police actions, G u do ' s temple
of R i n se nJ i (***-�) was raided and all his writi ng s a n d
117
correspondence taken away as evidence never to be seen
agaIn .
The only things left behInd were a few statutes of
Buddha Shakyamuni that Gudo had carved and presented to
his p a rishio ners .
Even his death did not satisfy the
authorities, for they would not allow his name to appear on
so much as his g rave m a r k e r at R i n s e nJ i. In fact, when one
of h i s parishioners su bsequently d a re d to l eave some
flowers o n his g rave, the police i nstituted a se a rc h
throughout the village of Oh i ra d a i (*.3Jl't:t) , located i n the
mountainous Hakone district of Kanagawa p refecture, to find
the offe nder.
The Ve n. U c h i y a m a G u do
Early Life
Uchiyama was born on M ay 1 7 , 1 87 4 in the village of
Oj iya ( /J\=f � IBJ )
in N i i g a ta Prefecture.
name was K e i k i c h i
H is chi ldhood ( lay)
(.'S') , and he was the oldest of fou r
118
children.
Gudo's father, N a o k i c h i (I§-ej) made h i s l ivi ng as
a woodworker and carver, specializing In Buddhist statutes,
fam i ly altars , and associated i mp lements.
As a child, Gudo
learned this trade from his father, and wou ld later carve
Buddhist statutes h imself, g iving them to his parishioners
at R i n s e nj i .
Eve n today these simple yet serene n i ne i nch t a l l
carvi ngs o f Buddha Shakyamuni a re highly valued among
the villagers.
As previously noted, they were o ne of the
very few thi ngs directly associated with Gudo which would
escape destruction at the hands of the pol ice at the time
of his arrest and subsequent execution.
As a child, Gudo was noted for his academic ability, to
the point of being presented an award for acad e m i c
excellence by the p refectu ral governor.
Equally important,
however, is that at an early age he came under the i nfluence
of the thinking of a social reformer by the name of Sak u ra
119
Sog 0 ro
(fii:1k*liBB) .
Thus, discussions of such issues as
the need for land reform and women's voting rights became
an i ntegral part of his childhood education .
Gudo lost his father at the age of sixteen.
Henkaku
0
I n his book,
motometa Bukkyosha , Inagaki M asa m i identifies
this early death as a significant factor in Gudo's later decision
to enter the Buddhist priesthood ( 1 1 0 ) . Thus, on April 1 2 ,
1 897, Gudo underwent ordination in the Soto Zen sect a s a
d i sciple of the Ven. Sakazume KOJ u (�iS$m:) , abbot of
HozoJ i temple
(::it�=i¥) .
Over the following seven years, Gudo would both study
Buddhism academically and train as a Zen novice In a number
of Soto Zen i nstitutions, chief among them the monastery
of Kaizoji
(�il�) in Kanagawa prefectu re. On October 1 0,
1 90 1 Gudo became the Dharma successor of the Ven . M i y a g i
J i tsu byo (,&:f1;!�EEO , abbot of R i nse nJ i . Three yea rs later,
1 20
on February 9, 1 9 04, Gudo succeeded his master as R i n s e nJ i 's
abbot, thus bri nging to an end his formal Zen training.
The temple Gudo acceded to was, even by the standards
of that day, humble in the extreme. For one thing, It had no
more than forty impoverished famil ies to p rovide fi nancial
support.
ASide from a small thatched roof Main H al l , its
chief assets were two trees, one a persimmon and the other
a chestnut, located on the temple grou nds. Village tradition
states that every autumn Gudo would i nvite the village rs
to the temple to divide the harvest from these trees equally
among themselves.
In his discussions with village youth, Gudo once again
d i rected his attention to the problem of rural poverty.
He
ide ntified the root of the p roblem as being a n u njust
economic system, one in which a few individuals owned the
b u l k of the land and the majority of the rural population
were reduced to tenancy. Gudo thus became an outspoken
1 21
advocate of land reform , something that would eventu a l ly
come to pass, but not u ntil many years l ater, o nly after
Japan's defeat i n the Pacific War.
W hat is significant about Gudo's advocacy of land reform
is that he b ased h i s position on his u ndersta n d i n g of
Buddhism. I n discussing this period of h is l ife in the minutes
of his l ater p re t r i a l hearing, Gudo states:
The year was 1 904
. When I reflected on the way i n
which p riests o f my sect had u nderg o ne rel i g ious
training in China in former times, I realized how beautifu l
it had bee n . Here were two or three hundred persons
who, living in one place at one time, shared a com munal
l ifestyle i n which they wore the same clothing and ate
the same food. I held to the Ideal that if this could be
applied to one vi llage, one cou nty or one country, what
an extremely good system would be created (l n a g a k i
1 1 2- 1 3 ) .
.
.
.
Clearly, for Gudo , the traditional Buddhist organizational
structure, i . e . the samgha, with its communal l ifestyle and
lack of personal p roperty, was the model from which he
d rew his inspiration for s o c i et a l reform.
1 22
It was also in 1 904 that Gudo had his fi rst sign ificant
contact with a much
broader, secu l a r soci a l refo rm
movement, i .e. anarcho-soci a l ism.
Gudo appears to have
fi rst come i nto contact with this movement as a reader of
a newly established newspaper, the Heimin Shimbun (The
Commoner's News/!JZ�iirm ) .
By the early months of 1 9 04
this newspaper had estab l ished itself as Tokyo ' s lead i ng
advocate of the socialist cause, and Gudo would later express
its i m pact on h i m as follows: "When I began reading the
Heimin Shimbun at that time [ 1 904] , I real i zed that its
pnnciples were identical with my own and therefore I became
an a na rcho-socialist " ( I n a g a k i 1 1 5).
Gudo was not content, however, to be a mere reader of
this newspaper.
In its January 1 7, 1 904 edition, he wrote
the fol lowing:
As a p ropagator of Buddhism I teach that " al l sentient
beings have the Buddha-nature " and that "within the
Dharma there is equality, with neither superior nor
1 23
i nferior." Furthermore, I teach that " al l sentient beings
are my children. " Having taken these golden words as
the basis of my faith, I d iscovered that they a re in
complete agreement with the pri nciples of socialism.
It was thus that I became a believer I n soci a l i s m
( Kashiwag i 29).
The phrase, "all sentient beings have the Buddha-natu re "
is, of cou rse, one of the central themes of the Lotus Sutra
(Saddharma- pundar7ka- sutra) .
The phrase, " a l l sentient
beings are my children" is also taken from the same sutra
while the phrase, "within the Dharma there is equal ity, with
neither superior or inferior" comes from the Diamond Sutra
( Vajracchedika
Praj11aparamita- sutra) .
Reg rettably, the
precedi ng b rief statement is the only extant exposition we
have of Gudo's u nderstanding of the social implications of
the Buddha Dharma.
Even this brief statement, however, puts Gudo i n direct
oppositi o n to MeiJ i Buddhist leaders l i ke Shim aJ i Mokura i .
In his 1 879 essay entitled Sabetsu byoclO, Shimaj i maintained
1 24
that distinctions i n social standing , wealth, etc . were
as
permanent as diffe re nces in age, sex, a n d l a n g u ag e .
Social ism, therefore, was flawed because i t emphasized only
social and economic equality.
That is to say, social ists
fa i led to u n derstand the basic Buddhist teac h i n g that
'difference IS identical with equality' (sabetsu soku byoclO/
�jj IJ RPlJZ�) .
Or phrased so mewhat more philosophically,
socialists confused the temporal world of form (yukei�Jf�
) with the transcendent world of formlessness ( mukei/1mJf�
) , fai ling to recognize the underlying unity of the two.
As the fol lowing cha pter wi l l demonstrate, it was
S h i m aj i ' s position that wou l d g a i n a cceptance w i th i n
i nstitutional Buddhism.
As Village Priest and Social Activist
Of the eighty-two persons who eve ntu a l ly expressed
their allegiance to socialism in the pages of the Heimin
Shimbun
,
only Gudo and one other, Kotoku Shus u i ($�t.k
1 25
71<)
,
wou ld l ater become d i rectly impl icated i n the H i g h
Treason I ncident. This fact suggests that Gudo, like Kotoku,
was a leading figure i n the nascent socialist move ment.
That, however, was not the case, for, if nothing else, Gudo's
relative p hysIcal isolation i n the Hakone mountains l i m ited
the role that he was able to play.
In today's termi nology,
he m i g ht best be descnbed as a rural social activist o r
reformer who, i n h i s own m i n d a t least, based h is thought
and actions on his Buddhist faith .
Ironica l ly, It was Gudo 's relative physical isolation that
wou ld eventu a l ly thrust h i m i nto the h isto rica l , though
secretive, l imelight.
The backgrou nd to this development
was the ever increasing efforts of the Japanese Government
and police to suppress the growing socialist movement with
its p acifi st platform .
This suppression took the form of
repeated banni ngs of pol itically offe ns ive issues of the
Heimin Shimbun; arresti ng , fining, and ultimately j a i l i ng the
1 26
newspaper' s edito rs ;
physic a l ly b re a k i ng
meetmgs and rall ies, etc.
u p s o c i a l ist
With two of Its editors ( i ncluding
Kotoku Shus u i ) on their way to jail for alleged violations of
the Press Laws, the Heimin Shimbun pri nted its l ast issue
on J anuary 2 5 , 1 90 5 . As F.G . Not e h e l fer has pointed out,
"The dissolution of the Heimin Shimbun virtua l ly brought to
a close the socialist anti-war movement" ( 1 0 7 ) .
The
Japanese Government would now be able to conti nue its
war with C z a rist Russi a, free from the criticism of domestic
a nti-war socialists.
The war with Russia came to an end with a J apanese
victory i n September 1 90 5 .
The victory, however, was a
costly one, both i n terms of the government's expenditu res
on a rmaments and the hig h number of military casualities.
Thus, when it became general knowledge that t he peace
terms did not i nclude a war i ndemnity, " riots b ro ke out i n
1 27
Tokyo with resultant heavy casual ities.
M arti a l l aw was
i mmediately establishedll ( Borton 2 7 8 ) .
I n this atmosphere of sign ificant soc i a l u nrest, the
Japanese Government
pursued its suppression of socialis m
even more relentlessly than before.
Thus, on February 2 2 ,
1 907, the Japanese Socialist Party was banned and socialists
were harassed, beaten and Jailed.
By 1 908, u nable to hold
public meetings, or publish either newspapers or magazines,
what was left of the socialist movement went underg round .
U n able to openly advocate social ism, some members of
the movement came to believe that the only way they could
succeed was by some form of "direct action,1I action directed
against the Imperial House itself.
It was these circu mstances which p rompted Gudo to
visit Tokyo i n September 1 90 8 . He not only met with Koto k u
Shus u i but purchased the necessary equipment to set u p a n
underground press within his own temple. Strictly speaking,
1 28
his was not an "underground" press at all, but an " under the
Buddha" press since the printing equipment was hidden i n
the storage area located u nderneath and to the rear of the
Buddha altar in the M ain Hall. Gudo used this press to turn
out not only popular socialist tracts and pamphlets, but he
also wrote and published his own m aterials, i nc l ud i n g his
best known work, Nyugoku Kmen - Museifu Kyosan - Kakumei
( I n Commemoration of Imprisonment - Anarcho-Co m m u n is m
The p reced ing work i s i n terestmg fo r a n u mber of
reasons, not least of all because it contains a pointed critique
of the then prevalent understanding of the Buddhist doctrine
of karma. After beginning with a lament for the poverty of
tenant farmers, Gudo writes:
Is this [your poverty] the result, as Buddhists maintain,
of the retribution due you because of your evil deeds
in the past? Listen, friends, if, having now e ntered the
2 0th century, you were to be deceived by superstitions
1 29
l i ke this, you would sti l l be [no better than] oxen or
horses. Wou ld this please you? ( Kashiwag i 1 97)
Gudo clearly u nderstood that the Buddhist doctrine of
karma was being i nterpreted as p roviding the Justificatio n
for social and economic inequality. That is t o say, i f te nant
farmers were impoverished, they had no one to bl ame but
themselves and their own past actions.
Shaku Soen was
typical of those Buddh ist leaders who advocated this
i nterpretation.
He said:
We a re born i n the world of variety; some are poor and
u nfortunate, others are wealthy and happy. The state
of variety will be repeated again and agam in our future
l ives. But to whom shall we complain of our misery?
To none but ourselves' ( Eastern Buddhist 1 36).
G u do's criticism of popu lar Buddhism, however, d id not
stop with the above. Previously, on M ay 30, 1 9 04, Gudo had
written a letter of protest to the abbot of Jos e nj i ('M'�
:'i¥) , the Ven. O re h a s h i Dai ko (�fi�="=7f) .
In this letter he
requested that the Sata sect cleanse itself of the practice
1 30
of what amounted to selling temple a b bots h ips to the highest
b idder.
When D a i ko refused to endorse h i s positi o n ,
Kash iwag i reports that Gudo expressed h i s dete rm i nation
to push for this reform on his own ( 3 2 ) .
Returni ng again to Gudo 's earlier "u nderg round " wrltmg,
its real significance lay not in its critique of certain aspects
of Buddhist doctri ne, but rather i n ItS blisteri ng denial of
the heart and soul of the M e ij i pol itical syste m, i . e . the
emperor system. It was, in fact, this denial of Japan's Imperial
system that more than any other single factor led to Gudo's
subsequent arrest, i mprison ment, and u ltimately, to h is
execution . He wrote as fol lows:
There are three leeches who suck the people's blood:
the Emperor, the rich, and the big landowners . . . . The
big b oss of the p resent government, the Empe ro r, is
not the son of the gods as you r primary school teachers
and others would have you believe . The ancestors of
the p resent Emperor came forth from one corner of
Kyushu, killing and robbing people as they went. They
then destroyed their fel low thieves, Nagasu ne- h i k o and
others . . . . It should be readily obvious that the Emperor
1 31
is not a god if you but think about it for a moment.
When it is said that [the Imperial Dynasty] has continued
for 2 , 500 years, it may seem as if [the present Emperor]
is d ivi ne, but down through the ages the e m pe ro rs
h ave been tormented by fore i g n opponents a n d ,
domestically, treated as puppets by their own vassals
( Kashiwag i 201 ).
I m p ri so n m e nt
G udo printed between 1 -2 , 000 copies of the above tract
and mailed them to former readers of the Heimin Shimbun
I n small lots wrapped i n plain paper. Noteh e l f e r notes that
its radical content, especially its scath ing den ial of the
emperor system, so frightened some recipients that they
i m mediately burned a l l the copies they received ( 1 7 0 ) .
Others, however, were so excited by its contents that they
rushed out onto to the streets to distribute it to passers-by.
Distributed i n this fashion, it was, p redictab ly, not long
before copies fel l i nto the hands of the police . This i n turn
sparked an i mmediate nationwide search for both its author
and production site.
1 32
On May 24, 1 909 Gudo was arrested on his way back to
R i n s e nJ i afte r havi ng fmished a month of Zen trai n i ng at
E i h e iJ i (7kIJZ�) , one of the Soto sect's two head temples.
He was i n itially charged with violations of the p ress and
publications laws and, at first, be lieved he would simply be
fined and released .
Upon searching his temple of R i n s e nJ i,
however, the pol ice claimed to have discovered a cache of
explosive materials i ncluding twe lve sticks of dyn a mite,
fou r packages of explosive gelatin, and a supply of fuses.
Kashiwagi claims the charges rel ating to the possession
of explosive matenals were false .
In an article e ntitled
"Junkyosha Uchiyama Gudo, " he states: "The dynamite had
b e e n stored at his te m p l e in conj u nc t i o n with t h e
construction o f the Hakone mountain railroad. I t h a d nothing
to do with Gudo" ( 1 1 ) . Nevertheless, Gudo was convicted of
both charges and i nitially sentenced to a total of twelve
1 33
years' imprisonment.
On appeal, his sentence was reduced
to seven years.
On July 6 , 1 909, even before his conviction, officials of
the So to Zen sect moved to deprive Gudo of his abbots h i p
at R i n se nj i . Once convicted, they quickly moved on to yet
more serious action .
Thus, on June 2 1 , 1 9 1 0, Gudo was
deprived of his status as a Soto Zen p riest.
In spite of
their actions, however, Gudo continued to think of h imself
as a Zen priest and wou ld continue to do so u ntil the end of
his l ife, something that was now, u nknown to him, not too
far away.
Toward a Second Trial
On May 2 5 , 1 9 1 0 two socialists, M iyas h i t a Daiklchi ('at
;ten and N i i m u ra Tadao ( *fit-tf.ett:) were arrested in Nagano
p refecture after police searched thei r quarters and found
chemicals used to make explosives.
I n the m i nd s of the
police this was concrete evidence of the existence of a
1 34
wider conspiracy agai nst the Imperial House .
Th is I n turn
led to Kotoku Shus u i's a rrest a week l ater, and the
i nvestig ation and i nterrog ation of hundreds of men and
women in the following months. By this time Gudo had already
been in prison for a full year, yet this did not p revent h i m
from becoming a suspect once again.
At the conclusion of its i nvestigatio n , charges were
brought agamst a total of twenty-six persons, one of whom,
Kanno Sugako (�D�IlHT) was a woman.
i ncluded.
G u do, too, was
If convicted under Article 7 3 , Le. "Crimes agai nst
the Thro ne , " of the new crim inal code, all of them cou ld
face the d eath penalty.
U nder Article 7 3 prosecutors had
only to show that the defendants " i ntended" to bring harm
to members of the Imperial House, not that they h ad acted
on this intent in any concrete way. As Note h e l fe r has written
so succinctly, "What was on trial, therefore, were ideas, not
facts" ( 1 88).
1 35
The trial commenced in Tokyo on December 1 0, 1 9 1 0.
Kanno Sugako, not only admitted in cou rt that she had i ndeed
been i nvolved In the alleged conspi racy but i nd icated how
many others had been i nvolved as well .
Upon being asked
by the p residing J udge, Tsu ru Joi c h i ro (.3t-ft�)
if she
wished to make a final statement, Kanno responded:
From the outset I knew that our plan wou ld not succeed
if we let a lot of people in on it. Only fou r of us were
i nvolved i n the plan. It is a crime that I nvolves only
the fou r of us. But this court, as well as the preliminary
i nterrogators, treated it as a plan that involved a large
number of people. That IS a complete misunderstanding
of the case. Because of this misunderstanding a large
number of people have been made to suffer. You are
aware of this. . . . If these people are killed for something
that they knew nothing about, not only will it be a
g rave tragedy for the persons concerned , but their
re latives and friends wil l fee l b itterness toward the
govern ment. Because we hatched th is plan a l a rg e
number of i nnocent people may b e executed (Hane 57).
In her diary entry for January 2 1 , 19 1 1 , Kanno identified
the fou r i ndividuals involved i n the plot besides herself as
1 36
being Kotoku, M iya s h i t a, N i i m u ra and Furu kawa Rikisaku (is
As to Gudo's role in the conspiracy, Notehelfe r has this
to say:
Uch iya m a [Gudo]'s lack of prudence expressed itself
not o n ly i n his tracts and pamphlets, but in h i s
conve rsations with virtu al strange rs. H i s admiration
for Kotoku was echoed in his own effort to make bombs
a nd recruit a band of five or S I X ' death-defYing men'
to assassinate the Crown Prince. No doubt he considered
h i mself a participant in what he described as Koto ku's
'one last measure, ' but unknown to him police detectives
had already singled him out as the source of several
seditious pamphlets . . . . the police i nvestigation i nto
U c h iyama's activities served to i nc rease suspicions
that an anti-I mperial plot was i n the hatching ( 1 7 2 ) .
If this vers ion o f events were true, i t would appear
that not only was Gudo involved in the alleged conspiracy,
but he was even one of the ringleaders .
Para l l e l i n g Notehelfer's i n d ictment o f G u d o ,
P ro s e c u t o r
Hiranuma
K i i c h i ro (!JZ:sm-a�) ,
C h i ef
identified
GUdo's earl ier writing, contai ni ng his uncompromising denial
1 37
of the e mperor system, as " the most heinous book ever
written since the begi nning of Japa nese history" ( I n a g a k i
1 28).
H e also mentioned a second tract which Gudo had
p ri nted, entitled " Telkoku gunjin zayu no m e r' (� �!f!AJm
;bzst/A Handbook for Imperial Soldiers ) . Here Gudo had
gone so far as to call on soldiers to desert their encampments
e n m asse ( Kashiwag i 205 ) . I n addition, Gudo had, as already
noted, repeatedly and forceful ly advocated both l a nd reform
i n the countryside and democratic rights for all citizens.
An alternative view of Gudo's ro le in the a l le g e d
consp i racy co mes from a so mewhat surprising source,
n amely the administrative headquarters of the Sat o Zen
sect itself.
I n the July 1 9 9 3 issue of Soto Shuho (���*
¥a) , the administrative organ for this sect, an announcement
was m ade that as of April 1 3 , 1 9 9 3 Uchiyama G u do 's status
as a Soto priest had been restored.
The announcement
went on to say, " [Gudo 's] original expulsion had been a
1 38
mistake caused by the sect's havi ng swal lowed the [the n ]
govern ment's repressive policies" ( 1 6 ) .
The explanation as to what caused this turnabout i n the
sect's attitude toward Gudo was contai ned i n a subsequent
article which appeared in the September 1 9 9 3 issue of the
same periodical.
Written by the sect 's " Bu reau for the
Protection and Advocacy of Hu man Rights " (�;[A]*.AJiBl�
11;1;*$) , the highlights of the article are as follows:
When viewed by today's standards of respect for
human rights, Uch iya ma Gudo's writings contai ned
elements which should be seen as farsighted. Thus, we
have much to learn from them, for today his writings
are respected by people in various walks of l ife,
starting with the mass media. In our sect, the
restoration of U c h iyama Gudo's reputation is
something that wil l both bri ng solace to his spirit and
contribute to the establishment within this sect of a
method of dealing with questions concerning human
rights . . . . We now recognize that GudO' was a victim of
the national p o l i cy of that day . . . . The dynamite found
i n his temple had been placed there for safe keeping
by a railroad company laying track through the Hakone
mountains and had nothing to do with him . . . . The
sect's [original] actions were those which strongly
aligned the sect on the side of an establishment
1 39
dom inated by the emperor system . These actions
were not those desig ned to protect the unique
Buddhist character of the sect's priests . . . . On this
occasion of the restoration of Uchiyama Gudo's
reputation, we must reflect on way i n which our sect
has i ngratiated itself with both the political powers of
the day and a state under the suzerainty of the
Emperor ( 1 2- 1 6 ) .
I t i s obvious that the above stated position of the Soto
sect cannot be taken at face value. That IS to say, It presents
no eVidence to substantiate the claim of Gudo 's i nnocence
in the alleged conspiracy agai nst the Imperial family. Rather,
it merely repeats Kashiwag i ' s earlier claim that Gudo was
i n nocent of the charge of possessi ng explosive materi a ls.
In that sense, this statement must be treated with some
scepticism, perhaps more as a reflection of the sect's regret
for what it came to recognize ( in post-war yea rs ) as its
slavish subservience to the state.
(For further evidence of
the Seto sect's post-war ' remorse' see Chapter Eleve n ) .
1 40
As to the question of whether a definitive statement
can be made I n this case about the guilt or innocence of any
of the defe ndants, all of the evidence (or rather l a c k of
eVidence) suggests it cannot.
In the first i nstance, as has
been noted, the government's attempt to turn the accused
i nto ' no n-persons' resulted in the destru ction of critical
evidence. More i mportantly, when i n 1 9 7 5 the descendents
of one of those originally convicted in the case petitioned
for a retrial, the M inistry of Justice stated clearly for the
first time that the trial's transcripts no longer eXisted.
Even If the transcripts had eXisted, it IS highly doubtfu l
that they wou ld have provided definitive evidence, given
that eve ryone directly connected with the trial was, by
then, deceased and therefore unavai lable for questioni ng
about their statements and actions either i n or out of court.
It was factors like these which, at the end of his study,
fi n a l ly forced Notehelfer to admit that " an element of
1 41
mystery . . . continues to surround the tria l " ( 1 8 5 ) .
It is
quite possible, if not l ikely, that It may always do so.
In any event, there was never any doubt at the time
that the defenda nts would be fou n d g U i lty.
The only
u ncertainty was how severe their penalties would be .
On
January 1 8, 1 9 1 1 , l ittle more than a month after the trial
had begun, that u ncertai n ly vanished whe n the Court of
Cassation (*1iI�)
re ndered its ve rd ict.
were found guilty, and twenty-fou r of them,
All defenda nts
Gudo and the
three other Buddhist priests included, were condemned to
death. One day later, on January 1 9th, an I mperial re s c ri p t
was issued which commuted the sentences of twelve of the
co nvicted to life i mprisonment.
In this way, three of the
Buddhist priests, i .e. Takagi Kenmei, Sas a k i OOgen, and M i ne o
Setsudo, were spared the hangman's noose, but, a s alre ady
noted, all of them would later die in prison.
1 42
Towa rd Execut i o n
As to why the government had been s o determined to
convict all of the defendants, M i k i s o Hane has written :
The authorities (u nder Prime M i n ister Katsu ra Taro
(�ij;:aB) who had been directed by the genro (:7t�)
Yamagata Antomo ( w !Jf!1iIDD to come down hard o n
the l eftists) rou nded u p everybody w h o had the
sl ightest connection with Kotoku and charged them with
complicity in the plot ( 5 6 ) .
Note h e l fe r fu rther clarifies the cause o f A ri t o m o's
concern as the fol lowing:
One t h i ng the [court] testimony of nearly all the
defend ants revealed at the prel i m i n a ry examination
was a loss of faith in the divinity of the Emperor.
Yamagata considered this loss of respect for the core
of the national polity a threat to the futu re of the
nation ( 1 87).
Acti ng with
u n customary haste,
the g overn m e n t
executed Gudo a n d h is ten alleged m a l e co-c o n s p i ra t o rs
i nside the I c h i g aya Prison compou nd on the morn ing of
January 24, 1 9 1 1 , less than a week after their conviction.
Kanno Sugako, the only woman, would die the following d ay.
143
G u do was the fifth to die on the 24th, and Yos h i d a KyUl c h i
records that as he climbed the scaffold stairs, " h e gave not
the slightest hmt of emotional distress, rather he appeared
serene, even cheerful. So much so that the attending p rison
chaplain bowed as he passed" (476).
The next day, when Gudo's younger brother, 5 e iJ i
�t:t)
,
(iIX
came to collect his body, he demanded that the coffin
be opened.
Looki ng at Gudo's peacefu l countenance, SeiJ i
said, "Oh, older brother, you passed away without suffe ri ng .
. . . What a superb face you have in deathl " (Yoshida, Bukkyosh i
478).
1 44
CHAPTER 5 : I N STITUTIONAL BUDDH I S M ' S REJ E CTION
OF PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL ACTIO N
It may b e fairly argued that the Buddhist connection to
the ove rall H i g h Treason I ncident was , i n terms of the
n u m be rs i nvolved,
no more than of m i n o r h i storical
importance . Yet, this does not mean that the High Tre ason
I ncident did not have a significant impact on the leadership
of Japan's traditional Buddhist sects, fi rst and fore most on
the leadership of the Soto Zen sect. It was, i n fact, i n the
reactio n of the Buddhist sectarian l eadership that we see
t h e most e n d u ri n g i nflue nce of this i nc i dent o n the
subsequent relationship between i nstitutional Buddh ism and
the state.
Soto Zen Sect Reaction
Although Gudo had earlier been ousted from the Soto
Zen p ri esthood, the administrative head of that sect, the
1 45
Ven. M o ri t a G oyu (� EB1!EB ) , on the day preceding G U do's
executio n , felt o b l iged to issue a state ment a bjectly
apolog izing for not having adequately controlled the l i kes
of G u do . In part, M o n t a said:
I am profoundly dumbstruck that there coul d h ave
been someone l i ke Uchiyama Gudo in this sect, a sect
whose basic pri nciple has been, since its founding, to
respect the Emperor and protect the state.2 I
therefore apologize most profusely and profou ndly
and pledge that I will guide and educate the priests of
this sect to devote all of their energ ies to thei r
proper duties and there by actively practice their
service to society ( Sata Shuho, No. 340).
In addition to this apology, the Soto sect h ierarchy also
issued a number of directives to all of the temples i n sect
as well as to a l l sect-affil i ated educational i nstitutions.
Typical of these was the
di rective of February 1 5 , 1 9 1 1
which, afte r condemning Gudo yet a g a i n , a dvised s ect
adhere nts to " exercise vigilance over both themselves and
others . . . i n order to expiate this most serious crime i n the
sect's last one thousand years" (Sota Shuha, No. 340).
1 46
Ri nzai Zen Sect Reaction
In a l most identical language, the leaders h i p of the
various b ranches of the Ri n z a i Zen sect issued s i m i l a r
apologies and directives. In the case of the M yos h i nJ i branch
(tpJt\=i¥��) of the R i n z a i Zen sect, the administrative head,
the Ven. Toyota Dokutan C� EB�;H) had this to say:
The essence of the R i n z a i sect si nce its founding i n
this country has been to protect the nation through
the spread of Zen. It is for this reason that in front of
the central Buddha image in our sect's temples we have
revere ntly p l aced a memori a l tablet mscnbed with
the words, " May the current Emperor l ive for ten
thousand years, " thereby making our temples training
c e n ters for pacifying and preserving our country . . . .
We make certam that adherents of our sect always
keep In mind love of country and absolute loyalty [to
the Emperor] . . . . that they don't ignore the doctrine of
karma or fal l into the trap of bel ieving in the heretical
i d e a of ' evi l e q u a l ity ' (�:lfZ�) [as a dvocated by
socialists, et. a I .] (Bukkyoshi 5 1 0).
Commenting on Dokutan's state ment, Yoshida points
out that "given the Rinzai sect's inability to show how its
tenets were incompatible with anarchism. . . it could not
1 47
help but lose its right to speak about modern society"
(Bukkyoshi 5 1 1 ).
It is a lso noteworthy that i n Dokutan's condem nation
of "evil equal ity" can be heard an echo of Shimaj i ' s earlier
critique of socialists for their fai l u re to u nd erstand the
identity of difference and equal ity, and confusing the worlds
of form and formlessness.
Ketelaar shows Just how important
ShimaJ i 's position had become when he writes:
The bifu rcation of fo rm and formless beco m e s a
d o m i n a n t theoretica l position o f l ate- n i neteenth­
century Buddhist thought. It serves to legiti m ate
Buddhism's i nvolvement in war . . . . it p rovides
ammunition for the attack upon Western expansionist
policies in Asi a and for Buddhism's assistance in Japan's
own expansionist programs ( 1 3 4 ) .
Shin Sect Reaction
The Shin sect's leadership, for Its part, was no less
appalled by the actions of one its own , i.e. the Ven . Takagi
Kenmei . Two administrative leaders of the Higashi Honganj i
branch o f the Shin sect, i . e . the Vens. Otan i Eiryo (* � �� )
1 48
and Kuwakado Shido <.r'��) issued an admonition to all
subordinate temples on January 20, 1 9 1 1 . It stated i n part:
Last year [ 1 9 1 0] there were those who, having adopted
soc i a l i st extremism, hatched an extraord i n a ry p l ot .
Those who d i d s o both viol ated a basic p rinciple o f
t h i s sect, which teaches the coexiste nce o f relative
and ultimate truth, and cast aside the Buddhist doctrine
of causality. This IS not the way m which priests of
this sect should act. . . . Nevertheless . . . there is such a
pnest [Takagi Kenmei ] i n this sect . . . . Adherents of
t h i S sect should q U i ckly rectify their t h i n k m g i n
accordance With this sect's teaching that R aja Dharma
[secular l aw] is paramount and relations between men
should be based on benevolence . . . . They must be taug ht,
i n a ccord a n ce With t h i S sect ' s teach i ng of t h e
coexistence of rel ative and u ltimate truth, just how
deep is the gratitude they owe to both Heaven and
thei r Country. . . . Especially those m this sect i n
supervisory roles must pay special attention to what
the priests and laity under thei r supervision are doing .
. . . You must e l i mi nate misconceptions, being ever
vigi lant ( Chugai Nippo, No. 3 259).
Even though there were no priests of the Nishi Honganji
branch d i rectly i nvolved in the tri a l , the a d m i n istrative
head of that sect, the Ven . Otani Sonyu <*1:i-ti EB / 1 8 8 61 9 3 9 ) , felt compelled to issue his own statement. It began
1 49
by noting that society was being " infected by dangerous
thoughts" and went on to point out that "those who mistakenly
i nvolved the mselves in such lawless speech and actions
a re not si mply enemies of the State but of the [Shin] sect
as wel l . "
As Justificatio n for h i s position, Sonyu poi nted out
that Japan was a "flawless State" to which all sect adherents
should se lflessly devote themselves .
I n particular, li as
teachers, sect priests should observe tendencies In social
thought in order to promote national stability and maintain
soci a l orde r. "
In so dOing, they would insure that "the
splendour of our sect wil l be exalted" (Honzan rokuji ) . As
to the question of what should be done in the event that
R aja Dharma e v e r came i nto conflict with Buddha Dharma,
neither Sonyu nor the other Shin leaders have anythi ng to
say.
1 50
The Scholars' Reaction(s)
In March 1 9 1 2 a book was published u nder the title of
" Essays o n Revere nce for the Empe ror and Patriotis m "
(Sonno aikoku ron/.j!���) . The nineteen separate essays
contained i n this work were written by fifteen of Japan's
l e a d i n g scholars , o n e g ove rn m e nt offic i a l ,
and t h re e
i ntel lectuals, including the New Buddhist leader, Ouchi Seiran.
I n addition to Seiran, there were such well-known Buddh ist
scholars as I noue E n ryo and NanJ o Bunyu, not to mention
M u rakami Sensho (¥t...t ��/1 8 5 1 - 1 9 2 9 ) , a noted Buddhist
h istori a n .
The book's connection to the High Tre ason I ncident i s
made clear in its preface . There the I ncident is referred to
as " marking the g reatest disgrace of the MeiJ i period " ( 1 ) .
As a result of the d isturbances this I ncident caused, the
book's editor, Akiyama Goan ( tJaIJ'liJi) , decided to ask the
leading thinkers of his day to clarify the tru e nature of
1 51
revere nce for the Emperor and patriotism " i n o rder to
exterminate vermi n and provide the material to fill up ant
holes" ( 2 ) .
The titles o f the various essays p rovide a good
i ndication of the book's content. Tokyo University Professor
I noue TetsuJ iro (#J:tyi*a�/ 1 8 5 5 - 1 944) wrote on "The Noble
Cause of the Fou nding of the State, " while Murakami Sensho
contributed an essay entitled: " Loyalty (to the Emperor)
and F i l ial Pi ety i n Buddhism . 1I
Ouchi Sei ran ' s essay was
entitled: "On Reveri ng the Emperor and Repaying [One's Debt
of Gratitude to] the Buddha ."
Sei ra n used this essay to renew h i s attack o n
Christi anity, writi ng:
Christianity and our Imperial House can never coexist,
for it is i mpossible to truly revere the I mperial House
whi l e believing in C hristianity . . . . Christianity n ot
only tu rns its back on the righteous Buddhist teaching
of cause and effect, but it is a heretical teaching that
tea rs apart the establ ishment of our I mperial House
and destroys the foundation of our country . . . . therefore
1 52
we must all Join together to prevent this heretical
teaching from spreading through our land (49-5 2 ) .
I noue E n ryo entitled h i s essay: " A Tre atise o n the
N ational Pol ity, Loyalty (to the Emperor), and Filial Piety. "
I n his essay he presented the following syl logism:
The l and of our nation is sacred, and si nce our nation
developed on this sacred land, it should also be called
sacred . . . . Our Imperial House is sacred, and si nce all
of the subjects i n this land are its offspring - children
of the gods and g randc h i l d re n of the E mperor therefore they are sacred. . . . Our loyalty [to the
Emperor] and patriotism are sacred . . . . whereas in the
West such things a re private matters and therefore
l ifeless . Why? Because the people and the King [ i n
Western cou ntries] don't become one family . . . . since
society is based on i ndividuals who thi n k only of
themselves ( 1 44- 1 4 9 ) .
I n the above comments it is not difficult t o see that
the Buddh ist essayists were determ i ned to demonstrate
that they, no less than thei r secu lar cou nterparts, were
totally and completely dedicated to the Emperor and the
state. I n this effort, it must be admitted they were eminently
succe ssfu l .
Verm i n like Uchiyama Gudo had indeed been
1 53
exterm i nated, and their ant holes fi lled u p if not once and
for all at least for some time to come!
Government Reaction
The Japanese Gove rn ment, for its part , was no less
i nterested than the sectarian Buddhist lead ers In e nsuring
that religiOUS figures would never again oppose its policies.
With this goal in mind, it sponsored a " Conference of the
Three Religions" ( Sankyo kaido;:=*i�[iiJ) which opened on
February 25, 1 9 1 2 . This conference was attended by a total
of 7 1 representatives from Buddhism, Shinto and Christianity
as wel l as nu merous sponsoring govern ment min isters and
offi c i a l s . The government's u n p recedented i nc l us i on of
Christian representatives revealed that the patriotic fervor
of the new creed, as demonstrated during the Sino-Japanese
and Russo-Japanese wars, had been official ly recog n ized .
Saku rai M asashi notes that the confere nce concerned
itself with passing a nu mber of resolutions calling for such
1 54
thi ngs as support of the I mperial Way ( Kodo/fi!iFiJ and
p romotion of national moral ity.
Confe rence participants
a lso advocated cooperation between politics, rel igion, and
education as a way to ensu re national prosperity (444-4 9 ) .
Notto Thele makes the connection between the H igh Treason
I nc i d e nt a n d this confe rence very cl ear, when, after
describing the conference agenda, he states:
The plot to assassinate the Emperor i n 1 9 1 0 made a
g reat impact upon the pol itical situation . . . there is
no doubt that the government policy toward relig ions
and its support of rel igious cooperation was stimulated
by apprehensions about socialism and other ' dangerous
thoughts' ( 2 5 2 ) .
Kitagawa takes a position similar t o Thele's a n d states
that by b ri n g i ng represe ntatives of the three rel ig io ns
t o g ether,
the
Gove r n m e n t wished
to
" se c u re
t he i r
cooperation i n halting discontent and unrest among the
populace" ( 2 3 2 ) . Anesaki also links the High Treason I ncident
and this conference when he states:
1 55
the Government convened a meeting of religious
l e a d e rs rep resentative of Buddh ist, C h ri sti a n , a n d
Shmto Churches, a n d asked for their co-operation i n
ameliorating the situation, thereby i mplying the fig h t
against the rad icals ( 3 88-8 9 ) . [Italics mine. ]
·
.
.
I n this effort, it must be admitted, the Government
was eminently successful .
Thele notes that as a result of
this conference:
M a ny influential leaders i n the
e s ta b l is h m e nts cooperated
strengthen the state, fostering
u nity, and moral strength i n a
fraught with danger ( 2 5 2 ) .
Buddhist and Christian
with each ot h e r t o
patriotic spirit, national
time they perceived as
Although the practical results of this " cooperatio n "
will b e covered i n the following sectio ns of this dissertation,
l et it suffice at this point to note that throug h the end of
the Pacific War, no major Buddhist (or Chri stian ) leaders
would ever aga i n speak out i n any organized way agai nst
g overnment policies , e ither civi lian or m i l itary, d omestic
or foreign.
1 56
To state that this one conference in and of itself brought
about the su bservience of religion to the state would, of
cou rse, be an exaggeration. The precedmg sections h ave
disclosed that i n Buddhism's case this tendency can be
clearly seen throughout the MeiJ i period, with roots reachi ng
back even fu rther. On the other hand, it is no exaggeration
to state that this conference was akin to driving the l ast
nail in the coffin of any semblance of Buddhist independence
from state pol icies, especially those rel ating to questions
of war and peace.
It is this near total if not total obedience to the
government on the part of Japan's religious leaders, Buddhist
and non-Buddhist ali ke, that
was destined to become the
most enduri ng religious legacy of not just the High Treason
I ncident and its aftermath, but of the entire M e iJ i period,
which itself came to end in 1 9 1 2 .
1 57
Endnotes
l De s p ite his p riestly personal name, i . e . Dog e n, there i s
some uncertainty reg arding S a s a k i' s status a s a Shi n sect
priest.
What is uncontested, however, is that he was born
and raised in the Shi n-affiliated temple of SokushoJ i (!l� �
) located in the city of Kumamoto i n Ku ma moto p refecture.
At the time of his arrest he was l ivi ng in this temple where
his older brother, Toku bo (i!H1:), was the abbot.
ZThe i nitial founder of the 50to Zen sect in J apan was Zen
Master Dogen (�)c/ 1 200-5 3 ) . The question naturally arises
as to whether his views toward the state and Imperial system
are accurately represented here.
The a nswer is a qualified
'yes' in that there are passages i n his writings which support
Goyu's i nterpretation.
Other passages, however, suggest
far more l imited, if not conditional, support.
For a more
detailed d iscussion of this issue, see the author's a rticle
entitled, " Zen M aste r Dogen 's Social Consciousness" in the
1 58
Journal of Asian Culture (Vol. 1 , No.1, 1 9 7 7 ) published by the
GSA of the Dept. of Oriental Languages, UCLA.
1 59
CHAPTER 6 :
THE I NCORPORATION OF BUDDHISM I NTO
THE JAPANESE WAR MACHINE
With i n Japan Proper
Shaku Soen, it will be remembered, had said that Japan
was fig hti ng the Ru sso-J apanese Wa r with " no egoistic
purpose" i n mind . Yet, as B e as l ey pointed out:
The R u ss o-Japanese war had set J apan on the road
towards acquiring an empire of her own . . . . For the
first ti me In modern history an ASi a n country had
defeated one of the powers i n full-scale war. By doing
so, it had secu red both real advantages and symbols
of prestige: a paramount position in Korea and valuable
rig hts in South Manchuria, to be added to Formosa
[Taiwan] and a share in the China trade ( 1 7 2- 1 7 3 ) .
Not content with " a paramount position i n Korea,'l Japan
proceeded, i n 1 9 1 0,
to force the Korean King to sign a
Treaty of Annexation. Korea lost its independence and Japan
acquired, a t l ast, a major colony on the Asian mainland.
1 60
Summing up Japan's position i n the second decade of the
1 900s, Burton wrote:
[Japan ] had been transformed into a world power which
domi nated the entire Far East. It seemed to have been
catapu lted onto the world stage by an u ncontrollable
and compe l ling u rg e to become strong, to force its
will on any who challenged its position, and to be the
leader of Asia ( 2 7 2-7 3 ) .
I n connection with the above, the question was raised,
both withi n and without Japan, as to what was it that had
enabled Japan to so quickly transform itself i nto a wo rld
power.
Though certa inly not the o nly voices withi n Japan
attempting to address this questi o n , J a pa n ' s B u d d h ist
leaders, especially those i n the Zen t radition, believed they
knew the answer.
N u k a riya
Ka iten
(�;tf:t��/ 1 8 6 7- 1 9 3 4 ) , a noted
Buddhist scholar and subsequent p resident of Soto Zena ffi l i ated Komazawa Univers ity, wrote a book i n English,
published i n 1 9 1 3 , e n t i t l e d Religion of the Samurai: A Study
1 61
of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan. According
to K aiten, not only are Zen ideas " i n harmony with those of
the New Buddhists" (x ii i), but " it is Zen that modern Japan,
especially after the R u sso-Japanese War, has acknowledged
as an ideal doctrine for her rising generation" ( x v i ).
I n a l ater section of h is book, Kalten described the
rationale for the renewed mterest m Zen as follows:
After the Restoration of the M e iJ i the popu larity of
Zen began to wane, and for some thi rty years remained
i n i nactivity; but since the Russo-J a pan ese Wa r its
revival has taken place. And now it is looked upon as
an ideal faith, both for a nation full of hope and energy,
and for a person who has to fight his own way in the
strife of l ife. Bushido , or the code of chivalry, should
be observed not only by the soldier in the battle-field,
but by every citizen i n the struggle for existence. If a
p e rson be a person and not a beast, then he must be a
Samurai - brave, generous, upright, faithful, and manly,
fu l l of self-respect and self-confidence, and at the
same time full of the spirit of self-sacrifice ( 50-5 1 ) .
When Ka iten looked a round fo r a conte m p o ra ry
personage who embodied the Samurai spirit, he fou nd i t i n
none other than General N o g i, the Zen trained hero of the
1 62
Russ o-Japanese War.
N o g i ' s spirit of self-sacrifice was so
g reat that upon the death of Emperor M e iJ i i n 1 9 1 2, the
G eneral ( and his wife ) had committed ritual suicide, i . e .
seppuku /WIJi, i n a traditional practice known a s Junshi Afi.J�
, i.e. fol lowing one's lord into death .
I n as much as the practice of Junshi had been b e e n
identified a s an antiquated custom, and therefore forbidden,
by the Tokugawa shogu nate as early as 1 663, N o g i' s suicide
could not escape a certain amount of controversy. As Carol
G l u c k has noted, " N o g i 's act . . . a roused heated debate ove r
its eth ics a n d appropriateness among the i ntel lectuals of
the day" ( 22 1 ) . TYPical of this controversy was the fol lowi ng
news paper editorial :
General N o g i's death marked the completion of Japan's
Bushido of old. And while emotionally we express the
g re atest respect, ratio n a l ly we reg ret we cannot
approve. One can only hope that this act wil l not long
b l i g ht the future of our national morality. We c a n
appreciate the General's i ntention; we must not learn
from his behaviour ( Tokyo Asahi Shinbun).
1 63
If the public debate over Nog i's death was marked by
a certai n degree of ambivalence, K a iten had not slightest
doubt as to its true significance.
He expressed his view as
fo l lows :
We can find an incarnation of Bush ido i n the late General
N o g i, the hero of Port Art h u r, who, after the sacrifice
of his two sons for the country in the Russ o-J a p a n e s e
War, g ave up h is own and h is wife's life for the sake of
the deceased E mperor. He d ied not in vain, as some
m i g ht t h i n k , because h is s i m p l i c ity, u p rig htness,
l oya lty, b ravery, self-contro l , and self-sacrifice, a l l
combined i n h i s l ast act, surely i nspire t h e ris i n g
generation with the spirit of the Samurai to g ive b i rth
to hundreds of N o g i s (50-5 1 ) .
Kaiten was, of course, not the only Buddhist leader to
express thoughts like these.
As early as 1 9 0 5 Shaku Soe n
expressed his own views in this regard du ring the course of
h is second visit to the United States. He wrote :
Fortunately, Japan had just won the war, and that made
people everywhe re sit up a nd take note of her. I n
fact, the whole world was su rprised that Japan had
defeated Russia. It was i mpossible to expla i n Japa n ' s
s t ri ng of m i l itary victories i n terms of m i l i t a ry
equipment and logistics . . . . [It] was due to the samu rai
1 64
spirit, the Spirit of Japan, nurtu red by the cou ntry
over the past two thousand years. (Yokoyama 1 44 ) .
Soen went on to state that this Spirit o f Japan had
come from " a single spiritual teaching" which he identified
as having developed out of an amalgamation of Confuclamsm,
S h i n to i s m a n d Buddh ism.
In a meet i ng with President
Theodore R o o s ev e l t during his sOjourn i n the U .S., Soe n
described the Buddh ist contribution to the Spirit of J apan
as being c e n t e red on the concept of "self-sacrifice " :
To sacrifice the self, seen from the i nside, is c e n t e re d
around the abandoning o f what Buddhism calls the small
self, so as to serve the g reater cause . . . . I believe
that the readi ness for self-sacrifice is fou n d in the
peoples of all other countries, but never is it so clearly
manifest as in the Japanese. This spirit is one of the
factors contributi ng to the J apanese victory In the
R u sso-J apanese War. There are many other factors,
but among the more i ntangible ones is this readi n ess
to give up one's l ife" (Yokoyama 1 45-46) .
A s to what t h i s spi ri t o f self-sacrifice should b e
d i re cted towards, S o e n i s qu ite clear.
On t h e o n e hand,
those imbued with this spirit ought "to work for justice and
1 65
the common good." On the other hand, they should also "serve
the state " and recognize "that it is i ncreasingly i mportant
t h at everyone make a n effort t o serve the Emperor"
(Yokoyama 1 4 5- 1 48 ) .
S h a rf poi nts o u t that Soen's Western lectures o n
Buddhism had two major purposes, the first being " to Justify
Japanese m i l itary agg ression. "
Secondly, Soe n wished to
demonstrate his i nterest i n the then popular i ntell ectu a l
pastime o f " nihonjinron" ( B *A�), i . e . theories concerni ng
the alleged uniqueness of the Japanese ( 1 0 ) .
Even after his return to Japan i n 1 9 06, Soe n conti nued
to develop this theme .
This i n turn led to yet a n other
i nvitation to travel abroad, o n ly t h is time the i nvitation
came from the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway
Company.
'
Thus,
Soe n del ivered a series of l ect u res i n
1 9 1 2 e ntitled "The Spirit of the Yamato Race " to membe rs
of the J apanese colonial administration i n both Korea and
1 66
M anchuria. M u ra k a m i notes that there was nothi ng unusual
about Soe n's trip, for all of Japan's traditional Buddhist sects
had a general policy of " [maintaining] Buddhism's reputation
as 'protector of the country' " (54).
Although Soen's and Ka i ten's views may be considered
rep resentative of the post-Russo-Japanese War era , this
does not mean that all BuddhIst leaders were i n agreement
with the m .
One notable voice of dissent came from Ot a n i
Sonyu (*�:@jm/1 8??- 1 9??)
,
the administrative head of the
Nishi-HonganJ i branch of the Shi n sect. His was not simply a
dissenting voice but, i n his conclusion, a prophetic voice as
well . For this reason , it i s quoted here at length:
There was a time when the phrase "for the sake of the
state" wielded such a power as to suppress all othe r
considerations, making the people su bservient t o the
despotic will of statesmen , and even the spiritual
leaders had meekly to submit to their someti mes
a rrog a n t and i nflexible orders. This was all right if the
state was representative of things that are g ood, Just
and humane; but as history tells us, no state has ever
p roved i n the past to be such a symbol. I n fact, every
1 67
one of the states that prospered and disappeared, o r
that are now prospering, has been anything but symbolic
of justice and love and l iberty. Hence the h istory of
the world has been the record of constant strugg les
and u ntold sufferi n g .
But fortu nately, s i n ce the
termi nation of the recent war, the world seems to be
rea l izing the enormity of the loss and the fool ishness
of the g reed for power. We are now g rowing more
conscious than ever of the imperative necessity of
emphasi z i ng the spiritual side of human l ife and the
fact that our l ives are so closely i nterrelated that
whatever things good or bad happen to one nation are
sure to affect another. The time is come when we
h ave to abandon the narrow conception of the state
which puts one nation's welfare , espec i ally materi a l
welfare, above that of the friendly n e i g h b o rs . . . .
Statesmen have been wont to urge us to sacrifice our
p e rsonal i n terest fo r the state, to a bandon o u r
i ndividual claims a nd even affections for upholding the
state as the highest expression of human l ife. This is
all right if the state is also the perfect and most rational
symbol of all that we, as i ndividuals, can conceive as
good and just and lovable. If the state, on the contrary,
bet rays our thought of Justice and freedom a n d
cou ntermands the dictates o f love and humanity, i t
has n o right to continue its existence. If i t does not
fal l by itself, other states will not suffer its ever
menac i n g existence . To obey b l i n d ly whateve r i s
claimed by the state, good or bad, Just o r unjust, is to
e nsl ave oneself a nd to lose one's moral and spiri tu a l
i n d iv i d u a l i ty . . . . I believe in t h e existence o f the
state, for I think it necessary to the enhancement of
1 68
real human welfare. But I cannot subscribe to the ideas
stoutly u pheld by some people who , taking the state
for an absolute form of human life, believe in its power
of doing anything for its own maintenance, reg ardless
of the consequences either to its own members o r to
the n e i g h boring states. I nasmuch as no one a bsolute
state can exist by itself and in Itself, It requires other
states to be its friendly n e i g h b o rs, for no state can
Ig nore the claims of other states, Just as In the case
of i ndividuals. If It does this and goes on its own way
ig noring its fel low-organi zations, it is sure to meet a
sad fate and lose its own existence before long (Italics
mine) ( Holtom 1 44).
Sonyu wrote the above i n 1 9 2 1 , thus "the recent war"
to which he referred was W . W. I ( 1 9 1 4- 1 9 ) .
I n this war
Japan was allied with G reat Britain, France, and the U nited
States agai nst Germany.
Choosing to confront the latter
nation only where it was weakest, i.e. in its colonial outposts
in China and the Pacific, Japan once again emerged victorious,
at a relatively low cost to itself in both men and materials.
In spite of its victory, however, A n es a k i pointed out
that:
1 69
The collapse of the great empires, the final outcome
of the war and its afterm ath, these cou ld not fai l to
produce profound impressions upon the Japanese. . . .
the seriousness of social and moral problems began to
demand deep reflections ( 3 93-94).
If So nyu 's critical comments may be considered one
expression of the deep reflection taking place within the
ran ks of Buddh ist leaders, they must also be viewed as a
minority viewpoint. Even Sonyu himself wou ld later abandon
his critical stance when, in 1 9 3 7 , he Joi ned the first cabinet
of Pri nce Konoye Fumimaro as the M i n ister for Colonial
Affairs (Rift*G!) , a position giving him direct responsibility
for running Japan's constantly expanding empire. In addition,
he a l so served as the P resident of the N o rt h C h i n a
Deve lopment Corporation which, a s Burton explained, was
one of "the Japanese government-owned development
corporations . . . p rimarily concerned with the exploitation
of the recently conquered areas [in northern China]" (40 7 ) .
1 70
Return ing to the 1 9 20s, A r a i S e k i z e n (*fi#:C�/ 1 8 7 7 1 9 7 7 ) , administrative head o f the Soto Zen sect, made the
fol lowing comments i n 1 9 2 5 :
Buddhism does not absolutely oppose war. . . . Peace is
man's natural ideal. It is the highest ideal of man.
Japan is a lover of peace, so even if she goes Into war,
it is always a war of peace. . . . I n advocating peace
and racial equality, we must not forget the state we
belong to . Real peace cannot be expected if we forget
our state in our love of mankind. . . .
If we forget our
duty to our country, no matter how we advocate the
love of mankind, there wil l be no real peace. . . . ( 3 9 5400).
I n h is discussion of thiS era, D. C. Holtom pointed out
that, Sonyu 's critique notwithstanding,
it was S e k i ze n and
l i k e - m i nded leaders whose positions ca rrie d the day.
I nstitutional Japanese Buddhism had reached t h e point where
it accepted "practically without qualification the principle
that if the nation goes to war, by that very fact the war is
sanctified; it becomes a crusade for peace and g ood will on
1 71
earth. " He then added, " [Japanese Buddhism] . . . p roc l a i m e d
a l l Japanese wars holy" ( 1 48 ) .
Thus, by the end of the 1 9 20s, if not before, i nstitutional
Buddhism had firmly locked itself i nto ideological support
for Japan's ongoing military efforts whe rever and whenever
they might occur.
And occu r they soon wou ld, on a scale
and over a period of tIme that dwarfed anything the Japanese
people h ad ever experienced.
With i n the " G reater East Asian Co-prosperity
Sphere"
I nstitutional
B u d d h i s m ' s s u p p o rt fo r t h e
Russo-
J a pa nese War had not been confi ned to Just i deological
support o r p rovid i ng mil itary chaplains.
At home it had
expressed itself i n everythi ng from the conduct of special
5u tra-recitation ceremonies believed
to ensure victory in
b attl e to soci a l welfa re activities l i ke p rov i d i n g fi n a ncial
and i n-ki nd assistance to soldiers' famil ies, especially the
1 72
families of those who had fallen on the battlefield. Numerous
Buddhist temples had even become detention centers for
Russian prisoners of war.
Paralleling these domestic activities, however, we re
equally ambitious missionary efforts on the Asian mainland,
efforts that did not end with the war's conclusion. If anything,
these m issionary effo rts only incre ased in the post-war
years. The Japanese Government itself had recognized the
political importance of these efforts as e a rly as the
conclusion of the Si no-Japanese War when
Prime M i mster
I to H i robumi demanded that China allow the establishment
of J apanese Buddhist missions in that country.
It will be recal led that the Higashi HonganJ i branch of
the Shin sect had established a temple in Shanghai as e arly
as 1 8 76 and a fu rther mission in Korea in 1 877. With Japan's
expansion onto the Asian continent firmly establishe d as a
result of its victories i n both the Sino-Japanese and Russo1 73
Japanese Wars, these pioneering efforts of the Sh i n sect
multiplied many times over. Thus, by 1 9 1 8 the Nishi HonganJi
b ranch of the Shi n sect had a tota l of thirty-four missions
i n Korea while the Higashi HonganJ i branch had fifty-eig ht.
By 1 9 4 1 these same two branches wou ld have a total of
fifty-three and eig hty missions in Manchuria respectively.
Nor, of course, were these conti nenta l missio n a ry
effo rts l i mited to the Shin sect alone.
The Sata Zen sect,
for example, established its first mission in Korea in 1 904,
a number which grew to more than twenty-one by 1 9 1 2 and
more than one hu ndred by war's end. In M a nchuria, i ts
evangelization efforts began i n 1 9 07 and reached
of thirty-seven by 1 9 40.
a total
The year 1 90 7 also m arked the
founding of the first Nichiren sect m ission i n M anchuria.
This number grew to more than twenty by war's end.
The
J odo sect establ ished its first temple i n China in 1 9 0 5 ,
while the esoteric Shingon sect had over three hundred
1 74
p riests stationed i n various areas of Manchu ria and C h i n a
proper duri ng the war years.
In
1 934
S h i m i zu
Ryuz an
( at*mtlll / 1 8 ? ? - 1 9 ? ? ) , a
p rofe ssor of the N ic h i ren U niversity of Tokyo , explained
the u nderlying purpose of these missions as follows:
The u nderlying p ri nciple of the Spi rit of Japan is the
e n l ig htenment of the world with truth . Just as o u r
b roth e r Manchuri a ns have co m e to fol l ow u s w i t h
affection, s o also must w e lead all the nations o f t h e
world I nto rig hteousness and establish heaven o n earth,
w h e re brothe rly l ove and world-wide p e a ce s h a l l
p revail and where all men shall b e Buddhist saints. This
is the true ideal of the Spirit of Japan ( 4 6 ) .
I n contrast to t h i s ideal istic view a t the time, Yoshida
h as poi nted out that for the most part these m issionary
e ffo rts
were
sim ply
one
p a rt
of
Japan's
co lon ial
administra tion, the u ltimate goal of which was "to propagate
the benevolent influence of the Emperor" ( 2 3 1 ) .
One way in which this goal was put i nto p ractice i n the
Shin sect's missions was the placement of tenpai (�n./ l i t .
1 75
Emperor signs) on the altars of its conti nental missions.
These large tablets, located beside the ce ntral fig u re of
worship, Buddha Amita
,
were desig ned to i nstill reverence,
loyalty, and obedience to the Japanese Emperor among the
colonized peoples. As Hishiki M asaharu has noted, the tablets
were "a method of i nculcating Emperor worship in Buddhist
clothing" ( 5 5 ) .
Hlshiki fu rther pointed out that the typical pattern for
i nstitutional Buddhism's missionary efforts on the continent
was for it to advance together with the Japanese m i litary
as it i nvaded and occupied i ncreasingly more areas. H e
identified this as " evangel ization fol l owing the m i l ita ry "
( 50).
I n h i s m i n d , t h i s style o f evangelization is to b e
d i st i n g u i shed fro m i ts C h ristian counterp a rt i n w h i c h
Christian m issionaries would first e nter a potential colonial
territory and subvert its culture i n preparation for both
1 76
the merchants and m i l itary who followed sometime later
(49-5 0).
In this regard it must be pointed out that the missionary
efforts of the Shin sect were un ique I n that they d i d not
fol low the model mentioned above. That is say, they actually
preceded the Japanese military's actions. Once again, it is
Hishiki who pointed out that this emerged as a result of the
vision of M e iJ i period sect leaders l ike Ogurusu Kocho and
Okumura Enshin who advocated using Buddhism as the basis
for forming an anti-Western alliance among Japan, Chi na,
and I ndia. I n so doing, "they anticipated the ideology of the
'Great East Asi a Co-prosperity Sphere' which woul d provide
the rationalization for Japanese agg ression i n Asia" ( 5 3 ) .
While Oguruso and Okumura may have been pioneers i n
connecting Buddhism t o Japan's I mperial plans, they were
soon Jomed, as noted above , by the leaders of a l l of
i nstitutional Buddhism. Thus, these Buddhism missions were
1 77
not focused so much on p ropagating t h e i r p a rti c u l a r
sectari a n viewpoi nts as they we re o n "soci a l welfa re "
activities.
These activities i ncluded such things as run m ng
Japanese language schools, prepari ng parcels of treats for
soldiers i n the fIeld, and p roviding technical tra i n i ng for
wou ld-be employees of Japanese companies.
In its broadest se nse these social welfa re activities
may be viewed as one part of what was then widely known
as "education to create Imperial subjects" (kominka kyoiku
/.m�itJXff) . More closely rel ated to Japan's military actio ns,
however, is the fact that these missions were a lso used,
when necessary, to p rovide temporary shelter for Japanese
troops.
Not only that, some of them were also connected
with something known as " pacification activities" (senbu
kosaku/wHlftIfF) .
Simply put, these were spyi ng activities
i n w h ic h m ission p ri ests wou l d i d e nt ify t h o se l o c a l s
suspected o f being opposed t o Japanese domination t o the
1 78
m i l itary authorities.
When Buddhist priests were actu a l ly
conscripted i nto the military, as they were, it was common
for t h e m to be assig ned to u n its i nvolved in t hese
"pacification" efforts.
Hishiki pointed out that there were
even priests whose s pying activities were so secret that
all documents identifying hem as either priests o r soldiers
were destroyed ( 5 6 ) .
D a i to Satoshi has noted that the fundamental character
of the Buddhist missions on the co ntinent was that both
t h ey,
and
the
p r i ests
who
s t a ffed
representatives of the Great Empire of Japan .
them,
w e re
I n so doing,
they necessarily forfeited the u niversal teach ings of their
rel igion ( 6 1 ) .
I n light of this, it is hardly surprising to learn
that with the end of war in 1 945 every single one of these
continental m issions, regard less of sect affi l i ation , wou l d
collapse, never to be revived again.
1 79
E n d note
'
It is noteworthy that the Nishi HonganJ i branch of the Shin
sect, together with members of the aristocratic Otan i family
who h ave t raditional ly headed that branch, we re major
stockholders i n the South Manchuri a Railway Company.
1 80
CHAPTER 7 :
BUDDHIST RESISTANCE TO JAPANESE
M I L I TA R I S M
Organized Resistance
-
Shinko B u kkyo Seinen Dom e i
By the 1 9 20s, Japanese institutional Buddhism was, as
a
whole, firmly locked into support of Japan's m i litary and
colonial policies. There were, however, a small nu mber of
Buddhists who refused to accept the supportive stance of
their sectarian leaders. One group formed by such Buddhists
was the "Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism " ( Shinko
Bukkyo Seinen Dom e;/ �'lHA����M) .
Kitagawa descri bed
t h i s g ro u p as the " notable exception " to i nstitu t i o n a l
Buddhism's su bservience t o t h e state, especially as t h e
League members were "deeply involved i n socia l actio n "
( 233). I n ag a k i Masami (:mli:§A� / 1 9 26-) noted that the League
was " the o n ly sign that there were sti l l conscientious
r e l i g i o n i s t s within Buddhist circles" ( Henkaku 68).
1 81
Another disti nguishing feature of this organization was
that, as its name impl ies, the membershi p was relatively
you ng , mostly in their 20s and 30s.
Furthermore , the
leadership was composed predomi nant ly of l aymen rather
than clencs.
This l atter feature is important in that it
meant this o rganization was not as readily c o n t ro l l a b l e by
sectari a n h ie ra rc h ies as i t otherwise wou l d h av e been .
Needless t o say, however, there was n o p rotection from
police contro l .
T h e League was fou nded o n t h e afternoon of April 5 ,
1 9 3 1 with more than thirty persons i n attendance, including
fou r uniformed policemen.
The first order of business was
the selection of officers, with the 42 year old N i c h i re n sect
lay activist, Seno Giro (lI*P6fttm / 1 8 8 9 - 1 9 6 1 ) , bei ng elected
as chairman. Next came the reading of the declaration giving
the reasons for the League's creation. In as much as it is
1 82
so at variance with the thinking of i nstitutional Buddhist
leaders, It is quoted here In its entirety:
This is an age of suffering. Our compatriots are seeking
affection, yet have had no choice but to struggle. The
masses of people seek bread, but are fed repression.
To escape or to fight, today the enti re world is moving
about in confusion and financial diffi culty.
I n such an age, what should Buddhists be aware of, what
contribution should they be makmg to society? The
majority of Buddhists, i ntoxicated with an easy peace
of mind, don 't even think about these questions. Through
B u d d h i s m t h ese Buddh i sts possess t h e h i g h est
principles available for the gu idance of human bei ngs,
yet what contact do they have with the l ives of the
masses? Fu rthermore , these Buddhists cl a i m that
" re l ig io n tra nscends class d i ffe re nces and val ues
harmony." H owever, i n reality their role is that of an
opiate, and they are therefore cursed by the masses
and incite the moral indignation of young Buddhists.
This p resent s ituation is someth i n g that g en u i ne
believers cannot bear. However, when we look to
alre ady existing secta ri an organizations for reform,
we are forced to recog n i ze just how serious their
corrupt traditions and degeneration are.
Faced with this situation, we have no choice but to
resolutely propose a movement to revitalize Buddhism.
A revital i zed B u d d h i s m mu st be based on self­
reflection. I t must deny currently exist i ng Buddhism
1 83
which has already lost its capacity for confro ntation
while, at the same time, ca l l i ng on all Buddh ists to
return to the Buddha. A revitalized Buddh is m must
recog n i ze that the suffering in p resent-day society
comes ch iefly from the capitalist economic system
and m ust be wi l l i ng to coope rate i n a fu ndamental
reform of this system, working to p reserve the well­
being of the masses. We must revolutionize bourgeois
Buddhism and change it to a Buddhism for the masses.
A revital ized Buddh ism must i ntensify ItS speculation
and research in an attempt to clanfy Buddhist culture
for the new age and bring about world peace.
I f i t does thiS, a revital i ze d Budd hism w i l l h ave
a b s o l utely no re ason to fe a r the a n t i - re l i g i o u s
movement which i s popu lar at the moment. The reason
for this is that we believe religion will never disappear
so long as human beings seek affection and stand up
for what they bel ieve in, given their finite nature which
l ongs for the i nfinite . The rel igion we seek is not one
c e n t e re d on a c reator God . Aren't there too many
contradictions between believing in an aI/-powerful God
and the situation we find ourselves i n today?
We believe i n a Buddhism that necessarily conforms
to the truth, and we revere the Buddha who bore witness
to l ove, equal ity and freedom through his p ractice.
Our reverence is based on the inherent requirement of
l ife to seek perfection, somethi ng which l ies at the
deepest part of human existence.
We a re convi nced that it is as a result of this
requ i rement that human b e i n g s h ave been able to
1 84
constantly create unique cultural forms. We are further
convinced th at somet h i ng l i ke the a nt i - re l i g io u s
movement is Itself either an expression o f a lack o f
awareness of the nature of human l ife o r a process for
getting rid of numerous superstitions which have hidden
t h e m s e lves in [ B u d d h is m ' s ] esoteric s a n ctuaries,
thereby providing good material for the revival of true
B uddhism.
Young Buddhists, now is the time for us to arise. Without
hesitat i o n we must d iscard t rad ition a n d , Joi n i ng
together as one, return to the Buddha. And then, while
personally expenenclng the Buddhist spirit of love and
e q u a l i ty, sol e m n ly move fo rwa rd to re construct
capitalism. Is this not the way we should endeavour to
construct our ideal Buddhist society? ( I n a g a k i, Butsuda
3-6)
The precedi ng declaration was adopted unanimously
d es p i te the obvIous d iscomfort of the p o l i c e m e n i n
attendance.
However, when it came time to accept the
Lea g u e ' s " Statement of Principles, " there was spi rited
debate over their adoption .
The three proposed principles
were as fol lows:
We revere Buddha Shakyamuni whose character is
u nexce l l e d among human beings. We seek to make
1 85
possible the construction of a Buddha land according
to the teachings of faith in, and love for, our fel low
human berngs.
We recog ntze that a l l eXisti ng sects a re corpses
which desecrate the spirit of Buddhism. We look
forward to the elimination of this type of Buddhism
and the promotion of a Buddhism consistent with
the new age.
We recognize that the organization of our cu rrent
capital ist eco nomy is contrary to the spiri t of
Buddh ism and injurious to the wel l-be i ng of the
masses. Reform ing this, we look forward to the
coming of a new society ( I nagaki, Butsuda 6-7) .
The debate centered o n the final words o f the third
principle.
Some members of the audience i nsisted that the
word "socialist" be inserted, i .e.
fl •
•
•
a new soc i a l i s t society."
After much debate, l iterally accompan ied by "s a b e rrattling" from the uniformed police present, this proposal
was abandoned, and the principles were adopted as proposed.
To understand why the League had come into existence
at this time, it is important to remember that both Japan
and the West were then in the midst of the Great Depression
1 86
which had begun in 1 9 2 9 . As Borton noted, " For a cou ntry
l ike Japan, which was so dependent on foreign trade,
Great Depression] spelled disaster" ( 3 5 9 ) .
[the
At home, Japan
suffered fro m both high unempl oyment and i ncreasingly
severe l a b o r disputes.
Farmers found themselves caught
between the requirement to pay taxes as before and g reatly
red uced I ncome . The end result of this was that " rura l debt
rose rapidly, taxes were in arrears, more fa r m e rs sold their
daughters i nto prostitution, and tenants sought redress from
h i g h re nts by resorting to o rganized tenancy d isputes"
(Borton 3 59).
Things were no better In Japan's overseas col o m es,
for there were student-led demonstrations agai nst Japanese
rule in Korea in 1 9 2 9 and an aboriginal u prising in Taiwan i n
1 930.
While all acts o f resistance, both overseas a n d at
home, were b rutally suppressed by the Japanese m i litary
and police, they led to an ever increasing role for both
1 87
right-wing political figures, in and out of government, and
their military al lies. In addition, there were the fam ily-owned
fi nancial combines known as zaibatsu (MIIJJ ) who " to a n
i ncreasing extent, were able t o impose their wishes on the
government" (Borton 3 58).
G iven this background, it is l ittle wonder that I n a g a k i
described the League as being composed of "the first clearly
relig ious people to have entered the path of resistance [to
the state] " (Butsuda 2 1 ) .
Resistance t o the Japanese state
of the 1 9 3 0s, however, was a path fraught with danger. No
one understood this better than the League's new chairman,
Seno G i ro.
On January 1 3 , 1 9 3 1 , more than two months
before the formal fou nding of the League, G i rO' had made
the fol lowing entry in his diary:
This morning as I sat qu ietly [ i n meditatio n ] , I felt
very cold. My finger tips turned to ice, almost to the
point of losing all sensation in them. However, when I
thought that in the course of fighting for justice this
1 88
was Just preparation for being taken off to Jail, I was
fi l led with JOY (Nikki 6).
It would be five more years, not u ntil the early part of
1 9 3 6 , befo re Giro's premonition became a reality.
In the
meantime the League wou ld become actively engaged in
such thi ngs as publ ish i n g a newspaper and pamph l ets
promoting its Views, holdmg publ ic meetings to i ncrease
its membership, and Joining together with a l l ies in other,
mostly political , organizations which advocated the reform
if not the replacement of capitalism.
Between 1 9 3 1 and 1 9 34 the League published a total
of six pamphlets detail ing its positions on various issues.
Of these six, two were written by G i ro h imself and the
others by leadi ng League members.
N ot surp risingly, G i ro
wrote the fi rst pamphlet published which was entitled simply:
"A Lecture on the Revitalization of Buddhism " ( Shinko b ukkyo
no teisho!lfjjIHAftO)f!nfil) .
I n this pamphlet he p resented a
1 89
more detai led rationale for the fou nding of the League
together with the doctrinal basis of its program.
G i ro 's second pamphlet, published in 1 9 3 3 , was entitled:
n On the Road to Soci al Reform and the Revital i zation of
Buddhism " (Shakai henkaku tOjO no shinko bukkyo/Uf!ifi¥�
J:.O) lfiR{A�) .
As its name Implies, Giro 's focus was on the
need for social reform based on a Buddhist understanding.
For example, he put forth the proposition that i nternational
cooperation , rather than n arrow nation a l i sm , was t he
Buddhist approach to world peace. When nations seek only
to promote themselves, he wrote, they i n ev i t a b l y, sooner
or l ater, resort to m i l itary force to achieve their selfce ntere d goals. Such efforts, Giro mai ntained, were clearly
at odds with the Buddhist doctrine of "selflessness" ( muga/
As Uchiya m a Gudo had done before him, Giro mai ntained
that the ideal Buddhi st society, i .e . the samgha, was a
1 90
communal organization. As such it was i n direct contradiction
to the personal acquisitiveness fostered by a capital ist
economic system.
In particu lar, Giro saw Buddhist temples
as the natu ral agents for the promotion of such a communal
society In Japan.
Together with the capital ist syste m , it was t h e n
exist i n g Japanese Buddhism a n d its leaders who came I n
for the harshest criticism. Among other things, Giro accused
sectari a n leaders of having turned the central o bject of
worship in each of their sects (e.g. Buddha A mida in the Shin
sect) i nto absolute deities who had the power to "save "
their believers .
According to G i ro e arly Buddhism was
clearly atheistic in orientation, with no place f o r salvation
figu res to act as religious opiates.
I n addition, G i ro accused tem pl e priests of b e i n g
" se rm o n th ieves " ( s ekkyo dorobo /mtflc-3 f� ? ) .
deserved this title, in his opinion,
1 91
They
because they took the
position that social i l ls and i nequ ities could all be solved if
only people would become more spiritually i nclined. At the
same time, they insured that they themselves were wel l
p rovided for through their s o l i c i t a t i o n o f large donations.
In so doing they effectively became p awns of the ru l i ng
classes who used their services to help support the status
quo.
For G i ro there was little if no hope that cu rre ntly
eXisting Buddhism would be able to reform itself from Within.
He made this clear i n the fi nal sentences of h is pamphlet
when he wrote:
As the saying goes, one shou ld not serve new wine
from old wi neskins. Members of the Youth League for
Revitalizing Buddhism should advance resolutely. You
should carry the Buddha on your backs and go out i nto
the streets' Go out into the farm and fishing villages!
(l n a g a k i, Butsuda 1 39).
Of all the slogans put forth by League it was this last
one, i.e. "carry the Buddha on your backs and go out i nto the
1 92
streets," that was destined to become the best known.
It
clearly combines the League's Buddhist doctnnal foundation
with a call to social action.
It should come as no surprise that the temple p riests
described as "sermon robbers" by Giro were none too happy
with the League's activities .
I nitially, i nstitutional Buddhist
leaders tned to ignore the League altogether, but, as it
supporters became more numerous, this became impossible.
Things came to a head in M ay 1 9 3 3 at the third national
conference of the All Japan Federation of Buddhist Youth
Although this Federation was formed in the same year
as the League, it was a much larger organization, bei ng
composed of more than fou r hundred and fifty separate
Buddhist g roups. One of these groups was the League itself.
Thus, in theory at least, it had the same rights as any of the
other m e m be r org a nizations to put proposals u p for
1 93
adoption.
Exercising this right, Le ague represe ntatives,
i nc l u d i ng G i ro , proposed , among other t h i ngs, that the
Federation should go on record as being opposed to " anti­
foreign, m i l itarist and national ist ideologies , " i ncluding the
movements which promoted the same (Butsuda 1 47).
The response of the conference host, Ota n i U n i ve rsity
( affiliated with the H igashi HonganJ i branch of the Shin sect),
to this and similar League p roposals was to force the
confe rence to fi nd a new meeting site off-ca mpus.
This,
however, did nothing to deter the League representatives
who next put forward a motion condemning H itler and the
Nazi Party for their "all-out violent oppression of the Jewish
p eo p l e ,
t h e i r " bu r n i n g of c u ltural
p ro p e rt ie s , "
" repression o f liberals and peace activists " etc.
their
These
violent acts were identified as both " inhumane" and " a n t i ­
Buddhist " (Shinko Bukkyo).
1 94
All of these League proposals got nowhe re, for, as
I n a g a k i has pointed out, the Federation was being run behind
the scenes by both branches of the Shin sect ( Butsuda 1 49).
On the contrary, the Federation ended up passing a resolution
of gratitude to the kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand)
for its political support of Japan' s newly created puppet
government i n Manchuria, i.e. Manchukuo (��I/�J) . Not content
with this, Federation officials then went on to demand the
League's expulsion from the Federation.
Once again they
were successful, and the League was expelled In the latter
part of June 1 9 3 3 .
Rep ressive activities d i rected towards t h e League
we re not l i m ited to i nstitutional Buddhist leaders alone.
The police, as representatives of the state, were ever ready
to do their part. Thus, the League's organ, Shinko Bukkyo
(*fi'lHA�), was first censored as early as the November 1 9 3 1
issue.
Over the next five years the police would o n more
1 95
than ten occasions either forbid the sale of offending League
publ ications
altogether, or require certa i n a rticles to be
deleted prior to distribution.
The state's rep ression, moreover, did not stop with
censors h i p alone. League-sponsored public lectures were
frequently terminated by police in the audience starting as
early as M ay 1 9 3 3 .
Giro h i mself was fi rst a rrested i n
September 1 9 34 when he attempted to speak at a rally i n
support o f Tokyo's stri king street car conductors . Although
he was only held overnight, he was beaten by the guard the
next morning before his release.
In February 1 9 3 6 Giro was arrested once agai n , this
time together with another League member, M atsu u ra F u m i o
( *,�alijc!t) . As I n a g a k i has noted, the police were convinced
that "the League for the Revitalization of Buddhism was
either con nected to the Communist Party or a Communist
o rgani zation using Buddhism as a cover" (Butsuda 1 7 6 ) .
1 96
Unable to force admissions of Communist affil i ation from
either man, the police finally released the two League leaders
after having held them without charges for nearly one month.
From a police perspective, what was so disturbing about
the League was that its membership took their organization's
motto to hea rt as it did.
That is to say, the members did
i ndeed carry the Buddha out into the street.
For example,
as early as August 1 9 3 2 League members began collecting
signatures on the street for a petition drawn u p by the
Japan
F armers U n i on
( B *.�m�) .
The Lea g u e was
col l ectively able to g ather more than two thousand
signatures on this petition which demanded, a mong other
thi ngs, that the government increase pay in order to relieve
the disparity in income between the upper and lower classes.
In addition to its work on behalf of farmers, the League
also took a strong stance against various govern ment and
judicial measures which helped
1 97
perpetuate discri m ination
agai nst Japan's traditional outcast commun ity, members of
which were common ly referred to as burakumin
OJfJm�).
Sti l l further, League members supported the activities of
the "Anti-Nazi Fascism League" (Han- Nachisu Fassho Funsai
Dom ei/ &77A ' 7 7 � � 3 m1it#=�M) and took part i n many antiwar labour strikes.
Giro himself also became an ed itor of
Rodo Zasshi ( Labour M agazine/:;ijiIJJ� i.t).
For GirO' the end result of his activism came on December
7, 1 9 3 6 when he was arrested yet again. This time, however,
he was charg ed with treason for having al legedly plotted
the destruction of both the emperor system and capital ism .
As Stephen Large has noted, " [Giro] was faced with precisely
the test of moral character for which he had p repared himself
earlier as a devotee of N i ch i ren" (90).
At fi rst Giro denied the police accusations, i nsisting
that his goals and those of the League had been to reform
capital ism, work for world peace, and oppose fascism and
1 98
m i l itarism.
After enduri ng more t h a n five months of
relentless police questioning , however, he finally broke down
and confessed that all of the charges agai nst him and the
League were true. Not only that, he promised that henceforth
he would u nconditionally support both the Emperor and the
nation.
G i ro ts confession was used by the police as the pretext
for the wholesale arrest of more than two hundred members
of the League starting i n October 1 9 3 7 . Of those arrested,
twenty-nine were eventually prosecuted. Despite his pledge
to s u pport the Emperor and nati o n , G i ro h i mself was
sentenced to five years in prison on August 2 9 , 1 9 3 9 .
In
1 9 4 2 , however, he was given a n early release from prison
due to ill health.
By that time, of course, all traces of the
League had been eradicated. So, too, had all traces of any
1 99
organ ized Buddhist resistance , however smal l , to J apan's
war efforts.
I ndividual
Res ista nce
Attempting to document individual Buddhist resistance
to Japan's wa rtime pol icies, is a nearly i mpossible task,
especially in the face of the need for docu mentation. Typical
of the d i ffi c u l t i e s encountered in t h is area is an e pisode
related by l e n ag a Saburo. He wrote:
Some i ndividuals refused mil itary service because of
pacifist convictions. I s h i g a Osamu was a member of
War Resisters I nternational, a Quaker organization. In
1 9 3 9 he refused to appear at the one-day i ns pection
c a l l u p of rese rvists and tu rned h i mself i nt o the
Kempeitai [military police ] . While being held by the
m i l itary police, I s h i g a heard of another man, a member
of the Buddhist Shins hu sect, who refused to take human
life ( 2 1 4- 1 5 ) .
Who was this Shin sect bel iever? What was his fate at
the hands of the military police?
200
Were there others l i ke
him?
How did this person come to hold his views? These
and other questions remain unanswered.
A somewhat better documented episode is taken from
a yearly police report entitled Shakai undO no Jokyo (The
State of Social Movements/ �±�)!!i1JO)�;,!j�) .
The report for
1 9 3 9 refers to a Buddhist J odo sect ch ief p riest by the
name of Ono Onyu. He is recorded as having had the temerity
to put up the fol lowing notice on his temple bulletin board :
"There never was a good wa r or a bad peace.
A reckless
wa r destroys in one year what man took many years to
create .
[Benj a m i n ] F ra n k l i n. " ( Ienaga 2 1 5 ) .
Was Onyu
persecuted because of this action? Did he do anything beyond
this? Once again, all of these questions remain unanswered.
With regard to the Zen sect, there is one report of
anti-war statements made by a So to Zen master, Kondo
G e n ko (ll!imiJffl3'C/ 1 879-? ) , abbot of the monastery of S e i u nJ i
(���). One of the trainees at the monastery, Koya ma K i s ho
20 1
( /J\llIft�) recal ls an evening talk g iven by G e n ko i n the fa ll
of 1 9 3 7, not long after the outbreak of full-scale war between
Japan and China. G e n ko said:
It is troubling that hosti lities have b roken out between
Japan and China. War is an activity in which people kill
each other. Whether it be fnend or foe, the killing of
people is monstrous. There is nothing more si nfu l in
this world than the killing of people. The re a re big
fools who say things l ike : "We have to enlarge J apan's
territory, turn ing it into a great e mpire, and i ncreasing
the amount of red [for Japan] on the maps of the world."
It appears that people who feel this way are g radually
i ncreasing i n number. As for me, I i nte nsely dislike
villainous, i nhumane things like this war. It must be
stopped im mediately. (Jion 74).
It is thought that G e n ko made statements l ike this on
more than one occasion. This resulted in a visit and warning
from the pol ice .
What happened thereafter is u nclear, but
in 1 94 1 G e n ko unexpectedly gave up his abbots h i p, retu rned
to his home in A k i t a prefectu re and disappeared, never to
be seen or heard from again.
Did he give up his a b botsh i p
vo l u ntarily o r under outs i d e pre ssu re? Was fou l p l ay
202
i nvolved i n his disappearance? These questions, too, remain
u na nswered.
Fmally, there IS one wel l-documented case of i ndividual
war resistance. The name of the priest was Ta kenaka Shogan
(111*.J�:n:;/ 1 8 6 6- 1 9 4 5 ) .
He was affi l iated with the H i g as h i
HonganJ i branch of the Shin sect and was the abbot of M yos e nJ i
(a�*�) temple in G i fu prefecture .
Like G e n ko above, the
outbreak of war in China i n July 1 9 3 7 was the catalyst for
Shogan's remarks, re m a rk s which were first directed toward
parishioners going off to fight in that war.
Concretely, Shogan said the following on Septe mber
1 5, 1 937:
War is both sinfu l and, at the same time, the enemy of
humanity; it should be stopped . In both northern China
and Shanghai, [Japan] should stop with what It has
already occupied . War is never a benefit to a nation,
rather it is a terrible loss. Look at the budget for this
war, it's enormous, amounting to some two bil lion and
forty million yen. This, combined with the large numbers
of d raftees headed for the front, is a serious b low to
i ndustry at home. In as much as this money wi ll be
203
used to pointlessly kill and maim both men and an imals,
it may be called a budget for murder. From this point
of view as well, it wou ld be wise for the state to stop
this war (Da ito 1 39).
It may a rg u ed that there was noth i n g partic u l a rly
Buddh ist in Shogan's re marks.
A fiscal conservative/
h u m a n ist might have said the same thing. Yet, despite
protests from his parish ioners, Shogan's a nti-war rem arks
did not stop. The fol l owing month, on October 1 0th, he
addressed a group of six of his fellow p riests at a nearby
temple. He said:
I don't know what others may think about the recent
trouble [in Chi n a ] , but it looks to me l ike agg ression.
From a M a h ayanistic point of view, It IS improper to
n e e d l e s s l y deprive either oneself or others of their
l ives, i ncurring enormous costs and loss of life i n the
process. War is the greatest sin there is. Just how
much advantage is there in taking such places as T i e nJ i n
o r Baodi ng? It would be better to stop the war i n such
places ( Da ito 1 39).
The connection to Buddhism is somewhat cleare r i n
the above quote .
This would turn out t o be a n i mportant
204
factor when, like others before him, Shogan was b rought to
trial i n December 1 9 3 7 , charged under the section of the
law which forbade "fabrications and wild ru m o rs" (�Q;m�).
Although he was found gui lty, because h is statements were
based o n re lig ious, rather than politica l , g rou nds, and
because he was already seventy-one years of age, Shogan
escaped imprisonment. He was, however, kept under special
police surveillance until the end of the war i n 1 9 4 5 , which
was also the year he died.
Although a l l of the preceding incidents of i ndividual
war re s i stance had no appreciable impact on the prosecution
of the war, the potential for such impact was not lost of the
government.
As early as 1 9 3 7 the headquarters of the
"Special High Pol ice " (:fijgIJ��If.), whose Job it was to ferret
out disloyal elements, had given the fol lowing instructions
to its personnel :
205
T h e e rro n e o u s word s of B u d d h ist p ri ests a n d
missionaries can have a not inconsiderable impact o n
the m asses. I n lig ht of this, you must pay special
attention to watching out for, and controlling, such
statements (Da i to 1 42).
O ne can only wonder what the effect wou ld have been
on J a pa nese society, i nclud i ng the g overn ment, if eve n
hundreds, let alone thousands, of Buddhist priests had spoken
out as did the handful of priests noted above. They did not,
of cou rse, but as Daito Sato s h i poi nted out, all of those
Buddhists who opposed Japan's war policies, " demonstrated
that resistance was possible" ( 1 5 5 ) . Each and every Japanese
Buddhist did have a choice to make.
206
CHAPTER EIGHT:
THE EMERG ENCE OF " I M PERIAL WAYB U D D H I SM
I n t ro d u c t i o n
A s has been p revi ously shown, the perso n a l a n d
i nstitutional choices of J apanese Buddhism's leaders toward
their country's expansionist policies had been made long
before the 1 930's, reaching at least as far back as the R u s soJ ap a n e s e War if not before. What happened next, then, may
i n some way be considered the logical extension, if not the
logical concl usion. of these previous decisions.
That is to
say, the emergence of " I mperial Way-Budd h ism" (�H�HA�) i n
the 1 930's was not really a new phenomenon a s much it was
the syste m i za t i o n or codifi c atio n of p rev i o u s l y h e l d
positi o n s .
S tated i n Buddhist terms, I m perial W ay-Bu d d h i s m
rep resented t h e total a n d u nequivocal subjugation o f the
Buddha Dharma to the Raja Dharma.
207
I n political terms, it
re p rese nted
the
tot a l
and
absolute
s u bj u g a t i o n
i nstitutional Buddh ism to the state a n d its policies.
of
Total
submission to the state, however, did not mean that the
vanous sects gave u p their I ndividual sect a ri a n creeds or
identitIes, only that vis-a-vis the state, they agreed on a
common,
s u p p o rtive,
and
s u b s e rv I e nt
p os i t i o n
for
t h e mselves.
B u d d h i s m and the Emperor/State
In Japan of the 1 930's the state was represented by, if
not total ly identified with, the person of the Emperor.
In
theory, the government did nothing which did not enjoy his
support and consent. Whether or not this was actually true
in fact has long been a subject of scholarly d e bate .
I nteresting as this debate is, it is not relevant here.
That
is to say, what is of concern is how i nstitutional Buddh ism's
leaders u nderstood the emperor system from a doctrinal
208
standpoint, not the question of the Emperor's actual political
powe r.
One of the clearest expressions of this u nderstanding
IS
contained i n a book entitled, appropriately enough, Gokoku
Bukkyo (ill�HA�/ Nation-Protecting Buddhism). This book,
p u b l ished by the Okura seishin kenkyujo (*���if�PJi)
in
J a nu a ry 1 9 3 8 , consists o f a number o f essays written by
i nstitutional Buddhist leaders and scholars .
one of the contributors,
For example,
S ae k i Join (�iB�mt./ 1 867- 1 9 5 2) ,
was a Hosso (��� ) sect priest and chief abbot of Hor yuJ i O�
IJI�) , one of Japan 's oldest and most famous temples.
HIs
essay was entitled, "Japanese Buddhism and the Concept of
the Structure of the State" (Nihon Bukkyo to kokutai kannenl
J oi n begins his essay with a laudatory description of
the m any and varied contributions that Japan's emperors
had made over the centu ries to the development of the
209
n ation and society.
I n particu lar, Prince Regent Shot o k u
( 5 7 3-62 1 ) , a major figu re i n the establishment o f B u d d h i s m
i n Japan, came in for special praise. The Prince "should be
considered the model for creating a new culture in today's
Showa period [ 1 9 2 6- 1 9 8 9 ] , for without his ideals neither
the betterment of society nor its p u rificat ion can be
accompl ished" ( 1 3 5-44) .
Building on the idea of the Prince as a model for the
J a p a nese society of his day, Joi n went on to quote from the
Seventeen Article Constitution that had been traditiona l ly
ascribed to Shotoku.
Article Three stated, "If you receive
an I mperial edict you must revere it, for the Ruler is H eaven
and the people are the earth. " From this Join concluded:
The Emperor, being holy and divi ne, is i nviolable. . . .
The Emperor's edicts, b e i ng h o ly a n d d ivine, a re
i nviolable . . . and they must always be revered ( 1 5 8 ) .
21 0
While there seems to be l ittle connection to Buddh ism
i n the above, Join went on to show that i n his mind, at least,
there was a direct connection. He wrote:
As expressed i n the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha i n h i s
compass ion regards [beings in] the three worlds [of
desire, form and spirit] as members of his family. That
IS to say, he doesn't think of his family as composed
of Just his blood relatives, or only the few members
of h i s i m medi ate fa mily, or simply those I n h is local
a rea.
No, his family i ncludes everyone i n the whole world, in
the entire u niverse. For him, everyone i n t he world is
a member of h is family. I n fact, he does not l imit h is
family members to human beings alone, even animals
and all living thi ngs are i ncluded . . . . There is nothing
that t h e Tathagata in his g reat compassion does not
wish to save. . . . There is no one who he does not
consider as his child. . . . When this faith i n the g reat
compassion and mercy of the Tathagata is applied to
the political world, there is not a s i ngle membe r of
the Japanese nation who is not a child of the Emperor . .
. . This expresses in the political real m the ideal of a
system c e n te re d on the Emperor ( 1 5 9-60 ) .
J oi n 's identification o f Buddhism with the Emperor was
by no means l imited to h i m alone.
A second essay was
entitled: "The Ten d a i [ �it] Sect of Japan and Pacifying and
21 1
Preserving the State" (Nihon Tendai to chingo kokkal 8 *�
� C: .iiOO � ) . It was written by Fu kuda G yoe i ( rHEI��/ 1 8 8 91 9 7 1 ) , a Te ndai p riest and fo rmer p resident of Ta i s ho
U n ive rs i ty
u n iversities.
(:*:lE*�) ,
one
of J a p a n ' s o l de st B u dd h ist
I n a unique configuration, this university was
affiliated with three separate sects, i.e.
the J od o, Shingon,
and Ten d a l sects.
G yo e i began his essay by noting that it was in Japan
where "pure Mahayana [Bu ddhism ] " was to found ( 1 8 5 ) . This
was so, according to him, because Saicho, the eighth century
fou nder of the Te ndai sect in Japan, took it as an article of
faith that "all Japanese had the disposition of Bodhisattvas
" ( 1 88).
As Bodhisattvas they were both treasures and
benefactors of the nation.
G yoe i was quick to point out that it had never been a
case of si mply transpl anti ng I n d i a n and C h i nese Buddhism
to Japan as it existed in these countries. Rather, the Te n d a i
21 2
sect i n particu lar had been established " based on a deep
unde rstandi ng of the J ap anese national character . . . as a
rel igion to pacify and preserve the nation" ( 2 08-9 ) .
had all been made possible through the Ilgracious wishll
This
(100
Ii) of successive Japa nese emperors.
The re was one more sem inal essay conta ined in the
book in question.
The essay is semi nal in that it is the
most complete exposition of Ill mperial Way-Buddh lsmll stil l
extant.
It was written by Dr. Sh i o Ben kyo (.�#§/ 1 87 6-
1 9 7 1 ), a J od o sect priest who l ater became President of
Ta i sho U niversity.
He entitled his 1 3 2 page essay simply
Il l mperial Way-B uddhis m.1l
B e nkyo began his essay with a discussion of the l ife
and teach ings of Buddha Shakyamuni. He then went on to
dec/are that as far as contemporary Buddhism was concerned,
the l i mited amount of Buddhism left in I n d i a was a IIfailure , "
just as t hat left i n China was a nother " failure . "
21 3
" O n the
contrary, " he wrote, "it can be said that it is i n Japan where
it is possible to draw near to a Buddhism l ike that of the
ti me when Buddha Shakyamuni was alive" (3 3 ) .
I n explaining the purity of J apanese Buddh ism, B e n kyo
a lso went back to Prince Shotoku for whom " bu i ldmg one
g reat samgha in this land was of the g reatest importance"
(37). Shotoku was motivated to do this because he viewed
the samgha as "a great harmonious body" (37). Later J a p a nese
B u d d h ist s ect fou n d e rs,
i n c l u d i n g Ho nen ( 1 1 3 3- 1 2 1 2 ) ,
N l c h i re n ( 1 2 2 2-8 2 ) , E i s a i ( 1 1 4 1 - 1 2 1 5) eta al. were, despite
their sectari an diffe rences,
u nited in the bel ief that t h e
samgha was "synonymous with the staten ( 3 8 ) .
The th ird section of 8en kyo's essay is entitled "The
Superior National Character of Japan" ( Takuetsu seru Nihon
no kunigara/ !i!iitt-Q B*o)�.). As the title suggests, B e n kyo
conti nues to develop his theme of the superiority of
J a p a nese Buddhism over that found in other Asi a n countries.
21 4
He writes:
Buddhism in I nd i a n c o l l apsed d u e to c i v i l i zatio n ,
B u ddhism i n China coll apsed because i t ran directly
contrary to the history and nature of the C h i nese state,
therefore it was only able to produce a few mountain
temples.
On the other hand : thanks to the rich
cultivation J a panese Buddhism received on J a pa nese
soi l it gradually developed into that which the B u d d h i st
teaching was aiming toward ( 5 0 ) .
Why and how had this all come about? B e n kyo's answer
was as follows:
The fu ndamental reason for this occu rre nce is the
priceless customs and manners of our country. These
customs and manners a re to be found throughout the
land, but thei r heart l ies with the E mperor and the
I mperi a l House hol d through whose efforts they h ave
been g uided and fostered.
I n the following section, i .e. Section Four, B e n kyo comes
at last to a definition of I mperial-Way Buddhism. The essence
of his definition is as fol lows:
The reason that Buddhism was able to develop i n Japan
was totally thanks to the I mperial House hold, especially
t o the fact that each of the success ive e m p e ro rs
personally believed in, and guided Buddhism so that it
could accomplish its task. Although it is true that J a p a nese
21 5
Buddhism has developed through the powei. -of devotion
of i l lu strious priests and lay persons, the fact that such
persons were able to believe and practice thei r faith was
due to the Imperial Household and emperors who fostered
its development through the continual issuance of Imperial
edicts and their own personal example. This is something
that can not be seen in other countries. It is for this
reason it ought to cal led Imperial Way-Buddhism ( 5 0-5 1 ) .
For B e n kyo the fu ndamental h istorical characteristic
of J a pa nese Buddhism is its " nationalism" ( ko kka teki/ II�
aq).
In as much as the Emperor is the state, and Buddhism
and the state are one, then the Emperor and Buddhism are
also one. Not only that, but it is due to the structure of the
state that it
IS
possible t o understand the spirit of Buddhism.
Even the various sects in Japan owe their existence to the
equal protection and respect they have been afforded by
the I mperial Household.
As to the nature of the Imperial Household itself, B e n kyo
wrote as fol lows:
Within the I mperial Household l ives the great life of
the universe. Within this true life l ives true [re l ig ious]
21 6
faith, and withi n true faith is the power to detect the
path of true faith. Those who truly seek rig hteousness
Will find righteousness. Within our Imperial Household
can be fou nd the truest of true righteousness which is
itself the rig hteousness of the u niverse . . . . which is
the truth-seeking power of the universe . . . . Or said in
a different way, if one seeks the location of this endu ring
I mperial power, i .e. the location of the SPIrit of Japan,
it is found i n the I mperial Household" ( 1 29-3 0 ) .
B e n kyo goes o n to explain that i t i s the I mperial edicts
which give expression to true righteousness .
The I mperial
e d icts also give expression to the spirit of Japan.
He
continues:
Thus, the Imperial edicts are the structure of the nation.
They are the life of the nation. If issued, these edicts
must be revered . . . . In looking at the past we see that
it was Imperial edicts from successive empero rs which
taught us the proper way to make offenngs of even a
single flower [to the Buddha] , or offer even one stick
of Incense, or read the sutras with the corre ct
pronunciation, or worship in the Buddha Hall . The power
to select and protect each of the sects, to determine
each and every temple observance - all h ave their
roots in Imperial ed icts . J apanese Buddh ism acts on
the basis of Imperial edicts. This is what disti ngu ishes
it from the Buddhism of foreign countries ( 1 3 0-3 1 ) .
21 7
Now, at long last, Ben kyo is ready to conclude his essay
by d escn b i n g what the true purpose of I mperial WayB u d d h ism is.
He does this by fi rst noting that during the
M e iJ i period there were a number of " august edicts" issued
by the Emperor. At that time, he noted: "The power of the
people to revere these edIcts without question was very
strong " ( 1 3 1 ) .
The problem was that with the passing of
Emperor M e iJ i there had been
a
g radual dec rease i n the
peop le 's a b i l ity to prope rly revere the e d i cts o f the
emperors who fol lowed, especially those of the then cu rrent
emperor, i . e . Empero r H i roh ito.
The people had become
" very l ax" and "careless" in their attitude .
Impe ri a l Way-Buddhism, then, was designed to address
these alleg ed deficiencies i n the national character.
As
B e n kyo stated:
The Buddha Dharma is nothing other than modestly doing
one's duty while holding on to righteousness. This is
the mean i ng of the Buddha Dharma which successive
21 8
emperors have taught. Seen in this light, it must be
admitted that during the Tai sho [ 1 9 1 2-1 9 26] and Showa
[ 1 9 2 6- 1 9 8 9 ] periods, the people have been careless in
their unquestioning reverence of Imperial edicts. This
means that they have also been careless i n their attitude
toward the state structure . This is the reason that
J apanese Buddhism must rise to the occasion. When
we think about this situation, we recognize that it was
truly due to the power of the Imperial Household that
J ap a nese Budd h i sm I n the past was able to expand .
Not only that, I believe that it will only be possible for
Buddhism to accomplish its task i n the future if we
take the lead i n obeymg the wi l l of the I mpenal
House h o l d , thereby g u ard m g a n d m a m ta m i ng t h e
p rospe rity o f the I m peri a l Th ro n e eve rmore . To
venerate the Three Treasures [of Buddh ism] means to
revere I mperial edits without question. ThiS i s the
attitude we should have as we reflect deeply on the
reality before us ( 1 3 2 ) [Italics mine] .
Although it could not have been known at the time, the
" real ity" Japan was facing was of a protracted war which
would eventually consume hundreds of thousands of J a p a nese
lives. ( Not to mention the lives of millions of non-J a p a nese
war vict i ms . )
Needless to say, a l l of those Japa nese
consu med i n the war were acting , at least i n p ri nciple,
accord ance with I mperial edicts .
21 9
in
Impe rial Way-Buddhism,
then, was established to encourage unquestioning obedience
of these edicts; for unquestioning obedience was nothing
less than the veneration of the Three Treasures of Buddhism,
i.e. the Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha. The essence of " Imperial
Way Buddhism" was to be found in the person of the Empero r.
Absolute and tota l obed ience to His Will was the one
unalterable and absolute creedal requirement.
Should
there be any doubt that Imperial Way-Buddhism was a broad
i nstitutional Buddh ist movement, it is noteworthy that only
three months after the preceding essays were pu blished,
i.e. In A p n l 1 938, a nu mber of leading clerics i n the N l c h i re n
sect formed the liThe Association for the Practice of I mpenal
W a y-Buddh ism" (Kodo Bukkyo gyoao ka i / �ilHAft�=rm� ) . The
association was headed by the administrative head of the
sect, Takasa N i c h i ko (jljft B �/1 877-1 977 ) and claimed to have
more than 1 800 members nationwide ( Na kano 1 95).
220
The association's principles asserted that:
I mperi a l Way-B uddhism utilizes the exquisite truth of
the Lotus Sutra to reveal the majestic essence of the
state structu re. Exalting the true spirit of Mahayana
Buddhism, this IS a teachi ng which reverently supports
the Emperor's work. Th is is what the great founder of
our sect, St. N i c h i re n meant when he referred to the
divine u nity of Monarch and Buddha . That is to say,
I m peri a l Way-Bu ddhism is the condensed expression
of the divine unity of Monarch and Buddha . . put i nto
contemporary language. For this reason the principle
i m a g e of adoration in I mperial Way-Budd hism is not
Buddha Shakya m u n i who appeare d in I nd i a, but H is
Majesty the Emperor whose lineage extends over ten
thousand generations (Nakano 1 96).
.
.
.
.
While it took the Shin sect a l ittle longer to formally
Join in the I mperial Way-Bu ddh ist movement, it nevertheless
did so as early as J u ne 1 9 4 2 . This was the date the N i s h i
Hong a nJi branch distributed a pamphlet entitled, " A U nitary
View of the Debt of Gratitude [Owed to the Emperor] - The
Essence of I mperial Way-Buddhism" ( On ichigen ron - Koclo
Bukkyo no shinzuil
il-7tia-!i!isJkftO)IC" IiI).
included the fol lowing:
221
This pamp hlet
The Shin sect . . . t a k e s the Raja Dharma as its basis,
te a c h i n g to revere ntly faithfu l ly fo l low I mp e ri a l
commands without question. Therefore, should, on the
contrary, there be any who commit high treason, A m i d a
wou ld a lso exclude them from salvation. I n the Shin
sect there could be no teaching which does not advocate
s u b m iss i o n to the Imperial state structure. That is to
say, It is because one is anchored In Am i d a's salvation
that it IS possible to be a good I mperial subject. Without
question, It IS the Shin sect that is In accord with the
I m perial state structure (Nakano 238).
I n March of the fol lowmg year, the H i ga s h i Honga nJ i
b ranch also chose to participate i n this movement.
The
occasion for this was the meeting of the branch' s TwentyFourth General Assembly.
The branch 's organ, Shinshu (It
�) , trumpeted the follOWing headline about the Assembly:
"The Imperial Way-Shin Sect Establ ishes the Path for Public
Service. "
As Daito has pOinted out, for the H i g a s h i HonganJi branch,
the term " I mperial Way-Sh i n sect " meant the absolute
recognition of the power and authority of the emperor
222
system .
He further noted that it was not sim ply a name,
rath e r:
Du ri ng the fifteenth years of war [ 1 9 3 1 -4 5 ] the
content, i . e . the actu al activities, of the sect can be
said to have been those of the " Imperial Way-Shin Sect. II
I n fact, to be precise , it can be said that the I mperial
Way-Shm sect was only the completion of what had
been passed down from the M e ij i and Ta i s ho p e riods
( 1 1 0).
As has been demonstrated, what D a ito said about the
Shin sect can also be said of institutional B u d d h i s m as a
whole.
If the various branches of the Zen sect h ave been
left out, it IS only because their activities will be exam ined
in the followi ng section.
Before doi ng th is, however, it is
important to ask the question, how did institutional B u d d h i s m
view warfare? No matter how much one might unquestionably
revere the E mpero r's edicts, wasn't there a basic conflict
between the Buddh ist precept prohi b iting the taking of life
in any form and serving as a soldier i n the Imperial Army or
Navy?
223
B u d d h i s m and War
By this time it is hardly surprising to learn that it was
left t o two Zen scholars, both affiliated with the Soto Ze n
sect, to put forth a doctri n a l u ndersta n d i n g o f the
re l a t i o n s h i p
between
Buddhism and war which was
compatible with Japan's state structure. That is to say, put
forth a doctrinal understandmg wh ich enabled i nstitutional
Buddhism to directly support Japan's war effort.
This was
done i n a 19 3 7 book written by Komazawa U n ivers i ty
Professor H ayashiya YUJ i ro ('*J.i�i*ftB/18??-19??)
with
the assistance of S h l m a kage Mel (i\�M/18? ?-19? ? ) .
It
was entitled simply and appropriately: "The Buddhist View
of War" (Bukkyo no senso kanl {Aft(!)!ti�U).
In the book's preface, Hayashiya laments the fact that
"although recently there has been a great deal of discussion
about war in various circles, withi n Buddhism there has stil l
been l ittle" ( 1).
He then goes on to admit that " B u d d h i st
224
scriptures conta i n ve ry l ittle materi al directly concerni ng
war" ( 1 ) .
Yet, despite this, " I would l ike to say a l ittle
something, basing my views on Buddh ist compassion and
the need for del iverance from suffe ri n g " ( 1 ).
On the fi rst page of the text itself, the authors made
it clear that the outbreak of ful l-scale wa r between Japan
and China was the catalyst which had caused them to examine
this issue.
I n particular, they referred to a proclamation of
support for Japan's war actions signed by i nstitutional
B ud d hist leaders from each of the major sects o n 1 2 J u l y
1 937.
Th i s p rocla matio n , issued by a p a n-Bu d d h i st
o rganization k nown as the Myowa- ka i (BJJ��) , read as
fol l ows :
Revering the Imperial policy of p reserving the Orient,
the subjects of Imperial Japan bear the hu manitari a n
destiny o f o n e billion people o f co l o r. Faced with the
outbreak of the incident in northern China, it is a time
of deep pain and yet a ti me to eliminate tyran ny. Our
I m perial g overn ment has alre ady issued a n e arnest
appeal ai med at both domestic and foreign audiences.
225
Based on this, the Myowa- kai a working organization
co mposed of each of the sects of Buddhism, will work
together to resolve this increasi ng ly urgent national
emergency. We are prepared to conduct consolation
activities on behalf of front-Ime Imperial Army troops
In the field. likewise we are wil l i ng to cooperate i n
such other activities a s the protection o f Japa nese
nationals [in China ] . Furthermore, within the cou ntry
we are prepared, as part of our self-sacrificial public
duty, to work for the spiritual general mobil ization of
the people. We take this occasion to express the firm
resolution of J a p anese Buddh ists (2).
,
The authors note that the preceding statement had a
significant effect on C h i nese Buddhists, who responded with
a number of protest letters. The Myowa- k a i saw no merit
to these protests and issued the followi ng statement on 2 8
J u l y 1 9 3 7 reaffirming its position . It read i n part:
In order to establish eternal peace in East As i a, arousing
t h e great benevolence and compassion of Buddhism,
we are sometimes accepting and sometimes forcefu l.
We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent
forcefu l ness of " k i l l ing one in o rder that many m ay
live " ( issatsu tashol -Ji��) . This is somethi ng
which Mahayana Buddhism approves of only with the
g reatest of seriousness . . . . We believe it is time to
make a major change to the course of human history
which has been centered on Caucasians and i nequality
226
among humanity. To realize the true happiness of a
peacefu l humanity a nd construct a new civil ization , it
is necessary to change the false path i nto the true
path within the advance of world history. Rooted in
t h is su b l i m e v iew of h i story, the m i S S i o n a n d
responsi b i lity of Mahayana Budd h i sts i s to b ring Into
being true friendship between Japan and China (4).
The authors saw i n these exchanges an i n dicati o n of
the d i ffere n c e between C h i nese and J apanese Buddh ists .
This difference was described as fol lows:
I n general it can be said that Chi nese Buddh i sts believe
that war should absolutely be avoided no matter what
the reason. J ap anese Buddhists, o n the other hand,
believe that war conducted for a [good ] reason is In
accord with the great benevolence and compassion of
Buddhism (7).
The conflict between Japan and China, the authors admit,
is one that has deep historical, even geographic, roots.
It
also i nvolves the national characters of the two peoples.
Fundamentally, however, it is a question of how B u d d h i s m
views wa r.
The remain ing ninety-six pages o f their book
are devoted to answering this question.
227
They begin by pointing out that Buddhism sees war as
being neither i nherently good or bad .
This is becau se
according to the Buddhist world view there i s noth i ng ,
including war, which has i t s own "self-nature" Uissho/ �1i).
This leads them to the following conclusion:
The fact that Buddh ism hasn't determined war to be
e ither good or bad is because it doesn't look at the
question of war itself but rather to the question of the
war's purpose. Thus, if the war has a good purpose it
is good, while if it has a bad purpose it is bad. Buddhism
does not simply approve of wars which a re i n accord
with its values, but vigorously supports such wars to
the point of being a war enthusiast ( 1 8- 1 9 ) .
Having established that war i s neither i ntri nsically good
nor evil , the authors go on to develop one of the central
t h e mes of their book , i . e . t hat war is a method of
acco m p l i s h i n g Buddhist goals.
Th us, they wrote that
"Bu d d h i sti c war is always war used as a means toward an
end.
The end is to save sentient beings and guide them
properly" ( 2 3 ) .
228
Regarding who wi l l do the "saving and the g u id ing" it
tu rns out, not surprisingly, to be that long term " p rotector"
of B u d d h is m i n Japan, the Empero r h i mself.
I n fact, the
authors wrote that the Emperor of Japan was actu a l ly a
" Golden Wheel [Rolling] Sacred King " (�.�.:E) , one of four
manifestations of an ideal Buddh ist monarch 0 r cakra varti-
raj a.
as a
"The reason Japa nese Buddhism regards the Emperor
Golden Wheel [ Rolling] Sacred Kmg " they wrote,
" is
because he is the Tathagata [fu lly enlightened being] of the
secular world" ( 2 7 ) .
One of the characteristics of a Golden Wheel [ Ro l h n g ]
Sacred King is that due to " lack of 'wi sdom of his subjects"
he IS unable to rule by his virtue alone, and must resort to
such things as laws, taxes, and, significantly, weapons. The
same holds tru e for h is relationships with other countries.
When " i njustice " a n d " l awlessnes s " abounds in t h ese
countries, he must "grasp the weapons of force" ( 2 8 ) .
229
When the Golden Wheel [Rolling] Sacred K i ng wields
force, however, it is not the force of hatre d and anger.
Rather, It is the force of compassion. The same force t hat
a parent uses when, out of love, they strike their children.
That is to say, it is a compassionate act designed to " perfect
their children's character and bring them happiness" ( 3 7 ) .
The authors did admit that when the Golden Wheel
[ Ro l l i n g ] Sacred King actu a l ly employs force it m ay not
appear to be an act of compassIon.
Nevertheless, because
a war conducted by a Golden Wheel [Rolling] Sacred King is
for the purpose of achieving Buddhism's goals, " it can be
seen that, from a Buddh ist viewpoint, it i s working as a
force to promote the advancement of society. "
Concludi ng their discussion of the Empero r as an Ideal
B u d d h i st monarch, the authors a rg u e that B u dd h i s m's
protection of life does not mean that life is p rotected for
its own sake.
Rather, it is protected merely as one aspect
230
of compassion.
Therefore Buddhism does not deny the
agg ressive k i l l i ng of mass numbe rs of people that takes
place in war, for it sees such warfare as an inevitable part
of creating an ever stronger and m o re sublime compassion .
The theme of war as an act of compassion continues to
be the central theme of their book. This was, as has been
seen, also a central theme of the pan-Buddhist Myowa- ka i.
The authors, however, give a much more detailed description
of Its fu nction. They poi nt out, first of all, that the critical
aspect of a B u ddhi st sanctioned war is that it " gives l ife to
the state" ( 4 5 ) .
While admitting that wars a re costly I n
terms o f both the money required a n d the h u m an l osses
s u ffered, "the most i m po rtant q u estion is the c l e a r,
steadfast conti nued existence of the state itself" (46 ) .
When war becomes necessary to give l ife to the state,
then "the best war possible should be fought without
hesitation " (47).
In this situation, i ndividual citizens have
23 1
to recognize that they are "of one body and mind" with the
state, recognize that "they cannot exist without the state "
(48 ) .
While it may be t rue that war destroys individual
l ives, it does not, the authors claim, deny i nd ividuals as
such.
This is because Buddh ist-sa nctio ned w a rs a re not
ai med solely at the perfection of the state but include the
perfection of individuals as wel l .
In fact, " if i ndividuals
were perfected, wars could not occu r" ( 7 2 ) .
The cause o f war, the authors assert, is i n the " as yet
low level s of wisdom of human bei ngs, " a nd is definitely
n ot to be found in e ither the state or the Golden Wheel
[ Rolling] King (7 2 ) . Thus, when the Golden Wheel [ Rolling ]
King takes up weapons he does so for the perfection of the
state and the advancement of human beings.
It is an
expression of his compassion and his desire to save sentient
beings. "The reason, then, for fighting a war is not to continue
war, but to eliminate war" (72 ) . That is to say, elimin ate
232
war t h rough the perfection of both th e state a n d the
i ndividu als within it.
If, up to this poi nt, the discussion has been c e n t e re d
on the welfare of one's own country and citizens, the authors
In
wanted to clarify that this was not their sale concern.
fact, they titled their fifth chapter, "War Which Also Benefits
One's Enemy." They began by quoting then Pri me M i nister
Konoe's statement on the North China I ncident.
He had
explai ned that J apan was not an aggressor agai nst China
but actually " acti ng cooperatively" with that cou ntry.
The
goal of that coope ration, Konoe stated, was as follows:
J apan has no i ntention of sacrificing China for its own
benefit. Rather Japan and China should stand on the
basis of mutual equality, mutually helping each other,
and thereby contributing to the enhancement of Oriental
cultu re and the prosperity of East A s i a . . . . Japan
respected the territorial integ rity of China and wanted
nothing more than for people of north China to reflect
on their conduct and retu rn to thei r in nate O riental
character Just as qu ickly as possible " ( 7 5 ) .
233
Accord m g
to
the authors,
the
Pri m e
M i n ister's
statements were ful ly in accord with Buddhism.
I n this
case it was Buddhism's responsibility to ensure that China
got " some degree of benefit" out of the war. This concern
was i n accord with the fact that "Japan was first in the
world in u nderstanding the true spi rit of Buddhism" (76).
As to what benefit China might expect to get out the war
with Japan, it wou ld have " its u nreasonableness corrected
and an opportunity to reflect on its conduct" ( 7 5 ) .
Finally, the authors asked how war could b e prevented.
They responded by stating that the key was understanding
the way i n which one could be delivered from suffering as
taught i n the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Just as there
was sufferi ng at an individual l evel so, too, did It exist
within society as a whole. The cause of both types of suffering
was "defilements" (bonno/MflM), which caused a gap between
the ideal a nd reality.
This gap in turn resu lted in wrong
234
conduct. Without changing this wrong conduct there was no
hope of eliminating suffering .
The p roblem, of course, was that the situation i n China
had been caused by that country's failure to understand the
Four Noble Truths. Not only that, " [the C h i nese] had not the
l east u n derstandi ng of t h e spi ri t of B u d d hism" ( 9 3 ) .
Consequently, they could not understand that it was "Ch i nese
desire " which had caused the war.
" If only, " the authors
urged, "they wou ld wake up to this fact, they wou ld realize
that i n o rder to release themselves from thei r national
desire the critical thing is that they reform their politics
and restore their national strength" ( 9 9 ) .
The authors fu rther pointed out that Japan itself had
done exactly that.
That is to say, its present developed
state was due to its having g radually increased its national
power "wh ile bearing the a lmost intolerable i nsults of the
Western countries" ( 9 9 ) . Although China should do the same,
235
its people " had no sense of a nation " and "its statesmen
only val ued g reed" ( 1 00) .
I n this situ ation who e lse was
there capable of "saving" China but Japanl
Althou g h the authors did n ot make the p revious
statement, it was clearly i mplied i n the l ast section of
their book .
The last para g raph of this section ( a nd the
book) expressed the essence of thei r message.
It read i n
its entirety:
Were the level of wisdom of the world's peoples to
i ncrease, the causes of war would disappear a nd wars
cease. H owever, i n an age when the situation is such
that it is i mpossible for humanity to stop wars , there
is no choice but to wage compassionate wars which
g ive l ife to both oneself a nd one's enemy. Through a
compassionate war, the warri ng nations a re able to
improve themselves, and war is able to exterm i n ate
itself ( 1 0 5 ) .
I n the meantime, of cou rse, Japan wou ld continue ( and
constantly enlarge) its "war of compassion" against China,
all the while enjoyi ng the total backing and fu l l coope ration
236
of i nstitutional Buddh ism's leaders.
It was, after a l l , thei r
religious duty as A s i a's most advanced Buddhists!
Should there sti ll be any doubt as to whethe r the
p re c e d i n g
book
was
re p rese ntative
of
i nsti t u t i o n a l
B u ddhism's thinking a t thiS time, there i s a second book
published in the same year, l .e. 1 9 3 7 , which also contains a
lengthy discussion of the relationship of Buddhism and war.
Entitled " Rapidly Advanci ng J apan and t he New Mahayana
B u d d h is m" ( Yakushiin Nihon to Shin Da ijo BukkyoAli1! B *c
*fi* m1k*i) , the book was written by Fu ru kawa Kakugo ('oJ I l
ii'm/ 1 B ? ?- 1 9 ? ? ) .
Furukawa was a p ro l ific writer o n
B u d d h i st-re l ated topics who had a l so m ad e n u merous
appearances on the radio.
In the preface of his book Furu kawa describes h i mself
as h aving been i nvolved in B u d d h ist educational efforts for
more than thirty years, but more recently he had been
"occupied with providing spiritual education for the I m perial
237
Army's officer training program" ( 2 ) .
His goal in doing so,
he wrote, "was to modify Buddh ism, the g reatest leader of
the nation's thought, from its passive I n d i a n-style attitu d e
t o an aggressive J apan ese-style attitude" ( 2 ) .
Reading Furu kawa i s l i ke reading an expanded version
(@ 395 pages) of The Buddhist View of War. In fact, in some
ways he even went fu rther than the p revious work.
For
example, according to him Japan was not simply the most
advanced Buddhist country In As i a, it was "the o n ly Buddh i st
country" ( 2 ) [ Italics mine. ] Furthermore, in conjunction with
the North China Incident he stated that Japan was "presently
using the sword in M anchuria to build a second divine country
[ after Japan ] , just as it would go on to do in China and I nd i a"
( 5 1 ) . This meant that it wou ld be possible for J apan, as a
d ivine nation, "to tra nsform the world i nto a pure Buddha
land as spoken of in Buddh ism" (5 1 ).
238
Furu kawa made the fo l lowi n g appeal to h is fe l l ow
b e l i ev e rs :
A l l Buddh ists i n the cou ntry' Resolutely a rise and
p articipate i n this rarest of holy enterprises. What
difference does it make what the League of Nations
d oes? Who do England and the U.S. thi n k they a re
anyway? The arrow has already left the bow. Do not
h e s i tate in the least. A fi rm wi l l makes even demons
run away. The only thing is to push on resolutely ( 5 1 -2).
Furu kawa devoted the second chapter of his book to
the relationship of Buddhism to war. Although he, too, found
B u d d h i st parti cipation in warfare enti re ly fit and p roper,
he recognized that " early Buddhism" (genshi bukkyo/ mi.�iA
¥t) had not held that position . According to him, what had
happened was that as society g radua l ly became m o re
complicated, coupled with such things as an increase in the
number of believers, the need to p reserve the Dharma was
recog n ized .
F u ru k awa asserted that it had been Buddh i sts affil i ated
with the Mahayana , as opposed to the Hinayana, school who
239
had first sanctioned killing I n order to p reserve the true
Dharma. Mahayana Bu ddh ists knew, he claimed, that:
Strict observance of the precept against killing at a ny
t i m e and at a ny p lace was absolutely i m poss i b l e .
S i m i l a rly, it was utterly a bsurd t o deny m u rderous
conduct under all conditions, for to do so would mean
t hat human society could not be maintained for even a
day ( 1 08).
Bu i l d i ng
on the a b ove , Furu kawa asserted
"Buddhism clearly recognizes a Just war" ( 1 1 0) .
t h at
App lyi ng
this to the situation at hand, he wrote:
Looking at the war in Manchuri a from the point of view
of a believer in Buddhism, it can be approved of as a
just war. Anyone discussing this war who is a Japanese
wou ld agree. That is to say, no one cou ld fai l to see
that this is a fig ht to defend Japan's legiti mate rights
and interests. . . . Given that our actions toward China
are legitimate, it is not only we who benefit from what
we do, but the whole Orient, nay, the whole world. Beyond
that, China ought to benefit as wel l ( 1 1 0- 1 1 ) .
I n recogn izing that so-called pri m itive Buddhism was
orig inally pacifist in nature, but abandoned this position
with the emergence of both a complicated society and the
240
MaHayana school of Buddhism, Furu kawa took a somewhat
different stance than had the earlier authors of "The Buddh ist
View of War. "
Nevertheless, his conclusions were a lmost
indistinguishable from theirs. Amongst them, their common
assertion that Japan had gone to war for the " benefit of
China" is one of the most notable.
In closing this section, it should be noted that the two
p receding works were, l i ke the " I mperial Way-Buddhism"
movement of which they were a part, pan-Buddh ist i n their
orientation. This did not mean, however, that the individuals
sects either disappeared or lessened thei r own sectarian
efforts in support of Japan' s war effort.
That is to say,
each sect u sed its sect-sponsored newspapers, magazi nes,
and evangelistic materials to mobil ize its adherents behind
the war. To give but one example, the Ten d a i sect issued a
ninety-six page pamphlet entitled " Fukyo shiryo
241
( Evangelism Materia ls/1fi�.*4) in 1 9 4 2 . Its preface reads
i n part:
The Great East Asi a n War has entered another year.
We revere ntly celebrate the majestic appearance of
t h e i nv i n c i b l e I mperi a l m i l i ta ry .
It i s i n t h es e
circumstances that w e hereby publish a second volume
of evangelization materials for use as teaching texts
by interested parties. . . . In so doing it is our intention
to clarify the principles concerned with the new age
and Buddh ism which is the essence of the national spirit.
We will be very happy if these materials are employed
to spread the spirit of dying for one's country in order
to protect the state, save the world, and benefit people.
As this and cou ntless other materials from all of
J apan's major sects reveal , i nstitutional Buddhism had
wedded itself, in body and spirit, to the state and the
e mperor system.
Institutional Buddhist leaders refused to
recognize the possibility of there being so much as the
slightest contradiction between the d octri n e s of their
fai-:: h and Japan's war effort. Institutional Buddhism was a
bride who with g reat forethought, dedication, and
determ ination, chose to worship at her master's feet.
242
CHAPTER
9: THE EM ERGENCE OF " I M PERIAL STATE-
I n t ro d u c t i o n
By this point it should b e clear that the involvement
of Japan's two major Zen sects (i.e. R m z a i and Soto) in their
country's war effort was not an isolated p henomenon, but
rather, was one part, or subset, of the overal l relationship
between institutional Buddhism and the state in Japan. It is
i mportant to be aware of this because, as Sharf has noted,
from the late ni neteenth centu ry onwards, proponents of
Zen had promoted Ze n not merely as one school of Buddhism
but as lithe very heart of Asi a n spirituality, the essence of
Japanese culture, and the key to the unique qualities of the
J apanese race" (6).
A para ll e l developme nt during this period had been
the tendency to explain Japan's string of As i a n m i l i tary
victories as stemming from the allegedly ancient code of
243
bushido (itt± i8)
,
i .e . the " Way of the Warrior."
Aga i n ,
accord i n g to Scharf, "bushido w a s t h e expression of
'J a p a neseness' itself" (6). If both Zen and bushido comprised
the e ssence of Japa nese cu ltu re , the question natu ra l ly
arises as to the relationship between these two s e e m i n g ly
disparate phenomena.
The answer to this question is the key to understanding
the eventua l emergence of " I mperial State-Zen" (.�Ii�) . It
should be noted, however, that a thorough u nderstanding of
the relationship between Ze n and bushicTo is both beyond
the scope of this dissertation and unnecessary. That is to
say, the question at this point is not what the actua l h istorical
relationship was so much as how Zen adhere nts from the
M e ij i period onwards perceived and Interpreted it. I n other
words, what d id post-Me ij i Zen adherents fi nd in this
relations h i p t h at Justified their own fervent support of
J apan's war effort?
244
Z e n and the Warrior Ethos
As has already been shown, the M e ij l connectio n
between Z e n and martial prowess became p ronounced as
early as the R usso- J a pa nese War th rough such personages
as R i n z a i Zen m asters Shaku Soe n and Nantenbo , n ot to
,
mention the latter's famous student, General N o g i M a re s u ke.
Yet, it was left to a so mewhat surprising source to begin to
e x p l i cate t h e symb iotic re l ations h i p al leged to ex ist
between Zen and bushidO.
The source was a book written in E n g l i s h by Dr. N i t o b e
I na zo (mij.$iD�/ 1 8 ? ? - 1 9 ? ? ) entitled Bushido: The Soul of
Japan.
Published in 1 9 0 5 , the surp risi ng thing about this
book is that it was written not by a B u d d h ist but a C h ri s t i an,
for Dr. N i tobe identified h imself as such in the p reface.
N evertheless, he stated that he had c hosen to a ct as a
" personal defendant" of the creed " I was taught and told i n
m y youthful days, when feudalism was sti l l in force" ( x i i- i i i ).
245
I n Chapter II, "Sources of Bushido," N i to b e clarified the
relationshi p between bushiclO and Zen as follows:
I may beg in with Buddh ism . It furnished a sense of
calm trust in Fate, a quiet submission to the inevitable,
that stoic composure in sight of danger or calamity,
that disdain of l ife and friendliness with death . A
foremost teacher of swordsmanship, when he saw his
p u p i l master the utmost of his art, told him, " Beyond
this my instruction must give way to Zen teachi ng "
(1 1 ).
As to what Zen teaching was, N i to b e offered l ittle i n
terms of a detailed explanation.
H e did state, however,
that:
[Ze n's] method is contemplation, a nd its pu rpo rt, so
far as I understand it, [is] to be convinced of a principle
that u nderl ies all phenomena, and, if it can, of the
Absolute itself, and thus to put o neself i n harmony
with thiS Absolute. Thus, defined, the teaching was
more than the dogma of a sect, and whoever attains to
the perception of the Absolute raises above m u ndane
things and awakes "to a new Heaven and a new Earth"
( 1 1 - 1 2) .
246
Although N itobe' s discussion of Zen was l i m ited, he
was far more forthcoming i n his description of bushido 's
role in modern Japan. He wrote:
Bushido, the maker and product of Old Japan, is stil l
the g uiding pri nciple of the transition, and wil l p rove
the formative force of the new era ( 1 7 2 ) .
When N i tobe sought proof of bushido s ongoing influence
on modern Japan, he found It in none other than the 5 1 00J apanese war. He stated:
The physical endurance, fortitude, and bravery that
"the l i ttle J ap" possesses, were sufficiently proved in
he C h i no- J apanese war. " Is there any nation more loyal
and p atriotic? " i s a question asked by many; and for
the proud answer, "There is not, " we m ust thank the
Precepts of Knighthood [i.e. bushido] . . What won the
battles on the Yalu, in Corea and Manchu ri a, were the
ghosts of our fathers, guiding our hands a nd beating
our hearts. They are not dead, those ghosts, the spirits
of our warlike ancestors. To those who have eyes to
see, they are clearly visible ( 1 7 6-88 ) .
.
What, then, o f the futu re?
.
N i to b e devoted the l ast
chapter of his book to that very question. On the one hand,
he a cknowledged that without feu d a l i s m , its " mother
247
i nstitutio n , " bush/do had been left an "orphan" ( 1 8 3 ) .
He
then suggested that while Japan's modern m i l itary might
take It under its wing, "we know that modern warfare can
afford little room for its continuous growth" ( 1 8 3 ) .
Would
bushido, then, eventually disappear?
It should come as no surpnse to learn that N i to b e did
not bel ieve bushido was slated for extinction.
O n the
contrary, in the concluding paragraph of his book, he saw it
as still "bless[ing] mankind " With "odou rs . . . floatmg in the
air" ( 1 9 3 ) . HIS concluding paragraph read as follows:
Bushido as an independent code of ethics m ay vanish,
but its power will not perish from the earth; its schools
of martial prowess or civic honour may be demolished,
but its light and its glory will long survive their ru ins.
Like its symbolic flower, after it is blown to the four
wi nds, it will sti ll bless mankind with the perfume with
which it Will enrich life. Ages after, when its customaries
wil l have been buried and its very name forgotten, its
odours will come floating in the air as from a far-off,
unseen hill, "the wayside gaze beyond " ; - then in the
beautifu l language of the Quaker poet,
248
"The travel ler owns the gratefu l sense
Of sweetness near, he knows not whence,
And, pausing, takes with forehead bare
The benediction of the air" ( 1 92-9 3 ) .
I t will be recal led fro m the previous section that the
p ro po ne nts of " I m perial Way-B uddhism" had been able to
put fo rth the remarkable p roposition that the Japa nese
i nvasion of Chma was for that country's benefit.
None the
less re markable i n terms of mte l lectu a l gym nastics , IS
N i t o b e's ability to tie the code of the Japanese warrior to
the poetry of a pacifist Quaker. Had N i tobe h i mself actually
gone to the modern battlefields of which he wrote, let alone
those countless ones to fol low, one can only i magine what
" odours will come floating in the air. "
Reference has already been made to N u k a riya K a iten,
the So to Zen priest and scholar, who only eight years l ater,
in 1 9 1 3 , wrote the Religion of the Samurai whi l e lectu ring
249
at H a rvard Un iversity.
He maintained, it wi l l be reca lled,
that:
Bushido . . . shou ld be observed not only by Japan's
soldiers on the battlefield, but by every citizen in the
strugg le for eXistence. If a person be a person and not
a beast, then he must be a Samurai - brave, generous,
u pright, faithfu l , and m anly, ful l of self-respect a n d
self-confidence, and a t the same time ful l o f the spirit
of sel f-sacrifice [Italics mine.] (50).
In the context of what was to fol low, Kaiten m ay be
said to have anticipated the futu re use of bushido i n two
i mportant respects.
The first is that in post-M e iJ I
Restoration Japan " every citizen" was expected to adopt
the code of the warrior. This amou nted to a n early call for
the m i l i t a r i z at i o n of the whole of society. Secondly, for all
the admonitions to be "generous, upright, faithfu l " etc . , "a
spint of self-sacrifice " wou ld come over time (especially
after 1 93 7) to be proclaimed as the essence o f bushidO.
Shaku Soen, too, conti nued speaking out on what he
b e l i eved Zen cou ld and should contribute to the nation ' s
250
advancement. Within this context, he Joined the discussion
of bushido 's modern significance in a book entitled Kalnin
kaima (A Fine Person, A Fine Horse/�A�F.!ij) published in
1 9 1 9.
The date is significant in that W.W. I had only J ust
ended .
Once again, war had become the p retext for yet
another discussion of Zen's contribution to Japan's mil ita ry
p rowess .
In Japan's fight against G e rm a ny, Soen lamented what
he saw as the Japa nese people's increasing "material ism , "
" extreme worship o f money, " and general decadence ( 4 1 ) .
I n his mind the solution was clear, namely: " the u nification
of all the people in the nation in the spirit of bushidO " (47).
For Soen, as for Ka iten, the essence of this code was to
found " i n a sacrificial spirit consisting of deep loyalty [to
the Emperor and the state ] coupled with deep fil ial piety"
(47).
251
The question naturally arises as to where Zen fits i nto
the picture. Seen's answer was as follows:
The power that comes from Zen training can be called
forth to become military power, good government, and
the like. In fact, it can be applied to every endeavou r.
The reason that bushuJO has developed so g reatly si nce
the Kam a ku ra period ( 1 1 8 5 - 1 3 3 3 ) IS due to Zen, the
essence of Buddhism. It was the participation of the
Way of Zen which, I believe It can be said, gave to
bush/do ItS great power ( 6 5 ) .
The belief that the power resulting from Ze n training
can be changed Into military power was to become an ever
more I mportant part of the Ze n contribution to Japan's war
effort.
In fact, as will be seen In the followi ng section, it
was the b asic assu mption underlyi ng the emergence of
" I mperial State-Zen. " This said, It is equ ally i mportant to
u nderstand that for Seen bushido s modern role, empowered
as it was by Zen, was by no means l i m ited to its p u rely
military role.
He emphasized this point yet again when he
stated:
252
Today, my sixty million compatriots are in the aelstrom
of a world war. It can be said that not only mil itary
men, but also industrialists, politicians, and the general
populace a re all equ ipped with a bushido- l i ke v i n l e
a n d intrepid spirit. As I look toward t o the futu re
economic war, however, I cannot help having some
doubts as to whether . . . t h e re will be persons who can
accomplish wonderful ly m a rve l o u s deeds ( 6 7 ) .
For Soe n, then, not only was bushido valu able for a l l
segments o f society, starting with the military, but it was
also equally valuable In Japan's coming "economic wars . "
I t is I mportant to recognize that the discussion o f the
rel ationship between Zen and bushido was by no means
l i m ited to scholarly works on Zen or the writings of a few
national istic Zen masters.
On the contrary, it was to be
found in even the Simplest of Introductory books on Zen .
Zen no tebiki (A Z e n Primer/�O)=F-a� ) , published in 1 9 2 7 by
F u eoka S e i s e n ( m lfilJjffJR /1 8??-1 9 ? ? ) , is an example of such a
work. S e i s e n's approach to bushido was characterized by a
more classical exami nation of his subject in that it focused
253
on historical incidents in which the connection between Zen
and bushido was thought to be revealed.
S e i s e n began his d iscussion of these incidents with
the following observation:
Zen was introduced into Japan at the beginning of the
Kamaku ra period, at a time when bushido had risen to
power. The simple and direct teachings of Zen coincided
with the straight forvvard and resolute spint of samurai
discipline. Especially the Zen teaching on life and death
was strikingly clear and thorough. In as much as samuraI
stood on the edge between l ife and death, this teaching
was ve ry appropriate for the i r training. Thus, they
very qUickly came to revere and have faith In it ( 1 5 0 ) .
One o f the first mcidents S e i s e n introduced was to
become probably the most often quoted of any incident
thought to prove the historical connection between Zen
and the warrior spirit.
It concerns an exchange between a
C h i nese Zen master known in Japan as Sogen < *iljI;/Ch. T s u yuan/ 1 2 2 6-86) and his lay disciple, Hoj o To k i m u n e (�t��*
/ 1 2 5 1 -84) , Japan's then military ruler. Tok i m u ne was faced
254
with a series of Mongol ian i nvasions which extended over
nearly two decades.
H earing the news that the Mongolian i nvaders were
seaborne and on their way to attack Japan, S e i s e n recorded
the fol lowi ng exchange between Tok i m u ne and Sogen:
"The great event has come. " s a i d To k l m u ne.
" How will you face It? " asked Sogen.
"Katsu'" , shouted Tok i m u ne.
"Truly a lion 's child roars like a l ion. Rush ahead
and never turn backl " re p l i e d Sogen.
I f this exchange marked the first known I ncident i n
Japan o f the l i n kage of Zen tra i n i ng to mental m i l itary
p re p a re d ness,
i t a l so
m a rked
i n Se i s e n ' s view " t h e
enhancement o f national glori' ( 1 5 1 ) .
N ot only that, but
martial incidents of this nature revealed that "the spirits
of Japan's various heroes have been trained by Zen" ( 1 52).
Further even, these i ncidents demonstrated that "Z e n and
the sword were one and the same" ( 1 5 2 ) .
255
Once again, if the above discussion seemed somewhat
divorced from Japan of the 1 920's, S e i s e n wanted to make
sure that his readers understood that the Zen spirit which
pe rmeated bushido was, in fact, very releva nt to modern
Japan. He stated:
Zen enlightenment IS not a question of ability, but of
power. It is not something acquired through experience,
but is the power that immediately gushes to the surface
fro m one's ong lnal nature, from one's onginal form . . . .
Th is power can be util ized by persons In a l l fields,
i n c l u d i n g t h o s e In the m i l i t a ry , i n d u st r i a l i s t s ,
government ministers, educators , artists, farmers, etc.
It underlies all of these pursUits ( 1 4 9 ) .
F o r S e l s e n, a s for t h e others who preceded h i m , t h e Z e n
spirit that enervated bushidO was far from dead or irrelevant
to modern Japan.
Everyone could utilize the power of Zen,
Just as everyone cou ld benefit from its " stri k i ng ly clear
and thorough teaching on life and death. "
One of the first commentators to p resent a detai led
exposition of the doctnnal rel ationship between bushidO
256
and Zen was Furu kawa Kakugo. Furu kawa, it wi l l be recalled,
was the popular com mentator on Buddhism who had written
the book, "Rapidly Advancing Japan and the New Mahayana
Buddhism" in 1 937. According to Furu k awa, bushido had eight
m ajor charactenstics :
I.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Great value was placed o n fervent loyalty.
Military prowess was highly esteemed.
A spirit of self-sacrifice was found In abundance.
It was very realistic.
It emphasized practice based on self-re liance.
It esteemed order and proper decorum .
Truthfulness was respected; ambition was strong .
A life of simpl icity was to be followed ( 1 5 5 ) .
What, then, was the relationship between the above
and Zen doctri ne? The highl ights of Furukawa's position on
this issue are as follows:
1.
The prajfla (Wisdom ) [school's] teaching of sunya
( e m ptiness) is both the b asis and g ateway to
Budd hism . It should, moreover, be cal led the
fu ndamental principle of practically-oriented Zen.
It is for this reason that Zen was able to become
the driving force behind the self-sacrificing spi rit
of bushidO based on the emptiness of self.
257
2.
The real istic, this-worldly nature of Zen is based
on the teaching that life and death are themselves
nirvana. Ze n-l ike total enlightenment IS found m
that practice which, pointing di rectly to the m md,
enables one to see one's nature and become a
Buddha. This simple, frank, and optimistic spirit
of Zen was what enabled it to exert a profou nd
i nfluence on the character of the rea l istic and
patriotic warriors of this cou ntry.
3.
It was the Zen sect alone withi n the Mahayana
school of Buddh ism which faithfu lly t ransm itted
t h e a t h e i s m a n d self- re l i a n ce of p r i m i tive
Bu ddhism . Placing no dependence on the power
of either Buddhas or gods, Zen's goal was to see
one's natu re and become a Buddha through the
p ractice of zazen.
This struck a deep note of
resonance With the spirit of Japan's ind ependent,
self-reliant, and Vi rile warriors .
4.
Zen takes a very practical stance based o n its
teaching of a transm ission outside of the sutras
that is not dependent on words. H avmg discarded
comp li cated doctri nes, it m a i nta i ns that the
Buddha Dharma i s sy nonymou s w i t h o n e ' s
deportment and that decorum i s the essence of
the fa ith. Once again, this is Identical to the
w o rd l ess p racti cality of bushidO which n eve r
s p e a ks of t h e o ry b u t i ns t e a d u rg e s t h e
accomplishment of one's duty.
5.
Zen practitioners have, from ancient times, valued
a si mple and frugal l ife . This lifestyle is identical
258
with the plain and unsoph isticated temperament
of wa rriors, causing it to develop even fu rther.
6.
In Japan, u nlike m I n d i a or China, Zen was able to
pass beyond its onginal character of subjective
and re ligious salvation and enter i nto the real
world. In so domg It served as the catalyst for
warriors entering the realm of selflessness. This,
I n turn, resu lted In self-sacrificial conduct o n
behalf of their sovereign and their cou ntry. All
of this was made pos s i b l e by the I m p e n a l
Household which IS the mcarnation o f t h e Wisdom
of the u n iverse . Thus, it can be said that the
Mahayana school didn't simply spread to Japan
but was actually created here ( 1 5 6- 6 1 ) .
Fu ru kawa's final point on bushiclO was that it was wrong
to say that the samurai had disappeared at the time of the
M e ij i Restoration. Rather, one should take the view that a I I
of the people became samurai at that time. That is to say,
up to then o nly members of the samurai class were a llowed
to carry weapons in order to fulfil their duty of p rotecting
their sovereign and the country.
Now, however, all of the
people had this duty. That is to say, all Japanese men were
now samurai.
259
As previously noted, F u rukawa had written the above
i n 1 9 3 7 , some ten years after Se lsen, and I m med iately
fol lowi ng t h e outbre a k of fu l l scale war I n China.
At that
t i me
m i l i t a ry
all
Japanese
conscription.
males
were
s u bj e ct
to
This was also a period marked by increaSing
tension between Japan and the Eng l ish-speaking cou ntries
of the U.S. and Britain. If only to protect their own economic
i nterests in China and throughout As i a, the l atte r two
countries were unwilling to ignore J apanese expansionism.
It was in this atmosphere that Suzuki Dalsetz once
again entered the pictu re .
By this time he had written
widely in both E n g l i s h and Japanese and established h imself
as a scholar of Buddhism in general and Zen In particu l a r.
Thus, in 1 9 3 8 he published a book i n E n g l i s h entitled Zen
Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture which was
reprinted after the war as simply Zen and Japanese Culture.
Three out of this book's eleven chapters were devoted to
260
the rel ationship of Zen and bushido.
Given the almost
un iversal approval this work has met with over the years in
both the U.S. and E u rope, it is somewhat surprising to learn
that Suzu ki's description of the relationship between Zen
and bushido is nearly a mirror I mage of the preceding works.
S u z u k i beg an h i s description of the re l at i o n s h i p
between Z e n and bushido in the second chapter of his book.
He described the " rugged vi rility" of Japan's warriors versus
the "grace and refinement" of Japan 's aristocracy.
He then
state d :
The soldierly qual ity, with its mysticism a n d aloofness
from worldly affairs, appeals to the Wil lpower. Zen In
this respect walks hand in hand with the spirit of Bushido
( "Warriors' Way" ) [ 3 0 ] .
Like h is predecessors, Su z u k i did admit that "Buddh i s m
. . . i n its varied history has never been found engaged I n
warlike activitiesll ( 6 1 ) . In Japan, however, Zen had " passively
sustained " Japan's warriors both morally and philosophically.
261
That is to say, they were sustained morally because "Zen is
a religion which teaches us not to look backward o nce the
cou rse is decided" ( 6 1 ) .
On the other hand, they were
sustai ned p h i losophically because " [Zen] tre ats life a nd
death i ndifferently" ( 6 1 ) .
S u z u k i is clearly taken with the Idea of Zen as " a religion
of the wil l " ( 6 1 ) .
Over and over again he retu rned to this
theme. For example, he stated:
A good fig hter IS generally an ascetic or stoic, which
means he has an iron will. This, when needed, Z e n can
supply ( 6 2 ) .
Less than a page later, S u z u k i went o n to say:
Zen is a rel igion of will-power, and Will-power is what
is u rgently needed by the warriors, though it ought to
be enlig htened by i ntuition ( 6 3 ) .
Together with his fascination with the relationship of
Zen and wil lpower, S u z u k i is attracted to the rel ationship
between Zen discipline and the warrior. He stated:
262
Z e n d isci p l i ne IS simple, d i rect, se lf- re l i ant, self­
denying; ItS ascetic tendency goes well with the fighting
spi rit. The fighter is to be always single-mi nded with
o n e object in view, to fig ht, looking neither backward
nor sideways. To go straight forward In orde r to crush
the enemy is all that is necessary for him ( 6 2 ) .
Although Su z u ki fi rst maintained that I t was the Zen
philosophy of "treat [ing] life and death ind ifferently" which
h ad sustained J apan 's warriors, he then went o n to deny
that Zen had any philosophy at all. He wrote:
Zen has no special doctnne or phi losophy? no set of
concepts or intellectual formu las, except that it tries
to release one from the bondage of birth and death, by
means of certam i ntu itive modes of unde rstanding
pecu l i a r to itself. It is, therefore, extre me ly flexible
in adapting itself to al most any philosophy and moral
doctri n e as long as its mtuitive teac h i ng is not
interfered with. It may be found wedded to anarchism
o r fas c i s m, co m m u n ism or democracy, atheism o r
idealism, or any political or economic dogmatism . It
i s , h owever, g e nerally a n i mated w i t h a cert a i n
revolutionary spirit, and when things come to a deadlock
- as they do when we a re ove rl o a d e d w i t h
conventionalism, formal ism, and other cognate isms Zen asserts itself and proves to be a destructive force
( Italics mine) ( 6 3 ) .
263
Suzu ki's statement that Zen could be found wedded to
a narchism or commu nrsm is a fascinating comment i n light
of the fact that it was exactly this union which U c h iya m a
G u do and h is fellow Budd hist priests had earlier attempted
to accomplish.
The result of their efforts, however, was
thei r total condemnation by the leaders of both the Soto
and R i n z a i Zen sects
(not to mention the leaders of all
other sects) . There is no record of any kind which i ndicates
that S u z u k i opposed their execution or i mprisonment.
Given this, the suspicion emerges that what S u z u k i
was really trying to d o i n the above statement was Justify
the c lose re l at i o n s h i p which by 1 9 3 8 a l ready existed
between Zen and the J apanese mil itary. Not only did S u z u k i
identify Z e n a s a "destructive force, " but h e also wrote
favo rably of the modern rel ationship between Ze n, bushiOo,
and Japan's m ilitary actions in China. He stated :
264
There is a document that was very much talked about
in connection with the Japan ese mil itary operations i n
China I n the 1 930'5. It i s known as the Hagakure, which
l iterally means " H idden under the Leaves," for it IS one
of the virtues of the samu rai not to display h imself,
not to blow his horn, but to keep himself away from
the public eye and be dOing good for his fel low beings.
To the compilation of this book, which cons ists of
various notes, anecdotes , moral sayi ngs, etc . , a Zen
monk had his part to contribute. The work started in
the m iddle part of the seventeenth century u nder
Nabes h i m a Naosh i g e, the feu dal lord of Saga In the
I s l a n d of Kyushu. The book emphasizes very much the
samurai's readiness to g ive his life away at any moment,
fo r it states that no g reat work has eve r been
acco m p l i shed without going mad - that i s , when
expressed i n modern terms, without breaking through
the ordinary level of consciousness and letting loose
the hidden powers lying fu rther below. These powers
may be devilish someti mes, but there IS no doubt that
they a re superhu man and work wonders . When the
u nconscious is tappe d , it rises a bove i n d ivid u a l
l i mitations. Death now loses its sting altogether, and
this IS where the samurai training Joins hands with Zen
(70).
As the conclusion of the above quote m akes clear,
S u z u k i was also very concerned with the wa rrior's ( a nd
soldier's) use of Zen to "master death. " He stated:
265
The p roblem of death is a g reat p roblem with every
o n e of us; it is, however, more pressing for the samurai,
for the soldier, whose l ife is exclusively devoted to
fighting, and fighting means death to fighters of either
side . . . . It was therefore natural for every sober-minded
samurai to approach Zen with the idea of maste ri ng
death ( 7 1 - 2 ) .
Anothe r
b e l i ef
which
Suzu k i
s ha re d
with
his
c ontemporaries was that bushidO was ne ither dead nor
l i m ited to I mpenal soldiers , the modern equ ivalent of
J apan's traditional warriors.
He wrote:
The spirit of the samurai deeply breathing Ze n i nto
itse lf propag ated i ts p h i losophy even a m o n g the
masses. The latter, even when they are not particularly
tra i ned i n the way of the warrior, have i mbibed his
spirit and are ready to sacri fice their l ives for a ny
cause they think worthy. This has repeatedly been
proved in the wars Japan has so far had to go through
(85).
F i n a l ly,
S u z u k i cou ld
not
avo i d
a d d ressi n g
the
fundamental questi on of how the death and destruction
caused by the samurai's sword could be rel ated to Zen and
Buddhist compassion . He therefore addressed two chapters
266
("Zen and Swordsmanship I " and "Ze n and Swordsmans h i p
I I " ) t o that very question. He began his discussion by noting
what he considered to be the "double office " of the sword .
He wrote:
The sword has thus a dou ble office to perform : to
destroy anything that opposes the wi l l of its owner
and to sacrifice a l l the i mpulses that arise from the
i nsti nct of self-preservation. The one relates itself
to the spirit of patriotism or sometimes m i l itarism,
while the other has a rel ig ious connotation of loya lty
and self-sacrifice. In the case of the former, very
frequently the sword may mean destruction pure a nd
simple, and then it is the symbol of force, sometimes
devilish fo rce . It must, therefore, be controlled and
consecrate d by the second fu nction. Its conscientious
For then
owner is a lways m i ndful of this t ruth.
destruction is turned agai nst the evi l spirit. The sword
comes to be identified with the annihilation of things
that lie in the way of peace , J ustice, progress, and
humanity" (89).
It is i nstructive to note here that the tenor of the
p receding quote is quite similar to Suzu ki's writing in A
Treatise on the New [Meaning of] Religion
discussed . There he said:
267
p rev i o u sly
The pu rpose of ma intaining sold iers and encou rag ing
the military a rt s IS not to conque r other countries or
deprive them of the i r rig hts or freedo m . . . . The
construction of big warships and casting of giant cannon
IS not to enlarge one's personal gain and trample on
the wealth and profit of others. Rather, it is done only
to p revent the h istory of one's cou ntry from bei ng
disturbed by injustice and outrageousness. Conducting
com m e rce and worki ng to increase production is not
for the pu rpose of building up material wealth in o rder
to subdue other nations. Rather, it is done o nly In
o rder to develop more and more hu man k nowledge
and bnng about the perfection of morality. Therefo re ,
if there i s a lawless country which comes and obstructs
o u r commerce, or tramples on o u r rig h ts , t h i s is
something th at wou ld tru ly interrupt the p rogress of
all of humanity. I n the name of religion our country
could not submit to this. Thus, we would have no choice
but to take u p arms, not for the purpose of slaying the
enemy, nor for the purpose of p i l laging cities, l et
alone for the purpose of acqu iring wealth. Instead, we
wou l d s i m p ly p u n i sh the people o f t h e co u nt ry
rep resenting i njust ice i n o rd e r that j u stice m i g h t
p rev a i l .
Even more closely related to S u z u k i ' s earlier q uote
a re the sent i me nts of his master, Shaku Soen.
It will be
reca lled that at the time of the Ru sso- Japa nese War he
said:
268
I n the present hosti lities, into which Japan has entered
with great reluctance, she pursues no egotistic pu rpose,
but seeks the subJugation of evils hostile to civi lization,
peace, and enlightenment.
If there is some va lidity to the old maxim " Like father, like
son" then perhaps the same thing holds true for "Like master,
l i ke d isciple . "
I n any event, Suzu ki's mental gymnastics o n this issue
did not stop with the above comments.
H e went on to
d i rectly address the seemmg contradiction between Zen,
the sword, and killing. He wrote:
The sword is gene rally associated with killing, and most
of us wonder how It can come into connection with Zen,
which is a school of Buddhism teach ing the gospel of
l ove a n d mercy.
The fact is that the a rt of
sword s manship distinguishes between the sword that
kills and the sword that g ives life. The one that is
u s e d by a technician cannot go any further than killing ,
for h e never appeals to the sword unless he intends to
kill . The case is altogether different with the one who
is compelled to l ift the sword . For it is really not he
but the sword itself that does the killing . He had no
desire to do harm to anybody, but the enemy appears
and makes himself a victim. It IS though the sword
performs automatically its fu nctio n of J ustice , which
269
is the function of mercy . . . . When the sword is expected
to play this sort of role in human life, it is no more a
weapon of self-defense or a n Instrument of k i l l i n g ,
a n d t h e swords man turns into a n artist o f the fi rst
g ra d e , e ngaged i n p ro d u c i n g a wo rk of g e n u i n e
original ity ( 1 4 5 ) .
PrevIous comment ators , i t w i l l b e re cal l e d , h ave
i d e nt i f i e d a
compassion.
B u d d h ist-sa n ctioned war as an
act o f
As the above quotation makes clear, S u z u ki
agreed with this position .
He f u rt h e r spoke with apparent
approva l of the Ze n spirit manifested I n Japan's m i l itary
operations In China.
Moreover, he clearly approved of a
war " id entified with the annihilation of things that l ie i n the
way of peace, Justice, progress, and h umanity." But perhaps
his most cre ative contribution to the d iscourse of his day
was the assertion that the Ze n-trained swordsman ( a nd , by
extension, the modern soldier) "tu rns i nto an artist of the
f i rst g rade, eng aged in p rodu c i n g a work of g e n u i ne
o ri g i n a l ity . "
270
How the Ze n- i nspired sold ier's " o rig i n a l ity " wou l d
manifest itself i n concrete terms on the battlefield w i l l be
seen m the fol l owmg sectio n .
Before p receding t here,
however, there IS one final treatment on the relationship
of Zen and bushido that is worthy of consideration.
It is
worthy of consideration because it takes the relationship
between the two entitles to an even more extreme form
than previous commentators, Suzuki included.
Entitled Bushido no koyo (it±i§P.J jljt;/The Promotion
of Bushido),
this book was published in 1 9 4 2 , the year
following Japan's attack on Pearl H a rbor. It was composed
of a series of talks by S e k i Sei setsu (DO.�/ 1 877-1 945),
another allegedly fu lly enlightened Zen master who served
both as the head of the Ten ryuJ i (�.�) branch of the R i n z a i
Ze n sect and as a mil itary chaplain. A second R i n z a i priest,
Yamada Mumon ( LlJ mfi3t/ 1 9 00- 1 9 8 8 ) , edite d thiS work .
Mumon, S e i s etsu's disciple, is best known as the President
271
of the R i n z a i Zen sect-affi l i ated Hanazono U niversity i n
p ostwar years .
One of the most striking featu res o f Seisetsu 's book
I S i ts cover which depicts a fol k hero by the name of
M o motaro d ressed in samurai clothing and stand ing with
h i s sword pinning down two devilish l ooki ng persons, i . e .
W i nston
C h u rc h i l l
a nd
F ra n k l i n
Roos eve l t.
Th i s
rep resentation is clearly a reflection of the wartime slogan
"kichiku b el ei" (.mli*�) which literally meant " the savage
A m e ri c a ns and English. "
Li ke so many o f h i s predecessors , Se lsetsu began h iS
description of bushido as " being nothing other than the spirit
of Japan" ( 2 1 ) .
Zen had contributed its " p rofound and
exqu isite enlightenment" to bushido leading to the l atter's
"unique moral system" ( 2 1 ) . Thus had bushido become "the
p recious j ewel i ncorporati n g the pu rity of the spiritual
culture of the Orient" ( 2 1 ) .
272
In what was by now a familiar litany, bushido was said
to " prize military prowess and view death as so many goose
feathers" (22). Samurai "revered thei r sovereign and honore d
their ancestors" ( 2 2 ) .
They also va lued loyalty, frugality,
simplicity, decoru m , benevolence, etc.
All of these values
were identical with those of modern soldiers .
Not only
that, these values applied equally to " the people of this
country who are now all soldiers, for I believe that every
citizen ought to adhere to the bushido of the present age"
(30).
In h is conclusion Se k i setsu a rgued that the unity of
Zen, the sword, and bushido had only one goal in mind. That
goal was none other than "world peace. " He wrote:
The true significance of military power is to transcend
self-i nterest, to hope for peace. This is the u ltimate
goal of the military arts. Whatever the battle may be,
that battle is necessarily fought in anticipation of peace.
When one learns the art of cutting people d own, it is
always done with the goal of not having to cut people
down. The true spirit of bushido is to make people
273
obey without drawi ng one's sword and to win without
fighting . In Ze n circles this is called the sword which
g ives l ife . Those who possess the sword that k i l ls
must, on the other hand, necessanly wield the sword
which gives life .
F ro m the Zen vantage pomt, where ManJusrl [the
Bodhisattva of Wisdom] has used his sharp sword to
sever all ignorance and desire , there exists no enemy
i n the world. The very best of bushido is to learn that
there is no enemy i n the world rather than to learn to
conquer the enemy. Attai ning this level, Z e n and the
sword become completely one, Just as the Way of Zen
and the Way of the Warrior [bushido] unite together.
U n ited in this way, they become the su blime leading
spirit of society.
At this moment, we are in the sixth year of the sacred
war, having arrived at a critical point. All of you should
obey I mperial mandates, being loyal , b rave, faithfu l ,
frugal, and viri le. You should cultivate yourselves more
and more both physically and spiritually i n order that
you don't bri ng shame o n yourselves as I mp e n a l
soldiers . You should acqu i re a bold spi rit l i ke the
w a rri o rs of o l d , tru ly doing you r duty fo r the
d evelopment of East As i a and world peace. I cannot
help asking this of you (64- 6 5 ) .
To the belief that Ze n-sanctioned war was both just
and compassionate, benefiting even one's enemy, must now
274
be added the belief that it was all being done in the name
of world peace.
Z e n and the I m perial M i l itary
I nt r o d u c t i o n
It will be recalled that Kete l a a r pomted out that one
of the chief goals of the so-called New Buddhism of the
l ate Me iJ i pe riod was to prove its l oya lty to the Throne
(1 33).
This theme was fu rther developed by the noted
Budd h ist scholar Y a b u k i Yos h ltaru ( ��I1H'ii / 1 8??-1 9??) who
wrote in 1 9 3 4 that Buddhism had the potential "to become
a most effective mstrument for the state" (4) . H a ltom, for
his part, emphasized that "Buddhism fosters the qualities
of spirit that make for strong soldiers " ( 1 49 ) .
I f the preceding statements held true for institutional
Buddhis m as a whole, it should now be clear that they were
particu larly relevant to the Zen school as a whole. Whether
it was a question of fosteri ng loyalty to the Emperor or
275
making s p i ri t u a l l y strong soldiers, leading Zen figures were
demonstrably unsurpassed in their efforts . Yet, the question
m ust be asked, was anyone l istemng? That is to say, were
I mpenal soldiers actu a l ly i nfluenced by their words a n d
actions?
A quantitative answer to these questions IS both beyond
the scope of this dissertation and, almost certainly, beyond
the realm of h istorical research.
How would one determine,
some fifty years after the end of the war, either the extent
or depth of such I nfluence?
This said, it IS i mportant to
n ote that t h e I mperial m i litary, the I mperi a l Army I n
p articu lar, was more than merely receptive t o the typ e of
B u d d hi st support described above, It actively solicited it.
As previously discussed, the mil itary had cooperated
with fro n t l i n e visits by Buddhist priests l i ke Shaku Soe n as
early as t he R u sso- Japa nese War. From the battlefield
276
itse lf, J a pa nese m i l ita ry leaders came to the fol lowi n g
re a l i zatio n :
The most i mportant tactical l esson of the war was t h e
critical place of 'spirit' i n ove rco m i ng t h e physical
dilemmas of the modern battlefield . . . . It thus became
I ncrea s i n g ly i mportant for small u mts to bring supreme
determ ination i nto the assault l i ne - a sense of self­
sacrifice based on a fanatical patriotism (Peat t i e 4).
Taking this lesson to heart, the mil itary had, as early
as 1 909, initiated a traming program for its soldiers known
as seishin kyolku (spiritual traming/ mfEII �w ) . This program
rested on three pillars: 1 ) Incorporating the bushido s p i r i t
into the m i l itary, 2 ) encouraging bel ief i n the E mperor's
divinity, and 3 ) promoting absolute loyalty to the Throne.
The u lt i mate obj ective of th is tra i n i ng was c l e a r invi ncibility on the battlefield.
I t w i l l be recalled that an earl i e r popu l a r B u dd h i st
commentator on bushido, Furu kawa Kakugo, had identified
himself as being e ngaged " i n spiritual training for Army
277
officer candidates .
II
H is position was, in fact, no accident;
for this training program was focused chiefly on the officer
corps .
Cadets were f i rs t exposed to it at the m i l itary
p reparatory school level and then further i nd octri n ated
during their eighteen months at the Military Academy.
How effective was this spiritual training?
Again that
is a n impossible question to answer with any deg ree of
accu racy. A study done by Mark P e a t t i e, however, caused
h i m to rate it quite highly. He wrote:
With the possible exception of the p re-World War I
F rench army, no other army articulated such an extreme
code of sacrifice In the attack ( 5 ) .
I n this context, there was one m i litary officer whose
writings clearly indicate the type of soldier this tra i n i ng
p ro d u ced . This officer's wri t i ng s serve as a powerf u l
testimonial t o t h e influence that the alleged un ity of Zen
and the sword had on both I mperial soldiers and the general
278
•
public. The officer's name was Lt. Colonel S u g i moto G o ro , a
" god of war" (gunshinl 'ifif4J).
Ideal
Lt. Col . S u g i m o t o G o ro , the Z e n/ M i l i t a ry
A b n ef b iog raph ical look a t S u g i moto G o ro reve a l s
that he was born in H i ros h i m a prefecture o n May 2 5 , 1 900.
F o l lowing
completion
of
his p r i m a ry a n d
seco n d a ry
education, he Jomed the I mperial Army in December 1 9 1 8
and was selected for officer candidate school the fol lowing
year.
After g raduation in 1 9 2 1 , he was appoi nted to the
ra n k of Second-Lieutenant and attached to the Eleve nth
I nfantry Regi ment.
Sug i m oto conti nued his m i litary education and was
p romoted to First-Lieutenant in 1 9 24 .
He saw service i n
the China I ncident of 1 9 28 and was awarded the s u m o f 1 00
yen i n 1 9 2 9 by way of appreciation .
1 9 3 1 saw S u g i moto
p romoted to Captam and assuming the position of battalion
adj utant with i n the Eleventh Infantry Reg iment.
279
Shortly
thereafter he went on to become a company commander i n
the same regi ment.
In Dece m be r 1 93 1 Sugi moto was ordered to T i e nJ i n in
northern China as part of the m i l itary res ponse to the
M anchurian I ncident. He returned to J apan In J u l y 1 93 2 and
was awarded the " Distinguished Service Medal for Creating
[the Country of] Manchukuo" in March 1 93 4. One month later
he also received an award of 400 yen for his participation
in that campaign.
In August 1 93 7 Su g i moto was promoted to the rank of
Major and shortly thereafter despatched to northern China
once again. On Sept e m b e r 1 4, 1 937 S u g i moto was mortally
wou nded in a battle which took place in S h a n x i province. He
was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and
awarded several decorations.
As t h e
pre ce d m g
b i o g rap h i c a l
acco u nt
rev e a l s ,
S u g i moto was I n every sense " a good soldier and officer" I f
280
not necessarily a particularly disti ngu ished one. What made
him stand out from his peers, however, were three elements:
1 ) his tota l and absol ute reve rence and loyalty to the
Emperor, 2 ) h is many years of Zen p ractice, and 3 ) his
writings, posthumously published under the title Talgi( G reat
Duty/*li) , describing the same.
The fo l lowing two passages are representative of h is
a t t i t u de to the Emperor.
The first of them is take n from
the first chapter of his book and was entitled si mply "The
Emperor. " It read in part:
The Emperor is identical with the Great [Sun] Goddess
A m at e rasu. He is the supreme and only God of the
u niverse, the supreme sovereign of the u niverse. All
of the many components [of a country] including such
things as its laws and constitution, its rel igion, ethics,
l earning , art, etc. are expedient means by w hich to
p romote u nity with the Emperor. That is to say, the
g reatest m ission of these components is to p romote
a n awareness of the non-existence of the self and the
absolute nature of the Emperor. Because of the non­
existence of the self everything in the universe is a
manifestation of the Emperor. . . i n c l u d i ng even the
insect chirping in the hedge, or the gentle spring breeze.
28 1
Stop such foolishness as respecting Confuci us, reve ri n g
C h ri st, or bel i eving i n Shakya m u n l ' Bel ieve i n the
Emperor, the embodi ment of Supreme Truth, the one
God of the universe' Revere the Emperor for eternity'
I mperial subjects of Japan should not seek the i r own
personal salvation . Rather, thei r goal should be the
expansion of I mperial power. Needless to say, they
will find person al salvation within I mpenal power. I n
as m uch as this i s true, they must pray for the expansion
of I mpenal power. In front of the Emperor their self IS
empty. Within the unity of the sovereign and the people,
the people must not va lue thei r self, but val u e the
E mperor who embodies thei r self.
Loya lty to the Empero r, which i s the h i g hest mora l
training, should never b e done with t h e expectation of
rece iving a nyth i ng in return. Rather, it s hould be
p ra c t i ced without any thou g ht of reward, for the
E mpero r does not exist for the people, but the people
exist for the Emperor . . . . The Emperor does not exist
for the state, but the state ex ists for the E m pe ro r.
This g reat awareness will clearly manifest itself at
the time you discard secular values and recognize that
t h e E m pe ro r is the h i gh est s u p reme va lue for a l l
eternity. If, o n t h e other hand, your u ltimate goal is
eterna l h appiness for you rse lf and salvation o f your
soul, the E mperor becomes a means to an end and is
no longer the highest being. If there is a difference in
the degree of you r reverence for the E mpero r based
on your learning , occupation, or living conditions, then
you a re a self-centere d person. Seeking nothing at
282
a l l , you s hould simply completely d iscard both body
and mind, and unite with the Emperor ( 2 3 -2 5 ) .
The second quotation comes from the fifth chapter of
his boo k , and as the chapter title suggests, it described
S u g i m oto's understanding of the " Imperial Way. "
It read in
part :
The I m perial Way is the Great Way that t h e Emperor
has graciously bestowed on us to follow. For this reason,
It is the Great Way that the mu ltitudes should fol low.
It is the g reatest way in the universe, the true reality
of the Emperor, the hig hest rig hteousness and the
purest of the pure . . . . The I mperial Way is tru ly the
fundamental pnnciple for the gu idance of the world. If
the people are themselves righteous and pure, free of
contentiousness, then they are one with the E mperor;
and the u nity of the sovereign and his subjects is
re a l i z e d .
I s there anything that can b e depended o n other than
the Emperor's Way? Is there a secret key to the
salvation of humanity other than this? Is there a p lace
of refuge other than this? The Emperor should be
reve r e d for a l l eternity. Leading the masses, d ash
straight ahead on the Emperor's Way' Even if inundated
by rag ing waves, or seared by a red-hot i ron, or beset
by all the nations of the world, go straight ahead on
the Emperor's Way without the slightest hesitation I
This is the best and shortest route to the manifestation
283
of the divine land [of Japan ] . The E mpero r's W ay is
what h as been tau g ht by all the saints of the world . Do
not confuse the hig hest righteousness and the purest
of the pure with the merely s i m p l e h e a rted. To sacrifice
oneself for the E mperor is the h ighest rig hteousness
and the purest of t he pure . ThiS is loyalty; this is filial
piety ( 3 6-3 9 ) .
I f the p receding com ments m ay b e characterized as
those of an extreme eth noce ntric nationalist, the question
naturally arises as to what connection, If any, t hey h ave to
e ither Budd hism in g eneral or Zen in particular.
On the
su rface they wou ld appear to have little connection si nce
S u g i m o to even goes so far as to advocate the cessation of
belief in Buddha Shaky a m u n i among others.
Similarly, while
a whole chapter of his book is devoted to a discussion of
the " Imperial Way" or the Emperor's Way ( Tennoclo/ ��i9),
t h e re is not t h e s l i g htest mention of " I m pe ri a l WayBuddhis m " let alone " Imperial State-Zen . "
I n examining these issues it m u st first b e noted that
the concept of an "Imperial Way" was by no means an i nvention
284
of institutional Buddhism. On the contrary, from as early as
the M e iJ i period it had been a creature of the state, especially
the Department of Education. Kitag awa expressed Its salient
features as foljows:
The underlying assumption of the " Imperial Way" was
that the nation is in essence a patriarchal fam ily with
the emperor as Its head. It was taken for granted that
individuals exist for the nation rather than the other
way around. Equally important was the assumption that
s o m e men are born to ru le while others are to be ruled
because men are by nature unequal ( 1 8 7 ) .
I n light of this definition, i t can b e seen that S u g i moto
was simply repeati ng the popular conception of this term
though perhaps
" I m p e ri a l
III
a somewhat more extreme form . Likewise,
Way-Buddhism, "
as
d i scussed
p rev i o u s l y ,
i ncorpo rated the same va lues, the only diffe rence being
that Buddhist co mmentators attempted to show that
Japa nese Buddhism had either been the sou rce of these
values or at least was compatible with these values.
what, then, was Sug i moto's connection to all this?
285
But
First of a l l , Sug i moto also had this to say about
Shakya m u n i :
When Shakya m u n i sat In meditation beneath the Bodhi
tree I n order to see i nto his true nature, he had to
fight with an army of Innumerable demons. Those who
rush forwa rd to save the Empire a re tru ly g reat men
as he was, pathfinders who sacrifice themselves for
the Emperor ( 6 2 ) .
While S u g i m oto had little to say about Buddhism as
such, he readily used Buddhist terminology to make
point.
his
For example, he quoted the Nirvana Sutra on the
i mportance of llprotecting the true Dharma.ll He then went
on to assert that "the highest a nd o nly true Dharma i n the
world exists within the Emperor" ( 5 3 ) .
Likewise, he quoted
from the s a m e sutra on the need to " keep the [Buddh i st]
precepts . " In a similar vein, h e then stated that " reverently
p rotecting the Emperor is the world's highest keeping of
the precepts. "
286
In his chapter on war, Su g i moto also revealed a B u d d h ist
influence. He wrote:
The wars of the Empire are sacred wars. They are holy
wars. They are the [Buddh ist] p ractice (gyol fT) of
g reat compassion (dai}ihlshinl *�?J/C.\) . Therefore the
I mperial military must consist of holy officers and holy
soldiers ( 1 3 9 ) .
As previously noted, the belief that war was a n expression
of Buddh ist compassion had long been an article of fa ith
within i n stitutional Buddhism.
If references to Buddhism in general were relatively
l i m ited in Sugi moto's writings, the same cannot be said
a bout his references, both direct and indirect, to Zen .
As
early as the introduction to h is book he had this to say:
If you wish to penetrate the true meaning of " G reat
Duty, " the first thing you should do IS to embrace the
teachings of Zen and discard self-attachment ( 1 9 ) .
A s t o why self-atta chment should b e d isca rd e d ,
S u g i m oto went on to g ive this explanation:
287
War is moral training for not only the individual but
for the entire worl d . It consists o f the extinction of
self-seeking and the destruction of self-preservation.
It IS only those without self-attachment who a re able
to revere the Emperor absolutely ( 1 40) .
S u g i m oto a lso found Inspiration for hiS beliefs i n the
teachings of some of Zen's greatest masters.
For example,
he wrote about Dagen, the 1 3 th century founder of the Soto
Zen sect in Japan, as follows:
Zen M aster Doge n said, "To study the Buddha Dharma i s
to study the self. To study the self IS to forget the
self. " To forget the self means to discard both body
a nd mind. To discard beyond discarding, to d iscard
until there IS nothing left to discard . . . . This is called
reaching the Great Way in which there is no dou bt.
This is the Great Law of the universe . In this way the
great spirit of the h ig hest righeous ness and the pu rest
of the pure manifests itself in the individu a l . This is
the u nity of the sovereign a nd his subjects, the o rigin
of faith in the Emperor ( 1 0 1 ) .
S u g i moto was equ ally ready to en list the g reatest of
the C h i nese Zen masters in his cause.
P'u- yUa n (7 48-834/�*-fi-1i) he wrote:
288
About Nan- ch'Uan
An ancient m aster [ Nan- ch'Qan] said, "One's ordinary
m i n d is the Way" . . . . In the spring there are hundreds
of flowers, and in the fal l , the moon. In the sum mer
there are cool breezes, and in the winter, snow. Laying
down one's l ife in order to destroy the rebels IS one's
o rdinary m ind . If one does not fal l victim to an idle
m ind, this is truly the practice of Great Duty. It is this
that m ust be called the essence of faith in the Empe ror
(99).
S u g i moto subsequently went on to add that "sacrificing
oneself for the Emperor is one's ordinary mind" And further,
those who possess this m i nd are "true I mperi al subjects"
( 1 43 ).
Beyond quotations like the above that show a direct
Zen i nflu e nce, Sugi moto used a nu mber of Zen terms
throughout his writing .
For example, he devoted an entire
chapter ( Chapter 20) to the question of " life and death . " In
the best Zen fashion he explained that " life and death a re
identical" ( 1 5 1 ) .
As to how one comes to this realization,
he stated, "It is achieved by abandoning both body and mind,
by extingu ishing the self" ( 1 5 2 ) .
289
If the preceding appears to be o rthodox Zen teaching,
S u g i m o to then went on to add:
Wa rriors who sacrifice their l ives for the E mpero r will
not die, but live forever. Truly, t hey should be cal led
gods and Buddhas for whom there is no life or death . . .
. Where there is a bsolute loyalty there IS no l ife or
death. Where there is life and death there is no absolute
loyalty . When a person talks of his view of life a nd
death, that person has not yet become pure in heart.
He has not yet abandoned body and mind. In pure loyalty
there is no l ife o r d eath. Simply l ive i n pure l oyaltyl
( 1 5 3-54)
And
f i n a l ly ,
cl o s e ly
con nected
with
the
a b ove
se nti m e nts i s the state ment fo r which S u g i moto was
destined to be best remembered:
If you wish to see me, live In reverence for the Emperorl
Where there is the spirit of revere nce for the E mperor,
there will I always be ( 1 5 6 ) .
I t might be a rgued that S u g i moto's understanding of
B u d d h i s m and Zen as represented above was no more than
one nationalist's wilful distortion of these traditions.
While
this may in fact be true, to lightly dismiss it as such woul d
290
be to m iss its real sig nificance.
That is to say, it wou ld
mean Ignoring the fact that leadmg Zen masters of the day
readily a g reed with Sugi moto in his identification of Zen
with both war and the Emperor.
First and foremost of these supportive Zen m asters
was Yam a z a k i E k iJu ( 1 882- 1 9 6 1 /LlJ ����I ) , chief abbot o f the
ButtsuJ i branch (ikii��m) of the R i n z a i Zen sect. In one sense
it is hard ly surprising to find E k iJu lending his support to
S u g i moto i n as much as the latter had been h is lay disciple.
Concrete ly, E k iju's support took the form of a 1 04 page
eulogy attached to the end of Sugi moto's book. It began as
fol l ows:
I once said at a lecture I gave, "The faith of the Japa nese
people is a faith that should be cente red on His Imperial
Maj esty, the E mperor." At that time Sug i m oto said
that he was in complete agreement with me. He then
went on to add, "I had felt exactly as you do, but I had
been u nable to find the right words to express it.
Present-day re l i g i o n i s t s raise a fuss about the need
for faith , but their faith is mistaken. B u d d h ists say
that one should have faith in the Buddha, or Vairocana,
291
o r Buddha Amita, but such faith is one that has been
captu red by rel i gion . Japa nese Buddhism must be
ce ntered on the Emperor; for if were it not, it wou ld
have no place in Japan, it wou ld not be living Buddhism.
Even B u d d h ism must conform to the national structu re
of Japan. The same holds true for Shakya m u ni's
teachings. "
Su g i moto continued,
"The Budd h ist statues that are enshrined In temples
should, properly speaki ng, have the Emperor reverently
e nshrined in the c e nte r and suc h figures as Buddha
A mita 0 r Vairocana at h is sides. It is only all of the
various branches of the Zen sect in Japan who have H is
Majesty enshrined in the ce nter . . . . All of J a p a nese
Buddhism should have His Majesty, the Emperor as their
central objects of worship ( 1 60-6 1 ) .
E k iju then proceeded t o compare Sugim oto ' s feeli ngs
of reverence to the Emperor with his own.
About h imself
he stated:
For Japanese there is no such t h i ng as sacri fice.
Sacrifice m eans to totally anni h i late one's body on
behalf of the I mperial state. The J a panese peopl e ,
however, have been o n e with the Empero r from the
beginning. In this place of absoluteness there is no
sacrifice. In Japan, the relationship between His Majesty
and the people is not relative but absolute ( 1 64).
292
I n comparing S u g i moto's and E k iju's attitude's towards
the Emperor, it can be said that they are absolutely identical
in th e i r absoluteness ' . Thus, it IS hardly surprising to learn
that S u g i moto, who was already a seasoned Zen practitioner
when he first met E k iJu, went on to tram an addltlqnal nine
years under the l atter's gUidance. With eVident satisfaction
in the level of realization of his lay disciple, E k iJu quoted
Sugimoto as follows:
The n ational structure of Japan and Buddhism a re
identical with each other. In Buddh ism, especially the
Zen sect, there is repeated reference to the Identity
of body and mind. I n order to realize this identity of
the two it is necessary to undergo training with a l l
one's might and regardless o f the sacrifice.
Furthermore, the essence of the unity of body and m ind
is to be found in e g o l essness. Japan IS a country where
the sovereign and the people a re i dentica l . When
I m peri a l subjects m e l d themselves i nto one with the
August Mind [of the Emperor] , their original cou ntenance
shines forth. The essence of the unity of the sovereign
and the people IS e g o lessness. Ego lessness and self­
extinction are most definitely not separate states. On
the contrary, one comes to rea l i ze that they a re
identical with each other ( 1 6 7 ) .
293
The "egol essness" of which Sugi moto speaks is t he
well-known Zen term of muga (mft) . In his book on Zen and
Japanese Culture, S u z u k i identified muga as being identical
with not only muso ( no-reflection/ m�) and munen ( n othought/fJft� ) , but also mushin (no-mind/fJft/t\) [ 1 1 1 - 1 2 7] .
About these latter terms S u z u k i had this to say:
Mushin (wu- hSln) or munen (wu- nien) is one of the most
important ideas In Zen. It corresponds to the state of
innocence enjoyed by the first Inhabitants of the Garden
of Eden, or even to the mind of God when he was about
to utter his fiat, " Let there be l ight." Eno ( Hu i- neng),
the sixth patriarch of Zen, emphasizes munen (or mushin
) as the most essential element in the study of Zen .
When it is attained, a man becomes a Zen-man, a n d . . .
a l s o a perfect swordsman ( 1 1 1 ) .
Was S u g i m oto, then, the " Zen-man" of which S u z u k i
wrote? I t is clear that E k iJu believed h e was. This master
wrote :
As far as the power of his practice of the Way is
concerned, I believe he [Sug i moto] reached the point
where there was no difference between him and the
chief abbot of this or that branch [of Zen] . I think that
when a person esteems p ractice, respects the Way,
294
and thoroughly penetrates the self as he did, he cou ld
become the teacher of other Zen practitioners. That
is how accomplished he was. In my opinion h is practice
was complete ( 1 9 2 ) .
I f this praise was not high enough, E k iju later went o n
t o write:
Altogether Sug i moto practiced Zen for nearly twenty
years . Bod hidharma pract iced [ meditation] facing the
w a l l for nine years. S u g i m oto' s penetratmg zazen
[ se ated meditation/��¥] was as excellent as that. He
was thoroug hly devoted to h is unique I mperial State­
Zen ( 2 1 9).
For E k iJu, then, S u g i moto was the modern eqUiva lent
of Bodhidharma, the traditional, if not legendary, 5th century
founder of the Zen sect in China. Within the Zen tradition,
this represents the epitome of praise.
N ot o nly that, E k iju
wrote for the first time about what he termed S u g i m o to's
"u nique I mperial State-Zen (kokoku Zen/.��*'i!). This appears
to be an appellation which E k iJu himself gave to S u g i moto's
E m pe r o r-ce ntere d faith, for nowhere i n Sugimoto's writings
295
was that term to be found. Yet, according to E k iju, Sugi moto
did once say:
The Zen that I do is not the Zen of the Zen sect. It is
m i litary Zen [gunJin Zen/ .A� ] . The reason that Zen is
important for soldiers is that all J a p a nese, especially
s o l d i e rs , must live in the spirit of the unity of sovereign
and s u bjects, eliminating their ego and g etting rid of
their self. It is exactly the awakening to the nothingness
[mu/ M] of Zen that IS the fundamental spi rit of the
u nity of sovereign a nd subj ects. Throug h my p ractice
of Zen I a m able to get rid of my ego. I n facilitating
the accomplishment of this, Zen becomes, as it is, the
true spirit of the I mpenal mil itary ( 1 7 8 ) .
In the next passage, Sugimoto went o n to explain exactly
why it was that the "spiritual tra i n i ng " p rovided to t he
military was focused on the officer class. He said:
Within the military, officers must use this [Zen] spirit
in the training of their troops. I n the training of troops
mere talk is not enough. If you don't set the example
or put it i nto practice you rself, you r training is a l ie . . .
. . W hat one hasn't seen for oneself cannot be taught
to one's troops. As the senior, one must first be pure
o nese l f. Otherwise, one cannot serve the state through
exti nguishing and discarding the ego ( 1 7 9 ) .
296
Given the above sentiments, it wou ld appear that there
was no rea l difference between Sugimoto 's self-designated
II m i l i t a ry Zenll and E k iJu's II l mperial State-Zen . II
Given
previous descriptions of " I mperial Way-Buddhism," it is also
clear t h at the same spirit of absolute obedi ence a n d
subservience t o the Emperor's wi l l ru ns throug h t h e m all.
This said , one question remainS, i .e . what kind of soldier did
Sugimoto, with all his Zen training, actu ally become?
Was
he the II perfect swordsman" of whom S u z u k i wrote above?
About Sugimoto's military prowess o n the battlefield,
Ek iJu wrote as follows:
I don't k now what degree [of atta i n me nt] he had i n
KenclO [the Way o f the Sword/�Jii ] , but i t appears he
was q u ite accomplished. . . . When he went to the
battlefie l d it appears that he u sed the sword with
consum m ate ski l l . . . . I believe he demonstrated the
action wh ich derives from the u nity of Zen and the
sword ( 1 9 5 ) .
297
E k iJu also recorded the fol lowing conversation the two
men had shortly before Sugimoto went off to fight in China
in 1 93 1 :
Sugimoto asked, " Master, what kind of understanding
should I have as I go over there?" I answered, "You are
strong, and you r unit is strong. Thus I think you will
not fear a strong enemy. However, I n the event you
face a small enemy, you must not despise them. You
should read one section of the Pra)naparamita Hridya
[ Heart] S ut ra every day. This will i nsure good fortune
on the battlefield for the I mperial mil itary" ( 1 8 2 ) .
I ntended o r not, the above conversation cannot help
but rem i nd one of a similar i nc ident that took p l ace, as
p reviously noted, nearly seven centuries earlier b etween
HOjO To k i m u ne and his C h i nese Zen master, Sag e n.
This
time, however, there was no shout of " Katsu! " to demonstrate
the student's level of attainment. Yet, E k iju went on to add
that when Sugi moto did eventually return safely from Chi na,
he said, " I d ied once while I was in T i e nj i n. " About this E k iju
c o m m e nted,
"Th ro u g h the awareness he a c h i eved i n
298
becom i ng one with death, there was, I think, nothing he
cou ldn't achieve" ( 1 8 2-8 3 ) .
Finally, there was the question o f Sugi moto's d eath o n
t h e battlefield.
Based o n reports he had received, E k iJu
described how Sugi moto had been leading his troops i nto
battle when an enemy hand-grenade had landed behind h i m
_
and exploded. He went on:
A grenade fragment hit h i m in the left shoulder. He
seemed to have fa l len down but then got up again.
Althou g h he was standing, one cou l d not hear h is
commands. He was no longer able to Issue com mands
with that husky voice of hiS. . . . Yet he was stili standing,
ho l d i n g h is sword In o ne hand as a prop. Both legs
were slightly bent, and he was facing in an easterly
d irection [towa rd the I mperial Palace ] . It appeared
that h e had saluted though his hand was now lowered
to about the level of his mouth. The blood flowing
from his mouth covered his watch . . . . ( 2 54).
In E k iJu's mind, at least, this was his lay disciple's finest
moment.
The moment when he most clearly displayed the
power which was to gained by those who p ra c t i c e d Zen.
299
That is to say, Sugimoto had died standing up. As he explained
it:
I n the past it was considered to b e the true appearance
of a Zen priest to pass away while doing zazen. Those
who were completely and thorou g h ly e n l ig hte ned,
however, . . . cou ld die calmly in a standing position . . . .
The reason this was possible was due t o samadhi power
(jori k i/ 'fEiJ) [2 55-56].
The technical term samadhi refers to the concentrated
state of mind, the mental 'one pointedness,' that is achieved
through the practice of zazen. It was about this meditatlonde rived powe r that Suzuki, Seisen, Furu kawa et. al . h ad
written so often.
Together with E k iJu, they were a l l i n
ag reement that Zen was the fountai nhead o f this power, a
power that was available to J apanese wa rriors, both p ast
and present. Sugimoto's l ife, and especially his death, were
l iving proof of its effectiveness in battle.
At l ast E k iJu was ready to complete his eulogy of
Sugimoto . He did so as fol lows:
300
To the last second Sugimoto was a man whose speech
and actions were at one with each other. W hen he
saluted and faced the east, there IS no doubt that he
also shouted , " May HIS Majesty, the E mperor l ive for
1 0 , 000 years�" It is for this reason that h is was the
rad iant ending of an I mpenal soldier. Not only that,
but his excellent appearance should b e a model for
fu ture generations of someone who lived I n Zen . . . .
Although it can be said that his l i fe of thirty-eight
yea rs was all too short, for someone who has t ruly
obtained samadht power, there IS no question of a long
or short period. The great, true appearance of Sugimoto
G o ro was of someone who had united with emptiness,
e mbodying total loyalty [to the Emperor] and service
to the state. I am convinced he IS one of those who
should he be reborn seven times over, would reverently
work to destroy the enemies of the Emperor (Written
on the 1 1 th of Feb ru a ry of the 2, 5 9 8th year of the
Imperial reign) [ 2 5 6-57 ] .
Although t h e p receding words m a rk t h e e n d of
Sugimoto' s boo k Taigi, they by no means mark the influence
his writings were to have on the Japa n ese, especially the
youth, of his age.
As E k iju hoped, Sugimoto did i ndeed
become the model of a military figu re who had thoroug hly
i mbibed the Zen spirit.
The p u b l ication of Taigi beca me
the catalyst for a flurry of activity, i nc l u d i ng both long and
301
short written
pieces extolling the virtues of this " m i litary
god."
Those who sought to promote Sugimoto's ideology were
by no means limited to R i n z a i Zen adherents. The Soto Zen
sect fou nd h i m equally praiseworthy.
One example of this
was an article entitled "The Zen of Clothing and Food " which
appeared in the A p r i l 1 943 issue of Sansho ($.l'� ), a periodical
serving as the official organ for E i h e iJ i, the Soto Zen sect's
largest monastery. The article's author, Taki zawa Ka nyu Om
�.!l) wanted to encourage frugality among the Japa n e se
civi lian popu l ation i n anticipation of the " decisive battle "
which h e believed was emi nent.
Looking for a Zen-inspi red
model of the frugality he advocated, he wrote:
I n the past, there were men like military god, Lt. Col.
Sug imoto G o re>. He never complained about [the quality
of] his food. No matter how humble it was, he ate it
g ladly, t reating it as a delicacy. Further, h e was
i n d i ffe re nt to what he wore, wearing tattered, though
never SOiled, clothi ng and hats. This is according to
302
Zen Master Yamazaki E k iju's description of the Colonel
as co nta ined in the latter's posthumous book, Taigi
(741 ).
Sugi moto 's adm i rers , moreover, were not simp ly to
be fou nd within Zen circles.
Needless to say, he also had
the support of leading members of the I mperi a l m i litary,
especially its officer corps .
This is clear, first of all, from
the fact that two generals contributed a piece of their own
c a l l i g raphy as part of the i ntroduction to Taigi its e l f.
Furthermore, when one of Sugimoto's fel low lay Zen trainees
wrote a second account of his l ife, Lt. Col. Koz u k i Yos h i o ( J:.
FJ m*) of the Impenal Army, wrote one of the prefaces.
This book, entitled appropriately, Lt. Col. Sugimoto Goro 's
was written by Oya m a S u m ita (*JlJ�;t:), a government official.
Lt. Col. Koz u k i's preface concluded with the fol lowing words:
303
For the sake of our I mperial nation there is nothing
that would make me happier than for this book to result
In the birth of a second and third Sugimoto ( i i i ).
I f J apa nese m i l itary leaders lent their support to
p ro moting Sug i moto' s ideas, it is hardly surpnsin g to find
leading gove rnment officials doi ng likewise .
I n a second
p reface to the same book, the V i ce- M inister of t h e
Com m unications Min istry, Owada T e iJ i ( *® IB�=) had this to
say:
At p resent, all the people of our nation have risen to
complete the goals of this sacred war. At such a time
it is i ndeed fel icitous for thi s i nvincible cou ntry to
h ave obtained this book which promotes the rebi rth of
the Lt . Colonel's g reat spirit with in the m inds of one
hundred m i l l ion citizens. What an u n l im ited J OY it is
for East A s i at (v i i )
For all the statements o f support noted above, i t was
not here that the true significance of Sugi moto's life, thought,
and w ri t i n g s was to be fou nd. That is to say, none of the
g roups mentioned above needed to be convinced of the
justice of Japan's sacred war. Yet there was one g roup who
304
were not necessarily convinced that this war demanded the
sacrifice of their lives - the school age youth of Japan.
It
was with these youth that Taigi was desti ned to have its
g reatest impact .
I n his war recollections, Okuno Takeo ( JJ:mJM� ) wrote
of the effect that Taigi had on his and his schoolmates'
l ives as fol lows :
By 1 943-44 the war situation in the Pacific War had
gradually worsened . Middle school students began to
read Sugimoto G o ro's Taigi with great enthusiasm . . . .
By word of mouth we got the message - read Taigi ,
it's terrific ! It teaches what true reverence for the
Emperor really is! I was then attending Azabu middle
school [in To kyo] . I n 1 943 I had taken turns i n reading
Taigi. The resu lt of this was that I and my friends
formed a stude nt club we called the Chikushinkai
(Bamboo Mind Society/ 1'r/t\�) to put into practice the
spirit of Taigi .
We bought in instructors from the
outside and held study meetings. The same kind of
Taigi study circles sprang up i n all the middle schools
i n Tokyo . We then started to communicate among
ourselves. . . I later learned that in almost all middle
schools throughout Japan Taigi had been fervently read
and student study societies created ( Chua Koran 77).
.
.
.
.
305
While there is no way to accu rately assess the i mpact
that Taigi had on the youth of Japan, the preceding quote
makes It clear that it was a sig mficant motivational factor.
While it m ay be argued that these youth were, after a l l ,
sti l l students, i t should be remem bered that after 1 9 43
even students as young as fifteen came under pressure to
assume a variety of wartime roles.
l e n ag a has wntten the
following g raphic description of thiS development:
In 1 943 d efe rments were ended fo r stu d ents in
u n i v e rs i t i e s , technical colleges, and h igher schools . . . .
M o b i l i zation reached t h e lowe r g rades i n fo rm a l ly
throug h quotas for youth volunteers ( boys fifteen to
seventeen years of age) and volu nteers for M anchu ria­
M o n g o l i a Development Youth Patriotic Units . M ad e
responsible for fil li ng the quotas, teachers p ressu red
the children directly by saying, "Any Japanese boy who
doesn't get into this ' holy war' will be shamed for l ife . "
The teachers would visit a student's home and get h is
parents' tearful approval. Many boys in their m id-teens
b e c a m e y o u t h p i l o ts a n d you t h t a n k e rs , o r
"volunteered" for service i n Manc h u ri a a nd Mongolia.
These rosy-c hee ked teenagers were put i n special
attack u n its and blew themselves u p c rash i n g i nt o
enemy ships ( 1 9 5-9 6 ) .
306
The vaunted unity of Zen and the sword as advocated
by the E k iJu's and S u z u k i's of the B u d d hist world had come
to this - p l ac i ng youth who were l ittle more than children
into "special attac k units" ( tokkotai/ �I��) to become the
i nfamous kamikaze (:Mtlmt) pilots headed on a one-way trip
to oblivion.
Ze n Masters i n the War Effort
I t woul d be comfortmg, thou g h mcorrect, to bel ieve
that E k iJu and his " Imperial State-Zen " were somehow unique
or isolated phenomenon with i n Zen circles during the war
years . The truth is that he was merely " representative" of
what both other leading Zen masters were saYing and doing
at this time.
If there is anything that disti ngu ished him at
a l l from h is conte mporaries it was that one of h is lay
disciples, i . e . Sugi moto G o ro , had come to epitomize i n l ife
(or, better said, in death) what many Zen m asters and
scholars merely talked about in a somewhat abstract way.
307
Nevertheless, the i mporta nce of this " me rely talked
about" role of Zen m asters should not be u nderestim ated .
As
p revi o u s ly
d i sc u sse d ,
the
g ov e rn m e nt
c e rt a i n ly
appreciated its i mportance a s a potential morale booster
(or destroyer) .
Sugimoto had h i m s e l f described what he
believed the appropriate role of not only Zen p riests but
all Buddh ist priests ought to be. He wrote:
Each B u d d h i st temple
d eve l o p i n g sp i ri t u a l
Priests should b e the
doing they can claim
religion ( 1 9 8 ) .
should be a training c e n t e r for
d i sc i p l i n e w i t h i n the peo p l e .
leaders of this training. I n s o
the right t o b e called men o f
Not surprisingly, E k iJu found that i n saying this Sugimoto
had d isplayed a "grand attitude" ( 1 9 8 ) . Yet he was far from
alone in the Zen world in his acceptance of this role.
M aste r Hata
Zen
Esho ( 1 8 6 2- 1 944/�SHB ) , who was b o t h
administrative head of the Soto Zen sect and chief abbot o f
E i h e ij i, was a lso in agreement.
He wrote the followin g i n
the December 1 942 issue of Sansho:
308
One fu l l year has elapsed si nce the outbreak of the
Gre ater East As i a n War. It is said that the wa r has
e n t e re d a stage of protracted fighting. In such a stage
t h e need for materials will increase more and more . . . .
We Zen priests cannot directly produce so m uch as a
grain of rice or a sheet of paper. However, in terms of
developing the spIritual power of the people, there is
a way for us, i ncompetent thou g h we be, to do our
publ ic duty. I believe that we shou ld do everything in
our power to go in this di rection (409- ' 0 ) .
If there i s any question a s to what this most powerful
Soto Zen master thought of Japan's war effort, or Buddhism's
relationship to that effort, Esho clarified his position in the
same issue of Sansho. He wrote:
O n Decem be r 8th Buddha Shakya m u n t looked at the
morning star and realized perfect enlightenment while
seated u nder the Bodhi tree. One year ago, on this
very d ay, through the p rocl amation of the I mperial
edict to annihilate A m e r i c a and England, our country
s t a rted afresh toward a new East As i a, a g reat East
Asia . This signifies nothing less than the enl ightenment
of East Asia . . . . As we now welcome the first anniversary
of the outbreak of the Greater E ast Asi a n War, we
rea l i ze that the future wi l l not be easy. We m ust
therefore renew ou r conviction that nothing else but
certain victory lies ahead (407).
309
In accordance with Esho 's directions, Soto Zen leaders
focused their efforts on " developing the spiritual power of
the people . " Typical of this effort was an exhortation written
on January 1 , 1 94 1 by the sect's administrative head, Om o r i
Zenkal (*�tij1�) .
His article i ncorporated the very same
quote from Zen Master Dogen about "forget [ting] the self"
that Sugimoto had used previously. Zenkal went on to add :
The essence of the practice of an [ Imperial] subject is
to be found in the basic principle of the Buddha Way
which is to forget the self. It is by giving concrete
form to this essence in any and all situations, regardless
of time or p lace, that Buddhism is, for the first time,
able to repay the debt of gratitude it owes the state
(So to Shuho 1 ).
The following yea r Zen Master Yamada R e l r i n ( 1 8891 979/l1I mB�) wrote a book entitled Evenmg Talks on Zen
Studies (Zengaku Yawal t.!j!�elli ) .
In postwa r years R e i r i n
would go on to first become President of Soto Zen-affi l i ated
Komazawa University and then the chief abbot of E i h e ij i .
31 0
R e i r i n began his book by pointmg out that Emperor
K i m m e l ( 5 3 9- 5 7 1 /�D}J ) first al lowed Buddhism i nto Japan
because he recognized that " it would be of service to h i m "
( 2 5). R e i r i n then went o n t o speculate a s t o whether o r not
Buddhism was still able to render such service. He wrote:
J apan has now plunged in the most serious situation It
has faced smce the beginning its history. The question
I S whether or not Buddhism can now be of service to
the E mperor. In both quantity and quality, it is necessary
for Buddhism to p rovi de such excel lent service. All
B u d d h ists, reg a rdless of sectarian affi l iation , m ust
come forwa rd to d o their great duty in support of
I mperial rule ( 2 6 ) .
R e i r i n clearly be lieved h e was doi ng his part i n this
effort because he took a whole chapter to address one of
the most d ifficult problems o n the wartime h o mefront the consolation of parents whose sons had fa llen i n battle.
Util iz i n g the popular fol k belief in Japan concern i n g the
trans m i g ration of souls , R e i r i n p rovided the fol l owi ng
explanation:
31 1
The true form of the heroic spi rits [of the dead] is the
good k a rm i c power that has resulted from their loyalty,
b rave ry, and nobi l i ty of characte r. This c a n not
disappear . . . . The body and mind that will be produced
by this k a r m i c power cannot be other than what h as
existed up to the present. . . . The loyal, brave, noble,
and heroic spirits of those officers and men who have
died shouting, "May the Emperor live for ten thousand
years l " w i l l be reborn right here in this country. It is
only natural that this should occur ( 5 3-4 ) .
Finally, like so many of h is predecessors, R e i r i n could
not fo rego a discussion of the "viri l ity" HOJ o Tok i m u ne
received from his Zen training ( 1 83 ) .
H e then went o n to
assert that it was Zen which made possible the maintenance
of an adamantine mind and the gushing forth of a pure and
fiery spirit ( 1 90) . If one would but " annihilate the ego, " he
wrote, then an "absolute and mysterious power and radiance
would fill one 's body and mind" ( 8 5 ) .
All of this, plus " an
u n l i m ited g ratitude to the I mperi a l m i l i t a ry " for their
11
"wonderful fruits of battle ( 8 1 ) .
31 2
Soto Zen scholars of the period were no less supportive
of Japan's war effort than were that sect's Zen masters .
O n e o f the sect's best known scholars, a specialist in the
thought of Zen Master Dogen ( 1 200- 1 2 5 3/i@;&) , was Dr.
K u re bayas h i Kodo (.**�� ) .
In postwar years he wou l d
succeed Yamada R e i r i n as President o f Komazawa University.
At the outbreak of fu ll-scale war with Chma m 1 9 3 7 , he
wrote an article entitled "The [China ] Incident a nd Buddhis m . "
Ku re bayashi's article, appearing i n the October 1 9 3 7
issue o f Sansho, began with the now customary advocacy
of the "Just war" theory. " It goes without sayi ng, " he said,
" that the North China I ncident
(375).
IS
a war on behalf of Justice"
Not only that, but "all of Japan's wa rs since the
S i n o- Japa nese War have been such wars " ( 3 7 5 ) . And as if
that were not enough, he added, "And in the future should
there be further wars there is no doubt they w i l l also be
Just" ( 3 7 5 ) .
31 3
ASide
fro m
g iv i n g
p resent and futu re J a p a nese
g overnments carte blanche to fight wherever and whenever
t hey wished, K u re bayashl's statement IS notable for the
rationale he provided to Justify his position. He wrote:
The reason [Japan's wars are Just] is, I dare say, because
of the influence of the Buddhist spi nto The spirit of
Japan which was nurtured by Buddhism is ceaselessly
wo rki n g toward s coopera ti o n among peoples a n d
eternal peace i n the Orient. Without the influence of
Buddhism, a thoroughgoing, i nternational frate rna l
spirit would be impossible ( 3 7 5 ) .
Ku rebayash i went o n to assert that Japan's actions in
China were the "practice of compassion . " ( 3 7 6-77 ) .
Based
on this, he had the fol lowi ng to say about the Impenal
m i l i t a ry :
Wherever the Imperial mil itary advances there i s only
charity and love. They could never act in the barbarous
and cruel way in which the Ch i nese soldiers act. This
can truly be considered to be a g reat accomplishment
of the long period which Buddhism took i n nurtu ring
[the Japanese mil itary] . Expressed in different words,
it means that b rutality itself no longer exists in the
officers and men of the I m peri a l m i l itary who h ave
been schooled in the spirit of Buddhism ( 3 7 7 ) .
31 4
K u re bayas h i concluded the a rticle by rem i n d i n g h is
readers that " it was only the Japanese people who embodied
the true spi rit of Buddhism" ( 3 7 8 ) .
"Without a fa ith in
Buddhis m , " he asserted, "this nation cannot p rosper, nor
can h u manity find happi ness" ( 3 7 8 ) .
One can only wonder
w h at K u rebayash i would h ave s a i d to l en aga' s
well­
docu mented assertion that "there were s o many atrocities
[ committed by Japan ese troops] that one cannot even begin
to list them all" ( 1 6 7 ) .
K u reb ayas h i was not, o f course, the only Zen scholar
to voice his support of Japan's war efforts. Dr. H ldane J osan,
a p rofessor at the R i n z a i Ze n sect-affili ated u n ive rs i ty,
R i n z a i G a k u i n, also wrote an article about the same "incident."
His article was entitled, reveali ngly, "The Cu rrent I ncident
and the Vow and Practice of a BodhIsattva ." I t appeared in
the October 1 93 7 issue of Zenshu, a monthly periodical
31 5
Jointly supported by all thirteen branches of the R i n z a i Zen
sect.
Hidane began his article with the assertion that up to
this point Japan's modern wars had been a matter of " selfdefense" ( 1 9 ) .
" It is impossible , " he wrote,
"to find a ny
other meaning to either the S i no- J ap a nese War, the R us soJ a p a nese War, or the Manchurian Incident [of 1 9 3 1 ] " ( 1 9 ) .
The current fighting, however, was different:
Speaking from the point of view of the ideal outcome,
this is a ng hteous and moral war of sel f-sacrifice In
which we will rescue China fro m the d a n g ers of
Communist takeover and economic slavery. We will help
them live as true O ri e nta ls. It would therefore , I dare
say, not be u n reasonable to call this a sacred war
I n corporat i n g the great practice of a Bodhisattva ( 1 9).
There is one other Imeage (or school) of Zen Budd h i sts
whose wartime words and actions are noteworthy. As S h a rf
has noted, this l i neage, though rel atively small i n number,
has been quite influential in spread ing their version of Zen
i n the West, especially the United States (40 ) . The fou nder
31 6
of this group was Zen Master Harada Daiun Sog a k u ( 1 8 701 96 1 /IJj{ EB*�*.Il&-) . Ph i l i p Kapleau, a prominent descendant
i n this l i neage, included the fol lowi ng descri ption of this
master i n his now famous book, The Three Pillars of Zen:
Nomi nally of the So to sect, he [Da iun] welded together
the best of Soto and R i n z a i and the resulting a m algam
was a vibrant Buddhism which has become one of the
g reat teachmg lines of Japan today. Probably m ore
than anyone else I n his time he revita li zed, t hrou g h
his p rofound spiritu al I nsig ht, the teachings o f Dogen­
z e nJ i, which had been steadily d rained of their v i g o r
t h ro u g h the s h a l l ow u nderstanding o f p riests a n d
s ch o l a rs of t h e Soto s e c t in whose hands t h e i r
exposition h a d hitherto rested . . . . Like all masters of
high spiritual development, he was the keenest Judge
of character. He was as quick to expose p re t e n s e and
sham as he was to detect it. Exceptional students he
d rove merci lessly, exacting from them the b est of
which they were capable. From all he demanded as a
sine qua non since rity and absolute adherence to his
teach i ngs, b ro o k i n g not the slightest deviation . Casual
o b s e rve rs often fou n d him rig i d a n d narrow, b u t
d isciples and students who were faithful to his teachings
knew him to be wise and compassionate ( 2 73-74) .
31 7
Another promi nent member of this l i neage, Maezu m i
Ha kuyu Ta izan ( 1 9 3 0- ) , fou nder of the Zen Ce nter o f Los
A n g e l es, had this to say about Dalun:
Daiun H a rada R o s h l was a Zen master of rare breadth
and accomplishment in the twentieth-century Japan . . .
. He became abbot of Hoss h l nJ i and dUring the next
forty years, until his death In 1 9 6 1 , made the monastery
famous as a rigorous Zen tra ining center, k nown for
its harsh climate, its strict discipline and its abbot's
keen Zen eye ( Maezumi and Glassman 1 94) .
Whatever else he may have been, the fact is that Daiu n
was also one of the most committed Zen supporters of
Japan's m i litary actions.
If, as Kapleau clai ms,
Dalun
" revita li zed " Zen, he did so b y creating something he
designated as "War Zen " (sensa Zen / !\tl�*¥) as early as
1 9 1 5 . I t was i n this year that he published a book entitled
A Primer on the Practice of Zen
(Sanzen no kaitei/ #*ji!(l)�
m) of which IIWar Zenll formed the eleventh chapter.
The fi rst subtitle of this chapter was e ntitled "The
Entire Universe is at War" ( 1 1 2 ) .
31 8
In this section he noted
that while "It was unavoidable that Japan had e ntered the
[ First] World War,
happily, in one part of the [Ch i nese]
p rovince of Shandong, Japan had reached the point where
i t was singing the song of victory" ( 1 1 2 ) .
I t was this
environment, he wrote, that had led him to tal k about " War
Zen" I nstead of " Peace Zen."
For Daiun there was nothing strange about Japan being
at war for " if you look at all phenomena in the universe you
Will see that there IS nothing which is not at war" ( 1 1 2 ) . In
the natu ral world, for example, plum seeds try to take over
the world for plums, while rice g rains try to take over the
world for rice, etc.
The human world is the same, with
pol iticians struggling with one another to take over the
pol itical world, merchants stru g g l i n g with one another to
take over the busi ness world, etc.
Buddhism is also not exempt from strugg le, accord i ng
to Daiun, the proof being that Buddha Shakya m u n i had himself
31 9
conquered de mons in the cou rse of realizing enlig htenment.
Thus, " it can be said that without plunging i nto the war
arena, it is totally impossible to know the Buddha Dharma "
( 1 1 6).
Based on the above, Daiun then went on to point out
that " in all of the phenomena of either the ordinary world
or the spiritual world, there is not one where war is absent.
How could Zen alone be free of this principle?" ( 1 1 7 ) " I t is
impermissible, " he wrote, "to forget war for even an instant"
( 1 1 7).
In fai rness to Daiun it must be pointed out that aside
from his initial praise for Japan's m i litary success,
the
"War Zen" of which he wrote was centere d on what he believed
should
be
the
a p p ro p riate
mental
attitu d e
practitioners in their search fo r enlightenment.
o f Zen
I n support
of this i nterpretation is the fact that one of his concluding
statements pointed out: "The Great Way of the Buddhas and
320
[Zen] Patri archs is neither i n war nor peace. . . " ( 1 1 7- 1 8 ) .
This said, i t i s also true that the military-like attitude he
displayed here toward Zen train ing formed the basis of
what I c h i kawa Hakugen would l ater refer to as his "fanatical
m i litarism" ( Nihon 1 5).
One of Daiun's quotes on the rel ationship of Zen and
war whose meaning is quite clear is the following. It appeared
as part of an article he wrote in the March 1 9 3 4 issue of the
m agazine Chuo Bukkyo (Central Buddhism/JtI��k�) . It read:
The spirit of Japan is the G reat Way of the [Shinto ]
Gods. It is the substance of the U niverse, the essence
of the Truth. The J ap a nese people are a chosen people
whose m ission IS to control the world . The sword which
kills is also the sword which g ives l ife. Comme nts
opposing war are the foolish opinions of those who can
only see one aspect of things and not the whole. Politics
conducted on the basis of a constitution are premature,
and therefore fascist pol itics shoul d be implemented
for the next ten years. Similarly, education makes for
shal low, cosmopol itan-m inded persons .
All of the
people of this country should do Zen . That is to say,
they should al l awake to the Great Way of the Gods.
This is MaHayana Zen" ( 1 77).
321
By 1 9 3 9 Daiun no longer found it necessary to even
discuss anti-war thought. "The One Road of Zen and War" is
an a rticle he wrote for the N ove m b e r 1 9 3 9 Issue of the
magazine Daijo Zen (Mahayana Zen/ jd'�*¥) . It read in part:
[If ordered to] march: tramp, tra m p , or shoot: bang ,
bang. This is the manifestation of the highest Wisdom
[of Enlightenment] . The unity of Zen and war of which I
speak extends to the farthest reaches of the holy war
[now u nder way] . Verse: I bow my head to the floor in
reve re n c e of that whose nobility is without equal ( 1 9 7 ) .
By the beginnmg of 1 943 the tide o f war h a d clearly
tu rned against Japan.
The government called on B u dd h ist
leaders to do their u tmost to mobil ize the entire civilian
popu lation in the war effort.
Under these circu mstances
Daiun wrote the following i n the F e b ru a ry 1 9 43 issue of the
periodical Zen no Seikatsu (The Zen Life/ �.!j!(/)��iS):
It has never been as necessary as it is today for all
one hundred m i l l io n people of th is country to be
committed to the fact that as the state lives and dies,
so do they . . . . We must devote ourselves to the practice
of Zen and the discernment of the Way. We must push
322
on In applying ourselves to "combat zazen, " the King
of meditation [samadhil ='*] (252).
By the latter part of 1 944 the outlook for Japan h ad
become bleak.
The unthinkable was becoming thinkable,
the home islands cou ld be subject to invasion.
I n this
situ ation every ab le-bod ied citizen, both young and old,
and a rmed often with no more than ba mboo spears, was
being trai ned to repel the invaders.
In response, Daiun
w rote the followmg a rticle entitled , " Be Prepa red, One
H u n d red Mil lion [Citizens] , for Death with Honor' " which
appeared i n the J u ly issue of that year's Daij'O Zen:
It is necessary for all one hundred mil lion citizens [of
Japan] to be prepared to die with honor . . . . If you see
the enemy you must kill h i m; you m ust destroy the
false and establish the true - these are the card inal
points of Zen . It is said that if you kill someone it is
fitting that you see their blood . It is further said that
if you a re riding a powerfu l horse nothing is beyond
you r reach . Isn 't the purpose of the zazen we have
done in the past to be of assistance in a n emergency
like this? ( 2 83 ) .
323
Chronologically spea king, there was still one year left
before Japan 1 s fi nal su rrender.
This was the period when
the kamikaze suicide attacks, already mentioned, came to
the fore as the last desperate, yet futile, attempt to stave
off defeat. By early 1 945 most Buddhi st-related p u b l icat i ons
had closed down as part of the overa l l effort to funnel all
available resources to the m i l itary effort.
Thus, for the
most part, Budd hist leaders, Zen and otherwise, lost their
p ri nted voice.
In general, however, newspapers were stil l
being pri nted and, o n occasion, Buddhist viewpoints were
stil l to be found .
O n e o f t h e l ast Zen-related voices to be heard was
that of Dr. Masunaga R e i ho (iI;JdllJ.) , a Soto Zen p riest and
scholar who in the post-war years would publish substantial
works in English.
From May 25 to J u n e 1 , 1 94 5 Masunaga
wrote a series of articles in the Chugai Nippo (�� B �)
324
e ntitled "The Sou rce of the Spirit of the Speci al Attac k
Forces. " His argument was as follows:
The source of the spirit of the Special Attack Forces
lies in the denial of the individual self and the rebirth
of the sou l which takes upon itself the burden of history.
From anCient times Zen has described this conversion
of mind as the achievement of complete enlightenment
(295).
In the J a panese language there is the phrase '�ku tokoro
made it ta " (fj < c C:: -3 *1?�1" J 1t:) which roughly means " to go
as far as one can go . "
In equ ating the sUicidal spi rit of
kamikaze p i lots with the com plete e n l i g h te n me n t of
Buddhism, it can be safely said that Masunaga had taken
Zen as far as it could go.
Z e n Secta rian Activities
As mentioned in the beginning, this dissertation makes
no p rete n se at being a complete history of either the words
or actions of Zen (or Buddh ist) adherents and organizations
during the wartime years. Its focus has been, instead, on an
325
exploration of the i d e a s that motivated recogn ized Zen
leaders.
H aving said this, it is also true that Zen leaders
had long set store on the i mportance of knowledge being
united with action . Thus, though cursory at best, there is a
need to see in what way their ideas were translated into
actions.
In examining this issue, the first thing that must be
recognized is that to a great extent the actions taken by
J apan's two major Zen sects closely paralleled those taken
by other sects irrespective of doctrinal d ifferences.
Many
of these, havi ng to do with social re l ief at home a nd
m issionary work abroad, have already been a ll u de d to.
Others, however, have yet to be examined .
One example of Zen sectarian war-related action was
the h o l d i n g of special religious services designed to ensure
VictOry i n battle. The belief in the efficacy of such services
p redated the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and was
326
connected to the bel ief that "merit, " a type of spiritual
compensation, was created as a result of meritorious acts,
as for example the copying or recitation of sutras, the
buildi ng of temples, etc. Not only cou ld merit be created,
but it cou ld be transferred to others. Fu rthermore, in the
Mahayana tradition the idea of merit transference became
a normative standard of conduct for a bodhisattva, h avi ng
been incorporated into the perfection of morality ( sh7/a ),
one of six such perfection s .2
I n Japan the conduct of these special services was
p a n -Buddh ist in nature and thus not limited to the Zen
tradition alone.
I n fact, the Zen tradition had originally been opposed
to such services with their attendant prayers for worldly
favors.
However, as Nakamura HaJime ( �t-t5[:) has pointed
out:
327
F ro m the time of To kiyon HOJ o ( 1 2 2 7- 1 2 6 3 ) and
Tokimune Hoj o ( 1 2 1 5-1 2 8 4 ) o nwa rds, the nobil ity,
patrons of the Zen sect, assailed priests with demands
fo r prayers whenever they worried themselves even
over trivialities. Thus, the temples of the Zen sect
were going to be a sort of seminary of prayers ( 5 83 ) .
Unde r these circu mstances, the most common practice
In Zen temples came to be the recitation, in whole or I n
p art, o f the PraJlla- paramita ( Perfection o f Wisdom ) sutras.
As R i n z a i Zen sect-affiliated I m a i Fukuzan ( �:JH; llJ ) pointed
out in the J a n u a ry 1 9 3 8 edition of Zenshu, these sutras
were thoug ht to be particularly efficacious " because they
teach that wherever these sutras a re circu l ated, various
d isasters and demons will disappear to be replaced by good
fortune" ( 1 8 ) .
Because these sutras consiste d , in thei r
J a p a n ese version, of some six hundred volumes, it was also
typical in ceremonial use to read only a lim ited number of
passages from the total col lection.
328
The following passage describes one such service held
at SOJ iJ i (*!ffl�) , the second of the two head monasteries of
the Soto Zen sect.
It appeared on the front page of the
N ov e m b e r- Dece m be r 1 944 issue of the Soto Shuho
¥Ii), the sect's administrative organ.
(S:Iii.I *
In this case the focus
of the service was on the completion of a sect-wide effort
to make millions of hand-written copies of the very short
Prajfia param l ta hridya sutra which was considered to contain
the essence of the teach ings contai ned i n the l a rg e r
collection.
As already noted, the hand-copying o f sutras
was seen a merit-producing act, e s p e c i a l l y when done on
such a massive scale. The highlights of the article, beginning
with its title, are as follows:
329
The Service to Pray for Certain Victory [Based
on the Completion of] the Consecrated Copying of
Ten M illion Prajna Para m i ta Hridya Sutra s
.
•
.
.
The g reat victory that was recently ach ieved off the
coasts of Taiwan and the Ph i l i p p i n e s can be said to
have astonished the world. Yet, in spite of that, the
seventy of the terrific cou nterattack by the A m e ri c a n
and B ri t i s h enemy, who depend o n massive amounts of
materials, increases day by day. Outside the cou ntry,
extre mely fierce fig hting is gOing o n the P h i l ip p i ne
island of Leyte. Within the country, the ugly enemy
lawlessly dares to bomb the I m peri a l capital and
reconnoiter our I mperial land. The national crisIs on
the w a r fro nt is unprecedented. There has never been
a fall as severe as this one, nor has there ever been a
g reater need fo r a l l one h u nd red m i l l i o n I mperial
subjects to rouse themselves.
It was our sect that fi rst proposed zealously u niting
together for the purpose of the consecrated copying
of 1 0 million copies of the Prajfia paramita hridya sutra.
The goal of this effort is our fervent prayer for certain
victory. Bu rning with enthusiasm, our whole sect, clerics
and lay alike, applied themselves to this proj ect with
the result that they greatly exceeded the planned ten
million copies by some one million three hu ndred and
eighty thousand. Some of the copies were written i n
b lood and others were sealed in blood . Some of the
copies were written i n b ra i l l e by wou nded soldiers
who had lost their sight. We were also deeply moved
330
by the unsurpassed honor to have copies bestowed on
us by members of the Imperial Family. For seven days
beginning from Septe m b e r 1 , [ 1 9 44 ] , the Great Prayer
Service was solem nly held at the g reat monastery of
SOj ij i. Reve rently we prayed for the health of His
Majesty, the wel l-being of the I mperial lands, and the
surrender of the enemy countries ( 1 ) .
One of the notable features of the preceding quotation
is the way in which the then current war situation was woven
i nto the description of this ' religious service.' Even soldiers
who had lost their sight in battle were g iven a prominent
role.
What needs to be further exami ned , however, is the
meaning of the term " prayer" ( kl to/ mm) as used in the
s e rvice.
Lacking a personal ' God' to whom entreaties can be
m ade, Buddhism uses the doctrine of 'merit transference'
to Insure ItS 'prayers' are answered. In the case of both the
R i n z a i a nd Soto Zen sects, they actu a l ly changed ( o r
sometimes restored) eleme nts o f t h e concluding ' me rit
tra nsfer verse' (e kobun / mJ(R]Jt) to reflect the nation's war
331
priorities. This done, the merit that was generated by the
ceremonial recitation of one or more sutras, or making
handwritten copies thereof, cou ld then be applied to the
realization of military goals.
According to the A p r i I 1 5 , 1 942, edition of the Soto
Shuho, that sect's newly approved e kobun i nclude d such
phrases as 1 ) unending martial fortu ne and health for the
officers and men at the front, 2 ) continuing victory In the
holy war, 3 ) enhancement of national prestige, etc. And of
cou rse there was the phrase, " May the sacred life of His
M aj esty, the Emperor extend for ten thousand yea rs and
may He be in good health" ( 6 ) .
A s for t h e R i n z a i Zen sect, I m a i Fukuzan, mentioned
a bove, poi nted out: " I n ou r sect, religious services have
been performed duri ng wartime for more than six hundre d
yea rs with the goal o f enhancing mil itary power" ( 1 7 ) .
It
was only after the beginning of the M e ij i period , h e further
332
noted, that this custom had momenta rily fallen mto disuse.
The reason for this was that these mil itary verses were
considered to be disloyal by some senior offici als of the
new govern m ent. These officials knew of t h e i r e a rl i e r
association with the local armies of feudal lords (who often
doub led as temple patrons) , rather than being exclusively
dedicated to the person ( and army) of the E mperor.
I m a I pointed out that there was no longer any reason
to be hesitant about resu rrecti ng the m i l itary-o riented
e kobun of the past.
On the contrary, nothing cou ld be
more appropriate in light of the outbreak of war with China.
A comparison of the p re- M e ij i verse he proposed as a model
for the R i n z a i sect with that subsequently adopted by the
Sat o sect reveals little in the way of substantive difference .
There was, however, one differe nce . T h a t is, t h e
Mahayana Bodhisattva o f compassion, i . e . A valokitesh vara
(J. Kanzeonl Umfi) was transformed i nto a military fig u re .
333
A valokitesh vara was 'elevated' in the R i n z a i verse to no
less than the rank of general. (J. Kanzeon Shogun Bosatsu/
i!mffm!l!�j(i) [2 1 -22]. With A valokitesh vara as its protector,
if not its head, how could the I mperial military be anything
less than compassionate?
While the conduct of the type of religious services
d e s c ri b e d
a bove
m ay
be
con s i d e re d
an
i n ta n g i b l e
contnbution to Japan' s war effort, such services were only
one part of a much larger effort. On the tangible side must
be listed the fund-ra ising activities undertaken to p rovide
a nu mber of aircraft to the m i litary.
These fu nd-raising
activities were u ndertaken by the leaders of both the Soto
and R i nz a i Zen sects, not to mention other sects.
In the case of Soto Zen, the fund-ra ising effort began
on the fourth anniversary of ful l-scale war in China, i.e. J u l y
7, 1 941 .
Within two weeks sufficient funds were raised to
buy one fighter plane "of the latest model" for the I mperial
334
N avy and two hospital transport pla nes for the I mpenal
Army.
These planes were named "Soto No. 1 , No. 2 , " etc.
The S e pte m b e r 1 , 1 94 1 issue of Soto Shuho contai ned the
fol lowing com ments about this effort:
In accordance with the national policy of constructing
a ful ly-armed state , our sect, u n ited as one, h as
contri bu ted [ a i rp l a n es named] " Sot o" with the hope that
the si ncerity of this act will turn into the maj estic
form of these planes flying high in the sky of the Greater
East As i a Co-prosperity Sphere . . . . and believing this
will contribute greatly to the stimulation and g rowth
of the people's spirit ( 3 ) .
The R i n z a i Zen sect, specifically the Myos h i nJ i branch (
feP/t\�5�), was not to be found wanting in this effort. Thus,
although this branch was considerably l ess than one-third
the size of the undivided So to sect, it had, by J u l y 1 944,
contributed two fighter aircraft to the I mperial Navy.
In
light of: 1 ) the Zen-oriented "spiritu a l tra i n i n g " being
p rovi ded to soldiers, especially officers , of the I mp e ri a l
Army, and 2 ) the fact that the Soto and R i n z a i sect's fig hter
335
p lanes were donated to the I mperial N avy, it can be said
that the Allied Forces fought "Zen" on the g rou nd, in the
air, and at sea.
In terms of their material significance, these donations
of a few airc raft were marg i na l ly significant at best.
However, as the earlier quote from the Sot'O sect pointed
out, they were designed pri marily as a method to enhance
the " people's spirit. " As has already been pointed out, this
was, both at home and abroad, and within the military itself,
where the bulk of the Zen (and overall Buddhist) effort was
placed.
In J u ne 1 942 the 50to sect had established "The Wartime
Center for the Development of an I nstructor Corps to Train
I m perial Subjects " (!I!.l�tliH.�.��lill�JIA.�ji)j ) . The N ov em b e r
1 , 1 943 issue of Soto Shuho used its front page to describe
the p rinciples upon which this cente r was based. The main
pri nciple or goal was " Increase fighting power, " under which
336
a
total
of
hierarchica l ly .
s ixteen
su b-pri n c i p l e s
w e re
a rra n g e d
The first eight sub-pri nciples were, broadly
speaking, all war-related and read as fol lows:
1.
Promotion of the Belief i n Certai n Victory
2.
The Establishment of Wartime Life
3.
The Practice of Vol u nteering Oneself for Public
Duty
4.
Clarification of [the Concept of] Our N atio nal
Structure
5.
Guard and Maintain the Prosperity of the I mperial
Throne
6.
Respect the [Sh in to] Deities and Reve re One's
Ancestors
7.
Train the Subjects of the E mperor
8.
Recompe nse the Debt of G ratitud e Owed the
E m peror
337
Taken a s a whole, the pre ced ing sub-pri n c i p l e s ,
espeCially Nos. 3-8, show the unmistakable i nfluence o f the
themes first developed in the " National Doctrinell of the
M e iJ i period. Zen priests, like all Buddh ists priests in Japan,
were si mply bei ng called u po n to continue their role as
" Doctrinal I nstructors , " with the added duty of promoting
belief i n "certain victory."
It is also noteworthy that the fi rst clearly B u d d h ist
element In this hierarchical list did not make Its appearance
until the ninth sub-pri nciple.
It read, "Take refuge I n the
Three Treasures [I .e. The Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha ]."
This is, of course, the one tenet of belief shared by B u d d h i sts
everywhe re .
I n wartime Soto Zen evangelization efforts,
however, it and other Buddhist/Zen doctrines ranked in the
lower half of concern.
As Japan's situation grew ever more critical, Zen priests
were called upon to do more than just e ngage in what was
338
also popu larly called "thought war" (shisosenl J!HttUltl ) . Thus,
in J a n u a ry 1 944, those Zen priests who had not been drafted
or otherwise involved in the m i litary effort as chaplains,
continental m issionaries, etc. were called upon to l eave
their " Dharma castles, " i . e . temples, take up factory work,
and " aid in the increased production of military goods " ( 1 ) .
This cal l appeared i n the Fe b ru a ry 1 , 1 944 issue of
Soto Shuho, but had been issued by the m u lti-sect G reat
Japan Budd hist Federation (Dainihon Bukkyoka ll * 8 *�b.�� ).
It thus applied to all Buddhist priests between the ages of
sixteen and forty-five. The heart of the announcement read
as fol lows:
As has been said, "The buildup of military power comes
from spiritual power. " It is for this reason that we ask
for a total of approximately ten thousand leading
p ri ests fro m e ach of the sects to come forth as
v o l u nteers and d i rectly engage in p ro d u ct i o n i n
i mportant i ndustrial factories. At the same time t hey
w i l l be expected to p rovide spiritu al t ra i n i n g a n d
g uidance t o the industria l warriors [ i n these factories]
(1 ) .
339
To the bitter end, the "code of the warrior," i .e. bushido,
would play an important role in critical aspects of Japanese
society. As the 'spiritual advocates' of this code, Zen priests,
and the pri ests of other sects, would continue to discharge
their duties in this regard even as they joined the ranks of
the " industrial warriors."
Six months later, however, time had fi nally run out for
both "Imperial Way-Buddhism " and its sub-branch " Impenal
State/ I mperial Military-Zen. " In warfare, at least, the ' power
of the spirit, ' even with Zen's 'samadhi power' attached,
was no match for the 'power of the atom' (plus the determ ined
resistance of all those opposed to J ap a nese mil itaris m ) .
340
End notes
'The shouted word " Katsu" by itself
IS
meaningless.
It has
traditionally been used in the Rinzai Zen tradition to express
a state of mind that has transcended dualism, cutting through
f a l se
notions
of
self
and
oth e r,
and
m a n i fe st i n g
Enlig htenment itself.
2The six perfections of morality associated with the conduct
of a Bodhisattva are as follows: 1 ) donation, 2 ) morality, 3 )
patience, 4 ) vigor, S ) meditation, and 6 ) wisdom .
341
C HAPTER 1 0 :
THE POST-WAR JAPANESE RESPONSES
TO " I M PERIAL WAY-BUDDHI S M "
General
I n trod u c t i o n
As noted above, Japan's surrender o n August 1 5 , 1 945
marked the formal collapse o f both Imperial Way-Buddhism
a n d I mperial State-Zen .
The various sects composing
i nstitutional Buddh ism even changed aspects of their dally
l itu rg ies to reflect the demise of these movements.
The
question which remains to be answered is simply this - how
should these movements be understood, i .e. were they an
authentic or orthodox expression of the Buddha Dharma ?
The answer or answers to this question are, of course,
qu ite complex.
To beg i n with, there are in Japan alone
thirteen maj or sects and more than fifty s ubsects.
A
complete answer would therefore require a d etai led study
of each and every major sect if not some of the more
3 42
i mportant su bsects.
The n there is the question of a n
examination o f the Mahayana school itself t o which all of
Japan's Buddh ist sects belong. This school in turn is fou nd
n ot only m Japan but throughout the countries of east and
central ASia.
Such a study as described above is far beyon d the
scope of this dissertation. Yet, in the postwa r years there
have been a few attempts, both by mdividual B u d d h ist
l e aders and scholars, and even a sma" n umber of the
J a p a n ese Buddh ist sects i nvolved, to come to g nps with
the question posed above.
While the fol lowing examination
of t h ese attempts cannot be considered as prov i d i n g
anythi ng like a definitive answer, they d o at least mark the
beginnmg of the search.
D.T. S u z u k i's Response (s)
In as much as it was D. T. S u z u k i who had been a leader
in calling for the punishment of "obstreperous heathens,"
343
it is noteworthy that he was probably the first B u d d h ist
leader in the postwar period to address the moral questions
re lated to Buddh ist war participation.
Yet, it must be
stressed that at no time u p to Japan's defeat did S u z u k i
ever write critically in any of his many books about Japan's
war effort, or Buddhism's support for that effort.
Not only did Suzu k i fail to criticize Japan 's war effort,
he continued to advocate the efficacy of Z e n tra inmg i n
warfare throughout the war years. I n 1 94 1 , for example, he
published a book entitled "One True World" (lsshinjitsu no
sekail -A�O)t!!� ). Here he stated that "the essence of the
warrior is to die" ( 1 88). H e then went o n to state: " I think
the quickest and best way to be prepared to die is found in
Zen" (2 1 2).
As to any questions of morality that might enter the
mind of the Zen-tra ined warrio r, Suzuki had this to say:
3 44
Ze n dislikes subterfuge . One must, directly employing
body, m ind and life itself, go straight ahead, that is to
say, thrusti ng the sword directly, into the work at hand.
. . . Whether what one does is right or wrong can be
looked at l ater. This is the life of Zen which must, at
the same time, be the life of the warrior" ( 1 89-90) .
As later as 1 9 44 Suzu k i wrote encou ragi ngly of the
re lations h i p betwe en Buddhism and bushido in a book
e ntitled Nlhonteki relsei (Japa nese Spi ntuahty/ 8 *�B� ).
Here Suzuki exte nded the relationship between wa rrio rs
and Buddhism to include the Pure Land schools of B u d d h i s m
a s well a s Zen. He wrote:
At the time of a mission, when making preparations to
meet the enemy, the warrior recites the phrase ''Namu
Amida Butsu " (Adoration to Buddha Amita /m1mIJiiI� ltt iA )
and then plunges [into battle] , recites the phrase once
again and plunges [into battle] . Entering [into battle]
with perfect freedom is known as " Plunging [into battle]
calling on Buddha [Amita '5] name." H aving cut off [all
thought of] good and bad, right and wrong, all of one's
action becomes a repetition of the preceding phrase.
This is known as the practice of single-mi ndedly calling
on Buddha [Amita 's] name, or the u niversal calling on
Buddha [A mita 's] name" ( 1 44-45).
345
I n these words can be heard an echo of what Shin sect
scholar Osu k a Shudo had written in 1 90 5 : "Truly, what could
be more fortunate than knowing that, should you die, a
welcome awaits in the Pure Land [of Buddha Amita 1
I f there was a nyth m g that d istinguished S u zu k i's
writings from those of his contemporaries it is that he did
not advocate absolute submission to the will and edicts of
the Emperor.
Nor did he employ the Jingoistic slogans then
associated with Japan's " sacred war."
This said , there is
a bsolutely nothing to suggest that he had any m isgivmgs
o r reservations about the use of Buddh ism in gene ral, or
Z e n in particular, as the basis for the spiritu al arm m g of
the modern J apa nese warnor.
On the contrary, he
wrote
again and again of the importance and appropriateness of
doing so, especially as attendant questions of morality were,
for h im, of little or no concern.
346
Returning to the immediate post-war period, it was i n
Octo b e r 1 945 that S u z u k i first broached the topic of B u d d h ist
war responsibility.
He did this in his new preface included
i n the repri nt of the book mentioned above, i .e. Japanese
Spirituality. He began by assigning to Shinto the blame for
p rov i d m g
the
" co nceptu a l
backg rou n d "
m i l itaris m, i mperialism and total itarianism.
to Japanese
He then went
on to discuss the Buddh ist role as follows:
I t is strange how Budd h i sts neither penetrated the
fundamental meaning of Buddhism nor included a global
I nste a d , they d i l igently
vision in thei r m ission .
p ractice d the a rt of self-prese rvation through their
narrow-m inded focus on "pacifying and preserving the
state . " Rece iving the protection of the politically
powerful figu res of the d ay, Budd h i s m combined with
the state, thinking that its ultimate goal was to subsist
within this island nation of Japan. As militarism became
fashionable in recent years, Budd hism put itself in step
w i t h it, constantly endeavou ring not to offend the
powerful figures of the day. Out of thiS was born such
t h i ngs as tot a l i ta ri a n i s m , refe re nces to [Shinto]
mythology, " Imperial Way"- Buddhism, etc. As a result,
B u d d h ists forgot to include either a g lobal vision or
concern for the masses with i n the d u ti e s t h ey
performed . I n addition, they neglected to awake within
347
the Japa nese relig ious consciousness the philosophical
and rel i g ious elements, and the spiritu al awake ning,
that are an intrinsic part of Buddhism. While it may be
said that Buddhism became "more J ap a nese" as a result,
the p n ce was a retrogression in terms of J a p a nese
spirituality itself. That is to say, the opportunity was
lost to d eve l o p a worl d vision w it h i n J a p a nese
s p i ri t u a l i ty t h at was s u ffi c i e n t l y exte n s ive o r
comprehensive ( 6-7 ) .
One of the striking featu res of the above statement is
that nowhere does Suzuki discuss his own role in a ny of
J a p a nese Buddhis m's failings.
As will be seen shortly, this
was not always the case. In fact, he started to allude to his
own responsibility in the very next parag raph fol lowi ng the
preceding quote. He wrote:
" I bel ieve that a major reason
for Japan's collapse was tru ly because each one of us l acked
an awareness of J ap a n ese spirituality" ( 7 ) .
Acco rd ing t o the above, if S u z u k i h imself had a ny
personal responsibi lity for Japan 's collapse, he shared that
responsibility equally with each and every J apanese.
348
Cou l d
his writi ngs be in any way responsible for what happened
to Japan? About this Suzuki wrote:
This work [Japanese Spirituality] was written before
Japan's u ncond itional surrender to the Allies. It was
therefore u nable to g ive clear expression to the
meaning of J a pa nese spiritual ity ( 7 ) .
Th is one sentence was the closest that S u z u k i wou ld
ever come in the postwar years to admitting that anythmg
he had ever written might have influenced the cou rse of
events. Even here Suzuki went on to explain that the reason
this particu lar book lacked clarity was due its " academic
nature," coupled with its "extremely u norganized structure. "
This does not mean, however, that Suzu k i never again spoke
of his own responsibility.
I n 1 947 Suzu k i publ ished a book e ntitled Nihon no
reseika (The S p i ri t u a l i z i n g of Japan/ B *O)B��t) . This book
was a col lection of five lectu res that he had given at Shin
sect-affil i ated Ota n i University i n Kyoto during the month
349
of June 1 946. The focus of h is tal ks was on Shinto, for by
t h is t i m e he had decided that the blame fo r J a p a n ' s
m i litaristic past lay in this religion.
According t o S u z u k i,
Shinto was, among other things, a "primitive rel igion" that
" lacked spiritu a lity" ( 3 4 ) .
It was factors l ike these t hat
had led to Japan's " excessive nationa l is m " and " m i litary
control" ( 3 4) . The solution to this situation was, In S u z u k i 's
eyes, qu ite simple - "dispose of Shinto " ( 1 ).
As mentioned above , thiS IS not to say that S u z u k i
denied all responsibility for what had happened . H e said:
This is not to say that we were blameless. We have to
accept a g reat deal of blame and responsibility. . . .
Bot h before and after the M anchu rian Incident [of 1 93 1 ]
all of us applauded what had transpired as representing
the growth of the Empire . I think there were none
amongst us who opposed it. If some were opposed, I
think they were extremely few i n n u m ber. At t hat
time everyone was saying we had to be aggressively
i mperi alistic. They said Japan had to go out i nto the
world both i ndustrially and economically because the
country was too small to provide a living for its people.
There simply wasn 't enoug h food; people would starve.
I have heard that the Manchurian Incident was fab ricated
350
through various tricks . I think there were p robably
some people who had reservations about what was going
on, but instead of saying anything they simply accepted
it. To tell the truth, people like myself were Just not
very interested in such things ( 5 -6) .
There are a nu mber of noteworthy statements i n the
above quotation i ncluding the fact that Japan had been
" aggressively i mperialistic." Yet, as S u z u k i went on to write,
" It was E u rope which had orig inally taug ht Imperialism and
colOnial ism to Japan" (7).
Furthermore, Japan's i mperialism
m ay be said to have occu rred al most by popu lar accla i m ,
except for those " extremely few" who opposed i t .
As for
S u z u k i h i mself, he tells us that he was "just not very
interested in such things." This, of course, is the very same
S u z u k i who right up to the end of the war continued to
write books extolling the unity of Zen and bushicTo and the
usefulness of this combination on the battlefield.
Even i n the m idst of Japan ' s utter d efeat S u z u k i
rem a i ned d eterm i ned t o fi nd somet h i ng praiseworthy i n
351
Japan's war efforts.
He described the positive side of the
wa r as fol lows:
Th roug h the g reat sacrifice of the J apa nese people
and nation, It can be said that the various peoples of
the countries of the Orient had the opportunity to awake
both economically and politically . . . . This was Just the
beginning, and I believe that after ten, twenty or more
years the various peoples of the Orient may well have
formed independent cou ntries and contributed to the
Improvement of the world's cultu re in tandem with the
various peoples of E u rope and A m e r i c a (7).
In an echo of his prewar writi ngs, Suzuki continued to
praise the " g reat sacrifice" the Japanese people al legedly
made to " awake" the peoples of Asia . What one finds m issing
i n Suzuki's writings, however, is any mention of what it
"cost" in terms of mill ions of lives lost for the peoples of
A s i a to be " awakened. "
T o h i s E n g l i s h-reading a u d ience, Suz u k i offe red a
different interpretation of the war. The following appeared
i n an autobiographical accou nt of his life edited by Abe
Masao :
352
The Pacific War was a ridiculous war for the J a p a nese
to have initi ated; it was probably completely without
Justification. Even so, seen i n terms of the phases of
h istory, it may have been i nevitable. It is undeniable
that whi le B ri t i s h interest in the East has existed for a
long time, interest In the Orient on the part of A m e ri c a n s
heightened a s a consequence of thei r comi ng t o Japan
after the war, meeting the J ap a nese people, and coming
into contact with various Japanese things (Zen 24).
Added to the awakening of the peoples of As i a, S u z u k i
tells u s that another positive s i d e of t h e wa r was the
increased
A m e ri c a n presence and interest in Japan.
In
su m , i t would seem that a l l parties i nvolved benefited i n
some way from Japan' s "great sacrifice. "
It is also noteworthy that S u z u k i did not find war itself
" ridiculous" but only the Pacific War, which was " p robably"
u nj ustified although some how " i nevitable. "
Nowhere i n
S u z u ki's writings does one find the least expression of reg ret
for Japan's earlier colonial efforts in such places as K o re a
or Taiwan . For S u z u k i i t wou ld appear that things started
to go wrong only after the Manchurian I ncident of 1 9 3 1 .
353
One is left to speculate as to what it was that made the
Pacific War so "ridiculous. "
While the nu mber of intel lectu als, especially in the
West, who have praised Suzuki are legion, a small but growing
number of critics have been concerned both by Suzu ki's
[and Zen' s ] apparent l ack of moral awa reness.
Art h u r
Koest l e r was one of the fi rst to raise these concerns In a
book publJshed in 1 9 60 entitled The Lotus and the Robot.
He began his discussion of Zen as fol lows:
Zen was introduced into Japan in the late 1 2th century
- more than five centu ries after Confucianism and
earl ier forms of Buddhis m . It took immediate roots;
but it became radically transformed in the process,
and the flower was characteristically Japanese. By a
feat of mental acrobacy, of which perhaps no other
nation wou l d be capab le, the gentle, no n-vi olent
doctrine of the Buddha became the adopted creed of
the murderous samurai. . . . How was this possible? The
secret is not in the Buddha's smile, but in a simple
formu la applicable to all these d iverse activities, the
pa nacea of Zen: trust you r i ntu ition, short-ci rcu it
reflection, d iscard caution, act spontaneously. It is
amazing what wonders this prescription can achieve
(242-43 ) .
354
Koest l e r later went on to discuss both S u z u k i and some
of the Western intellectuals like Alan Watts and Christ m as
H u m ph reys who considered themselves to be his disciples.
Koest l e r first noted that both Watts and H u m phreys found
A lice in Wonderland to be imbued with the spi rit of Zen.
K o es t l e r then wrote:
This brings me back, for al most the l ast time, to
Professor Suzuki and the question whether he and his
disciples are trymg to fool the reade r o r themselves.
Since A lice is now being used as a Zen manual, I may as
we" confess that I have always been puzzled by Dr.
S u z u k i ' s stri k i n g spi ritu a l rese m b l an c e e i t h e r t o
Twe ed ledu m or Tweedl e dee, whose twm such nesses
are no doubt meant to symbolize the identity of tea
and no-tea, arrow and target, author and reader, the
deluding and deluded mind ( 2 59-60).
Although Koest l e r was a jou rnalist and not a scholar,
S u z u k i's writings were also of concern to two noted scholars,
P a u l D e m i ev i l l e and R. J. Z w i W e rb l owsky. D e m l e v l l l e, a
specialist in East Asi a n Buddhism, noted his concerns i n a
1 9 66 review of Suzu ki's Zen and Japanese Culture while
355
W e rb lowsky w rote an arti cle i n 1 9 6 7 entitled " Some
Observations on Recent Studies of Zen . "
Writi ng from a Jewi sh context, W e rb lowsky was
p a rticu l a rly troub led by Suzuki's state ment in Zen and
Japanese Culture
that " [Zen ] may be found wedded to
a narchism or fascism, communism or democracy" ( 6 3 ) . After
quoting this passage, Werblowsky went on to add, " Dr. Suzuki
forgot to add to the l ist of possibilities also Nazism with
its gas chambers (as the an noying Mr. Koestler has rudely
p o i nted out ) " ( 3 2 1 ) . What both of these men fou n d
unacceptable was the way i n which S u z u k i placed Zen above
all moral considerations.
Beyond that, they a lso criticized
S u z u k i for h is suggestion that Zen cou ld be identified with
practically a l l of Japanese cu ltu re.
In a more recent article by Zen scholar John McRae of
C o rn e l l U niversity, S u z u k i is criticized for having promoted
an understanding of Zen in which "anything is acceptable as
356
long as it is bizarre and incomprehensible" ( 5 3 6) .
McRae
continued :
I suggest that this IS a d i rect result of S u z u ki's
description of Zen as something experiential, irrational,
mystical, and completely a bove the co nstrai nts of
h u man history. . . . The u ltimate I rony of S u z u ki's
contribution to our understandmg of Ze n IS that his
u nswe rvmg emphasIs on the non-dogmatic natu re of
Ze n was accepted by him and others as inviolable dogma.
The champion of absolute freedom was completely
enchained by his own rigid preconceptions ( 5 3 7 ) .
Finally, i n writing about Suzuki a nd other m odern
J a p a nese proponents of Ze n , R o b e rt Sharf had this to say:
"Western enthus iasts syst e m a tica l ly failed to recognize the
nationalist
ideology
u n d e rl y i n g
m o d e rn
J a p a nese
constructions of Zen" ( 3 9 ) . Writing specifically about S u z u k i,
S h a rf added:
Suzuki held that the cultu ral and spiritual wea knesses
of the Occ i de nt virtually precluded the possib i lity of
W este rne rs' ever coming to truly comprehend Zen. One
is led to suspect that Suzuki's lifelong effort to bring
B u dd h ist enlightenment to the Occident had become
inextricab ly bou nd to a studied contempt for the West,
357
a West whose own cultu ral arrogance and i mperi al ist
incl inations Suzuki had come to know all to well ( 2 9 ) .
There i s very little consolatio n for either S u z u k i o r
t h e West i n the p reced ing q uotatio n .
As t o S u z u k i's
u nd e rly i n g attitude toward Wes t e rn e rs, the fo l l owing
revealing statement is included in h is book entitled Toyot e ki
ichi ( Onental Oneness/_j¥(j(J-) published in 1 94 2 :
There i s a Zen master who said, "Thrust you r swo rd
i nto the boundless s ky, whether I t reaches it or not IS
of no I mportance . " Zen has any number of such fine
expressions. This particular one ought to be the view
of life of Orientals. I n the development of such things
as science, philosophy, machinery, and i ndustry, the
Orient, as of today, is still not equal to the Occide nt.
However, when it is a question of spiritual and religious
l i fe, where is t h e re a n Occ ide ntal who can fully
u nderstand the preceding statement? W hethe r that
Occ i dental be a rare wise man or a contemporary sai nt,
he wou ld be l i ke a deaf m ute i n the face of th is
expression. In truth, there are m any O r i e n t a l s about
whom the same can be said. However, one can only
fi nd those who a re capable of u ndersta n d i n g this
statement among O ri e nt a l s (79-80).
I n light of these sentiments one can only won der why
S u z u k i even bothered writing so many books in E n g l is h on
358
Buddhism and Zen. Was this a reflection, as S h a rf maintains,
of his " studied contempt for the West " ? Or did he, perhaps,
s i m ply write what he thought his J a p a n ese- or E n g l i s hspeaking audiences wanted to hear.
Whatever position one
takes o n this issue, his ethnocentnc if not racist attitude
is clear.
G iven this, as well as his p rofessed belief in the
unity of Zen and the sword, the question must also be asked
as to whether S u z u k i and others like him "truly comprehend
Ze n"?
The S h i n Sect ' s Declaration of War Responsibi l ity
I n t ro d u c t i o n
I n the postwar years there h ave only been fou r
dec l a rations dealing with war responsibil ity o r complicity
by the leaders of traditional Buddh i sts sects. The fi rst of
t hese four was by the H i g a s h i Hong anJ i branch of the Shin
sect i n 1 987, while the N i s h i HonganJ i branch fol lowed suit
fou r years l ater i n 1 991.
I n 1 99 2 the Soto p u b l ished a
359
"Statement of Repe ntance" ( zangemon/ 1I1tix) apolog izing
for its warti me role.
(It will be discussed in g re a t e r detail
in the fol lowing section ) .
The latest statement by a sect concerning its wartime
role was issued o n J u n e 8 , 1 994 by the J i m o n branch (-:1j:r'5m)
of the Te ndai sect (�it* ) , the smallest of that sect 's three
branches.
It's admission of war responsibility amou nted to
one short phrase contained in "An Appeal for the Extinction
of Nuclear [Weapons] . "
It read : " H aving reached the 5 0th
annivers ary of the deaths of the atomic bomb victims, we
repent of our past cooperation and support for [Japan ' s ]
war of aggression" (Nihon Shukyosha 54).
What all of these statements s hare in common is the
fact that even the earliest of them, i .e . the H ig a s h i HonganJ i
branch ' s declaration o f 1 9 8 7 ,
was not issued until more
than forty years after the end of the war.
By comparison,
the first Christian organization in Japan to issue a similar
360
statement was twenty year's earlier in 1 9 67. This statement
was entitled "A Confession of Responsibil ity during W.W. I I
by the United Church of C h rist i n Japan." Even this recognition
o f wart i me complicity by Japan ' s l a rg e s t P rotestant
organization was more than a generation in the making (Nihon
Shukyosha 6).
It should a lso be readily apparent that the four current
statements of Buddhist war complicity rep rese nt only a
small perce ntage of Japanese Buddh ism's thirteen m ajor
sects with thei r numerous branches.
For example, none of
the b ranches of the R i n z a i Zen sect have yet to formally
address this issue i n any manner. I n that sense, It can be
said that the stateme nts i ncluded below rep resent the
beginning rather than the end of this i mportant, if not crucial,
issue for institutional J ap a nese Buddhism.
361
The 1 9 87 Declaration of the H i g a s h i H o n g a nj i Branch
The following admission of war responsibility was made
as part of the " Memorial Service for All War Victims" held
on A p r i l 2, 1 987. The statement was read by Kog a S e iJ I (i!i
HftlJ=) , administrative head of the branch. It read in part:
As we recall the war years, it was our sect that c a l l e d
the war a "sacred war. " It was we who said, "The heroic
spirits [of the war dead] who have been enshrined i n
Yasu k u n i S h ri ne' have served in the great undertaking
of guard i ng and maintai n i ng the p rosperity of the
I mperial Throne. They should therefore to be revered
for having done the great work of a Bodhisattva." This
was an expression of deep ignorance and shamelessness
on ou r part. When recalling this now, we are attacked
by a sense of shame from which there is no escape . . . .
Cal ling that war a "sacred war" was a double lie. Those
who participate in war are both victims and victimizers.
I n light of the great si n we have committed, we must
not pass It by as being nothing more than a " mistake. "
The sect said to revere things that were never taught
by Saint [Shin ran]. When we who are priests think about
this sin, we can only hang our heads In silence before
all who are g athered here (Nihon Shukyosha 34).
362
The 1 9 9 1 Declaration of the N i s h i H o n g a nj i Bra nch
The
fo l l owi n g
state m e n t
was
issued
by
the
a d m i n istrative assembly o f the N i s h i HonganJ i bra nch o n
F e b ru a ry 2 7 , 1 9 9 1 . It was entitled liThe Resolution to Make
O u r Sect's Strong Desire for Peace Known to All in Japan
and the World." I n as much as the Gulf War was mentioned
in the opening sentence, it is clear that this, together with
the question of nuclear warfare mentioned in paragraphs
two and three, was the central focus of thiS deciaratlon.The
fou rth paragraph, however, included the following :
Althou g h there was pressure exerted on us by the
m i l itary-controlled state, we must be deeply penitent
before the Buddhas and Patriarchs, for we e nded u p
cooperating with the war and losing sight o f the true
nature of this sect. This can also be seen in the doctrinal
sphere, where the [sect's] teaching of the existence of
relative truth a nd absolute truth was put to cunning
use (Nihon Shukyosha 39).
363
Other Commen tators
There have been very few commentators i n any l anguage
who h ave written extensive ly on the genera l question of
i nstitu tional Buddhism's war responsibility.
Instead, what
one finds a re scatte red comments here and there which
touch on this topic.
Typical of these is the following
statement by the noted h istorian l e n aga Sab u ro who wrote
s i m p ly: " Bu d d h i s m had always l acked the capacity t o
challenge the state, and Japanese Buddhism rallied behmd
the war" ( 1 2 3 ) .
A s b rief a s the preceding statement is, the assertion
that " Buddhism had a lways lacked the capacity to challenge
the state" suggests that the root cause of i nstitutional
Buddhism's col laboration with the state was to b e found
somewhere deeply e mbedded in this religion, either i n its
doctrinal content or in its historical deve lopment (or both ) .
This area is clearly worthy of future research, but the sheer
3 64
size and scope of such research p l aces i t outside t h e
boundaries of this dissertation.
This topic
will, however,
be revisited in the final " Issues Awaiting Further Research"
secti o n .
One o f the first postwar scholars of Buddhism t o address
the genera l question was Yo shida Kyui c h l in his 1 9 70 book
entitled Nihon no kindai shakai to Bukkyo ( Modern J a p a nese
Society and Buddhism/ B *O)ilit\:*f�t:{Aft) . His comments, of
course, predate all of the sectarian statements i ntroduced
above. He wrote:
I n g enera l it can be said that the re lations h i p of
Buddhism and war was one of ready compromise. Even
i n postwar society the question of [the meani n g of]
August 1 5 , [ 1 9 4 5 ] was hardly discussed [in B u d d h ist
circles ] . Here, too, the easy road was take n . . . . The
result was that with i n the [ postwar] context of the
collective penitence of one hundred millio n [citize ns ] ,
the p recepts o f Buddhism we re lost sight of. . . .
F u rtherm ore, after the war [the questio n of] the
re l i g i o u s responsibility for that war was nonexistent
( 2 5 9-6 1 ).
365
A second Buddh ist scholar and priest to look at this
question was Kaneoka Shuyu (�IR3��) , a professor at Toy o
University. H i s book, published in 1 97 3 , was entitled Bukkyo
no fukken (The Rehabil itation of Buddh lsm/iA�O)�jUi) . H is
writings, too, predate the sectarian admissions previously
introduced. He wrote:
I n the previous great war, Buddhism , which ought to
love peace, underwent a complete change and rushed
i nto [a stance of] wa r cooperation, p rayi ng fo r
"Confusion to the hated enemy" and "Surrender of the
enemy cou ntry. " Fu rthermore, when g reat numbers of
soldiers went off to the front, it prayed for their
"u nending martial fortune " . . . .
If one holds on to
Buddhism's original position of loving peace, there is
no way these kinds of prayers could have been made. I
cannot, under any c i rcu mstances, accept the fact that
the attitude held by Buddh ist adherents of that time
was one of seeking peace. Similarly, I cannot accept
the fact that, with peace now restored, [these same
B u d d h i sts] use the p rete n se that Budd h ism I S a religion
of peace to conceal everything they have done. Without
e x posing the p re d i spos ition [ i n B u d d h is m ] whi c h
p roduced a logic g iving easy affi rm ation t o war, it
doesn't make any difference how much the facade is
c hanged, the world will still remain a scene of carnage.
The logic which was employed by [then] B u d d h i st
adherents to justify their affirmation and cooperation
366
with war was that of "sacred war" and "just war. " This
war, [they claimed,] was a "Just war." " Killing one i n
order to save many" was i n accord with the m i nd of
Lo rd Buddha. " Soldiers, go to the b attlefield a nd
sacrifice you rselves for the Imperial nationl " was the
logic of t h i s affirmation of war. . . . But for [true] B u d d h ists
there can never be someth ing like a "Just war. " I n
Buddhism there is n o "wa r-affi rming logiC. " There is
nothing I can add to this point. The question is whether
or not this self-evident logic can be i mplemente d "
( 1 09-1 1 1 ) .
U nfortunately, Kaneo ka d i d not g o on to identify what
he meant by the phrase "the predisposition [in Buddhism]
which produced a logic giving easy affirmation to war. "
He
may wel l have been alluding to something similar to l e n a g a's
earlier statement.
One thing he did make clear, however,
was h is unhappiness with postwar i nstitutional Budd h ism's
unwillingness to address its complicity in the war. As will
be seen i n the fol lowing section, he was not the only one
who felt this way.
Finally, there are the comments of a l ay B u d d h i st
attorney, Endo M a koto ( 1 9 3 0-/ilili1Ji.£ ) . In 1 9 86 he published
367
a book entitled Irna no otera ni Bukkyo wa nai (There Is no
Buddhism in Today's Temples/�O)d:):i!j:r:fk�r�tJ: � \ ) . As the title
s u g g ests, Endo was
h i g h ly crit i c a l
of conte m p o ra ry
i nstitu t i o n a l J apanese Buddhism , one of whose m a ny
shortcomi ngs he sees as its wartime collaboration with
m i litarism and its postwar reluctance to take responsibility
for that collaboration . He wrote:
During the Pacific War some forty years ago, were
there Buddh ist organizations which opposed that war
on the basis of the fundamental Buddhist commandment
not to kill l iving th ings? Were there a ny B u d d h ist
o rganizations opposed to that war? Were there any
Buddhist priests opposed to t hat war? . . . Apart from
the Youth League for the Revitalization of Buddhism
led by Seno Giro , there were none. Without exception,
all of the traditional Buddh ist organizations, together
with newly-established Buddh ist organizations, prayed
for "the successful conclusion of the sacred war [and]
the surrender of the savage A m e ricans and Engl is h . "
They also sent chaplains t o t h e battlefield w h o said,
" If you die I ' l l make sure you go to Paradise, so kill the
enemy while you ' re still alive ! "
Following the war, these same " high priests, " espoused
peace and ended up occupying important positions in
their respective sects. From the m i d - 1 9 2 0 's through
368
August 1 5, 1 945, it was these priests who had willingly
dashed off magazine articles and books saying, "Japan
is the land of the gods. This is a just war so ki ll the
C h i nese soldiers and the savage Ameri c a n s and B r i t i s h
for the sake of His Majesty, the Emperor" . . . . Even
today Budd h ist organizations th roug hout the country
continue to hold daily rel igious services in which they
pray for the long life of Emperor H i ro h ito (49-5 2 ) .
I n Endo 's opinion, the preceding was b u t o n e example
of the following:
The teaching for the salvation of humanity which the
g re a t teacher, Shakyamuni, expounded two thousand
five hundred years ago has completely d isappeare d
from today's temples ( 3 ) .
I t i s now time to examine how " Imperial State/MilitaryZen " fared upon examination in postwar Japan .
369
E n d n ote
'As the text i ndicates, Yasukuni Shrine ( �OO�tl) is a Shinto
sanctu ary located on Kudan H i l l i n Tokyo.
Whe n f i rst
established on June 29, 1 8 6 9 , it was known as the Tokyo
Shokonsha (Jk:5Rffl1A*i) .
In 1 8 79 it was g ranted Its p resent
name by Emperor MeiJ i .
means " peacefu l , "
The Chi nese character for yasu
the implication bemg that the shri ne
safeguards the peace and well-being of the nation.
Si nce
1 87 5 all the " heroic spirits" (eirei/ 5tH) of the nation ' s war
dead have been enshrined here.
370
CHAPTER
11:
THE POST-WAR JAPANESE RESPONSES
TO " I M PERIAL STATE-ZEN "
I n t ro d u c t i o n
I n terms of sheer volume it can b e said that far more
has been written o n the relationshi p of the Zen school and
war than on any other single school or sect of J apanese
Buddhism. The reason for this is not that It has been such a
popu lar topi c of Buddhist writing, but, i nstead, i s due to
the vol u m i no u s writings of one man, the l ate Zen scholar
and ( fo rmer) R i n z a i Zen p riest, I c h i kawa Hakugen ( 1 9 0 21 98 6/mJ l I S � ) .
I n the postwar years it can be said that he
a lmost single-handedly broug ht this topic before the public
a nd made it a n a rea of scholarly research.
His writin g , i n
turn, has sparked further i nvestigation o t rel ated issues
within other sects as wel l .
Before i nvestig ating I c h i k awa' s wri tings however, i t
would b e helpful to get a ' lay of the land' by looking a t the
371
comments made by other Zen adherents to get some idea
of the overa ll tenor of the d iscussion.
DOing this shou ld
help to put the breadth and depth of I c h i k awa's contribution
to this tOPIC In clearer focus. Following this, an examination
of the Soto Zen sect ' s relatively recent statement on its
war responsibi lity wil l show how one of the Zen school's
two major sects is struggling to come to g rips with this
p ro b l e m .
Ya n a g i d a S e i z a n ' s Response
Yanagida Seizan ( 1 922-/t9P EB�IlJ ) is one of the best known
Zen scholars of the postwar period.
He started life as the
son of a R i n z a i Zen priest in a small village temple in S h i g a
prefecture. As a n adult h e went o n to become the director
of the Institute for Humanistic Studies of Kyoto University.
Followi ng retirement, he next founded and became the first
d i rector of the International Research Institute for Zen
Buddhism l ocated at Hanazono Un iversity.
372
In 1 9 8 9 h e
p resented a series of lectu res on Ze n at both Stanfo rd
U niversity a nd the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 1 9 90 Seizan published a book entitled Mirai kara no
Zen ( Zen from the Future/**tJH ; QJi¥ ) . This book, containing
a number of lectures he had presented in the Umted States,
is relatively unusual in Zen scholarship in that its contents
Inc luded material that was both personal and confessional
in n ature .
This included h is own personal experience as a
young R i n z a i Zen p riest during and Immediately after the
war. The highlig hts of this experience are as follows:
When as a chi ld I began to become aware of what was
going on a rou n d me, the J apanese were fi g ht i n g
n e i g h b oring China. Then the war expanded t o the Pacific
regIon, and finally Japan was fighting the rest of the
world. When Japan surrendered on August 1 5, 1 945 , I
h ad thus experi enced two m ajor wars. As someone
who was b rought up while these wars were expanding,
I did not have the luxury of thinking deeply about the
relationshi p between the state as a sovereign power
engaged in war and Zen Buddhism. No doubt this was
largely due to the fact that I had neither the opportunity
t o go to the battlefield nor directly engag e i n battle.
Furthermore, having been brought up in a remote Zen
373
temple , I was compl etely ignorant o f what was
happening in the world. In the last phase of W. W. II, I
was tra ining as a Zen monk at E i g e nJ i [ 5t�mi:i!f] , proud of
being away from the secular world and convinced that
my total devotion to Zen p ractice would serve the
state .
At any rate, with Japan's defeat I became aware of my
own stupidity for the first time, with the result that I
developed a deep sense of self-loathing. From 1 9 4 5
to 1 950, I d id not see any point to human life, and I was
both mentally and physically in a state of collapse . I
had lost m any of my friends; I alone had been left
behind. We had fought continuously against China, the
home country of Zen. We had believed that it was a
just war without h arbori n g the slightest doubt. I n a
state of i nexpressible re m o rs e , I c o u l d n e i t h e r
physica l ly n o r mentally fi nd rest a n d was day after
day ill at ease, not knowing what to do. There is no
need to say how total is the contradiction between
the Buddhist precepts and war. Yet, what could I, as a
Buddhist, do for the hundreds of millions of my fellow
human beings who had lost their l ives in the war? At
that time, it dawned on me for the first time that I had
believed that to kill oneself on the state 's behalf is
the teaching of Zen . What a fanatical idea l
All of Japan's Buddhist sects - which had not only
contributed to the war effort but had been one heart
and soul in propagating the war i n their teachings flipped around as smoothly as one turns one ' s hand and
proceeded to ring the bells of peace. These sectarian
leaders had been among the leaders of the country
374
who had egged us on by uttering big words about the
r i g h te o u s ness [of the war] . They acted in a totally
shameless manner. In as much as Japan was supposed
to have become a civi l ized country overnight, there
was nothing I cou ld do about thei r actions. I n my own
heart , however, there was a wou nd which would not
heal . I am not ta lking about what the state or others
should have done, but as far as I was concerned, my
actions were unpardonable. Again and again I thought
of committing suicide ( 5 6- 5 7 ) .
Se i z a n d id not, o f cou rse, commit suicide, b u t in some
sense it is refreshing to meet a Buddhist, a Zen adherent,
who was so moved by his earlier support for the war that
he e ntertained the idea of killing hi mself. The i rony is that
by comparison with the numerous Zen/Buddhist leaders who
h ave been previously introduced, Seizan bore ve ry little
responsibil ity for what had happene d .
Yet, i n what might
be cal led the ideal ism of youth, he felt obliged to take the
sins of his elders on his own shoulders . In so doing he
neither sought to ignore what had h appened nor place the
blame on someone else.
375
A major point Seizan
shared in common with the
p reviously introduced postwar com mentators on Buddhism
was his disdain for the way in which the previously p ro-war
l eaders of the various sects had so abru ptly abandoned
their war cries and become peacemakers. That such Buddhist
leaders did exist has been well documented.
I c h i kawa Hakugen
IS
one o f those who recorded
numerous statements made by these i nstant converts to
peace.
One of his examples dealt with Masanaga Reiho. It
will be recalled that Reiho was last heard from as he extolled
the vi rtues of Japan 's kamIkaze
pi lots. On September 1 5,
1 9 4 5 , exactly one month after Japan's surrender,
Rel ho
wrote the followi ng:
The cause of Japan 's defeat . . . was that among the
vari o u s cl asses with i n our cou ntry there were not
sufficient capable men who cou ld d i rect the war by
truly g iving the i r all . . . . That is to say, we l acked
i ndividuals who, having transcended self-interest, were
able to employ the power of a life based o n moral
principles . . . . It is religion and education that h ave the
376
responsibility to develop such individuals . . . . We must
d eve lop patriotic citizens who u nderstand [the Zen
teaching ] that both learning and wisdom must be united
with practice. They will become the generative power
for the revival of our people. . . . and we will be able to
preserve our glorious national structure . . . . It is for
this reason that religionists, especially Buddh ists, are
required to besti r themselves (Nihon 3 1 1 ).
In peace as well as war, it wou ld seem, Buddhists were
req u i red "to besti r themselves. "
And , of course, required
"to preserve our glorious national structure . "
B e that a s it may, Seizan never questioned what
mechanisms i n either Zen or Buddhism had made these
leaders ' earlier fervent support of the war possible i n the
first place .
Was it simply a moral failure on their part, or
was there more to it than that?
As deeply affected by
these issues as Seizan was, he failed to investigate them
fu rther.
Instead, he spent h is scholarly life investigating
the early development of Zen (Ch. Ch 'an ) in China.
377
Y a m a d a M u rna n ' s Respo nse
It wil l be recalled that R i n z a i Zen master Yamada Murnon
was the editor in 1 942 of a strongly pro-wa r book by Se k i
Se isets u entitled The Promotion of Bushic/O.
As already
noted, In postwar J apan Mumon went on to beco me both
P res i d e nt of Hanazono U n ive rs ity and c h ie f abbot o f
Myos h i nJ I, the largest branch o f the R i n z a i Zen sect.
I n 1 9 64 a collection of Murnon's sayings was publishe d
i n English under the title A Flower In The Heart. Altho u g h
not meant I n any se nse to b e a scholarly work, Murnon
neve rtheless made some noteworthy o bservations about
both m odern Buddhist history and Japan's p articipation i n
the Pacific War. His h istorical comments were as follows:
The only time when Buddhism in Japan met a suppression
by the hand of a government was duri n g the M e iJ i
restoration period. Then, its teachings were denounced
and the sacred i mages desecrated. Only the desperate
efforts of their leaders saved it from the fate of a n
utter exti nction, b u t the price they h a d t o pay for its
survival was high, for the monks, they agreed, would
378
take up arms at the time of national emergencies. The
d e a l i n g was surely reg rettable. If these celebrated
priests of the Me iJ I era had been deceived by the name
of loyalty and patriotism, we of today were taken i n
by the deceitful name of holy war. As a consequence,
the nation we all loved lost its gear and tu rned upside
down. This teaches us that we must beware not so
much of oppression as of compromise ( 1 1 ) .
As i nterest i n g as the p reced i n g quotation i s , i t
d escribed the events from what i s basically an outsider's,
or third party's point of view. That is to say, nowhere does
M umon take personal responsibil ity for what happened . Yet,
later on he did broach this topic. He wrote:
For a long time I have entertai ned a wish to bu ild a
temple in every Asian nation to which we caused so
much i ndescribable s u fferi ngs and damages during the
p ast war, as token of our sincere penitence and
atonement, both to mourn for their dead and ours and
t o pray for a perpetual friendship between her and our
cou ntry a nd for fu rth u r cultura l i n te rcou rs e s ( 2 8 ) .
[English left u ncorrected]
In the preceding quote M umon does at least admit to a
c o l l e ct i v e responsibil ity for what happened t h o u g h still
without any discussion of h is personal role. I n fact, Mumon
379
eventually went on to try, at least to some degree, to
Justify the war. He wrote:
The sacrifices listed above were the stepping stones
u pon which the South-East Asian peoples cou ld obtain
their political i ndependence. In a feeble sense, this
war was a holy war. Is this observation too partial? . . .
" If it were for the sake of the peace of the Far East , " a
phrase i n one of the war-time songs, still ri ngs i n my
ears ( 3 1 ) .
I n light of the above, one cannot help b u t recall the
colloquial expression "Wi l l the rea l Yamada Mu mon please
stand up? " If t h i s questio n can be fairly asked about the
contradictions mherent in the prevIous English quotes, the
q uestion is put i nto even sharper re lief by a subsequent
statement made by Mumon, this ti me i n Japanese.
statement was distributed at the inaugural
This
meeti ng of the
" Association to Repay the Heroic Spirits [of Dead Soldiers ] "
(Eirei n i kotaeru ka i/ 5tR';: .:: ttjt.Q�) which was held o n June
22, 1 976. Mumon was one of the fou nders of this association
whose p u rpose was to lobby the Japanese D i e t for
380
rei nstatement of state fu nding for Yasu k u n i Shri n e .
As
p reviously noted , t h i s Shi nto s h n ne was desig ned to
venerate the " heroic spirits" of all Japan's war dead.
Mumon's statement was entitled "Thoughts on State
Maintenance of Yasu k u n i Shrine . " I t contained the fol lowing
passage:
J apan destroyed Itself in order to g randly g ive the
countries of ASia their i ndependence . I think this is
truly an accomplishment worthy of the name " holy war. "
All of this is the resu lt of the meritorious deeds of
two million five hundred thousand heroIc spirits i n our
cou ntry who were loyal, brave, and without rival . I
think the various peoples of Asia who ach ieved their
i n d e p e n d e n c e w i l l c e a s e l e s s l y p ra i s e t h e i r
accomplishments for all eternity (49 ) .
To his E nglish-speaking audience Mumon described the
war as havi ng been in some "feeble sense" a holy war. To
his J apanese audience, however, these words disappeare d
to be replaced with " meritorious deeds, " " he roic spirits , "
" ceaselessly praise," etc. I n light of this, there can no longer
be a ny question of who the real Mumon was, at least to his
381
Japanese audience.
I n the introduction to A Flower In The
Heart, U m e h a ra Ta k e s h l (tf.ijlm�) described Mumon as "one of
those rare monks from whose presence emanates a sense
of genuine holiness" ( 7 ) . A genUine holiness, it would appear,
that was strong enough to extend the belief i n " holy war"
di rectly i nto the postwar period .
M u mon was, of course, by no means the only one who
thought as he did. The idea that Japan had done a favo r to
those Asian nations it forcefully occupied became a n article
of faith among Japan's postwar conservative politicians and
com mentators. As recently as May 3 1 , 1 9 9 5 , an article in
the
Ne w
Zealand
Herald p o i n t e d
out:
" H a rd - l i n e
conservatives . . . a rg u e that Japan fought the war to help
Asian l i beratio n from Western colomalism" ( 8 ) .
The only
thing m issing i n comments like these is proof that significant
n u m be rs of citize ns i n those formerly occupied countries
happen to agree.
382
As a h i n a So g e n' s Response
Asa h i n a Sagen ( 1 89 1 - 1 9 7 9/�tt�*5i) was b oth the
abbot of E n g a k uJ i ( p:jjt�) and the administrative head of the
E ng a kuJ i branch ( p:j:W:�) of the R i n z a l Zen sect.
It will be
recalled that Shaku Soen had earlier been an abbot of this
same temple. Though Sagen
had never been his d isciple,
their thinking was quite similar. Further, like Yamada Mumon,
Sag e n had been active in conservative causes in the postwar
years, m ost n otably as one of t h e foun d e rs of the
"Association to Protect Japan" ( Nihon
0
mamoru kail 8 * �
�Q�) ( Maruyama 7 1 ) .
I n 1 978 Sagen published a book entitled Kakugo wa yo;
ka (Are You Ready?/:;tffil�J:: � 'n\) . The last part of this book
was very autobiographical in nature a nd included extensive
comments about the war, its historical backg round, and h is
own role in it.
As with so many of the books previously
i ntroduced, Sog e n began h is d iscussion by p raising the
383
t h i rteenth ce ntu ry m i l itary ru ler HOJ o To k i m u ne and his
Chi nese Zen master M ugaku Sogen.
According to Soge n,
the roots of both Zen involvement in prayer services and
the subsequent close relationship between Zen and the state
can be traced back to this period . He wrote:
The reason that Japanese Zen began to chant sutras In
both morn i ng and evening se rvices was due to the
Mongol invasion. Although other temples were making
a big deal of their prayers [to protect the cou ntry ] ,
Zen priests were only doing zazen. They were out of
step [with the other sects] and said to be indifferent
to the affai rs of state. The result was they commenced
to recite sutras ( 1 5 1 -52).
Jumpi ng more than six hundred years to the nineteenth
century, Sagen wrote that the S i no-Japanese War had been
caused by China's having tried to "put Japan under its thum b "
i n K o re a ( 1 5 5 ) . The subsequent Russo-Japanese War was,
in h is opinion, due entirely to Russian actions. " Russia rapidly
i ncreased its a rmaments and i ntended to destroy J ap a n
without fighting. It was decided that if Japan were going to
384
be destroyed without fighting, it might as well have a go at
it and be destroyed" [ Italics mine] ( 1 5 7 ) .
The preceding comments were, o f cou rse, only a warmup for his lengthy discussion of the Pacific War.
He began
this discussion with the following comments:
Shortly after the [Pacific] War started, I realized that
t h i s was one we were going to lose. That is to say, the
civil and military officials of whom the Japanese were
so proud had turned i nto a totally d isgusting bunch
( 1 50).
Now here is somethi ng unprecedented - a Zen m aster
who was critical of the m i litary'
mass ki lling they engaged i n?
Was it because of the
Thei r occupation of other
people's countries? Soge n explained it as follows:
I ' m not going to mince words - the top-level leadership
of the Navy was useless. I know because l iving i n
Kamaku ra as I did, I had met many o f them . . . . For
example, two close friends of [Ad m i ra l ] Ya m a m oto
I s o ro k u (d. 1 943/L1J*1i+i\) told me the following story:
After the great victory Yamamoto achieved i n the air
attack on Pearl H a rb o r, he had a meeting with [General]
TOjo H i d e k i [ 1 885-1 948/.��.] . Yamamoto told him
that this was no longer the era of b attl eships w i t h
385
their big guns. Rather, it was unquestionably the era
of the a i rp l ane. Therefore every effort should be made
to build more a i rp l a n es. Yamamoto was right, of course,
in having said this. TOj o, however, being the kind of
person he is, in addition to being an Army General,
was consumed with jealousy, for, unlike the Navy, the
Army had yet to ach ieve any major victories. The
result was that, due to his stubbornness, TOj o told
Yamamoto that he refused to accept orders from him
in as much as the latter was merely the Commander­
in-Chief of the Combined Fleet while he [Toj o] was the
nation's Prime Mi nister [ 1 9 4 1 -44] . They were like two
children fighting. Yamamoto' s two fnends claimed that
because Japan wasn't building more a i rp l a n e s, it was
losing the war.
I [Sogen] said to them, why wasn't Yamamoto Willing to
risk his position in opposing him? Why didn't he t e l l
TOj o he woul d resign his position as Combined Fleet
Commander? . . . If I had been there, I would have let go
with an explosive " FooI I " . . . . The Army and the N avy
don 't exist for themselves, they exist to d efend the
cou ntry . . . . With people like these at the top how can
they accomplish what is expected of them. We ' re
already losing. With people like them as commanders,
we cannot expect to win. . . . They're only thinking
about themselves ( 1 63-64 ) .
Here, then, was Soge n's analysis o f why Japan lost the
war.
It was all very simple - the nation's military/political
leaders we re t h i n k i n g o n ly of the mselves a n d t h e i r
386
respective military branches. It was their self-centeredn ess
as opposed to the Zen ideal of " e g o l ess ness " and " nom mded ness" that had spelled Japan's doom .
the
Questions of
moral ity of Japan's wa rtime actions, its invasion and
control of other Asian countries, etc. had, in Sagen's view,
nothing to do with it.
Even though Sogen claimed to have realized that Japan
faced defeat at an early stage of the wa r with the Allies,
this did not mean that he subsequently withdrew h is support
for the nation's war effort.
On the contrary, he wrote of
numerous i nstances in which he g ave lectu res a nd led
" trai ni ng camps" (renseikai/ .rot�) to help mainta i n the
people's morale.
One such lectu re was given at the N aval
Technical Research Institute in Tokyo.
With evident pride, Sogen twice mentioned that all
the members of this i nstitute were u niversity g raduates
and that it was the most important c e n t e r for n aval
387
technology in Japan. His lecture was given to all two hundred
workers at the institute and l asted for a ful l three hours
a nd twenty minutes.
Although he did not give the deta i ls
of h is talk, he clai med there was not so much as a cou g h
from h i s audience the entire time.
" I ' ll be satisfied if what
I 've said has been of even a small benefit to the state, " he
concluded ( 1 68).
As an example of one the training camps he led, he
wrote about a military-sponsored visit of some forty-fou r
wou nded war veterans to E n g a kuj i.
They u nderwent Zen
traming as best they could for a one week period. When it
came time for them to leave, Sogen addressed them as
fo l l ows:
Even though you have sustained injuries to your eyes
or to you r hands, you a re still b rave and seasoned
warriors . This is now a time when the people m u st
give everything they have to the state. You , too, h ave
something precious to g ive. That is to say, transfer
your spirit to the people of this nation, hardening their
resolve. You were not sent to a place like this to be
388
pampered. I took charge of you because I wanted you
to have the resolve and the cou rage to offer u p the
last thing you possess [to the state] ( 1 7 1 ) .
"They cried, " Sogen went on, " al l of them" ( 1 7 1 ) . As
well they m ight, for the Japanese state was not satisfied
with Just an eye or an arm, it l iterally wanted a I I of you .
And Zen masters like Sagen were ever ready to assist the
state in making sure it got what it wanted.
Finally, Sage n was not critical of all those in leadership
positions d,u ri ng the war.
There was one i nstitution, o r
figure, for whom he h a d u nwaverin g respect both duri ng
and after the war. That person was, of course, the Emperor.
As to why this was so, Sogen wrote: liThe debt of g ratitude
owed the Emperor . . . i s so precious that there
IS
no way to
express one's g ratitude for it or to repay it" ( 1 8 3 ) .
Although Sag e n d i d n ' t d iscus s Empero r H i ro h i to ' s
wartime role, h e had nothing b u t praise for h i s actions
fol lowing Japan 's defeat.
It was the Emperor's " nobility of
389
spirit,
II
Sogen maintained, that so moved Genera l Doug las
M acArthur, head of the Occupation Forces, that he decided
to treat Japan leniently, maintaining its integrity as a smgle
country.
It was in this spirit that Sogen left h is Japa nese
readers with the fol lowing partmg thought:
The prospe rity and everything we e nJ oy today is
c o m p l et e l y due to the selflessness and no-m mded ness
of the Emperor's benevolence. I want you to remember
this. Human bei ngs must never forget the debt of
g ratitude they owe [others] ( 1 89).
Based on the above, it can be fairly said that Sog e n ,
l i ke Yamada Mumon, demonstrated that though t h e n a m e
" Imperial State-Zen
II
m ight have disappeared at war's e nd,
it's spirit was anything but dead. This explains, at l east in
part, why, even today, not a single branch of the R i n z a i Zen
sect has ever publicly discussed, let alone apologized for,
its wartime role. To do so would inevitably call into question
the modern h istory of that sect and possibly its entire
seven hu ndred year h istory in Japan.
390
I c h i k a w a H a k u g e n ' s Response
The irony of the preceding comments is that while the
R i n z a i Zen sect has spawned some of the strongest advocates
of " I m pe rial State-Zen," it has also produced some of its
m ost s evere cri t i cs .
W h i l e Yanagida Se izan m ay be
considered one such critic, his was, as already noted , a
l i m ited critique at best.
The same, however, cannot be
said of R i nz a i Zen-affiliated I c h i kawa Hakugen.
H akugen's classic statement on the role of Buddhism,
particu larly Zen, i n the wartime era was entitled The War
Responsibility of Buddhists (Bukkyosha no senso- sekininl
iA��Cl)ti�.if), published i n 1 970.
He developed his ideas
sti l l fu rther in a series of articles and books including
Religion
under Japanese Fascism (Nihon Fashizumu k a no
shukyo/ B $7 7 �Ab. tCl)*�), published in 1 97 5 , and a major
article included in Buddhism During the War (Senji ka no
391
Bukkyo/ ti�'"fo)fA�) , published in 1 977, and edited by N akano
Kyotoku (�ilJl.).
I n Religion under Japanese Fascism, Hakugen J ustified
his call for a critical evaluation of the relationship between
Buddhism and Japanese mil itarism
in
the fol lowing way:
I n rec e n t t i me s , J apanese B u d d h ists ta l k a b o u t
Buddh ism possessing the wisdom a n d philosophy to
save the world and humanity from collapse. However,
I believe Buddhism first has to reHect on what kind of
doctri nes a nd missionary work it advocated during the
M e ij i, Ta isho, and Showa periods to oppose exploitation
a nd oppression within J apan itself, as wel l as Korea,
Taiwan, Okinawa, China, and Southeast Asia. Beyond
that, Buddhism has the duty and responsibility to clarify
i ndividual responsibility for what happened and express
its determination [never to let It happen again] ( 2 2-2 3 ) .
I n the preceding work, as wel l a s many of his oth e r
works, H a kugen set out to d o Just what he said needed to
be done.
He not only clarified i ndividual responsibility but
also looked at those doctrinal and h i storical aspects of
both Zen and Buddhism which he believed lent themselves,
rig h tly o r wrongly, to abuse by supporters of Japanese
392
m il itarism .
One of the i ndividu als whom Hakugen felt was
most responsible for the development of what he called
" Im perial Way-Zen " ( Kodo Zen/ �ii*¥) was none o t h e r that
S u z u k i Dalsetz.
Hakugen felt that Suzuki's position as expressed in A
Treatise on the New [Meaning of] Religion In the latter part
of the M e iJ i period helped form the theoretical basis for
what fol lowed . I n justification of this assertion, he quoted
the same passage from that treatise previously i ntroduced
in this dissertation . He stated that S u z u k i had been speaking
of China when he mentioned a " lawless cou ntry" in this
treatise ( 3 5 ) .
H akugen then went on to say:
[Su z u k i ] considered the S i no-J a p anese W a r to b e
religious practice designed to punish China i n o rder t o
advance humanity. This i s , a t least i n its format, the
very same logic used to support the fifteen years of
warfare devoted to "The Holy War for the Construction
of a New Order in East Asia . " Suzu k i didn't stop to
consider that the war to punish China had not started
with a Chinese attack on J apanese soil, but, i nstead,
t o o k place on the continent of China. Suzu k i was unable
393
to see the war from the viewpoint of the Chinese people
whose l ives and natura l e nviron ment were b e i ng
devastated . Lacking this reflection, he considered the
war of aggression on the continent as religious practice
in the name of religion . . . . The log ic that S u z u k i used
to support h is " religious conduct" was that of " the sword
that kills is identical with the sword that g ives life "
and " kill one in order that many may live. " It was the
e x peri e nce of " ho ly war" which spread t h i s logic
throughout all of Asia. It was Buddhists a nd Buddhist
o rg anizations that integ rated this experience of war
with the experience of the emperor system ( 3 5 ) .
t
Needless to say, Suzuki was not the only Zen adherent
who Haku gen bel ieved shared responsi b i l ity fo r the war.
Mention has already been made, for example, of H a rada Daiun
Sog a ku who Hakugen i dentified as a " fanatical m i l ita rist .
II
As for S u g i m oto G o ro and Yamazaki E k iju, Hakugen had this
to say:
In the first instance Sugi moto and Yamazaki used Zen
as nothing more than a means for the practice of the
Imperial Way. Not only that, but by forcing the meaning
and tenets of Zen to fit within the context of a religion
ce ntered on the Emperor, Zen itself was obl iterated
(87).
394
As mentioned above, Hakugen's research did not stop
with merely identifyi ng those Individual Zen adherents whom
he believed were responsible for what had tra nspired.
He
is unique among postwar Zen (and Buddhist) scholars in trying
to determi ne what long-standmg Buddhist doctri nes or p r eM e iJ i historical developments might have either contributed
to o r faci litated
Buddhist war collaboration .
One example of a contributing h istorical development
is contai ned in his book Zen and Contemporary Thought
(Zen to gendal- shiso/�t!Jltt!!�). He wrote:
In the Edo period [ 1 600-1 867] a Zen deepening of Shinto
was attempted by Munan [ 1 603-76], HakUln [ 1 685-1 768]
and Tor e i [ 1 7 2 1 -9 2 ] . This was accompanied by the
further assimilation of Zen in Japan. This assimilation
took p lace at the same time as the establish ment of
the power of the e mperor system, with the result that
Zen lost almost all of its independence. The completion
of this transformation took p lace as a result of the
i mpact of the so-called "High Treason Incident" on the.
Zen world ( 1 7 7 ) .
395
On the doctrinal side, Hakugen looked for those Buddhist
i deas that seem to have made Buddhism susceptible to
militaristic manipulation.
One example he gave of such an
Idea concerned the Buddhist teaching of " wago " (®�) o r
harmony.
Out of
harmony, he postul ated , had come
Buddhism's " nonresistance " and "tolerance. " He continued:
With what has modern Japanese Buddhism harmonised
itself? With State Shinto. With the power of the
state. With militarism. And therefore , with war. To
what has modern Japanese Buddhism been nonresistant?
To State Shinto. To the power of the state. To militarism.
To wars of aggression.
Toward what has mode rn
Japanese Buddhism been tolerant? Toward the a bove
mentioned entities with which it harmonized. Therefore,
toward its own war responsibility. And I shou ld not
fo rget to include myself as one of those modern
Japanese Buddhists who did these things ( 1 1 1 -1 2 ) .
Hakugen's g reat strength was the way in which he
tenaciously uncovered layer after layer of causal factors
( i ncluding those with i n h imself) that p recipitated, if not
enabled, Buddhism, especially Zen, to unite with militarism .
Nowhere is this cleare r than i n h is exa m i nation of the
396
h i storical character of Japan ese Buddhism w h i c h was
included in his book The War Responsibility of Buddhists
( 1 50-54). In addition to his preceding comments, H akugen
clai med
t h e re
were
a
tot a l
of
twelve
h i s t o ri c a l
c h a racteristics which, deve lop ing ove r t h e centuries,
p roduced i n J ap anese
Buddhism a
rece ptive ness to
authoritari a n i s m .
The first o f these characteristics was the subservience
of Buddhism to the state. Hakugen pointed out that there
were a number of Mahayana
sutras ori g i nating i n I n d i a
which emphasized the role o f Buddhism a s t h e " protector
of the state. " These sutras had been particularly welcomed
in Japan where this aspect of Buddhism became even more
pronounced.
Duri ng the Edo period Buddhism came u nder
total government control and, mixed together with Shin to,
became what was essentially a state religion.
397
As a state rel igion Buddhism became a mere s hell of
its fo rmer self with its attention focused on ancestor
veneration in the form of fu nerals and memonal services.
Thus, it became a religion with a limited social nexus - the
extended family.
Not su rpri s i n g ly, It was antagonistiC to
Christianity because of the latter's t ransnational and modern
character.
The repression Buddhism itself experienced at
the beginning of the M e iJ i period only served to rei nforce
its opposition to not only Christianity but socialism as wel l .
It fu rther served to strengthen its subservie nce t o a
nationalism based on the emperor system and militarism.
H akugen's second characteristic concerned Buddhist
views on humanity and society. On the one hand, Buddhism
emphasizes the equality of human beings based on the i r
possession of a Buddha-nature, that is t o say, t h e i nn ate
potential to realize Buddhahood.
On the other hand, the
doctrine of karma, with its corollary bel ief in g ood and bad
398
k a rm i c retri bution, tends to serve as a k i nd of mora l
J u stification fo r soc ial I nequal ity. Differe nces i n soc i a l
status, wealth, happiness, etc. are seen as Just rewards for
g ood or bad conduct both in this and previous lives, having
nothing to do with the political or social structure of society.
Understood in this light, social i nequ ality is not o nly
Just, but represents true equality .
It is, furthermore , o nly
natu ral for B u d d h i s m to protect a society with clear
differences i n social status since such a society faci l itates
the working out of past karma.
Soci alism, on the other
hand, advocates the purposefu l l eve l i n g of these social
differences, thus becoming the proponent of " evil equality . "
A s such, it must b e rejected.
The t h i rd c h a racteristic was conce rned with the
question of social morality, i.e. the encouragement of good
and the punishment of evil. In this context Hakugen d iscussed
one of Japan's oldest quasi-l e g a l docu ments, the " Seventeen
399
Article Constitution " of Pri nce Regent Shot o k u ( 573-62 1 /�
f!:a:T) , allegedly p romulgated in 604.
This Constitution
contained the following wa rnmg:
" If you receive an I mperial command, it must be obeyed
without fai l . The Sovereign is Heaven, and I mperial
subjects are the earth . . . . Should the earth seek to
overthrow Heaven, there will only be destructi on . "
Hakugen maintained that as a semi-state rel igion from
this period onwards, Buddhism sought to protect not only
the state, but its hierarch ical social structure as well .
On
the basis of havi ng i nternalized this essentially Confucian
l og i c , Buddh ism became a faithful servant of the M e lJ i
gove rnme nt ' s conservat ive social poliCies, wo rk i n g to
create the ideal I mperial subj ect.
The fou rth characteristic concerned both human rights
and justice. The Buddhist doctrine of dependent co- a ri s i n g ,
accord ing to H akugen, mea ns that all phenomena are i n a
constant state of flux, being born and dying without a ny
400
permanent substance to them, that is, they are "empty. "
When this doctri ne is applied to the self it produces the
concept of "eg olessn ess" or " no-self, " leavmg no room for
the independence of the individual .
The end result of this was that the Western principle
of " n atura l law" did not develop within Buddhism, leaving
the modern concepts of human rig hts and Justice without a
fou n d atio n .
In
the afo rementioned Seventeen Article
Constitution, there is an admonition to " turn one's back on
s e l f- [ i n t e rest] and embrace the public-[good ] ." In Hakugen's
view there exists a direct connection between this and the
wartime slogan " exterminate the self and serve the public"
(messh, hokol �iA.�) .
The "public" referred to, he
maintained, was none other than the state a nd Emperor.
Thus, "The teaching of ' no-self' became both a theory and
ethic serving Mikado I mperialism " ( 1 5 2 ) .
40 1
The lack of Buddhist dogma was the fifth characteristic
H akugen identified.
Lacking a transcendent, personal God
who had to be worshipped and defended, Buddhism fai led to
establish the type of compelling basIc dog ma a believer
would fight to preserve. In Japan, this resulted in the neglect
of both thought and theory. Instead, Buddhism concentrated
on the inner self with the individual's subjective feeli ngs
playing the centra l role.
There was little concern for the
resu lts of external actions.
The sixth characteristic concerned the idea of "on" (m
).
Forming the heart of Buddhist ethics, on is the teaching
that a debt of gratitude is owed to those from whom favo rs
a re received.
Traditionally, on was owed to fou r classes
or types of individuals: 1 ) one's parents, 2) the king, 3 ) all
sentient beings, and 4) either Heaven and earth, or the Three
Treasures of Buddhism, i .e. the Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha.
H a kugen a rgued that in Japan the debt of g ratitude owed
402
one's parents had converged with that owed one's Sovereign.
This produced a corresponding weakening of the sense of
indebtedness to "all sentient beings. "
The Buddhist belief i n the mutual interdependence of
all things formed the seventh characteristic. Hakugen stated
that this belief led in modern Japan to an organic view of
the state coupled with a feeling of intimacy towards it.
Encompassed within this viewpoint was the recognition of
the pre-eminence of the state, with the i nd ividual being no
more than a constituent element. In similar fashion, it meant
that capitalists, too, were preeminent, with workers being
subsumed beneath them i n an extended family system that
emphasized harmony and cooperation.
Hakugen's eighth characteristic focused on the doctrine
of the M iddle Way.
He maintained that the Middle Way
doctrine of early Buddhism in India had become the operating
principle for social development in modern J ap a ne se
403
Buddhism.
This did not mean, however, some type of
c o m p romise between extreme left-w i ng a n d right-wi ng
pol itical Ideology.
Instead, it became a constant search for
comp romise that sought to avoid confrontation before it
occu rred.
In the end, this led to a very vague theory of
social reform .
The ninth characteristic centere d on the tradition of
a ncestor ve neration.
As " nation-p rotect i n g " Buddhism
assi m ilated Itself to Japan, I t promoted the customs and
virtues of ancestor veneration. The end result was that the
entire nation came to be regarded as one large fa mily i n
which loyalty between subject and Sovereign was the chief
virtue. This logic was extended and e m p l oyed as a support
mechanism for the sacred war as voiced by the wartime
slogan "the whole world under one roof" [hakko ichiu/ j\f,t­
!¥].
404
The spirit of "aging" formed the tenth characteristic.
The M iddle Ages In Japan gave rise to a culture in which old
and m atu re things were val ued.
Out of this came such
aesthetic concepts as "wabi" ( rustic a ntiqueness/t>�) and
''sabi'' ( ancient sohtariness/��) . An extension of this way
of thin king saw proposals for social reform b ra nded as
childlike and immature.
To become a matu re adult meant
to dismiss such proposals, especi ally if they challenged
the existing order, and become accepting, o bedient, and
u ncritical of the status quo.
The
e l eventh
c h a racteristic
i nvo lved
Budd hism 's
emphasIs on "peace of mind" rather than Justice. Lacking a
God as the author of transcendental principles, Buddhism
was not compelled to build a kingdom of God based on
justice here on earth.
Furthermore, because Buddhism i s a
religion based on the idea o f the "emptiness" (5 k t. shunyatal
gg) of things, it had al most no basis for maintaining a n
40 5
a ntagonistic attitude towards State Shinto.
Buddhism's
focus on individua l peace of mind also contributed to its
failure to establ ish the will to reorganize society.
H akugen's twelfth and final cha racteristic concerned
the Buddhist logic of ''soku ''
(en), a copula that l itera l ly
means "just as it is" and is roughly equivalent to 'such ness'
and non-duality. I c h i k awa contended that the logic of soku
1
appearing as it does throughout Buddhist thought, leads
to a static, aesthetic perspective, a detached subjective
harmony with things.
In Hakugen's view, Buddhism lacks a
dynamic theoretical basis for either confronting real ity or
p romoting social change.
It is clear that each one of the twelve characteristics
noted above involves assumptions and viewpoi nts that a re
clearly open to extensive schol arly debate .
The defe ns e
o r c ritiq u e of these al leged characteristics wou ld be a
monumental task i n itself.
This task, once again, extends
406
beyond the confines of this d issertation.
This sai d , it is
equa l ly clear that Hakugen has ra ised some challeng i ng
issues with his critique that are worthy of further scholarly
i nvestigati o n .
At the very l east, his critiq u e stro n g ly
suggests that the issue of Buddhism's collaboration with
J ap anese m i litarism is one with very deep roots withi n
Buddhist history and doctrine.
FOi
this insight, If for nothing
else, futu re students of this topic will remain Indebted to
this pioneering scholar.
The 1 9 9 2 Soto Zen Sect ' s Declaration of War
Respo n s i b i l i ty
I n t r o d u ct i o n
I f the R i n z a i Zen sect has been unwi lling to face its
p ast, it cannot be claimed that the postwar leaders h ip of
the Sato Zen sect was any more anxious to do so. Yet, a
series of a l legations concerning human rig hts abuses by
this sect had the cumulative effect of forcing it to face its
407
past in spite of its unwillingness to do so. Unquestionably
the single most important event in this series of allegations
was the sect headquarters' publication in 1 980 of the History
of the Soto Sect 's Overseas Evangelization and Missionary
Work (Soto- shu kaigai ka ikyo dendo shi/ .���*rm�ffiil\i5l!).
I n the January 1 9 9 3 issue of Soto Shuho, the sect
headquarters announced that it was recalling all copies of
the above mentioned publication . The reason given for this
was as follows:
The content of this book consists of the history of the
overseas missionary work u ndertaken by this sect since
the M e iJ i period, based on the reports of the persons
i nvolve d .
Howeve r, u p o n i nvest i g at i o n , it was
d iscovere d that this book contai ned many accou nts
that were based on d iscriminatory ideas. There were,
fo r e x a m p l e , words w h i c h d i sc ri m i nated a g a i nst
peoples of various national ities. Fu rthermore, there
were places that were filled with u ncritical adulation
for " m i l itarism" and "the policy to tu rn [occupied
peoples ] i nto loyal I mperial subjects ( 2 6 ) .
I m mediately followi ng the above a nnounce ment was a
" Statement of Apology" ( Shazaibunl IfBJt) issued by the
408
administrative head of the sect, Ot a k e Myogen (*¥ID)J�).
The state ment contained a passage which clearly shows
how the p receding work served as a catalyst for w h at
amou nted to the sect's repentance of its wartime role.
highlights are as follows:
We, the Soto sect, have since the M e iJ i period and
through to the end of the Pacific War, utilized the good
name of "overseas evangel ization" to violate the human
rig hts of the peoples of ASia, especially those in East
Asia . This was done by making com mon cause with,
and sharing in, the sinister designs of those who then
held political power to ru le Asia. Furthermore, withi n
the social climate o f " ceasing to b e Asian and beco m i ng
Western , " we despised the peoples of Asia and their
cultures, forcing Japanese cu ltu re on them and taking
actions which caused them to lose thei r national pride
and dignity. This was all done out of a belief in the
superi ority of Japanese Buddhism and our national
stru cture. Not only that, but these actions, which
violated the teachings of Buddhism, were done in the
name of Buddha S hakya m u n i and the su ccessive
Patriarchs in India, China and Japan who tra nsmitted
the Dharma. There is nothing to be said a bout these
actions other than that they were tru ly shamefu l .
We fo rt h ri g htly confess the serious m i st akes w e
comm itted i n the past
h i story of o u r ove rseas
m issionary work, and we wish to deeply apologize and
409
Its
express our repentance to the peoples of Asia and the
wo rld .
M o reove r, t h e se actions a re not m e re l y t h e
re s po n s i b i l i t y o f those people who we re d i rectly
I nvo lved I n overseas m issionary work. Needless to
say, the responsi bility of the entire sect m ust be
questioned in as much as we applauded Japan's overseas
aggression and attempted to Justify it.
Even fu rther, the So to sect's publ ication In 1 9 8 0 of the
History of the Soto Sect's Overseas Evangelization and
Missionary Work was done without reflection on these
past mistakes. This meant that within the body of the
work there were not only positive evaluations of these
past errors, but even expressions which tried to glorify
and extol what had been done. In dOing thiS, there was
a complete lack of concern for the pain of the peoples
of ASi a who suffered as a resu lt. The publication
involved claimed to be a work of history but was written
from a viewpoint which affi rmed an Imperial h istorical
understanding, recalling the ghosts of the past and the
disgrace of Japan 's modern history. We are ashamed
to have published such a work.
At the same time, we cannot escape a deeply g u ilty
conscience i n that this work was p u b l ished some
thirty-five years after the end of the Pacific War. The
reason for this is that si nce the M e ij i period our sect
has cooperated in waging war, sometimes having been
fl attered into making common cause with the state,
and other times rushing on its own to support state
policies. Beyond that, we have never reflected on the
41 0
great misery that was forced upon the peoples of Asia
nor felt a sense of responsibility for what happened.
The historian E. H. C a r r has said: " History is an endless
conversation between the past and the present . "
Regretfu l ly, our sect has fai led to engage In this
conversation, with the result that we have arrived at
today without questioning the meaning of the past for
the present, or verifying ou r own standpoint in the
light of past h istory. We neglected to self-critically
examine our own "war responsibility" as we should have
done immediately after having lost the war In 1 9 45 .
Although the Sota Sect cannot escape the feeling of
bemg too late, we wish to apologize once again for our
neg ligence and, at the same time, apologize for our
cooperation with the war. . . .
We recognize that
Buddhism teaches that all hu man beings are equal as
children of the Buddha . And fu rther, that they are
Iivmg beings with a dignity that must not, for any reason
whatsoever, be i mpaired by others. Nevertheless, our
sect, which IS grounded in the belief of the transference
of Shakya m u n i's Dharma from master to disciple, both
supported and eagerly sought to cooperate with a war
of aggression agai nst other peoples of Asia, calling it
a holy war.
Especially in Korea and the Korean peninsula, Japan
first committed the outrage of assassinating the Korean
Queen [in 1 895], then forced the Korea of the Lee Dynasty
into dependency status [in 1 904-5], and finally, through
the annexation of Korea [in 1 9 1 0] , obliterated a people
and a nation. Our sect acted as an advanced guard i n
41 1
this, contriving to assimi late the Korean people i nto
this country, and promotmg the po l i cy of turning
Koreans i nto loyal Imperial subjects.
When human
bemgs exist as human beings, they cannot help but
seek a place where they belong . People feel secure
when they have a guarantee of their identity co ming
from such thmgs as their own fa m i ly, language,
nationality, state, land, culture , religious belief, etc.
Havi ng an Identity guarantees the dignity of human
beings. However, the policy to create loyal Imperial
su bjects depnved the Korean people of their nation,
t h e i r language, and, by forcing them to adopt Japanese
family and personal names, the very heart of the i r
national culture. The Soto sect, together with Japanese
rel igion in general, took upon itself the role of Justifying
these barbanc acts In the name of rel ig ion .
In China a Id other cou ntnes, ou r sect took charge of
pacifi catloll activities directed towards the peoples
who were the victims of our aggression . There were
even some priests who took the lead In making contact
with the secret police and conducting spying operations
on thei r behalf.
F i rst, we
We com m itted m istakes on two levels.
subordinated Buddhist teachings to world ly teachings
in the form of national policies . Then we proceeded to
take away the dignity and identity of other peoples.
We sole mnly prom ise that we will neve r make this
mistake again. . . .
Furthermore, we deeply apologize
to the peoples of Asia who suffered under the past
pol itical domination of Japan. We sincerely apologi ze
that i n its overseas evangel ism and missionary work
41 2
the Soto sect made common cause with those in power
and stood on the side of the aggressors ( 2 8-3 1 ) .
I n reading the above statement it is difficult to escape
the feeling that forty-eight years after the end of the war
it was, in the wo rds of the preceding text, also " too late"
for a leader of the Zen tradition to address the issue of war
respo nsibil ity.
This said, it is clear that without this
statement of apology it would have been I m possible for
the Soto sect to have restored U c h iyama G udo' s p ri estly
status as It subsequently did i n April 1 9 9 3 , some e ig h tyt h re e ye a rs after having deprived him of it.
In spite of the positive good that has issued from the
Soto sect's statement of apology, Zen scholars like I c h i kawa
Hakugen make it clear that the rationale for Ze n ( a nd
Buddhis m 's ) support o f J ap anese m i litarism i n p articular,
and state-sponsored warfare in general, IS far more deep ly
e ntrenched i n Zen and Budd hist doctri ne and h istorical
41 3
practice, especially in its Mahayana form, than any Japanese
Buddhist sect has yet to publicly admit.
Of all the Japanese Bu ddhist sects to date, the Soto
s e ct ' s state ment
comprehensive.
of apol ogy i s c e rta i n l y the
most
Yet, it al most totally Ignores the question
of the doctri nal and h istorical rel ationship between the
Buddhism and the state, let alone between Buddhism and
the emperor.
Is, for example, " state-protecting Buddhism"
(gokoku bukkyo/ mi�11�) an mtnnslc part of Buddhism or
m e re ly a histo rical accretion?
Similarly, IS the vau nted
u n ity between Zen and sword an orthodox or heretical
doctnne?
Is there such a thing as a physical " life-giving
swo rd " o r i s i t n o m o re than a Zen metaphor that Suzu k i and
others have terribly m isused out of context?
The Soto Zen sect has made a beg inning, even a good
beg inning, in addressing some of the many issues involved
i n t h e m od ern h i sto rical
relati o n s h i p b etwee n
41 4
itself
( representing symbolical ly, at least, institutional Buddhism
as a whole) and J a panese m i l itaris m .
dissertation itself, it IS only a beginning.
But, l i ke thiS
It rep resents no
more than the first step in what will, if continued, require a
fundamental re-evaluation of what have heretofore been
considered intimate parts, If not essential parts, of Zen
and Buddhist thought and practice.
It remains to be seen
when, and If, such a fundamental re-evalu ation will take
place.
41 5
CHAPTER
1 2: ISSU ES AWAITING FURTHER RESEARCH
I nt roduction
The most i mportant area requiri ng fu rther research
c e nte rs on the q uestion of whether or not the support
Japanese Buddhism provided for the state 's war efforts as
demo nstrated i n this dissertation was a n u npre cedented
phenomena In Buddhist history. As has been seen, I c h i kawa
Hakugen In particular argued that such support should be
considered an outg rowth or extension of certain historical
and doctrinal antecedents .
In h is view, these antecedents
were to be found in Japan in the first i nstance but with
roots reach i n g back as far as India , the birt hp l ace of
Buddhism.
H akugen is by no means the only scholar of Zen to
have voiced his concern about the seeming lack of social
and moral awareness i n this Buddhist school .
Neither is he
alone in seeing this issue as having its roots i n p re- m o d e rn
41 6
Zen hi story .
A b e Masao, p reviously introduced, is a
conte m po ra ry Ze n scholar who has come t o s i m i l a r
conclusions. H e wntes:
It is undeniable . . . that through its long h istory Zen
did not sufficiently o r syste matically clanfy h ow to
save others in the i r i ndividual and social l ife b eyond
the p roblem of awakening to each person 's true self.
Zen has provided a basic framework for the relationship
between self and others but almost no definite form
of hu man moral ity or social eth ics except mo nastic
reg u l ations. This IS due l argely to its overwhe l m i ng
emphasIs o n i nd ividual self-awakening . This relative
lack of co ncern with i nd ivi dual a n d soc i a l ethics
becomes an increasi ngly serious problem as Zen begins
to confront Issues in contempora ry society and enter
Western cultures ( " Foreword" vili ).
A third Zen scholar, this time a Westerner, has also
exp ressed his support of Hakugen's and A b e's conclusions.
This scholar is C h risto p h e r Ives whose book Zen A wakening
and Society
was wntten specific a l ly to a d d ress the
rel ationship between Zen Buddhism and ethics,
in society. He states:
41 7
especially
Without carefu l reflection - grou nded In self-cntical
examination of Buddhist texts, principles, and values Zen may continue to wander through a range of social
o ri e n tatio n s, some of which may run contrary to the
p ri nci ples and spirit of the traditio n . H i storical ly,
monastic Zen has not studied, ana lysed, or responded
self-critically to the fu ll range of suffering in the social
world. This lack of a critical spirit has contributed to
problematical support of the status quo, whether the
aristocracy, samurai dictators, m i litarists, or certain
large corporations (I x).
There are, however, dissenting voices to the view that
Zen's
modern-day
moral
h istorical antecedents.
l apses
h ave
l o ng-sta n d m g
One such voice I S that of R o b e rt
S h a rf, whose article on "Zen and Japanese Nationalism " has
been previously quoted . He writes:
The "Zen" that so captured the imagination of the West
was in fact a product of the New Buddhism of the M e iJ i.
. . . Western enthusi asts systematical ly fa i led to
recognize the nationalist ideology u nderlying modern
Japanese constructions of Zen [ Italics mine] ( 3 9 ) .
Sharf further argues against the ancient origins o f the
alleged unity between Zen and bushidO for the simple reason
that "the term bushidO itself is rarely attested i n p re- M e ij i
41 8
l iterature" ( 6 ) .
He goes on to state, however, that " [this]
did not discourage Japanese intellectuals and propagandists
from using the concept to explicate and ce lebrate the
cu ltural and spiritual superiority of the Japanese " ( 6 ) .
Sharf' s opi n ion notwithstanding, Stewa rt McFarlane
points to a so mewhat older relationship between Zen a nd
the martial arts. He writes:
The appl ication of Zen theory and practice to the
traming of martial skill and technique, and the investing
of the wa rrior l ife with spiritu a l values, a re rea l ly
Tokugawa [ i .e. Edo period] phenomena. . . . Zen formed
only one element in the process (404).
Thomas Cleary, on the other hand, appears to agree
with Sharf in finding modern causes for Zen's war cooperation.
In h is book The Japanese Art Of War he states that it was
militarism itself which " distorted" Zen.
He writes:
M il itarism has d istorted Zen along with the rest of
J apanes e c u ltu re , produ c i ng aberrat ions in w h i c h
various forms o f Japanese machismo o r masochism are
regarded as not only having some relation to Zen, but
even as bei ng products or manifestations of Zen
41 9
" practice" or " realization . "
Furthermore, J apanese
people today are Just as susceptible to being deceived
by deviant Zen as are Westerners, with the result that
the various conflicting elements I n modern Zen a re
generally not analyzed for what they really are ( 1 1 9 ) .
Unfortu nately, Cleary does not go on to provide a n
i n - d e pth a n a lys i s of wh at these "vari o u s confl l ct m g
e lements in modern Zen" might be.
Yet, unli ke Sharf,
he
does find one historical culprit which has " Infected Zen over
the centuries. " Namely, the Shinto religion.
He writes:
The Shmtoistic elements that have i nfected Zen over
t h e centuries m ay be b ri efly stated a s fo l l ows:
fet i s h i s m , i n clu d i ng ritu a l i s m a n d atta c h ment to
p araphernalia; devotion to persons l iving and dead;
fondness for rice wine, a sacramental libation in Shinto
worship; h i e rarchy and aut horitari a n i s m; a tendency to
regard the phys ical body as real; ra c i s m; and local
sectari anism. [ Italics mine] ( 1 1 8 ) .
I n f i n d i n g Shinto
t o blame for m a ny o f Zen' s
shortcomings, Cleary takes a position similar to Suzuk i 's i n
the latter's postwar critique o f Buddhist war collabo ration.
It w i l l b e recal l ed , h owever, that m a ny M e ij i period
420
p roponents of Shin to were equ ally convinced that it was
B u d d h i s m and Zen that had corru pted their rel i g i o n .
" Deviance , " like beauty, it wou ld seem, l ies in the eye of
the beholder.
This said, it wou ld be interesting to know
which modern Japanese and Westerners Cleary believes have
been "deceived by deviant Zen. "
I nc l u de d i n Cleary ' s d eviant Zen is the a l leged
connection between Zen and bushido.
Cleary
IS
a nxious
that the two are not viewed as being identical. He writes:
An exami nation of re levant primary l ite ratu re makes
it clear . . . that Bushido is spiritually and prag matical ly
d i ffe re nt fro m B u d d h i s m , eve n it some of its
practitioners did learn somethi ng about Buddhism and
apply it to their arts.
The participation of warriors and strategists in shaping
the format of Zen i n Japan is one way to expl ain the
cloud of mystery surrounding Zen, as the appeara nce
of a ruse, part of the art of the advantage, one that
has h istorically been used to dress certain alien and
un-Buddhist e lements of Bushido i n the dign ity of
Buddhism. Many Japanese themselves have unknowingly
been deceived by this maneuver, to say noth ing of
Westerners ( 1 1 7) .
42 1
If Cleary fails to identify exactly who it is that has
been deceived , he also fal ls to explain who or what It is
that is doing the deceiving.
Unl i ke Cleary who believes such th ings as militarism
and Shinto "distorted" Zen, Winston King, author of Zen and
the Way of the Sword, takes a position not unlike Suzuki's.
That i s to say, Zen could not be d istorted, at least not
ethically, for Zen has no ethics to distort! He wntes:
Wa rrio r-Ze n took on the coloring of the wa rri o r­
dominated cultu re and institutions of medieval and
Tokugawa Japan, becom ing more ful ly Japanese even
if not more Buddhist in the process. Thus the ethics of
the sword could and d id, at least for a time, become
the ethics of Zen, not uncongenial with the Confucian
statecraft ethic adopted by the Tokugawa regime but
showing l ittle of its " Buddhist" quality. For essentially
Zen, with its slight regard for scripture and literary or
ritual tradition, has no means of checking its " Buddhist"
quality from time to time or maintaining a consistent
witness to a good or holy l ife-pattern. In a word, it
has no intrinsic ethical quality or inner monitor, but . . .
h istorically seems to be primari ly a psychological
tech n iq u e fo r maxi m i z i ng the visce ra l e nergies
whatever their orientation ( 1 90- 1 9 1 ) .
422
If this is indeed what Zen is all about, there can be
little doubt that somewhat like Lt. Col . Sugimoto Goro shou ld
be considered to h ave mastered it in every respect.
That
is to say, had he not mastered this "psychological technique
for m ax i m i z i n g the visceral
energ ies whatever t h e i r
o ri e ntat i o n "?
In a n extended description of Japan's modern m i l itary,
King did claim to have found a "whiff of Zen influence . " H e
writes:
Sometimes t his sen�e of Japanese spiritu al superiority
of the J ap ,a nese '( Easte rn? ) spi rit over America n
(Western ? ) technical superiority that would i n the end
prevail over immense physical odds - perhaps a whiff
of Zen influence here - fou nd its way i nto m i l itary
manuals. In an I mperial Japanese Army manual, g iven
to the users of the lunge m ine, we fmd this advice:
" attack 'with s p i ritual vigour and s te e l- p i e rc i n g
passion'" ( 2 2 3 ) .
H ad King studied this issue further, one can only wonder
at what point the whiff of Ze n wou ld have tu rned i nto
something a little stronger smelling?
423
But then again, if as
King claims Zen has "no instrinsic ethical quality,"
what is
there to smell?
Finally, with regard to the connection between Zen and
u ltra-nationalism at a more general level, Nakamura Hajime,
one of Japan 's best known contemporary Buddhist scholars,
has this to say:
Japa nese u ltra-nationalism did not suddenly appear
inthe post-MeiJi period. Its beginnings can be traced
to the very remote past. . . . Many Buddhists of l ater
date believed that Japan was superior to all other lands,
as we can see clearly in the following line from a poem
by Ean ( 1 2 2 5- 1 277), a Kamakura Zen monk: "To the
end of the end of the last generation will this land of
Ou rs surpass all other lands" (434).
If there is any common thread to be found in all of the
p recedi n g
q u otes,
it
is
that
rea c h i n g
a
s c h o l a rl y
u ndersta nding of the origins and deve lopment o f the
relationship between Zen and the state, and Zen and the
sword, are frought with controversy, both within and without
Japan. This is, furthermore, likely to be the case for some
424
time to come, g iven the potential depth and breadth of the
a re a s which must be rese arched to reach such an
u nderstanding. Needless to say, that study
the confines of the present dissertation .
IS
clearly beyond
It may, however,
be helpfu l to at least look at the d i rectIon such future
research should take.
Future research should begin, first of all, with a detai led
e xa m i nation of the position(s) taken by the historical
founder of Buddhism, Buddha Shakya muni, towards warfare
and towards the state .
This wou ld be followed by an
examination of subsequent relevant doctrinal developments
i n Buddh ist th Inking, particularly with i n the Mahayana
tradItion. It would also be useful to compare these Mahayana
developments with their counterparts in the Southern school
of Buddhism. Is there somethi ng uniquely Mahayana in what
transpired? Or uniquely Zen?
42 5
Finally, it wou ld be necessary to take an in-depth look
at the actu a l p re-modern h istory of Buddh i st - state
rel ations in both India and the cou ntries of East Asi a ,
i ncluding China a n d Korea a s wel l a s J apan.
Once again,
comparing and contrasti ng this history with that of the
countries adhering to the Southern school wou l d p rove
helpfu l .
Only follOWing such a thorough study would it be
possible to make normative Judgements on such phenomena
as " I mperial Way-Buddhism" and " Imperial State-Zen . "
That is to say, only then could o ne determine,
with
any degree of certai nty, whether these phenomena were
heretical aberrations of Buddh ist thought and p ractice or
m e re ly extensions
of p reviously
historical rel ationships.
e x i sti n g
ideas
and
It is, of course, quite possible that
there could be elements of both .
\Nhile such a major study as desCribed above is beyond
the confines of this dissertation, the author does recognize
426
a responsibility to continue research in these areas in the
future .
Failure to do so, would, in some sense, betray the
promise of what has already been accomplished.
In this
endeavor, the author looks forward to the advice and support
of colleagues as he conti nues his quest for a deeper
u nderstandi ng of the relationship between Buddhism, the
state, and the sword.
427
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(�**�:fJ)
Isshm}Itsu no sekai (-.�O)m.w.) Tokyo: Kondo Shoten, 1 94 1 .
Nlhonteki reisel ( B *�.�) Tokyo: Dalto Shuppansha, 1 944.
Nthon no reiselka ( 8 * O).�it ) Kyoto: Hozokan, 1 947.
Shinshukyo-ron (*fi**iwa) as contained In Vol. 23, Suzuki
Dalsetsu zenshu (at* *:tm�.) Tokyo: Iwanaml Shoten, 1 9 69.
Toyotekl Ichl (lk�� -) Tokyo: Dalto Shuppansha, 1 942.
Suzuki Dalsetsu/Dalsetz
Tendalshu Kyogaku-bu (3��*��mI)
Fukyo shlryo (1P�ii��) Kyoto: Klnseldo, 1 942.
Toa no hlkan otr�O)]'t)
VoI 7, No. 3 , Ma�h 1 9 1 2
Tokyo Asahl Shmbun (JIUi{tIJ B mirHJ)
( IlI EB1ir,)
"Yasukuni Jmja kokka goji
,
Yamada Mumon
1 5 September 1 9 1 2.
omou " (�m1�*fm1iita��,i. ? /
Thoughts on State MaintenancE� of Yasukuni Shrine) . See Nihonjm
no kokoro 0 dame m shlta melso, guso, akusO by Maruyama Teruo:
0
48.
437
( IlI m.R�)
Zengaku Yawa (:m1���) Tokyo: Daiichi Shobo, 1 942.
Yamada Relrrn
(f&1J m�llI)
Mlfal kara no Zen (**1J\ & O)�) Tokyo: Jlnbun Sholn, 1 990.
Yan agida Seizan
U\��$Ift)
Shukyo Talkal hodD (*�'&*��i9) Kyoto: Kokyo Sholn, 1 894.
Yatsubuchi Banryu
(E m�-)
Nlhon kmdai Bukkyo shakal-shl kenkyu ( 8 *;att-fA�*±��m�)
Yosh ida Kyul c h l
Tokyo: Yoshi kawa Kobunkan , 1 964.
Nlhon kmdal Bukkyo-shl kenkyu ( 8 *;a1-t-fA �se��) Tokyo:
Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1 9 5 9.
Nlhon no kmdal shakal to Bukkyo ( 8 *O)ilitt*i�c.fA*i) Tokyo:
Hyoronsha, 1 9 70.
(�pX.�)
Nippon Selshm to Nippon Bukkyo ( B *M� C. B *iA�) Tokyo:
Yabukl Yoshlteru
Selundo, 1 9 34.
(*¥C1)�tj�)
February 1 943. See Nihon
Hakugen.
Zen no Selkatsu
Fashlzumu ka no shukyo by I chi kawa
Zenshu (:m1* )
October 1 93 7 (No. 5 1 0).
January 1 93 8 (No. 5 1 3 )
438