was a Japanese
Nichiren Buddhist
Nichiren Buddhism ( ja, 日蓮仏教), also known as Hokkeshū ( ja, 法華宗, meaning ''Lotus Sect'') is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of ...
and
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
. He founded the short lived Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei (Youth League for Revitalizing
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, 1931–1936).
In 1933 he wrote:
"I was born into a Shinshu family and brought up in pious
nenbutsu
Nianfo (, Japanese: , , vi, niệm Phật) is a term commonly seen in Pure Land Buddhism. In the context of Pure Land practice, it generally refers to the repetition of the name of Amitābha. It is a translation of Sanskrit '' '' (or, "recoll ...
surroundings. At twenty-one, though, a grave illness struck and I was forced to leave school. From then till I was thirty, I was literally at the brink of death. Perhaps it is fate that I should be brought back to life by the different outlook of Nichiren. That philosophy has since been for me the sole truth. For twenty and more years I devoted myself to studying and spreading it, so diligently as to forget sleep itself. Though physically still weak, I would push forward to fulfilling the Buddhist calling. However, the result was that I came to question the whole religious establishment itself. I found myself with no other possibility than to oppose it".
Propagation of Nichirenism
In 1918 he joined the nationalistic Kokuchukai, a Nichiren-Buddhist lay-movement founded by
Tanaka Chigaku
was a Japanese Buddhist scholar and preacher of Nichiren Buddhism, orator, writer and ultranationalist propagandist in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He is considered to be the father of Nichirenism, the fiercely ultranationalist ...
and Honda Nissho. He was put in charge as the editor of the magazine for the "Youth Association of the Great Japanese Nichirenism Movement" which propagated the right-winged reinterpretation of Nichiren's teachings. Ten years later he was influenced by the no-self movement (''muga'') and began to change his orientation to an ideal of Buddhist socialism.
[Whalen Lai]
"Seno'o Giro and the Dilemma of Modern Buddhism - Leftist Prophet of the Lotus Sutra", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 11/1, p.24-25, 1984
/ref>
Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism
Senoo argued that “the capitalist system generates suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of a ...
and, thus, violates the spirit of Buddhism.”[Shields, James Mark; Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution The Radical Buddhism of Seno'o Girō (1889–1961) and the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism, Japanese Journal of religious Studies 39 (2), 331-351 (2012]
PDF
/ref> He was critical of both orthodox Marxists who denied the importance of spirituality and of pro-war Buddhists who supported Japanese Imperialism
This is a list of regions occupied or annexed by the Empire of Japan until 1945, the year of the end of World War II in Asia, after the surrender of Japan. Control over all territories except most of the Japanese mainland (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyu ...
. Senoo saw suffering as something not just to be transcended through spirituality but also an existential material condition to be analyzed and eliminated.[Shields, James Mark; Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhist Materialism; Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Volume 20, 461-499, 201]
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/ref> Senoo believed in the creation of a “ pure buddha-land” (''jōbukkokudo'') in this world through new Buddhist Socialist ideals which would lead to our spiritual liberation as well as social and economic emancipation (''kaihō'').internationalism
Internationalism may refer to:
* Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism
* International Style, a major architectur ...
, Buddhist ecumenism and anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as s ...
. The league's manifesto was based on three principles:
See also
*Buddhist socialism
Buddhist socialism is a political ideology which advocates socialism based on the principles of Buddhism. Both Buddhism and socialism seek to provide an end to suffering by analyzing its conditions and removing its main causes through praxis. ...
*Marxism and religion
19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the "opium of the people". According to Karl Marx, religion in this world of exploitation is an expressi ...
References
Bibliography
* Iguchi, Gerald (2006)
''Nichirenism as Modernism: Imperialism, Fascism, and Buddhism in Modern Japan''
(Ph.D. Dissertation), University of California, San Diego. (Girō Seno'o and overcoming Nichirenism pp. 175–230)
* Michiaki Okuyama (2002). "Religious nationalism in the modernization process: State Shinto and Nichirenism in Meiji Japan", Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, 26, pp. 19–31
* Large, Stephen S. (1987). "Buddhism, Socialism, and Protest in Prewar Japan: The Career of Seno-o Giro." Modern Asian Studies 21 (1) : 153-71.
* Shields, James (2012)
"Radical Buddhism, Then and Now: Prospects of a Paradox."
Silvia Iaponicarum Special Edition: Japan: Challenges in the 21st Century 23–26, 15-34.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Senoo, Giro
Japanese socialists
Marxist theorists
Japanese Marxists
Japanese Buddhists
Nichiren Buddhists
1890 births
1961 deaths