Nichirenism (日蓮主義, ''Nichirenshugi'') is the nationalistic interpretation of the teachings of
Nichiren
Nichiren (16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period.
Nichiren declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of B ...
. The most well known representatives of this form of
Nichiren Buddhism
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 ...
are
Nissho Inoue and
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 ...
, who construed Nichiren's teachings according to the notion of
Kokutai
is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as " system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constitu ...
. It was especially Chigaku who “made innovative use of print media to disseminate his message”
[Jacqueline I. Stone, By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree: politics and the issue of the ordination platform in modern lay Nichiren Buddhism. In: Steven Heine; Charles S. Prebish (ed.); Buddhism in the Modern World, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. , page 198] and is therefore regarded to have influenced Nichiren based
Japanese new religions
Japanese new religions are new religious movements established in Japan. In Japanese, they are called or . Japanese scholars classify all religious organizations founded since the middle of the 19th century as "new religions"; thus, the term refe ...
in terms of methods of propagation.
See also
*
Japanese nationalism
is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...
*
Kanji Ishiwara
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He and Itagaki Seishirō were the men primarily responsible for the Mukden Incident that took place in Manchuria in 1931.
Early life
Ishiwara was born in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Pref ...
*
Kokuchūkai
The is a lay-oriented Nichiren Buddhist group. It was founded by Tanaka Chigaku in 1880 as and renamed in 1884 before adopting its current name in 1914.
History
The lay Nichiren Buddhist organization''Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten'' arti ...
*
League of Blood Incident
was a 1932 assassination plot in Japan in which extremists targeted wealthy businessmen and liberal politicians. The group chose twenty victims but succeeded in killing only two: former Finance Minister and head of the Rikken Minseitō political ...
*
May 15 Incident
*
Shōwa Restoration
The was promoted by Japanese author Kita Ikki in the 1930s, with the goal of restoring power to the newly enthroned Emperor Shōwa and abolishing the liberal Taishō democracy. The aims of the "Shōwa Restoration" were similar to the Meiji Rest ...
References
Bibliography
* Iguchi, Gerald (2006)
''Nichirenism as Modernism: Imperialism, Fascism, and Buddhism in Modern Japan''(Ph.D. Dissertation), University of California, San Diego,
* Satomi, Kishio (1923). Japanese civilization, its significance and realization: Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co., ltd. Reprint: London: Routledge 2001.
Nichiren Buddhism
Japanese nationalism
Buddhist nationalism
Buddhism in the Meiji period
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