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 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. 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
*
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
*
May 15 Incident
*
Shōwa Restoration
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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