was a radical Buddhist preacher of Nichirenism who founded the interwar Japanese far-right militant organization . Contrary to popular belief, he was never an ordained Nichiren priest, but was rather a self-styled preacher whose extremist tenets were widely denounced by Japan's mainline Nichiren Buddhist establishment of the time.

Biography

Inoue was born Inoue Shirō (later adopting the name Akira and then Nisshō, lit. “Called by the Sun”) in Kawaba,

Gunma Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 Square kilometre, km2 (2,456 Square mile, sq mi). Gunma P ...

, in 1887, the son of a rural doctor. Educated at Toyo Cooperative (present-day

Takushoku University Takushoku University (拓殖大学; ''Takushoku Daigaku'', abbreviated as 拓大 ''Takudai'') is a private university in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1900 by Duke Taro Katsura (1848–1913).

), he abandoned his studies and traveled to

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

where he spent time as a vagabond and ultimately found employment from 1909 to 1920 with the

South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...

. Upon his return to Japan, he first studied to become a Zen priest but then became a follower of Nichiren Buddhism, a conversion that led him to relocate to

Miho is a feminine Japanese given name and a masculine Croatian name. It can have many different meanings in Japanese depending on the kanji used. Possible Japanese writings Miho can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *実穂, ...

, Shizuoka Prefecture, in order to study under the Nichiren scholar and nationalist preacher Tanaka Chigaku at his ''Kokuchukai'' Academy. Inoue met

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles, including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practiced in aroun ...

founder

Morihei Ueshiba was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" or , "Great Teacher/Old Teacher (old as opposed to ''waka (young) sensei'')". The son of a landowner from Tanabe, Ueshiba st ...

during this time period. Inoue soon became disillusioned with Tanaka's teachings, however, and in 1928 he relocated to

Ōarai, Ibaraki is a town located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,867 in 6,881 households and a population density of . The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 34.0%. The total area of the town is . The Jap ...

, where he established his own temple, , which also served as a youth training center, advocating a militarist revolution in Japan. During this time, with the assistance of former

Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan The was an administrative post not of Cabinet rank in the government of the Empire of Japan, responsible for keeping the Privy Seal of Japan and State Seal of Japan. The modern office of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal was identical with the o ...

Mitsuaki Tanaka, he became acquainted with such right wing figures as

Shūmei Ōkawa was a Japanese nationalist and Pan-Asianist writer, known for his publications on Japanese history, philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, and colonialism. Background Ōkawa was born in Sakata, Yamagata, Japan in 1886. He graduated fro ...

and

Ikki Kita was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early Shōwa period Japan. Drawing from an eclectic range of influences, Kita was a self-described socialist who has also been described as the "ideological father ...

, and received enthusiastic support from the radicalized young officers of the nearby

Tsuchiura is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 138,033 in 60,069 households and a population density of 1123 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.7%. The total area of t ...

Naval Base. In 1930, Inoue moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

where he set about forming Ketsumeidan, recruiting members amongst university student radicals. Ketsumeidan was officially founded in 1932 together with a group of 13 young officers including Shō Onuma and Goro Hishinuma, establishing as its goal the overthrow of the political and economic elite of the time, with the motto “One Man, One Assassination.” The group's first wave of assassinations came in early 1932, when former finance minister

Junnosuke Inoue was a Japanese financier and statesman of the Taisho and Showa eras. He was the 9th and 11th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Biography Inoue was born in Ōita Prefecture. A graduate of the Imperial University of Tokyo. In 1896, he entere ...

was shot on February 9, as was the Director General of the

Mitsui is one of the largest ''keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries ...

zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period unt ...

'' Baron

Dan Takuma was a Japanese businessman who was Director-General of Mitsui, one of the leading Japanese zaibatsu (family conglomerates). He was a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was married to the younger sister of statesman Kaneko Ken ...

on March 5, collectively known as the

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 ...

. Inoue was arrested soon after the latter assassination, after which Koga Kiyoshi, a trusted subordinate, took over the reins of the group and set about organizing a second wave, which culminated in the May 15 assassination of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Inukai Tsuyoshi Inukai Tsuyoshi ( ja, 犬養毅, 4 June 1855 – 15 May 1932) was a Japanese politician, cabinet minister, and Prime Minister of Japan from 1931 to his assassination in 1932. Inukai was Japan's second oldest prime minister while serving, as he ...

, an event known as the " May 15 Incident". In the trial the

Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan ...

abbot Gempo Yamamoto testified in favor of his former disciple, justifying his violence from a

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

and

imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

point of view.
Zen terror
', Brian Victoria, 10 July 2019,

Aeon The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

. Quotes from ''

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

'', 15 September 1934. Inoue and the three Ketsumeidan gunmen were sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1934, with the rest of the arrested group members given lighter sentences. Inoue was later granted amnesty and released from prison in 1940.(一億人の昭和史, p. 16) Identified as a fascist by the US occupational forces, he was

purged In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

from public life in 1947. He was rehabilitated upon the end of the occupation of Japan and remained a prominent figure in right-wing activist circles in

post-occupation Japan Post-occupation Japan is the period in postwar Japanese history which started when the Allied occupation of Japan ended in 1952 and lasted to the end of the Showa era in 1989. Despite the massive devastation it suffered in the Second World War, ...

era until his death by stroke in 1967.

References

* 堀まきよう　（Makiyo Hori）,「井上日召と"かぎの折伏"：血盟団事件について」（"Inoue Nissho and his Terrorist Ideas: Some Notes on the Oath of Blood Group"）早稲田政治経済学雑誌（The Waseda Journal of Political Science and Economics）328 (1996). * 小林秀雄 (Hideo Kobayashi), 「井上日召の思想と行動：日本ファシストの一類型」(“The Thoughts and Activities of Inoue Nissho: A Model for Japanese Fascists) 歴史評論 (Rekishi Hyoron) 400 (1983). * Stephen S. Large, “Nationalist Extremism in Early Showa Japan: Inoue Nissho and the ‘Blood-Pledge Corps Incident’, 1932" in Modern Asian Studies 35:3 (2001). * 父が子に送る一億人の昭和史：人物現代史 (One Hundred Million People's Showa History from Father to Child – Modern Biographical Histories), Mainichi Shimbun Press, 1977. {{DEFAULTSORT:Inoue, Nissho 1887 births 1967 deaths Japanese activists Far-right politics in Japan Japanese Buddhist clergy Nichiren Buddhism Nichiren Buddhists Nichiren-shū Buddhist monks People from Gunma Prefecture Takushoku University alumni 20th-century Buddhist monks

Biography

See also

References