was a Japanese Shin Buddhist priest and politician who served as a member of the House of Peers of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

and once as a cabinet minister.

Biography

Ōtani was born in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

as the son of Ōtani Koson, the 21st hereditary head of the

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran (founder) S ...

Buddhist sect Honganji-ha. His brother,

Ōtani Kōzui Count Ōtani Kōzui (大谷光瑞, 27 December 1876 – 5 October 1948) was a Japanese Buddhism in Japan, Buddhist leader and explorer who was the 22nd Abbot (Buddhism), Abbot of Nishi Hongan-ji and the head of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Hon ...

was the 22nd head of the sect, and a noted explorer of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, while his sister was Takeko Kujō, a noted poet and humanitarian. In 1904, Ōtani was sent by Honganji-ha to the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...

, to minister to Japanese forces during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. In December 1905, he was ordered the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

China to lay the foundations for a network of Jōdo Shinshū temples and missionary activities. In September 1907, he made a tour through Southeast Asia before returning to Japan to assume his duties as an official at the

Nishi Hongan-ji is a Buddhist temple in the Shimogyō ward of Kyoto, Japan. It serves as the head temple of the sub-sect Honganji-ha. It is one of two temple complexes in Kyoto, the other being Higashi Hongan-ji, which is the head temple of the sub-sect � ...

in Kyoto. He travelled to

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

in 1909 to assist in the development of a network of Jōdo Shinshū temples, and departed for

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in May 1910. However, due to the financial scandal which enveloped his brother, Ōtani Kōzui, then 22nd head of the sect, he was forced to curtail his trip in July 1910. He became secretary-general of the sect in March 1921. In October 1925, Ōtani left for a tour of the United States and Canada, returning to Japan at the end of February 1926. On 4 April 1928, he was appointed to a seat in the House of Peers. On 4 June 1937, he was asked by

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and breakdown in relations with the United States, which shortly after his t ...

to accept the post of Minister of Colonial Affairs, which he held to 26 May 1938. In November 1938, he assumed the post of Director of the North China Development Company, a subsidiary of the

South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

dedicated to the economic development of the areas of northern China under occupation by Japan. From July 1939, he was also a member of the

East Asia Development Board The East Asia Development Board, or , was a cabinet level agency in the Empire of Japan that operated between 1938 and 1942. It was created on 18 November 1938 under the first Konoe administration to coordinate the government's China policy. It w ...

. He died in

Zhangjiakou Zhangjiakou (), also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest ...

Hebei Province Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

, China in 1939. {{DEFAULTSORT:Otani, Sonyu 1886 births 1939 deaths Kazoku People from Kyoto Members of the House of Peers (Japan) Government ministers of Japan Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests 20th-century Buddhist monks