Social Ethics of “New Buddhists” at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Study of Suzuki Daisetsu and Inoue Shūten.

Abstract

This paper concerns the discourses of two Japanese Zen Buddhists, Suzuki Daisetsu and Inoue Shuten, through analyzing their writings in a Buddhist journal called Shin Bukkyo, in order to examine their presentations of therole of Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century and how their transnational contacts influenced the construction of their religious ideas. As Ito Hirobumi's annotation to the Meiji Constitution described, religion in modern Japan witnessed the division of religion into outward practices and inner religious belief. The Kotoku Incident (1910-1911) also played a crucial role for Japanese Buddhists in terms of their social engagement, and around this time Suzuki's discourses in particular began to show a polarization of social criticism in Shin Bukkyo on the one hand, and reflections on spirituality in other journals on the other. Inoue, who was suspected of having a hand in the Kotoku Incident, wrote critical commentaries and pacifist essays from a Buddhist point of view. In this study, I attempt to uncover the various factors that constructed their religious ideas so as to exemplify the Buddhist responses to rising nationalism and the restriction of freedom of religion and thought.