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This collection of seventeen essays situates modern Shin Buddhist
thinker Kiyozawa Manshi (1863–1903) and his new form of
spirituality, Seishinshugi, in the broader context of Buddhism and
religious thought in modern Japan. The work highlights several
factors that led to the development of Kiyozawa’s ideas and
demonstrates the broad influence that he and his disciples had,
putting in relief both the events that led Kiyozawa to set forth
his unique formulation of a modern Shin Buddhist religiosity in
Seishinshugi and the ways in which those ideas became a force that
shaped a large part of Japan’s religious landscape well past the
middle of the twentieth century. The book is made up of historical
studies that explore the significance of Seishinshugi from a
variety of perspectives and chapters that attempt to introduce some
of the original ideas of Seishinshugi thinkers and other modern
Shin proponents such as Sasaki Gesshō (1875–1926) and Yasuda
Rijin (1900–1982). The inclusion of several translations of
recent Japanese scholarship on Kiyozawa and Seishinshugi provides a
snapshot of the state of the field for Kiyozawa studies today in
Japan. Several early chapters present issues that Kiyozawa
addressed in his formulations of Seishinshugi. His relationship
with Inoue Enryō (1858–1919) is discussed in depth, as is his
understanding of the Tannishō and new research indicating that
Seishinshugi might more closely represent the thought of
Kiyozawa’s disciples than his own. This portion ends with a
consideration of the reinvention of Kiyozawa’s historical image
by his followers after his death. Later chapters bring together
research into the specific ways in which Kiyozawa’s legacy shaped
the Japanese religious and philosophical environment in the last
century, including contributions on female spirituality as
expressed in the Seishinshugi movement and the influence of
Kiyozawa and Soga Ryōjin (1875–1971) on the Kyoto School and its
implications. Other essays highlight approaches to finding meaning
in Shin doctrines by Sasaki, Soga, and Yasuda, and how D. T.
Suzuki, an Ōtani University colleague, fits into the movement as a
whole.
Religious acculturation is typically seen as a one-way process: The
dominant religious culture imposes certain behavioral patterns,
ethical standards, social values, and organizational and legal
requirements onto the immigrant religious tradition. In this view,
American society is the active partner in the relationship, while
the newly introduced tradition is the passive recipient being
changed. Michihiro Ama’s investigation of the early period of
Jodo Shinshu in Hawai‘i and the United States sets a new standard
for investigating the processes of religious acculturation and a
radically new way of thinking about these processes. Most studies
of American religious history are conceptually grounded in a
European perspectival position, regarding the U.S. as a
continuation of trends and historical events that begin in Europe.
Only recently have scholars begun to shift their perspectival locus
to Asia. Ama’s use of materials spans the Pacific as he draws on
never-before-studied archival works in Japan as well as the U.S.
More important, Ama locates immigrant Jodo Shinshu at the interface
of two expansionist nations. At the end of the nineteenth and
beginning of the twentieth centuries, both Japan and the U.S. were
extending their realms of influence into the Pacific, where they
came into contact—and eventually conflict—with one another.
Jodo Shinshu in Hawai‘i and California was altered in relation to
a changing Japan just as it was responding to changes in the U.S.
Because Jodo Shinshu’s institutional history in the U.S. and the
Pacific occurs at a contested interface, Ama defines its
acculturation as a dual process of both "Japanization" and
"Americanization." Immigrants to the Pure Land explores in detail
the activities of individual Shin Buddhist ministers responsible
for making specific decisions regarding the practice of Jodo
Shinshu in local sanghas. By focusing so closely, Ama reveals the
contestation of immigrant communities faced with discrimination and
exploitation in their new homes and with changing messages from
Japan. The strategies employed, whether accommodation to the
dominant religious culture or assertion of identity, uncover the
history of an American church in the making.
Rich in primary sources and featuring contributions from scholars
on both sides of the Pacific, Issei Buddhism in the Americas upends
boundaries and categories that have tied Buddhism to Asia and
illuminates the social and spiritual role that the religion has
played in the Americas. While Buddhists in Japan had long described
the migration of the religion as traveling from India, across Asia,
and ending in Japan, this collection details the movement of
Buddhism across the Pacific to the Americas. Leading the way were
pioneering, first-generation Issei priests and their followers who
established temples, shared Buddhist teachings, and converted
non-Buddhists in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The
book explores these pioneering efforts in the context of Japanese
diasporic communities and immigration history and the early history
of Buddhism in the Americas. The result is a dramatic exploration
of the history of Asian immigrant religion that encompasses such
topics as Japanese language instruction in Hawaiian schools, the
Japanese Canadian community in British Columbia, the roles of
Buddhist song culture, Tenriyko ministers in America, and Zen
Buddhism in Brazil. Contributors are Michihiro Ama, Noriko Asato,
Masako Iino, Tomoe Moriya, Lori Pierce, Cristina Rocha, Keiko
Wells, Duncan Ry\u00fbken Williams, and Akihiro Yamakura.
This collection of seventeen essays situates modern Shin Buddhist
thinker Kiyozawa Manshi (1863-1903) and his new form of
spirituality, Seishinshugi, in the broader context of Buddhism and
religious thought in modern Japan. The work highlights several
factors that led to the development of Kiyozawa's ideas and
demonstrates the broad influence that he and his disciples had,
putting in relief both the events that led Kiyozawa to set forth
his unique formulation of a modern Shin Buddhist religiosity in
Seishinshugi and the ways in which those ideas became a force that
shaped a large part of Japan's religious landscape well past the
middle of the twentieth century. The book is made up of historical
studies that explore the significance of Seishinshugi from a
variety of perspectives and chapters that attempt to introduce some
of the original ideas of Seishinshugi thinkers and other modern
Shin proponents such as Sasaki Gessho (1875-1926) and Yasuda Rijin
(1900-1982). The inclusion of several translations of recent
Japanese scholarship on Kiyozawa and Seishinshugi provides a
snapshot of the state of the field for Kiyozawa studies today in
Japan. Several early chapters present issues that Kiyozawa
addressed in his formulations of Seishinshugi. His relationship
with Inoue Enryo (1858-1919) is discussed in depth, as is his
understanding of the Tannisho and new research indicating that
Seishinshugi might more closely represent the thought of Kiyozawa's
disciples than his own. This portion ends with a consideration of
the reinvention of Kiyozawa's historical image by his followers
after his death. Later chapters bring together research into the
specific ways in which Kiyozawa's legacy shaped the Japanese
religious and philosophical environment in the last century,
including chapters on female spirituality as expressed in the
Seishinshugi movement and the influence of Kiyozawa and Soga Ryojin
(1875-1971) on the Kyoto School and its implications. Other essays
highlight approaches to finding meaning in Shin doctrines by
Sasaki, Soga, and Yasuda, and how D. T. Suzuki, an Otani University
colleague, fits into the movement as a whole.
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