Tanaka Chigaku
Encyclopedia
Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939) was a Japanese
Buddhist
scholar and preacher of Nichiren Buddhism
, orator, writer and nationalist
propagandist in the Meiji
, Taishō
and early Shōwa
periods. He is considered to be the father of Nichirenism, the fiercely nationalistic blend of Nichiren Buddhism and State Shinto
espoused by such figures as Inoue Nissho, Ishiwara Kanji and Kita Ikki
. Notably, however, the children's writer, poet, and rural activist Miyazawa Kenji also idolized Tanaka, and both Miyazawa and Ishiwara joined his flagship organization, the Kokuchukai, in 1920.
Born Tada Tomonosuke in Tokyo
(then called Edo
), the third son of a noted physician and former devotee of Pure Land Buddhism
who had converted to the Nichiren sect, Tanaka was placed under the care of the Rev. Kawase Nichiren following the death of his parents in 1870. Enrolled as a novice at Rev. Kawase's temple, he later entered the Nichiren Buddhist academy of Daikyo-in (the predecessor to Rissho University
), during which time he adopted the sobriquet 'Chigaku' ('Wisdom and Learning'). During this time, though, Tanaka came to be disillusioned with the sect leadership, whom he considered too passive in their teachings, and in 1879 he abandoned the priesthood and set out to establish himself as a lay preacher of the "true" Nichiren Buddhism. Briefly employed at a German
engineering company in Yokohama
, he was quickly drawn to religious proselytizing, joining the lay Nichiren organization Nichiren-kai (日蓮会) as a preacher, in which capacity he honed his public speaking skills and developed his own distinct uncompromising Nichiren doctrine, which he came to refer to as "Nichirenism" (日蓮主義, Nichirenshugi).
The 1890s saw Tanaka's spiritual philosophy evolve in an increasingly nationalistic manner, taking to concluding his works with the twin salutations of "I Take Refuge in the Scripture of the Wondrous Lotus Blossom" (南無妙法蓮華経, Namu myoho rengekyo) and "Imperial Japan for Ever and Ever" (日本帝国万々歳, Nippon teikoku ban-banzai). The decade saw him carry out extensive lecturing tours throughout Japan and establish his Nichiren study group, Rissho Ankokukai (立正安国会) from his new base in Kamakura
. A noted anti-Christian and staunch opponent of Christian missionaries in Japan, he applauded Japan's triumph in the Russo-Japanese War
in 1905, stating that "The war with Russia
is divinely inspired to make Japanese citizens aware of their heavenly task." [Lee, p. 28] In 1908, he moved his base to Miho
, Shizuoka Prefecture
, where he would write his most famous work, "The Doctrine of Saint Nichiren" (日蓮聖人の教義, Nichiren shonin no kyogi) in 1911, in which he casts the radical 13th century priest Nichiren as the champion of the Japanese nation, and called for world unification through Nichirenism, with the emperor as its core. "Japan's very purpose of existence," he writes, "is the implementation of this plan, as a country conceived for building Nichiren Buddhism." [Hori, pp. 174–175]
in 1914, Tanaka amalgamated all of his followers into a single organization, the Kokuchukai (国柱会, National Pillar Society), based in Miho. He would maintain a busy lecture schedule until illness curtailed his activities in the late 1930s, traveling not only throughout Japan but also embarking on speaking tours of Japanese-occupied Korea
and Manchukuo
. His nationalist and imperialist convictions only hardened with age, believing that Japan's 1931 takeover of Manchuria
was divinely ordained and part of a divine plan to spread the "true" Nichiren Buddhism throughout Asia. He even went as far as to compile diagrams of the states in which the "Nichirenization" of the world would take place. By the 1950s he foresaw a total of 19,900 students, 19,200 instructors and 23,033,250 followers spread across the Asia-Pacific region reaching as far as New Zealand
. [Lee, p. 27]
While best known as a preacher and an orator, Tanaka was also a skilled poet and dramatist with a keen interest in the traditional theatrical arts of Japan. He wrote and performed numerous plays, all with a heavily moralistic undertone, and produced a volume of essays, songs and poems.
Tanaka died in 1939 at the age of 79, and is entombed in the Myoshu Mausoleum in Tokyo. His son, Dr. Satomi Kishio, took over the reins of his organization, and remained a staunch defender of his father in the postwar era when numerous academics denounced him as a "fascist" for his ideology's links to such ultranationalist figures as Nissho and Kita.
Gerald Iguchi, Nichirenism as Modernism: Imperialism, Fascism, and Buddhism in Modern Japan (Ph.D. Dissertation), University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Edwin Lee, "Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku," in Monumenta Nipponica 30:1 (1975).
大谷栄一 (Ōtani Ei'ichi), 『近代日本の日蓮主義運動』 (Modern Japan's Nichirenism Movement), Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 2001.
George Tanabe Jr., " "Tanaka Chigaku: The Lotus Sūtra and the Body Politic," in G. Tanabe, ed. The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989.
戸頃重基 (Tokoro Shigemoto), 『近代日本宗教とナショナリズム』(Modern Japanese Religion and Nationalism), Tokyo: Fuzanbo Press, 1966.
Shizuoka Profiles: Tanaka Chigaku (En.) - http://www.tnewfields.info/sb/tan.htm
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
scholar and preacher of Nichiren Buddhism
Nichiren Buddhism
Nichiren Buddhism is a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th century Japanese monk Nichiren...
, orator, writer and nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
propagandist in the Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
, Taishō
Taisho period
The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
and early Shōwa
Showa period
The , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...
periods. He is considered to be the father of Nichirenism, the fiercely nationalistic blend of Nichiren Buddhism and State Shinto
State Shinto
has been called the state religion of the Empire of Japan, although it did not exist as a single institution and no "Shintō" was ever declared a state religion...
espoused by such figures as Inoue Nissho, Ishiwara Kanji and Kita Ikki
Kita Ikki
was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early-Shōwa period Japan.-Background:Born on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, Ikki Kita’s real name was Kita Terujirō...
. Notably, however, the children's writer, poet, and rural activist Miyazawa Kenji also idolized Tanaka, and both Miyazawa and Ishiwara joined his flagship organization, the Kokuchukai, in 1920.
Born Tada Tomonosuke in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
(then called Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
), the third son of a noted physician and former devotee of Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism , also referred to as Amidism in English, is a broad branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism and currently one of the most popular traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. Pure Land is a branch of Buddhism focused on Amitābha Buddha...
who had converted to the Nichiren sect, Tanaka was placed under the care of the Rev. Kawase Nichiren following the death of his parents in 1870. Enrolled as a novice at Rev. Kawase's temple, he later entered the Nichiren Buddhist academy of Daikyo-in (the predecessor to Rissho University
Rissho University
', one of the oldest universities in Japan, was founded in 1580, when a seminary was established as a learning center for young monks of the Nichiren shu....
), during which time he adopted the sobriquet 'Chigaku' ('Wisdom and Learning'). During this time, though, Tanaka came to be disillusioned with the sect leadership, whom he considered too passive in their teachings, and in 1879 he abandoned the priesthood and set out to establish himself as a lay preacher of the "true" Nichiren Buddhism. Briefly employed at a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
engineering company in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, he was quickly drawn to religious proselytizing, joining the lay Nichiren organization Nichiren-kai (日蓮会) as a preacher, in which capacity he honed his public speaking skills and developed his own distinct uncompromising Nichiren doctrine, which he came to refer to as "Nichirenism" (日蓮主義, Nichirenshugi).
The 1890s saw Tanaka's spiritual philosophy evolve in an increasingly nationalistic manner, taking to concluding his works with the twin salutations of "I Take Refuge in the Scripture of the Wondrous Lotus Blossom" (南無妙法蓮華経, Namu myoho rengekyo) and "Imperial Japan for Ever and Ever" (日本帝国万々歳, Nippon teikoku ban-banzai). The decade saw him carry out extensive lecturing tours throughout Japan and establish his Nichiren study group, Rissho Ankokukai (立正安国会) from his new base in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
. A noted anti-Christian and staunch opponent of Christian missionaries in Japan, he applauded Japan's triumph in the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
in 1905, stating that "The war with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
is divinely inspired to make Japanese citizens aware of their heavenly task." [Lee, p. 28] In 1908, he moved his base to Miho
Miho
-Possible writings:Miho can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:*美穂, "beauty, ear of grain"*美保, "beauty, care"*未歩, "future , step"*美帆, "beauty, sail"The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana.-People:...
, Shizuoka Prefecture
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...
, where he would write his most famous work, "The Doctrine of Saint Nichiren" (日蓮聖人の教義, Nichiren shonin no kyogi) in 1911, in which he casts the radical 13th century priest Nichiren as the champion of the Japanese nation, and called for world unification through Nichirenism, with the emperor as its core. "Japan's very purpose of existence," he writes, "is the implementation of this plan, as a country conceived for building Nichiren Buddhism." [Hori, pp. 174–175]
in 1914, Tanaka amalgamated all of his followers into a single organization, the Kokuchukai (国柱会, National Pillar Society), based in Miho. He would maintain a busy lecture schedule until illness curtailed his activities in the late 1930s, traveling not only throughout Japan but also embarking on speaking tours of Japanese-occupied Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
. His nationalist and imperialist convictions only hardened with age, believing that Japan's 1931 takeover of Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
was divinely ordained and part of a divine plan to spread the "true" Nichiren Buddhism throughout Asia. He even went as far as to compile diagrams of the states in which the "Nichirenization" of the world would take place. By the 1950s he foresaw a total of 19,900 students, 19,200 instructors and 23,033,250 followers spread across the Asia-Pacific region reaching as far as New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. [Lee, p. 27]
While best known as a preacher and an orator, Tanaka was also a skilled poet and dramatist with a keen interest in the traditional theatrical arts of Japan. He wrote and performed numerous plays, all with a heavily moralistic undertone, and produced a volume of essays, songs and poems.
Tanaka died in 1939 at the age of 79, and is entombed in the Myoshu Mausoleum in Tokyo. His son, Dr. Satomi Kishio, took over the reins of his organization, and remained a staunch defender of his father in the postwar era when numerous academics denounced him as a "fascist" for his ideology's links to such ultranationalist figures as Nissho and Kita.
Sources
堀まきよう (Hori Makiyo), 「井上日召の`カギの折伏、：血盟団事件について」("Inoue Nissho and his Terrorist Ideology: Some Notes on the Blood-Pledge Corps Incident") in the Waseda Journal of Political Science and Economics (早稲田政治経済学雑誌) 328 (1996).Gerald Iguchi, Nichirenism as Modernism: Imperialism, Fascism, and Buddhism in Modern Japan (Ph.D. Dissertation), University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Edwin Lee, "Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku," in Monumenta Nipponica 30:1 (1975).
大谷栄一 (Ōtani Ei'ichi), 『近代日本の日蓮主義運動』 (Modern Japan's Nichirenism Movement), Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 2001.
George Tanabe Jr., " "Tanaka Chigaku: The Lotus Sūtra and the Body Politic," in G. Tanabe, ed. The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989.
戸頃重基 (Tokoro Shigemoto), 『近代日本宗教とナショナリズム』(Modern Japanese Religion and Nationalism), Tokyo: Fuzanbo Press, 1966.
Shizuoka Profiles: Tanaka Chigaku (En.) - http://www.tnewfields.info/sb/tan.htm
See also
- Inoue Nissho
- Ishiwara Kanji
- Japanese nationalismJapanese nationalismencompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny...
- Nichiren BuddhismNichiren BuddhismNichiren Buddhism is a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th century Japanese monk Nichiren...
- Religion in JapanReligion in JapanMost Japanese people do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of a single religion; rather, they incorporate elements of various religions in a syncretic fashion known as . Shinbutsu Shūgō officially ended with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order of 1886, but continues in practice...
- Soka Gakkai InternationalSoka Gakkai Internationalis a lay religious movement within Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism derived from the teachings of the thirteenth-century Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishonin....