Abstract
The third part of A Century of Broadcasting Revisited through New Historical Sources examines radio lecture programs for self-cultivation that enjoyed high acclaim in pre-war Japan, focusing on Seiten Kougi (Lecture on the Scriptures), which was broadcast in 1934.
Seiten Kougi was the first regular self-cultivation radio series, aired every morning except Sundays, and aimed at fostering listeners' spiritual growth by using religious scriptures and the teachings of ancestors as its subject matter. The series generated a significant response, as evidenced by the repeated reprints of its textbooks and related publications.
This study thoroughly examined the content of Seiten Kougi based on various historical sources and consequently revealed that the series is characterized by its focus on religious scriptures—primarily Buddhism, but also Confucianism, Christianity, and other faiths—and by its easy-to-understand explanations delivered over periods ranging from a few days to more than ten days. Examining why this program was highly acclaimed at the time, it became clear that several factors contributed to its success: the presence of presenters with exceptional oratory skills, the social climate at the time of the broadcast, and the media mix between radio and print media.
Meanwhile, Seiten Kougi was criticized for focusing too heavily on Buddhist scriptures, and less than a year after it began airing, it was renamed Asa no Shūyō (Morning Self-Cultivation). Subsequently, the focus of the self-cultivation programs shifted significantly from personal self-cultivation to collective self-cultivation. Nevertheless, Seiten Kougi was a short-lived self-cultivation series, but the fact that it had become a flagship program representing radio indicates that it should be considered an indispensable program when examining pre-war broadcasting.
