Modernization of the propagation of Nichiren Buddhism Through Publication

Abstract

As Japan came into the new Meiji era, the Buddhist world was forced to make a big change in the government policy of Shintō as the national religion. This was a time of many influences from various things brought from overseas along. The same can be said about things without form such as thought, culture, technology, etc. Likewise, there were also influences on the tactics practiced in the Japanese Buddhist world, and documents called “document evangelism” were no exception. The Buddhist community until the Edo period carried out missionary work using such documents, but when it came to Meiji, it changed greatly due to modernization. While changes in institutions and mechanisms are factors for this change, the inflow of new technologies made it possible to issue large volumes of printed materials, which can be said one of the reasons for this change. In the light of these circumstances, I examine document evangelism as carried out by the Nichiren Order.