How did the Meiji Buddhist Kiyozawa Manshi consider the Shinshu Otani school to which he belonged? Further, what was Kiyozawa's ideal sangha? I would like to address these questions in this paper. In order to follow a request from the Otani school, Kiyozawa, who had studied in Tokyo, returned to Kyoto. It is easy to imagine that the Sangha that Kiyozawa had pictured in his mind and the actual situation he faced in Kyoto were vastly different. In fact, after returning to Kyoto, Kiyozawa gravely pondered over how the Otani school could be reformed. This plan did not go smoothly, however, and the despondent Kiyozawa, along with comrades, began a reform movement. Although this movement would fail, through this failure the Otani school gradually shifted to a scholarly denomination. Through examining Kiyozawa's life and his relationship with the Otani school, it is obvious that he held that restructuring of the sangha could be done through the restructuring of doctrine. Hence, Kiyozawa's understanding of the sangha can be seen through his own existence as an individual living daily life in the Meiji period, and also in his attempt at modernizing and personifying Shinshu doctrine.
