Religious Reformation Ethics and the Law Ideal

Focusing on the Case of Ōtani-ha

Abstract

By investigating the case of the Ōtani-ha movement in Jōdo Shinshū (True Pure Land Buddhism), this study examines how the law influenced the reformation of religious organizations in Japan. After WWII, the Japanese Buddhist denominations in Japan sought to reform their organizations and institutions. Prior studies on the Ōtani-ha reformation have mostly focused on how their modernized theology led to conflicts between traditional and modern priests and have argued that ethics played an important role in the modernization of religious organizations and institutions. However, most scholars failed to consider that the Japanese law was an important factor in the Ōtani-ha reformation. Modernized priests amended their constitution (Shū-ken) to reform their groups. In the process of this reformation, we find not only the doctrinal principles for reform but also the process of their legitimization by the law. Kawashima Takeyoshi, a prominent post-war sociologist of law, played a key role in this legitimization of the orders. Therefore, this study examines the case of the Ōtani-ha reformation, focusing on why the Buddhists needed a secular law to reform their constitution and what kind of religious organizations were legitimized and idealized by the law. This study extends the modernization of the Buddhist denominations by viewing it not only from the perspective of Buddhist theology but also relating it to the history of the relationship between religion and law.