稲垣満次郎と石川舜台の仏骨奉迎に因る仏教徒の団結構想：ピプラワ仏骨のタイ奉迎から日本奉迎まで（1898–1900）

抄録

“Authentic” relics of the Buddha have the potentiality to become a common object of worship and symbol of all Buddhists regardless of Theravada, Mahayana or Tibetan Buddhism.

The Buddha relics excavated in Piprahwa in India in January 1898 were offered by the British India Government to King Chulalongkorn, the sole existing Buddhist monarch. He did not accept them immediately, doing so only after careful consideration.

The King distributed a portion of the relics to Russian Buddhists in August 1899, and then to Burmese and Ceylonese monks on 9 January 1900.

Inagaki Manjiro, a devout Zen Buddhist and the first Japanese Minister in Siam, fully understood the importance of the relics for forming a unity of the different Buddhists both in Japan and Asia. Without any instructions from Foreign Minister Aoki Shuzo in Tokyo, Inagaki petitioned the King requesting a portion of the relics for the Japanese. Ishikawa Shuntai, the top administrator of the Otani sect of Shin Buddhism, responded favorably to Inagaki’s proposal. Ishikawa envisioned including the relics in his own magnificent plan to build a world Buddhist center in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

A Japanese Buddhist mission (chief representative: Otani Koen of the Otani sect) had an audience with King Chulalongkorn on 14 June 1900 and received the relics the next day from Chaophraya Pasakorawong, Minister of Public Instruction.

Ishikawa asked the Thai government to send some Thai monks for the ceremony to lay the cornerstone of his world Buddhist center in Tokyo. However the Thai government did not cooperate because they were not so enthusiastic about Buddhist unity as were Ishikawa and Inagaki.