Editing Senoo Giro (section)

== Ideas ==

Seno'o's mature thought, elaborated most fully in ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'' 社会変革途上の新興仏教 (Revitalized Buddhism on the Road to Social Reform) (1933) and developed across numerous essays during the 1930s, represents one of the most sustained attempts by a modern Buddhist thinker to bring Buddhist thought and practice into constructive engagement with Marxist social analysis and revolutionary politics.<ref>Seno'o Girō, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'' 社会変革途上の新興仏教 [Revitalized Buddhism on the Road to Social Reform] (1933), reprinted in Inagaki Masami, ed., ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'' (Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan, 1975), 325–88; Shields (2012), “A Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution,” 340–41.</ref> Seno'o accepted much of the Marxist critique of religion, including the charge that religion could function as an “opiate” by encouraging suffering people to depend upon supernatural powers or compensation in another world rather than confront the conditions producing suffering in this one. He argued, however, that such criticism did not apply to Buddhism properly understood. “Original Buddhism,” he maintained, rejected dependence upon supernatural beings and directed attention instead toward suffering and its causes within the conditions of human existence.<ref>Seno'o, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'', 331, 334, 337; see also Seno'o Girō, “Hanshūkyō undō hihan” 反宗教運動批判 [A Critique of the Anti-Religious Movement] (1931), in ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'', 302–15.</ref> Śākyamuni Buddha, in Seno'o's interpretation, had taught neither belief in a creator god nor dependence upon an eternal soul, while later Buddhists had transformed figures such as Amida and Dainichi into superhuman objects of reliance. Revitalized Buddhism therefore required both the recovery of Buddhism's non-theistic foundations and the repudiation of the “narcotic” role that Buddhism itself had come to play in society.<ref>Seno'o, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'', 331–37.</ref>

Central to this project was Seno'o's radical reinterpretation of the Three Jewels (''sanbō'' 三宝). Buddha referred above all to the historical Śākyamuni, whom the YLRB revered as the “highest human personality” (''jinrui no yūsuru saikō jinkaku'' 人類の有する最高人格)—the fullest realization of human possibility rather than a supernatural source of salvation. Dharma Seno'o interpreted through interdependence, nonattachment, and no-self, developing the latter into an ethic of “selfless love” (''muga-ai'' 無我愛) to be realized through practice. Sangha, meanwhile, no longer referred primarily to the historical monastic community but became the model for a communal society (''kyōdō shakai'' 共同社会) organized around equality, cooperation, and freedom from exploitation.<ref>Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism, “Sengen” 宣言 [Declaration] and “Kōryō” 綱領 [Program] (1931), reprinted in Inagaki Masami, ''Budda o seoite gaitō e'', 3–6; Seno'o Girō, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'' 社会変革途上の新興仏教 [Revitalized Buddhism on the Road to Social Reform] (1933), in Inagaki Masami, ed., ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'' (Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan, 1975), 363–67; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 217–19.</ref> Buddhist liberation thereby acquired an explicitly social dimension. No-self was not merely a doctrine concerning personal identity but an ethical practice through which attachment to the isolated self gave way to action on behalf of others; liberation from such attachment could not be complete while the social relations in which human beings lived remained structured by exploitation.<ref>Seno'o, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'', [page to verify].</ref>

Seno'o nevertheless insisted that structural transformation alone could not overcome the sources of suffering and exploitation. Capitalism had to be transformed, but changing economic institutions would not by itself overcome the egoism and attachment that helped reproduce relations of domination. Social reconstruction therefore had to proceed together with the ethical transformation of persons through the “practice of selfless love” (''muga-ai no jissen'' 無我愛の実践).<ref>Seno'o Girō, ''Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō Bukkyō'' 社会変革途上の新興仏教 [Revitalized Buddhism on the Road to Social Reform] (1933), in Inagaki Masami, ed., ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'' (Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan, 1975), 367; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 219–20.</ref>

At the same time, Seno'o sharply criticized Buddhist doctrines when they served to legitimate existing inequalities. Although Buddhism professed the equality of human beings, he argued, historically it had disregarded the reality of class inequality in favor of an abstract equality expressed in the Mahāyāna formula “differentiation is precisely equality” (''sabetsu soku byōdō'' 差別即平等). Against such metaphysical reconciliation, Seno'o insisted that Buddhism confront the concrete social and economic inequalities of the present.<ref>Seno'o Girō, “Shinkō Bukkyō e no tenshin” 新興仏教への転身 [Conversion to Revitalized Buddhism] (1931), in Inagaki, ed., ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'', 275.</ref> In this respect, his critique strikingly prefigures aspects of the later criticism of ''hongaku'' 本覚 (original enlightenment) thought associated with the Critical Buddhist movement (''Hihan Bukkyō'' 批判仏教).<ref>Shields (2012), “A Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution,” 341; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 219.</ref>

Complementing this critique was Seno'o's emphasis on ''hansei'' 反省 (self-reflection or critical self-examination). In his 1924 reinterpretation of Nichiren's ''Risshō Ankokuron'' 立正安国論, Seno'o redirected a text frequently appropriated for nationalist purposes toward a demand for critical self-examination: before condemning other nations or peoples, Japan had to confront the injustices within its own society, including discrimination against Chinese, Koreans, ''burakumin'', and workers.<ref>Seno'o Girō, “Risshō ankoku no gendaiteki igi” 立正安国の現代的意義 [The Contemporary Significance of Establishing the Right and Pacifying the Nation], ''Wakōdō'' 5, no. 10 (October 1924), reprinted in ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'', 82–85; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 224.</ref>

Seno'o's “social Buddhism” (''shakaiteki Bukkyō'' 社会的仏教) can also be situated within a wider interwar current of socially engaged religion. Ōtani Eiichi has drawn particular attention to its parallels with the “social Christianity” (''shakaiteki Kirisutokyō'' 社会的基督教) of the sociologist and Congregationalist theologian Nakajima Shigeru 中島重. Both criticized forms of religion centered narrowly on individual salvation and sought instead to connect personal transformation with the reconstruction of society. Their respective this-worldly ideals—the Buddha-land and the Kingdom of God—were conceived as cooperative societies to be realized through concrete social and political engagement rather than relegated to another world.<ref>Ōtani Eiichi 大谷栄一, “Nakajima Shigeru no shakaiteki Kirisutokyō to Seno'o Girō no shakaiteki Bukkyō” 中島重の社会的基督教と妹尾義郎の社会的仏教 [Nakajima Shigeru's Social Christianity and Seno'o Girō's Social Buddhism], ''Shūkyō kenkyū'' 宗教研究 82, no. 4 (2009): 963–65.</ref>

Seno'o's ethic of selfless love was accompanied, particularly by the middle of the 1930s, by an increasingly explicit commitment to nonviolence. His earlier rhetoric, however, could be more ambiguous. During the early years of the YLRB he occasionally invoked the Buddhist expression issetsu tashō 一殺多生 (“kill one to save the many”) in discussing revolutionary social change—a phrase also employed in contemporary radical Buddhist circles to legitimate political violence. Seno'o's precise meaning in these passages requires caution, particularly because statements made in the early 1930s were subsequently reconstructed through police interrogation and prosecution.<ref> Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 235–36.</ref> By the middle of the decade, however, Seno'o was articulating an increasingly explicit rejection of political violence. During the investigation of the YLRB, the authorities nevertheless treated his earlier revolutionary language as evidence of the movement's allegedly violent character, an interpretation Seno'o disputed.<ref>Shihōshō Keijikyoku 司法省刑事局, ''Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei no kessei keika to sono honshitsu'' 新興仏教青年同盟の結成経過とその本質 [The Formation and Essential Character of the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism], ''Shisō shiryō panfuretto'', no. 3 (Tokyo: Shihōshō Keijikyoku, April 1938), cited in Inagaki Masami, ''Budda o seoite gaitō e'', 200; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 235–36.</ref>

Seno'o's radical Buddhism also became increasingly internationalist and anti-imperialist. His shock at the treatment of Koreans and political radicals following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 contributed to his growing rejection of ethnic and national exclusivism. By the founding of the YLRB in 1931, international conflict, discrimination against burakumin 部落民, and the status of women had become explicit concerns of his program of Buddhist social reform, while during the 1930s Seno'o increasingly connected war, fascism, and imperialism with capitalism and other structures of domination.<ref>Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism, “Sengen” 宣言 [Declaration] (1931), reprinted in Inagaki Masami, ''Budda o seoite gaitō e'', 3–6; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', 218.</ref> His rejection of boundaries extended to Buddhism itself. Seeking to overcome inherited sectarian divisions, Seno'o adopted the invocation ''Namu Shakamuni Budaya'' 南無釈迦牟尼仏陀耶 (“Homage to Śākyamuni Buddha”) as an expression of common devotion to the historical Buddha and rejected the elevation of any single sectarian scripture as uniquely authoritative. Revitalized Buddhism would instead seek a common Buddhist foundation beyond the competing institutions and doctrinal allegiances of the established sects.<ref>Seno'o Girō, “Shinkō Bukkyō e no tenshin” 新興仏教への転身 [Conversion to Revitalized Buddhism] (1931), in Inagaki Masami, ed., ''Seno'o Girō shūkyō ronshū'' (Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan, 1975), 276–77; Lai, Whalen (1984), “Seno'o Girō and the Dilemma of Modern Buddhism: Leftist Prophet of the Lotus Sutra,” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 11, no. 1: 7–42, 33–35.</ref>

=== The Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism ===
{{Main|Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism}}

Seno'o's ideas found their fullest institutional expression in the Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei 新興仏教青年同盟 (Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism), which he founded in April 1931 and led until his arrest in December 1936. The League sought to translate Revitalized Buddhism into social and political practice. Surviving records indicate that it established as many as twenty-six branches across twenty prefectures, although contemporary government agencies produced somewhat lower estimates. Through its publications, annual conferences, lectures, and local branches, the YLRB pursued a program combining Buddhist reform with opposition to capitalism, war, discrimination, and, increasingly, fascism and imperialism.<ref>Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism, “Sengen” 宣言 [Declaration] and “Kōryō” 綱領 [Program] (1931), reprinted in Inagaki Masami, ''Budda o seoite gaitō e'', 3–6; [source for twenty-six branches/twenty prefectures]; [source for contemporary government estimates].</ref> During the mid-1930s, Seno'o and other League members became increasingly involved in labor, socialist, antifascist, and Popular Front activities. The League attempted to continue after Seno'o's arrest and subsequent ''tenkō'' 転向 (political recantation), reorganizing its leadership and holding its seventh national congress on May 9, 1937. In October, however, more than two hundred people associated with the YLRB were detained in a nationwide roundup, effectively destroying the organization; twenty-seven members were eventually prosecuted.<ref>Matsune Takashi (1975), ''Seno'o Girō to “Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei”'', 96, 103–8; ''Tokkō gaiji geppō'' 特高外事月報, October 1937; Ogata Hiroshi, ''Bukkyō to shakai undō: Shu to shite Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei ni tsuite'', 380–86.</ref>