Editing Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism (section)

== Ideology and Program ==

The League's manifesto articulated three foundational principles: first, to realize a "Buddha Land" on earth, grounded in the highest character of humanity as revealed in the teachings of Śākyamuni and the principle of brotherly love; second, to reject all existing Buddhist sects as corpselike institutions that had profaned the spirit of the Dharma, while pledging to renew Buddhism in the spirit of the new age; and third, to reform the capitalist economic system, understood as fundamentally contrary to the Buddhist spirit and destructive of the general welfare.<ref>Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', pp. 215–216; Large, Stephen S. (1987). "Buddhism, Socialism, and Protest in Prewar Japan: The Career of Seno'o Girō". ''Modern Asian Studies'' 21.1: 153–171, p. 158.</ref>

Doctrinally, the League reinterpreted the Three Jewels or Refuges (''sankiei'', 三帰依) in social terms: the Buddha represented the manifest human ideal embodied by the historical Śākyamuni; the Dharma was redefined as the law of selfless love (''muga-ai'', 無我愛); and the Sangha, traditionally the monastic community, was reimagined as a future "communal society" (''kyōdō shakai'', 共同社会) grounded in human equality and mutual aid and free of exploitation.<ref>Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', pp. 217–218; Large (1987), "Buddhism, Socialism, and Protest", pp. 159–160.</ref> The League briefly attempted to institute a new ritual chant, "Namu Shakamuni ya" ("praise to Śākyamuni Buddha"), adapted from both the Nichiren sect's ''daimoku'' (題目) and the Pure Land ''nenbutsu'' (念仏), as a symbol of its ambition to unite all Buddhist sects under a single, historically grounded object of devotion.<ref>Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', p. 218.</ref>

The League held annual national conferences under the title Shinkō Bussei (新興仏青, Revitalized Buddhist Youth), at which members debated and proclaimed positions on contemporary affairs. The third conference (January 1933) affirmed opposition to nationalism, militarism, warfare, and the annexation of Manchuria; the fourth (January 1934) committed the League to building a "cooperative society," promoting internationalism, and unifying all Buddhist sects; and the fifth (January 1935) made explicit the League's intent to restructure the capitalist system, challenge "reactionary religious sects," and pursue individual perfection through inner purification.<ref>Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', pp. 207–208; Large (1987), "Buddhism, Socialism, and Protest", p. 158.</ref>

The League's most systematic theoretical statement was Seno'o's 1932 essay 『社会変革途上の新興仏教』 (Shakai henkaku tojō no shinkō bukkyō, Revitalized Buddhism on the Road to Social Reform), which argued that Buddhism was, properly understood, atheistic, materialist, and inherently revolutionary, and identified six "demands of the modern age" that a revitalized Buddhism was obliged to meet: the denial of superhuman deities; the rejection of belief in an afterlife; the pursuit of complete happiness within ordinary working life rather than in otherworldly consolation; the demand for reform of the capitalist system; the replacement of nationalism with internationalism; and the unification of the Buddhist sects.<ref>Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', pp. 219–221; Shields (2012), "A Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution", pp. 342–343.</ref> The League simultaneously fought against anti-religious Marxist organizations, such as the Nihon Hanshūkyō Dōmei (日本反宗教同盟, Japan Anti-Religion Alliance) and the Nihon Sentōteki Mushinronsha Dōmei (日本戦闘的無神論者同盟, Japan Militant Atheists' Alliance), insisting that a materialist, humanist Buddhism could supply the ethical dimension that a narrowly economistic Marxism lacked; by contrast, it maintained cordial relations with Nakajima Shigeru's (中島重) Shakaiteki Kirisutokyō Kansai Remmei (社会的基督教関西連盟, Social Christian Kansai Federation, later reorganized as the Shakaiteki Kirisutokyō Zenkoku Remmei 社会的基督教全国連盟, a national federation), whose "Kingdom of God" theology and cooperative-society program closely paralleled the League's own.<ref>Large (1987), "Buddhism, Socialism, and Protest", p. 158; Shields (2017), ''Against Harmony'', p. 216; Ōtani Eiichi (大谷栄一) (2013). 「報告5 近現代日本における仏教者の社会参加―妹尾義郎の仏教社会運動の試み」 [Report 5: Social Participation of Buddhists in Modern and Contemporary Japan: Seno'o Girō's Attempt at a Buddhist Social Movement]. 『宗教と社会』 19: 177–187, at 184.</ref>

Beyond national politics, individual branches also pursued local social-service work consistent with the League's cooperative ideals: the Kanazawa branch promoted a "one village, one graveyard" (''ichison ichibochi'', 一村一墓地) consolidation plan and ran farmers' schools, the Wakayama branch organized a Buddhist mutual-aid cooperative, and the Tokyo branch founded a children's group known as the Midori-kai (みどり会).<ref>Ōtani (2013), 「近現代日本」, p. 184.</ref>

=== Seno'o Girō ===
{{Main|Senoo Giro}}

The League was founded, led, and largely theorized by Seno'o Girō (1889–1961), a former Nichirenist activist who had broken with the nationalist Nichirenshugi movement of Tanaka Chigaku (田中智学) and Honda Nisshō (本多日生) over the course of the 1920s. Seno'o's own turn toward Marxism and internationalism—prompted in part by his response to anti-Korean violence following the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and by his disillusionment with landlord intransigence during 1924 tenant disputes—supplied the League's core intellectual synthesis of Buddhist and socialist thought. Seno'o directed the League's press, chaired its conferences, and represented it within the broader left-wing popular front until his arrest in December 1936.