Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles: Introductions and Chapter 1
Republishing a text from 1924
While recently researching the a figure named Chigaku Tanaka, considered the father of the Japanese Nationalistic “Nichirenist” movement, I learned that his son had written several books explaining the work of both his father and the Nichirenist society he had founded for English speaking audiences. As it turned out, these texts were also old enough to be in the public domain.
Instead of simply reading through the first of these texts on my own and publishing some kind of summary afterwards, I’ve decided to edit and republish the entire book here on my Substack as I read through it in order to make it more easily accessible to the general public. Even if there happens to be little interest in Nichirenism or the fascinating form of Buddhism it was based on (and one that I largely adhere to), this text seems to be an important document in terms of preserving the beliefs and analytical framework of this unique early 20th century Japanese movement. But let’s face it, if I’m personally interested in this topic, then there have to be others out there who are as well, right?
A few quick notes before I begin: remember that I have not read through this entire book yet, so I cannot yet endorse or disclaim its contents in full. However, having read a few sections already, I can tell that Mr. Satomi is incredibly well educated on these subjects, with knowledge of Nichiren Buddhist doctrinal systemization that far exceeds mine. This also means, however, that readers unfamiliar with Nichiren Buddhism may have a difficult time following along. In that case, I highly recommend the book “Nichiren: A Buddhist Prophet” as a more gentle introduction, which I have also published on this very Substack blog (you can find the first entry here).
Also remember that Nichirenism was an early 20th century variant of Japanese Nationalism, so the contents of this book may conflict heavily with more progressive and/or Liberal-minded readers. This will not be a pleasant endeavor for those who find such ideas offensive to their sensibilities.
Regarding my edits to the original manuscript transcription, they will be sparse, mostly consisting of small grammatical edits or the insertion of line breaks. If I feel the need to interject in order to clarify anything (this will mostly be done with the names of scriptural texts, rendered in the original manuscript in romanized Japanese), my notes will be presented in italics to differentiate them from the original text.
The most significant edit I have made, which will require some explanation, is to the title. The original book was called “Japanese Civilization, Its Significance and Realization: Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles.,” essentially given two subtitles under the extremely generic main title of “Japanese Civilization.” I have brought the second subtitle (sub-subtitle?) to the forefront, as it’s the one I believe best represents what the book is actually about. However, the original title will still be preserved in the body of the post below.
With the necessary exposition out of the way, please enjoy.
ORIGINAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
Professor Satomi, although so far unknown in England, is well known in Japan, both as an author of works relating to Nichirenism and as the youngest son of Mr. Chigaku Tanaka, the leading authority on the life and writings of the apostle of Buddhist reformation. There is a powerful society in Japan, the Kokuchukai, of which Mr. Chigaku Tanaka is the president. It is composed entirely of laymen, and its object is to present the ideal religious life, as revealed by Nichiren, free from any obscurities which formalism and the misdirected zeal of various sects may have induced.
The activities of this society are mainly directed towards spreading the idea of practical religion over every aspect of life, and bringing the religious influence to bear not only on personal work like art and science, but on the collective work of politics, economics, and military affairs. Mr. Chigaku Tanaka is the one who may be said to be the most active since Nichiren's death in 1282 in spreading the doctrine, or perhaps one ought rather to say the ideas, of Nichiren; and his son is an enthusiastic worker in the same field.
Of Nichiren's religion it may suffice to say here that its main ideas are: the communion of those living now and henceforth with all who have gone before, and the restoration of primeval connection with the eternal Buddha; and that it is not the worship of an abstract truth, but a life to be lived by every being, human or other, in the identity of man with nature. Nichiren was imbued with the strongest faith that Japanese Buddhism would spread from East to West, and his disciples are earnestly endeavouring to make his prophetic vision a present reality. The Nichirenians count their temples by thousands and their adherents by millions, and may claim recognition as one of the religious forces of the world.
G. F. BARWICK.
March, 1923.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The harmonization of the civilization of the East with that of the West, is perhaps one of the most important tasks for the establishment of peace on any terms for which all the nations are longing. To accelerate this desired movement of ours, we must begin by sincerely and minutely studying these various civilizations. In the East, especially in Japan, Western civilization is extensively observed by the people, and fully adopted in recent times. While, according to my view, Eastern civilization, in spite of its being of great value, is studied in the West to a far less degree. It is a great pity. Eastern civilization developed mainly in the sphere of the spiritual aspect while Western civilization developed much more in material sciences.
The co-ordination of spiritualism and materialism is not only one of the problems in the history of philosophy, but it is a matter of fact of the world. For instance, still at the present day, the spirit of the Orient and that of the Occident are liable to clash in various ways, promoted largely by such influences as racial prejudice. But spiritualism and materialism are simply two aspects of one and the same thing. The unification, therefore, can be attained only by complete harmonization of the two. However, a thorough understanding of the Oriental civilization requires the most profound study for the following reasons:
Firstly, because it has not been much researched in Europe, and, secondly, because it is rooted in the deepest theory and it flourishes on the most solid and sincere practice. The spiritual civilization of the East must be studied by the European nations in addition to their own civilization. It is therefore our pleasant task to introduce our civilization to the West in gratitude for our indebtedness to their introduction of modern sciences.
The chief object of the present work is to make accessible to Western scholars and all people one of the very important aspects of Japanese spiritual civilization which is, in a sense, a result of our synthetic creation by harmonization and unification of several elements. The Author has treated Nichiren's Religion, known as the True Mahayana Buddhism, and the Japanese National Principles in this volume, to which he begs to draw the attention of readers.
There exist comparatively few works written by Western scholars introducing these problems, but we cannot expect perfect accuracy therein as far as present conditions are concerned. The present work is intended mainly for general readers, with a few exceptions which are intended for the convenience of scholars. Therefore, an excess of technical interpretations and discussions are omitted in this volume. I would point out that it is only a brief introduction to a most important problem, so that readers must not expect to find detailed information. It is to serve as prolegomena to another more lengthy and technical book of mine in English on these problems, to be published at a future date. Moreover, the present work was written under somewhat difficult conditions owing to my being abroad and being unable to secure suitable reference books.
Nevertheless, such having been the circumstances under which I wrote the present work, it will afford me the greatest pleasure if this small volume will take rank among the contributions of Western scholars and people. I began the draft of this book four months after my arrival in England from Japan and it has taken me just two months to bring it to completion. I am aware of the fact, therefore, that my English is far from being up to the standard of the language, which I sincerely trust readers will kindly tolerate. Many important problems dealing with the realization of the Japanese spiritual civilization are not dealt with in this present work, but these I hope to have a chance of introducing under a tentative title: "The Fundamental Ideas of Japanese Moral Philosophy."
My sincere acknowledgment is due to Mr. Chigaku Tanaka, my father in blood, the late president of the “Kokuchukai,” whose results of researches gave rise to the revival of Modern Nichirenism, and I have freely adopted his theory in this book.
It is also my pleasant duty to appreciate the valuable suggestions and kindly help in English given to me by Mr. G. F. Barwick, the late Keeper of Printed Books of the British Museum.
K. SATOMI.
HARROW-ON-THE-HILL, ENGLAND
JAPANESE CIVILIZATION
ITS SIGNIFICANCE AND REALIZATION
NICHIRENISM AND THE JAPANESE NATIONAL PRINCIPLES
I: INTRODUCTORY
1. WHAT RELIGION IS
What Religion is. What is Religion?
People were formerly and are still too egotistical in their conception of religion, and are liable to accept the fallacies that religion consists in going to church or in prayer, or that it is contained in the Bible or in other Scriptures as books, or even in preaching. But these ideas must be ascribed to ignorance, for even if people go to church and worship God, it is all in vain unless the prayer be pure and rational. I cannot conceive that there is a god so merciful and so accommodating as to listen to and unconditionally help people because of their various prayers, without considering the quality of the prayers themselves.
Man has the sentiment of dependence and of independence; the former is adaptation to some superhuman power and the latter is assimilation to his own self which means the extension of his personality. The former sentiment develops into a religious faith in a sense, but it is liable to fall into excess. For instance, in this case, to pray to God with prayer which is devoid of rational judgment is indeed a comedy. Undoubtedly it comes from our own arbitrary interpretation.
It is very questionable whether religious faith as a mere psychical desire is always possible as the right faith. Of course, it is one of the tendencies of religious faith, nevertheless can we recognize it as a civilized religious faith, for a view which takes religion as a mere individual consolation is questionable. Let it be noted that serious consideration should be given thereto in order to understand religion. Many Historical fallacies of religion are the outcome of such ideas.
So we must rid ourselves of any conception which looks upon religion as a function for the fulfilment of men's arbitrary will. Religious faith which is not supported by truth, or I should say irrational faith, always results in failure. It is useless to quibble about superstition still being a phenomenon of religious faith. But faith in a psychological sense does not always imply validity. A man in an electric car which has already derailed will exclaim with haughty air, "Didn't I get into the car?" These two cases are parallel. The religion to be aimed at should be one of validity and value. If we were righteous there would be no necessity to ask God's help, for it is God's duty a priori to protect the righteous.
So, in the first place, "prayer" consists in "vowing" to do that which is righteous oneself and being benevolently inclined towards our fellow creatures and thereby engendering righteousness and perfect love.
In the second place, "prayer" also means "thanksgiving" for one's rectitude, and then again "prayer" should be a genuine feeling of absolute dependence on God. Otherwise, contradiction will go on repeating itself everlastingly. The Great War, for instance, exposed to view the old Christian faith and the commonplace moral theory and showed them bankrupt in their very essence, because love and the summum bonum were invariably taught by religion and ethics in every connection, from olden times up to the present day. In spite of that, the so-called Sons of God fought the devil's battle with each other, for the Allied Nations and the Germans are the families and sons of the same God.
Jesus Christ says: "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew and Luke) .
The morality of such passive resistance is very questionable to me. But, then how came it about that the sons educated according to this non-resistance principle, acted against their merciful Father in contradiction to their own creed. Some of the sons prayed to God for victory, others for defeat. God, the common Father, must be embarrassed one would think when thus appealed to.
This would be a natural effect of Christianity in one direction. Individual Christians, Christian races and Christian societies are very much in evidence, nevertheless there exists no Christian State whatsoever. This originates in certain weak points of the Bible. Therefore the standard of salvation must be found in the religionizing of the State, not merely of individuals nor of the world in a vague sense.
Emancipate religion from old conceptions, from the Church and from the grave. The principle and spirit of religion should be interwoven with daily life. Strive to find religion at every step, at every turn, at work, at table, in business or in time of war or peace! Plough the land for the sake of humanity, then shall a man find true happiness.
Human beings having been blinded by lust, viz. by the materialistic conceptions of history, which endeavoured to solve human existence merely with food and money, have degenerated. On the other hand, there were, and still are people who strive to realize an ideal human life by means of mere spiritualism. But such a one-sided opinion of life always leads the world into confusion and antagonism. Probably, we must acknowledge food and money or any other kind of material commodity in accordance with the realization of the Path (see Index). The signification of human life indeed exists in the vow of the practice of the Path, with the aid of material things.
This, of course, is the problem of our attitude and of our view of our life, and although some objections might be advanced, nevertheless, by such an attitude we ought to be able to produce harmonious human life, though it may appear to be a dogmatic view.
The so-called Truth is the Being as it is, accordingly it hardly becomes the standard of human life, while, the Path or the Way or the Morality is a reproduction of the Truth.
Obviously, therefore, it is the promise of mankind and the principle of the world, which is the product of long experience and of thought from all eternity. The promise or the principle judges men according to its own standard. There is no class or rank with reference to the authority of our existence.
Human beings can be classified into two kinds, viz. those who are Men of the Path and those who are not, consequently the protection and extension of the Path are the highest tasks of human life. The true religion of mankind must be the principle and power which will teach such conviction. Accordingly, religion must be understood as the principle and method of the synthetic creation connected with strong faith, which leads us even into fire and water if it is for the sake of the Path.
A religious faith which is merely a play of our sentiments, and not concerned with the task of the real reconstruction of life and of the world, will not be worthy of the future religion. Seeing that the principle or faith of religion and life is identical with the righteousness which does validate; this is how true religion is attained. Now let us add a few words and begin by asking ourselves, for instance, what is the object in worshipping God? Is it for oneself or is the purpose a charitable one?
Naturally it should be the desire of mankind to prosper and be happy, but if religion should ever be devoted merely to the attainment of one's happiness and the promises of good fortune without having to strive for it, then it is devil's doctrine. Let us now consider the case of a thoughtless but enterprising person for whom faith is of no moment and who merely plays at religion traditionally. Suppose that, owing to carelessness, this individual meets with failure at every turn, and finding himself at the bottom of Fortune's wheel, feels the necessity of turning to God in prayer. "In distress we turn to God," is then the expression. Can we acknowledge pure and righteous religious consciousness in such emotion, even though it be an inevitable weak point of human sentiment? Is it not too selfish a point of view?
A tradesman who is devoted to a religion and is a regular churchgoer in order to benefit by sermons and prayer, would appear to be a true believer of the religion as far as the church is concerned. He argues love, benevolence, truth, peace or something of the kind and over-estimates himself and is proud of his faith during those moments. However, when attending to his everyday duties he thinks of his own interests and competes with numerous other traders, gloats over his gains and should an opportunity offer, he would overthrow his competitors.
Is not such a view of peace a superficial one? Can we recognize even the smallest degree of faith in such intentions? Such a phenomenon is obviously contradictory. We cannot approve of such dualism or pluralism which draws a distinction between our mode of living and our religious faith.
Religion is neither a match-maker nor a funeral undertaker. The requiem and monkish nonsense may sound like golden words to one whose religion consists in empty formalism; but do religious power and value exist in the verbosity of such professional religionists which is very often merely traditional and mercenary?
The true value of religion is to be found only in quality, but neither in quantity nor in formalism. There are those who introduce the idea of rites, chanting, prayer and sermons whenever they think of religion. Now, however necessary these may be, they are merely formal attributes of religion. We must therefore seek the essential value of religion outside these. Now and again scholars are apt to convey the idea that religion consists in worship only, and not a few are imbued with this notion. They should reflect on the fact that their misconception originates in the meanings attached to the word “Religion.”
Then what is the primary aim of a religion worthy of existence? As a matter of course it is salvation, but is it intended to be in a spiritual sense only? Salvation is pregnant with relief and redress of life and of the world, from the point of view of correlation of body and mind. Obviously therefore religion must take the whole life and world, spiritually and materially, as its objects in the process of salvation. Therefore religion must not be limited to the small sphere of interpretation. It is a fundamental fallacy that people in general hold the view of religion which is demonstrated above, and we need not be seriously concerned about those who think that their proper mission is fulfilled by the mere observance of forms and ceremonies.
Religion must first of all take into consideration the whole personality, which is composed of three elements, i.e. reason, feeling and will. It is not sufficient that religion should relieve a man's feeling only, it must, at the same time, give rational and volitional satisfaction. According to this view, religion must imply the three elements synthetically; so that it may be adaptable to any philosophy or science or new ideas, and it should be such as to give the right direction to be followed.
Moreover, religion should redeem the body as well. Because a man purified and idealized spiritually by religion, should gradually be idealized bodily in consequence. Human life is the process of attaining one's God, in other words, of proceeding from imperfect to perfect. It is indeed the application of Eugenics with the essential meaning of religion. According to my view, the Buddhist doctrine "Thirty-Two Signs (Lakchanas)" and “Eighty Excellent Specific Signs” has the signification of Eugenics.
Thus, actual life is religion and religion is actual. The depravity of all religions from olden times to the present day has its root in the fallacy of a vague dualism of actual life and religion. Therefore religion is justified in leading and criticizing life in all its aspects. Religion must be woven into actual life, otherwise it would appear to be of no avail. In brief, the civilized religion worthy of the future must be the principle of the synthetic creation of life. Religion has the State and the world at large as well as the individual as objects of its salvation. But the unit of salvation is the State. In this respect religions in nine cases out of ten have vague ideas. The religion we need should assuredly be the authoritative principle of our actual life, and of course that of the countries and the world as well.
In this connection I am going to introduce Nichiren's religion as the representative one of Japan. I have stated thus a part of my ideas about religion from a common sense point of view. My scientific and philosophical studies of religion in general will be published on some future occasion.
2. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WORLD
The present world, without doubt, has come to a deadlock. There exist religion, ethics, philosophy, art, science, politics, law, the church, schools, sages, priests, teachers and scholars; but how powerless these are! The teachings of the sages have pervaded the world, nevertheless the human race has degenerated after being perplexed by this one or that one. People have sought liberty, equality and philanthropy and they are still seeking; nay, instead of liberty restriction has been their lot, and while searching for equality they have found inequality after all; and they are still self-contradictory in their garment of philanthropy.
The Buddha Shakamuni [or Shakyamuni], Jesus Christ, Socrates, Confucius and the other sages or men of wisdom, all aimed at leading man to supreme goodness and absolute peace. Their adherents in the world might be types of righteousness, even though the world at large has degenerated ceaselessly; but verily the teachings of these sages have resulted in complete failure. We are aware that there exist many true Christians, true Buddhists and other men of lofty character, but how are we to deal with this impure world at large?
And again there are also many books in which the highest standard of goodness is taught; but devolution is apparent even here, in this dissolute world. However hard people may struggle for idealism, if they do not consider this point, then all their efforts will prove abortive.
Alas, the so-called civilization exhibits its skilfulness in killing man, and some of its outstanding inventions are warships, guns, poison-gas, tanks and so forth. The Great War, as already mentioned, is the gratification of human greediness, bellicosity and querulous folly which have accumulated in the course of several thousand years. The League of Nations or the International Peace Conference is, it is true, an outcome of the Great War. Of course there were people who had been looking for peace, but it was not a universal yearning. Now at last the time is ripe for the reformation of the world.
Many problems of the world of today, such as the reduction of armaments or international peace conferences and schemes of like nature, are preliminary steps towards the creation of the new world, but, primarily, this new world must be built on a solid foundation. People may have infinite longing for perfect peace, yet every effort will prove futile unless all endeavours are in earnest for the sake of the true value of life. The present tendency of the nations, at any rate, is worthy of being called progress.
We must bring about in the near future an international constitution so that the States and the world may be judged. It is illogical that a State should punish an individual man or woman for a theft or other crime of which the State itself is guilty on a much larger scale. It is out of all reason to ascribe equity to national greediness. Therefore the State must undergo a moral reconstruction. So we must contrive to bring about a reconstruction of the world, its countries and its individuals. We offer Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles as the means to be considered by the nations.
3. WHAT NICHIRENISM IS
Nichirenism, which I am going to sketch briefly in this work, originates from the name of a great Japanese Buddhist, viz. Nichiren, who lived about seven hundred years ago. He is, indeed, the man of the revolution of Buddhism, and I may say of all religions in a sense. His thought, his doctrine and its practice, faith, prophecy and miracles, if any, are clearly illustrated in the four hundred articles of his works. Above a quarter of the works extant are found in his own handwriting, so that all researches can be made by scholars palæographically about him and his surroundings.
It deserves to be called a miracle that a great religionist's manuscripts have remained in good preservation for more than seven hundred mortal years. With reference to this, we cannot compare Nichiren with other religionists whose teachings have been handed down from the ancient peoples, and, moreover, have been modified by their followers in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred.
Nichirenism is the principle of the synthetic creation based on Nichiren's doctrine, thought and faith, and it is religion in quite an ordinary sense, but at the same time it is the general basis of life and of the world. Accordingly, we cannot treat Nichirenism as a mere form of Buddhism, however apt we may be to allow our views to be influenced by our prejudices and our sectarianism when we come in touch with a sect which is foreign to us. So, to begin with, when seeking truth, we must eliminate sectarianism, which of itself alone will confuse our understanding or reason. For this cause and also in order to free Nichiren's religion from the hackneyed conception of religion, we use the appellation Nichirenism, the term adopted by Chigaku Tanaka.
Nichirenism, in the first place, rejects all other religions on the one hand, but, on the other hand, approves them all, when enlightened and elucidated by Nichirenism. From the former point of view, Nichirenism is not incompatible with the other religions, but is in unison and harmony with them from the latter point of view.
Nichirenism was founded seven hundred years ago, but it could not fully develop in the unfavourable political circumstances of the time. Japan, in other words, was not given suitable conditions for the acceptance of Nichirenism, because she was ruled by despotic governments. Nichirenians of all ages have endeavoured to reform the country to her ideals and have counselled the government and the people.
All the governments, with hardly an exception, severely harassed it. Extension was out of the question; Nichirenism narrowly escaped ruin and was obliged to apostatize from its true spirit to an entirely different one. About half a century ago the late Great Emperor Meiji established the Japanese Constitution, and religious tolerance became a matter of fact. Hereupon, Japan prepared to accept Nichirenism freely.
The revival of pure Nichirenism, properly founded on Nichiren's works, took place within the last forty years or thereabouts, after the appearance of Chigaku Tanaka, and the spread of Nichirenism in the present day is due to Tanaka's continuous activity. Be that as it may, the time is now opportune for the propagation of Nichirenism throughout the world.
Nichirenism is by no means the religion of the past, but the religion of the future and forever. The past ages were not ready to be Nichirenized for many reasons, the political condition was one of them, the state of civilization was another, and the affairs of the world of thought might also be added. But now the world has come to a standstill, so that it must of necessity take a new turn.
To be continued…