The historical research on the Kakuozan Nissen-ji Temple in the Meiji and Taisho period

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K12934
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Japanese history
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	SANO Masafumi 大阪大学, 日本語日本文化教育センター, 准教授 (10403205)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Keywords	日暹寺（日泰寺） / 都市史 / 国際交流史 / 日暹寺
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In 1898, William Peppe discovered remains of the Buddha in British India. The following year, in 1899, the British government and its chartered administration in India gifted them to the royal family of Thailand. The Buddhist community in Japan received a part of them in 1900. The Kakuozan Nissen-ji Temple was constructed to enshrine them in 1904 in Tsukimizaka, Tashiro village, Aichi District (present-day Hoo-cho, Chikusa Ward, Nagoya City)(The name of the temple was altered to Nittai-ji in 1942). Later, in 1918, the Enshrinement Tower was constructed at Nissen-ji and this became the prescribed final shrine for the remains of the Buddha. Although Nissen-ji / Nittai-ji has come to be positioned as one of the main centers of Japanese-Thai cultural exchange, researchers, so far, have not adequately focused on its history. In this research, we review the history of Nissen-ji in the Meiji and Taisho period, analyzing regional and religious newspapers and sects’ institutional journals.