Religiological survey on the relation between awakening of the disabled in Japan and OSARAGI Akira's religious thoughts.

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00082
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01030:Religious studies-related
• Research Institution: Shimane University
• Principal Investigator: Yamazaki Makoto 島根大学, 学術研究院人間科学系, 教授 (40191275)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 大仏空 / カトリック / 念仏 / 横塚晃一 / 横田弘 / 「青い芝」の行動綱領

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The Japanese Association of People with Cerebral Palsy, "Aoi Shiba no Kai" in which YOKOZUKA Koichi（横塚晃一）and YOKOTA Hiroshi（横田弘）were its core members, was the famous forerunner of the modern mouvement by disabled people in Japan in the 1970s. In this research, I focus my attention on a religious thinker OSARAGI Akira （大仏空）who had a great influence on YOKOZUKA and YOKOTA. I collected his unknown texts and published them as "Collected Essays of OSARAGI Akira", and explicated his original thoughts on "Nenbutsu（念仏）as Awakening and Shouting" and "Religion as Raising Problems". It is founded that Osaragi's religious thoughts were the sources of thoughts on autonomy of disabled persons in Japan which are showed in "Platform for Aoi Shiba Movement" such as "We identify ourselves as people with Cerebral Palsy (CP)", "We assert ourselves aggressively" and "We do not choose the way of problem solving".

Free Research Field

宗教学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

「青い芝」の運動と思想については従来、社会学や文学、障害学を中心として研究されてきたが、その宗教的側面についてはほとんど検討されてこなかった。本研究ではまず、願成寺の住持でありながら若き日にカトリックの洗礼を受けた大仏空による未知のテクストを多数発掘・公開し、今後の研究の進展に寄与できた。さらに仏教やキリスト教に限定されない大仏独自の宗教思想を解明することにより、横塚や横田の障害者自立思想の背景にある「宗教的なるもの」の位相に光を投げかけることができた。これを通じて、「青い芝」による1970年代の障害当事者運動を考える上で、既存の枠組みにとらわれない新たな視座を提供できたと考える。