A Multidisciplinary Study on Historical Documents and Oral History Concerning Shin Buddhist Priests between the End of Edo Era and Meiji Restoration

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520067
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Religious studies
• Research Institution: Yamaguchi Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: Ankei Yuji 山口県立大学, 国際文化学部, 教授 (50149027)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): IZAO Tomio 山口県立大学, 国際文化学部, 教授 (10284465) ; SUZUKI Takayasu 山口県立大学, 国際文化学部, 教授 (20282709) ; IWATA Mami 龍谷大学, 文学部, 講師 (90610642)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 幕末 / 維新 / 長州 / 山口県 / 仏教 / 真宗 / 口承伝承

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Warriors and commoners of Choshu; Clan played important roles in the civil war to overthrow the old regime of shogunate. But we forget the priests of Shin Buddhism; they worked to form a spiritual and political background, and participated in the military actions. Among the four most fervent priests, the least known Kagawa Hoko; was the first focus of this research, and based on historical documents and oral traditions, it was discovered that he worked as a spy for Choshu. As for Shimaji Mokurai, the most energetic in social reform movements among the four, we succeeded in getting permission for the digitization of his manuscripts, and diaries. Further, all the manuscripts of Utsunomiya Mokurin were digitized. He was a priest of Kure, Hiroshima and directly influenced the thoughts of Yoshida Shōin, the teacher for the Meiji Era political and industrial leaders of Japan. Thus, we arrived at a point where we can begin constructing an alternative view of Japanese modern history.

Free Research Field

地域学　文化人類学