Pre-Tokugawa Maritime Japanese Buddhism

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源食う
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Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:45 am

Pre-Tokugawa Maritime Japanese Buddhism

Post by 源食う »

For several months, I've been having a sort of crisis over my family's Japanese American buddhist background, and how that fits into the history of Japanese Buddhist Nationalism and the academic label of ethnic Buddhism. One direction I've gone with this is looking at how ethnic, i.e., how innately Japanese the histories of Japanese buddhist sects is, to cut through the nihonjinron and orientalist that tends to creep into Asian studies.

I recently read a little bit about Japanese enclaves in Southeast Asia in the 16-17th centuries, and quite a bit about Christians and Christian missionaries (as well as some Obaku zen practitioners) in those communities. I've also read that Rinzai-zen financed and organized most Japanese missions to Ming China. I also read that Japanese Pure Land Buddhists (Jodo Shu and Jodo Shinshu) were proselytizing in new areas in the 17th century, particularly in the Ryukyu Kingdom and in Ainu areas but stopped after the Tokugawa Shogunate banned new temple construction (http://jodoshuzensho.jp/daijiten/index. ... B%E6%95%99). Also, given that the majority of Buddhists have historically been pure landers in Japan, I would assume there was at least some pure land presence on Japanese ships and in nihon-machi in this 16-17th century period.

I have been looking on the National Diet Archives and on the Jodo Shu encyclopedia to little avail, but are there records activities of Japanese pure land Buddhists in Southeast Asia, or more broadly in maritime Asia (like among the wakou, Japanese missions to Ming, red seal ships, etc.)?

Thank you!
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