When Buddhism Became a “Religion”: Religion and Superstition in the Writings of Inoue Enryō

Abstract

This article examines the process by which became a in Meiji Japan (1868-1912). As part of the climate of modernization, foreigners, government officials, and the press increasingly identified as superstitious and backward. In response, Buddhist leaders divided traditional Buddhist cosmology and practices into the newly constructed categories superstition and Superstition was deemed really Buddhism and purged, while the remainder of was made to accord with Westernized ideas of religion. Buddhist philosopher Inoue Enryō was crucial to this process. This paper explores superstition and in his writings, and it discusses the aspects of that were invented and sublimated under the influence of this distinction. This paper argues that not only did became a religion in Meiji Japan but also that in order to do so it had to eliminate superstitions, which included numerous practices and beliefs that had previously been central.

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