Declaring Buddhism dead in the 19th century: the Meiji oligarchy and protestant mission in Japan a foreign religion. Explorations of an unchartered territory

Abstract

This paper elaborates the interaction of social ideologies and religion between the Japanese oligarchy of the first half of the Meiji era and the German Liberal Protestant Mission. The Protestant image conflict, the newly emerging science of comparative religion and social consolidation are considered in the context of the interests of both parties. German Protestant ethics and educational ideology were introduced as distinctly attractive nation-building strategies, appropriate for the purposes of the Meiji oligarchy. The parallels with the indigenous national doctrine of the Edo period enabled the ruling class to incorporate the new and Western ethical concepts, which founded their sympathy for the German Liberal Protestant mission. The influence of Liberal Protestant theology on Buddhist reformers is also discussed in relation to the mission’s activity in the 1880s and early 1890s.