근대 일본불교와 민족주의 - 스즈키 다이세츠(鈴木大拙)를 중심으로 -

Abstract

High-ranking government officials in the modern japan worked toward a theocracy after Meiji Revolution(明治維新). The world of buddhism have been persecuted by them who planned to become the Shintoism(神道) as the state religion to unify the public opinion of the modern state. And it could`t choose but build nationalistic buddhism in the process. Although buddhists in modern japan achieved remarkable achievements in the study of buddhism, they supported japanese nationalism. The thought of Suzuki Daisetsu(鈴木大拙) was connected with this modern buddhism in japan. Although his works and statements exerted a strong influence on the worlds of buddhism and philosophy in both East and West, his thoughts pursued japanese nationalism in the real world. His early works started from a integrated view on religions. After he experienced a life of the United States, he turned to the world of zen(禪). The main points of his thought of zen were sokuhiron(卽非論), husyouzen(不生禪), and japanese spiritualism etc, which satisfied the spiritual world of a modern people. But, he changed them to ways of the war from 1930 to 1945. He conceded the existing order of the nation changed to militarism by the sokuhiron, because he could not develop the early theory concerning relationships between nation and religion. And his remarks showed the japanese nationalism-centered thought through the japanese spiritualism. Especially, he asserted that the deep stage of zen was well applied to the bushidou(武士道) and it`s idea of life and death, so that the thought of zen have degenerated into a way of war like sensouzen(戰爭禪). These thoughts are deeply connected with lack of understanding about asian buddhism, specially buddhism of japan's neighbors. Although there is also the tradition of buddhism in the Korean Peninsula, it became other exclusive world by his study of the nationalistic buddhism. Eventually, the racial superiority of japan was emphasized in the study of zen by Suzuki Daisetsu who insisted on the distinctiveness than the universality in japanese buddhism. This paper is aimed at appraising his works of the zen study properly. And the responsibility as a buddhist that must consider ahimsa, that is, no destruction of life, a virtue in wartime, is claimed. This is a process to understand the modern japan, and is for reciprocal exchange with objective evaluation of japanese buddhism.