1920∼1940년대, 일본인의 조선불교부흥운동과 그 양상­ 나카무라 겐타로(中村健太郞)의 『朝鮮生活 50년』을 중심으로 ­

Abstract

Buddhism during the Joseon Dynasty marked a milestone in its development by way of contacting Japanese modern Buddhism after the opening of a port. That is to say, even if they were only in a small way, at that time there was a germination of modernity in Korean Buddhism and were efforts to regain its identity. This paper reviewed such movements through the activities of Japanese lay Buddhists in Joseon peninsula during 1920s~1940s: Nakamura Kentaro (中村健太郞), a journalist and unmarried person, who tried to revive Joseon Buddhism, and Kobayasi Genroku (小林源六), a businessman. These Japanese lay Buddhists formed organizations and more systematically developed campaigns for the revival of Joseon Buddhism. Thus, <Joseon Buddhist Convention (朝鮮佛敎大會)>, outer establishment for protecting Buddhism, was founded in 1920; and it was reorganized into <Joseon Buddhist Society (朝鮮佛敎團)> to develop the revival of Buddhism. Moreover, meetings for Buddhism practice were formed in order to start social welfare works, and various polices for promoting Buddhism were sought. The reason why these Japanese lay Buddhists ran the campaign for promoting Buddhism in this way was that they looked for problems of Joseon Buddhism in the lack of outer protectors and organizations for Buddhism, in the unawakening and corruption of Buddhist monks, and in the absence of papers for serving Buddhism. We should not denigrate their campaigns for promoting Joseon Buddhism during 1920~40s on account of political viewpoints relevant to Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea. We should fairly and squarely evaluate their contributions to Joseon Buddhism from the standpoint of their faith-based lives.