Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

enforcedcompliance wrote

Uchiyama Gudō

Uchiyama Gudō (内山 愚童, May 17, 1874 – January 24, 1911) was a Sōtō Zen Buddhist priest and anarcho-socialist activist executed in the High Treason Incident. He was one of few Buddhist leaders who spoke out against the Meiji government in its imperialist projects. Gudō was an outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji emperor system, encouraging conscripts to desert en masse and advancing democratic rights for all.[1][2][3] He criticized Zen leaders who claimed that low social position was justified by karma and who sold abbotships to the highest bidder.

9

enforcedcompliance wrote (edited )

Also if anyone wants to read more.

Gudō clearly understood that the Buddhist doctrine of karma was being interpreted as providing the justification for social and economic inequality. That is to say, if tenant farmers were impoverished, they had no one to blame but themselves and their own past actions. Shaku Sōen was typical of the Buddhist leaders who advocated this interpretation: "We are born in the world of variety; some are poor and unfortunate, others are wealthy and happy. This state of variety will be repeated again and again in our future lives. But to whom shall we complain of our misery? To none but ourselves!" Gudō was also critical of certain aspects of Buddhist practice. For example, on May 30, 1904, he wrote a letter of protest to the abbot of Jōsenji, Orihashi Daikō. In this letter he requested that the Sōtō sect cleanse itself of the practice of selling temple abbotships to the highest bidder. When Daikō refused to endorse his position, Gudō expressed his determi- nation to push for this reform on his own.

The real significance of In Commemoration of Imprisonment lay not in its critique of certain aspects of Buddhist doctrine, but rather in its blister- ing rejection of the heart and soul of the Meiji political system, the emperor system. It was, in fact, this rejection of Japan's imperial system that, more than any other factor, led to Gudō's subsequent arrest, imprisonment, and execution. He wrote:

There are three leeches who suck the people's blood: the emperor, the rich, and the big landowners ... The big boss of the present government, the emperor, is not the son of the gods as your pri- mary school teachers and others would have you believe. The ancestors of the present emperor came forth from one corner of Kyushu, killing and robbing people as they went. They then destroyed their fellow thieves, Nagasune-hiko and others ... It should be readily obvious that the emperor is not a god if you but think about it for a moment.

When it is said that [the imperial dynasty] has continued for 2,500 years, it may seem as if [the present emperor] is divine, but down through the ages the emperors have been tormented by for- eign opponents and, domestically, treated as puppets by their own vassals ... Although these are well-known facts, university professors and their students, weaklings that they are, refuse to either say or write anything about it. Instead, they attempt to deceive both others and themselves, knowing all along the whole thing is a pack of lies.

8