ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses different and conflicting attitudes towards the capitalist transformation that characterizes Japan's modernization between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries as shown by three exemplary figures of modern Japanese Buddhism, namely Sada Kaiseki, Uchiyama Gudo, and Ito Shoshin. Active at the time of formulation of fundamental modernization policies that would determine many future developments in Japan, Sada is a fascinating case of a Buddhist intellectual who did not hesitate to strongly criticize the Meiji government and to organize citizens' movements to counter its policies. Uchiyama decided to employ socialism, especially anarchism, in order to bridge Buddhist spirituality and social revolutionary activism; Buddhism and anarchism were for Uchiyama mutually reinforcing, rather than being conflicting and mutually exclusive. Ito's intellectual career embodies several of the challenges and contradictions faced by Buddhist intellectuals during the high time of Japanese imperialism and emperor's worship.
