ABSTRACT
Japan was not colonised but was highly influenced by ’Westernisation’ and the introduction of Western modernity from the late 19th century. The country had to accommodate new systems of nation building and negotiate new ideas pertaining to also cultural spheres. The concept of ‘religion’ was introduced and translated as ‘shūkyō’, having impact on both political configurations and on religious traditions’ self-understanding. Shinto and Buddhism were split, sacred/secular dichotomies as well as notions of freedom of belief were introduced, mainly with inspiration from Protestantism as the default religion of modernity. Buddhism also had to reinvent itself, and a powerful movement of young intellectuals worked on defining a ‘New Buddhism’ (shin bukkyō). International Buddhists (such as Olcott and Dharmapala) visited Japan, and Japanese monks and missionaries went to the West and Southeast Asia to propagate and find inspiration for the new reform Buddhism. Japan itself became a colonial power, and ‘colonial Buddhism’ was part of also Japan’s presence in East Asia. This chapter describes the modernisation of Japan’s Buddhism and its lasting impact on also the contemporary religion.
