Japanese New Religions

近代以降、教学・神学と宗教学とが諸宗派において少なからぬ緊張関係をも つなか、天理教学と宗教学は例外的に「幸福な結婚」を果たしたようにみえる。だが， 今日の人文社会科学における近代的学知の批判的再検討は、近代宗教学に多くを負って いる天理教の教義形成の陰に隠れ、以後の天理教学の眼差しを逃れてきたものを考えることを促している。本稿はまず、島薗進を嚆矢とする中山正善の教学に対する批判、とりわけ教祖論に対する先行の批判を検討し、実証主義に則って進められた教祖論の盲点を「声の信仰」に認める。姉崎正治の薫陶を受け、「史実」や「文字」を重んじた中山正善以後の教学の近代性を問題化しながら、近代的眼差しを逃れ、あるいは内から揺さ ぶる「声」の痕跡を浮かび上がらせる。

Soka Gakkai is Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. The religion is best known for its affiliated political party, Komeito (the Clean Government Party), which comprises part of the ruling coalition in Japan’s National Diet, and it exerts considerable influence in education, media, finance, and other key areas.

Levi McLaughlin’s comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its institutional development beyond Buddhism and suggest how we should understand the activities and dispositions of its adherents. McLaughlin explores the group’s Nichiren Buddhist origins and turns to insights from religion, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies to characterize Soka Gakkai as mimetic of the nation-state. Ethnographic vignettes combine with historical evidence to demonstrate ways Soka Gakkai’s twin Buddhist and modern humanist legacies inform the organization’s mimesis of the modern Japan in which the group took shape. To make this argument, McLaughlin analyzes Gakkai sources heretofore untreated in English-language scholarship; provides a close reading of the serial novel The Human Revolution, which serves the Gakkai as both history and de facto scripture; identifies ways episodes from members’ lives form new chapters in its growing canon; and contributes to discussions of religion and gender as he chronicles the lives of members who simultaneously reaffirm generational transmission of Gakkai devotion as they pose challenges for the organization’s future.

Readers looking for analyses of the nation-state and strategies for understanding New Religions and modern Buddhism will find Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution to be an especially thought-provoking study that offers widely applicable theoretical models.

This article analyzes Buddhist environmentalism in Japan during the last few decades, which manifests through various discussions and forms of activism and is characterized by the use of popular Buddhist ideas such as aversion to greed, interdependence, and the universality of buddhahood. This movement gained strength after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, when several Buddhist organizations publicly expressed their disapproval of nuclear energy. This article argues that rather than a timeless “green Dharma” inherently close to nature, contemporary Japanese Buddhism is a “greening Dharma” that is gradually becoming engaged in environmentalism for different reasons. Although the presence of sincere religious concern and a doctrinal anchorage cannot be overlooked, a crucial role is played by Japanese Buddhism’s need to reassert its presence in the public sphere, and by the involvement of this religious tradition in global dynamics related to residual problems, cultural flows, and glocalization.

The analysis of various discourses emerging from contemporary Japanese religions shows that the endorsement of religious pluralism ("all religions have equal dignity") may not go beyond a formal stage, and that the underlying pattern in interreligious communication is rather that of religious inclusivism ("other religions are approximations to the truth and therefore inferior"). Th is attitude toward the religious ' other' may be found in Shintō, Japanese Buddhism, and in new religious movements, and is meaningfully related in many cases to the nihonjin-ron and nihonkyō-ron discourses and the critique of monotheism. Th is article also illustrates how the option for religious inclusivism in Japan may be related to the dynamics of globalization in various ways. On the one hand, it counts as a repositioning of 'native' religious traditions within a global society characterized by the progressive relativization of religious values, and shows an awareness of the world as a ' single place.' On the other hand, it may be closely related to the push toward glocalization and the role of religion as a resource for the solution of global problems.

TR: Yeni dini hareketler her ne kadar ortaya çıktığı, geliştiği ve yayılım gösterdiği yer, zaman ve göreliliğe bağlı olarak küresel değişimlerin yaşandığı savaş sonrası dönemlere göre tanımlansa da böyle bir yaklaşım kapsamının sınırlı olması nedeniyle genel-geçer bir niteliğe sahip değildir. Özellikle tanımlama çalışmalarının araştırmacıların içinde bulundukları toplumun durumuna göre yapılması yeni dini hareketlerin doğru sonuçlar verebilecek ortak bir yaklaşımla anlaşılabilmesini zorlaştırmaktadır. Uzak doğu toplumlarında özelde Japonya’da bu problematik açık bir biçimde görülmektedir. Bunun en önemli göstergesi dini hareketlerin varlığının 19. yy başlarına kadar bir geçmişe sahip olmasıdır. Bu da ortaya çıktığı zaman ve dönemin şartlarının hareketin oluşuma etkisini farklılaştırarak dini hareketin varlığının daha çok bölgesel etkenlere bağlı olduğunu göstermektedir. Diğer taraftan tanımlama ve kapsam çalışmalarının gerekliğiyle birlikte Japonya’daki dini hareketlerin iç dinamiklerinin senkretik bir soterioloji içermesi açısından Avrupa ve Amerika’daki dini hareketlerden farklı olması da ayrıca dikkat çeken bir özelliktir. Bilindiği gibi genel anlamda dini hareketlerin var oluş sebeplerinden en dikkat çekici olanı, var olan yerleşik dinin veya dini anlayışın toplumun manevi ihtiyaçlarına çözüm üretemiyor olmasıdır. Bu anlamda dini çoğulculuğun etkin olduğu Japonya’daki dini hareketlerin kurtuluş düşüncesini, senkretik bir nitelikte içeriyor olması hem din sosyolojisi hem de dinler tarihi bilimleri açısından yeni dini hareketlerin anlaşılması açısından ciddi bir öneme sahiptir. Bildiride başta bu özellikler dikkate alınarak ilk olarak Japonya’daki yeni dini hareketlerin genel karakteristik özellikleri, psikolojik ve sosyo-ekonomik etkenli ortaya çıkış nedenleri ele alınmıştır. İkinci olarak gelişimi, kurumsallaşması, tarihsel dönemleri ve bu tarihsel dönemlerin özellikleri ele alınmıştır. Üçüncü olarak birey ve toplum eksenli bakış açıları, senkretik özellikleri bakımından temelde hangi din ve hareketlerden ne şekilde etkilendiklerini örnekleriyle ele anlınmış ve alandaki bu önemli eksikliğe dikkat çekilmiştir.

A new stratum of religious affiliation emerged in Japan from the first half of the nineteenth century onward and quite a large number of movements were formed as a result of social, cultural, economic and political changes in Japan. To make a distinction from old fashioned religious traditions a wave of brash new and lively religious movements (known as " new new religious movements) has come into prominence in Japan, during the 1980s. Attracting equally the attention of the media and intelligentsia these new religious groups expanded their membership rapidly. They successfully appealed the Japanese populace because they emerged expressing anti modern and Japanocentric sentiments as well as focusing on miracles, spirit possession and a view of causation that is rooted very firmly in Japanese folk tradition in the midst of a rapidly changing Japanese society in terms of technology, modernization and internationalization. This paper aims to answer the question how religious discourse in contemporary Japan tends to keep pace with the changing patterns of society, highlighting the common characteristics and the dynamic role of new religious movements in media, politics and their penetration across the globe. It is hoped that this humble effort will help students of religion to some scholarly ways of looking at new paradigms of religious thinking in Japan.

Japon Yeni Dinî Hareketleri (YDH’leri) alanındaki konumu açısından önemli bir değere sahiptir. Bu önemin bir kısmını tarihi-kültürel özelliklerinden alan Japon dinî hareketleri, diğer kısmını da dünya akademisindeki yeni ilgisinden almaktadır. Bu anlamda onlar, Batı’daki örneklerinden daha önce ortaya çıkan, halk inançlarına önem veren, eklektik senkretizmi benimseyen, üyelik sisteminde daha rahat bir yapıya sahip olan ve maneviyata önem veren hareketlerdir. Japon YDH’leri Japonya Tarihi’nde Geç Edo Dönemi (1800-1868), Meiji Dönemi (1868-1912), Taishō Dönemi (1912-1927), Shōwa Dönemi (1927-1945) ve Modern Dönem’deki (1945-) sosyoekonomik, sosyopolitik ve sosyodinî gelişmelerinin izlerini taşımaktadır. Araştırmayla Japon YDH’leri geniş bir bakış açısından ele alıp tasvir ederek alana katkı sağlamak amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma “Ortaya Çıkış Nedenleri”, “Tarihi” ve “Karakteristik Özellikleri” olmak üzere üç ana bölümden oluşmaktadır. Makalenin Japon YDH’lerine olan akademik ilginin artışına ve yeni araştırmalara fayda sağlaması beklenmektedir.

This article analyzes a few selected case studies from diffferent religious traditions in contemporary Japan to illustrate, fijirst, the active role played by religion in Japan in the creation of hybrid forms and, secondly, the potentiality in two instances to promote cultural chauvinism. The topics explored here are Japanese Buddhism and the issue of human rights, Shintō’s self-representation as a ‘religion of the forest,’ and Kōfuku no Kagaku’s adoption of Theosophical themes. The discourse of human rights found in traditions such as Jōdo Shinshū, Jōdoshū, and Sōtōshū shows how this western idea is made to resonate with religious concepts from the Buddhist tradition, thus making possible a reshaping of local religious identities. While in this case the catalyst in the process is provided by an external source, the recent reshaping of Shintō as a ‘religion of the forest’ may be characterized as a glocalization leaning to ‘native’ sources, in which the ‘native’ religious tradition is subject to a creative reading following the worldwide growing awareness of ecology. Here a tendency to emphasize the superiority of the ‘native’ culture may also be noticed. However, as the case of Kōfuku no Kagaku’s adoption of various Theosophical themes illustrates, also glocalization leaning to external sources may be accompanied by forms of cultural chauvinism.

Shinnyo-en, and other twentieth-century Buddhist lay movements emerging from older monastic and temple institutions, reconfigures elements of “traditional” Buddhism and “folk” religion to meet the conditions of modernity. Shinnyo-en’s founders and their successors envisioned a particular strategy for being Buddhist in modernity, one which aligns with some, but not all, scholarly characterizations of Buddhist modernism. As a result, Shinnyo-en and other lay organizations have largely remained on the margins of Buddhist studies despite their apparent popularity and proliferation. This article offers a new category for theorizing and positioning such organizations as contramodern—connected with, but divergent from mainstream forms of Buddhist modernism. In this light the emergence of Shinnyo-en in the 1930s, and the soteriological centrality of its founders’ lives, can be better understood in their historical and social contexts as being both connected to over one-thousand years of Shingon tradition and completely unique. The concept of contramodernism opens scholarly discussion of the many forms of Buddhism extant in modernity to those movements and organizations that are historically new, yet not entirely modernist.

Research on religion and globalization is revealing that religious responses to global dynamics have been highly varied, positioned across a broad spectrum that ranges from the defensive to the open and creative. However, attempts to engage this area of studies in the case of Japanese religions have been unexpectedly few and fragmentary; the use of full-scale globalization theory remains underdeveloped. Sometimes an underlying conceptual obstacle is that the dominating perspective is reduced to the dimension of worldwide institutional expansion, which prevents a full engagement with the much more complex dynamics. In other cases, there may simply be resistance to the application of contemporary globalization theories to concrete case studies in religion. Possibly also some features peculiar to Japanese history have delayed the application of globalization perspectives to its religious worlds. Based on these premises the articles by Inoue Nobutaka, Ugo Dessì, Galen Amstutz, Victoria Rose Montrose, Girardo Rodriguez Plasencia, Regina Yoshie Matsue, and Rafael Shoji and Frank Usarski collected in this special issue address several examples and themes in this diversified, complex world as part of the ongoing work of addressing our existing gaps in awareness.

In this short paper presenting my research project, I show how shintô in Manchuria is linked to several religious figures such as Ômotokyô's co founder Deguchi Onisaburô; farmer settlers' leader Katô Kanji; or Tenrikyô Manchurian village's missionary Nitta Ishitarô. I also illustrate briefly the central place of the emperors Meiji and Puyi within Japanese religious activities in Manchuria.

The Global Repositioning of Japanese Religions: An Integrated Approach explores how Japanese religions respond to the relativizing effects of globalization, thereby repositioning themselves as global players. Organized around concrete case studies focusing on the engagement of Japanese Buddhism, Shinto, and several new religious movements in areas such as ecology, inter-religious dialogue, and politics, this book shows that the globalization of Japanese religions cannot be explained simply in terms of worldwide institutional expansion. Rather, it is a complex phenomenon conditioned by a set of pervasive factors: changes in consciousness, the perception of affinities and resonances at the systemic and cultural levels, processes of decontextualization, and a wide range of power issues including the re-enactment of cultural chauvinism.
The author investigates these dynamics systematically with attention to broader theoretical questions, cross-cultural similarities, the definition of religion and the perils of ethnocentrism, in order to develop his Global Repositioning model, which constitutes an integrated approach to the study of Japanese religions under globalization.
An empirically-grounded and theoretically-informed study of the effects of global trends on local religions, this book will appeal to scholars and students with interests in globalization, religious studies, Japanese studies, Hawaii, sociology, anthropology, and ecology.

TABLE  OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1 Approaching Religion under Globalization
2 Religious Others at the Door: Inclusivism and Pluralism as Forms of Global Repositioning
3 Glocal Environmentalism: Unpacking the Greening of Religion in Japan
4 Meditation à la Carte: Glocal Change in Hawaiian Jōdo Shinshū
5 Global Repositionings: Risshō Kōseikai, Japan, and the World at Large
6 Towards an Integrated Approach: The Global Repositioning Model
Conclusion
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

Öz: Halk hekimliği, birçok kültürde deneyime, geleneksel bilgiye ve halk inançlarına bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan tedavi yöntemlerinden biri olarak bilinmektedir. 20. yüzyılda neredeyse tüm dünyadaki insanları etkileyen Yeni Dini Hareketler (YDH’ler) ortaya çıkmış ve bu tekniği uygulayarak üye kazanmışlardır. Japonya’daki bazı YDH’ler de halk hekimliği uygulamalarını kullanarak kendilerine mensup toplamaya devam etmektedir. Tokyo’da 1935 yılında kurulan ve Japon YDH’leri içinde 2 milyon civarında üyesiyle oldukça önemli bir konuma sahip olan Sekai Kyusei Kyo adlı hareketin, hoşgörülü, senkretik öğretileri ve jōrei (elle enerji aktarımı), shiatsu (parmak baskısıyla masaj) ve organik tarımla bedensel ve ruhsal şifa sağlama gibi halk hekimliği uygulamaları vasıtasıyla büyük kalabalıkları etkilediği görülmektedir. Çalışmamızın amacı, dünyanın pek çok bölgesine yayılmış olan bu hareketin, insanlara sunduğu kurtuluş reçeteleri örneğinden ve halk hekimliği uygulamalarının insanlar üzerindeki etkisinden yola çıkarak YDH’lerin ve Japon YDH’lerinin başarı sırlarını anlamaya çalışmaktır.

Abstract: Folk medicine is known as one of the treatment methods that emerged in many cultures depending on experience, traditional knowledge, and folk beliefs. On the other hand, during the 20th century, New Religious Movements (NRMs) have appeared, which affected people almost all over the world by implementing this technique. For instance, in order to gain members, the NRMs in Japan have been maintaining the convention of folk medicine. In this way, Sekai Kyusei Kyo, with two million members, a Japanese NRM became manifest in 1935, has been influencing large crowds of people with tolerant and syncretic teachings, and provided physical and spiritual healing by using natural farming as a principle of salvation and folk medicine practices such as Jōrei, a type of paranormal healing, and, Shiatsu, a Japanese style of massages with fingers, thumbs, feet, and palms. Based on this starting point, our study aims to test the success of NRMs in general, and Japanese NRMs in particular by monitoring the effects of this Japanese new religious movements’ teachings and its folk medicine treatment for people.

This essay is a critical exploration of the basis of the Lotus Sutra–based interreligious thought of Rev. Niwano Nikkyō (1906–1999), founder of the Japanese Buddhist lay group Rissho Kosei-kai and prominent figure in the development of interreligious dialogue in the second half of the twentieth century. Niwano is emplaced in Lotus Sutra Buddhism’s history of making sense of religious diversity in order to appreciate his innovations, and his thought is also measured against today’s demand for pluralistic theologies of religious diversity. In closing, I will ponder Niwano’s interreligious thought from the perspective of a Christian approach with which it resonates—Trinitarian Holy Spirit–based theology of religious diversity—in order to develop possibilities within his approach that promise to further expand the horizons of dialogue in Lotus Sutra–based interfaith encounters.

One of the first thesis in Europe about AUM Shinrikyo, based on primary documents obtained through my  fieldwork at AUM Shinrikyo branch in Kyoto few weeks before 1995 sarin jiken. With an appendix of translated interviews to followers and dectrine books.

Although Buddhism, Shinto and Japanese New Religions represent a relatively small segment of Brazil’s religious landscape, they deserve attention for at least three reasons. First, there is the historical aspect: these traditions were initially associated with Asian immigrants, the majority of whom came to Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. Second, despite low numbers of formal adherents, the Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE, which has been responsi¬ble for censuses since 1940, has challenged academic findings by revealing a continuing wider interest in “Eastern” religions. Third, the attraction of a non-nikkei audience to Buddhism and to groups such as Seicho-no-ie from the 1960s onwards has prompted academic studies which, among other questions, inves¬tigate why Asian religions in Brazil have not benefited from a non-regulated, highly pluralistic religious-market, as it is the case in other Western countries.

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The study zooms in on a Japanese new religion (Sekai Kyûseikyô: Church of World Messianity) with its different branches in the city of Kinshasa. After tracing the history of this messianic movement of Japanese inspiration, which was imported to Congo from Angola and Brazil, the book offers a practitioner-orientated view on religious pluralism in the African city from the perspective of a non-Christian minority of spiritualists, many of whom are critical of born-again Christianity. The book offers a localised picture of religious globalisation, which is guided by an aesthetic approach to religion, offering insights into the role of objects, spiritual technologies and aesthetic repertoires in the production and politics of difference. The presence of non-Christian spiritual movements of Asian origin mobilises fears and suspicions of ‘magic’ and ‘occult sciences’. The different chapters are also concerned with Johrei spiritual healing, flower arrangement, public cleaning, mantras/prayers and Japanese style ancestor worship as they are practised in Kinshasa.

Based on several streams of globalization theory and the author’s previous work, this article proposes a multidimensional approach to the study of Risshō Kōseikai under globalization. The analysis shows that this Buddhism-based new religious movement is involved in global dynamics in various guises. Not only Risshō Kōseikai contributes to global cultural flows through its presence on the Internet, international cooperation, and other activities, but it also acts as a glocalizer by creating new religious hybrid forms at the local level, as is evident in the recent institutional interest in the environmental crisis. There are also indications that these processes, which per se denote a positive engagement with globalization, may be entangled with the defense of particularism. Reactions to the increasing global availability of religious communication and the relativization of religious values are also explored, which indicate the official endorsement of pluralism and an underlying tendency toward inclusivism. At the systemic level, Risshō Kōseikai (as part of the global religious subsystem) is shown to be engaged in border negotiations with dominant global subsystems such as politics and science, and in addressing residual problems left unsolved by these subsystems in an attempt to find legitimation for religion in global society.

The paper explores the interplay between religious and social aspects of jinzai ikusei through the analysis of social welfare training in Risshō Kōseikai. While invested with religious significance, training activities also fulfil practical social functions relying on secular concepts and methods.

Segundo Meishu-Sama (1882-1955), fundador da religião messiânica no Japão, o paraíso é o mundo do belo e da arte e o ser humano é a obra prima do Criador. A partir da ligação inseparável entre vida humana e a arte, a teologia messiânica tem o Belo como via de salvação pois a sua consciência “é o que de melhor existe para a elevação dos sentimentos humanos”. Esta comunicação pretende refletir sobre o conceito de fé = vida cotidiana (信仰即生活 shinko soku seikatsu, em japonês) que permeia a teologia do belo de Meishu-Sama e se concretiza numa práxis teológico-artística que alcança o povo por meio da ikebana, caligrafia, jardins, museus, protótipos do paraíso e, mais recentemente, hortas caseiras e variadas modalidades de narrativa observadas nas mídias eletrônicas.

This book analyzes the variety of ways through which Japanese religions (Buddhism, Shinto, and new religious movements) contribute to the dynamics of accelerated globalization in recent decades. It looks at how Japanese religions provide material to cultural global flows, thus acting as carriers of globalization, and how they respond to these flows by shaping new glocal identities.
The book highlights how, paradoxically, these processes of religious hybridization may be closely intertwined with the promotion of cultural chauvinism. It shows how on the one hand religion in Japan is engaged in border negotiation with global subsystems such as politics, secular education, and science, and how on the other hand, it tries to find new legitimation by addressing pressing global problems such as war, the environmental crisis, and economic disparities left unsolved by the dominant subsystems.
A significant contribution to advancing an understanding of modern Japanese religious life, this book is of interest to academics working in the fields of Japanese Studies, Asian history and religion and the sociology of religion.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction;
1. The Risk of Cultural Bias: Definitions and Phases;
2. 'One True World Religion Among Many Others'?;
3. Shaping New Glocal Identities;
4. Glocalization, Cultural Chauvinism, and Resistance to Change;
5. Glocalization Overseas;
6. Carriers of Globalization;
7. Border Negotiation in Global Society (I): Religion and Politics;
8. Border Negotiation in Global Society (II): Religion, Education and Science;
9. Addressing Global Problems;
Conclusion

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This contribution is about the ritual touching of soil (French terre, Lingala mabelè) during individual and collective gardening sessions of two spiritual movements in Kinshasa. The practice allows participants to uplift and reconcile with their own ancestors, as well as with those of the Congolese nation. Seen as an alternative form of memory politics, these practices generate a sense of 'attouchment' with the material surroundings of the city. The chapter addresses the question of how to address and access the past, and how to do this properly, from the perspective of Congolese spiritualists. (...)

The Japanese "new religions" (Shin Shûkyô) active in Kinshasa (DR Congo) nearly all perform healing through the channeling of invisible divine light. In the case of Sekai Kyûseikyô (Church of World Messianity), the light of Johrei cannot be visually apprehended, but is worn as an invisible aura on the practitioner's body. This article discusses the trans-cultural resonances between Japan and Central Africa regarding the ontology of spiritual force, regimes of subjectivity, and the gradual embodiment of Johrei divine light as a protection against (suspicions of) witchcraft. Meanwhile, I argue that religious multiplicity in urban Africa encourages cultural reflexivity about concepts of health and healing, self-responsibility, and Pentecostal suspicion-mongering of occult sciences. Thus, Johrei divine light not only feeds into a longstanding local tradition of spiritual healing; within the religiously multiple city, it is also a discursive space for, and an experience and performance of, emic critique.

Contemporary Japan faces a range of pressing social issues, including an aging population, growing income gaps and economic uncertainty. The state has often compensated for the limits of public assistance by mobilising intermediate institutions, such as family, companies, and neighbourly associations, to act as care providers within their communities. At the same time, a variety of local actors including religious organizations, NPOs, and care facilities have also taken initiative to address perceived gaps in the welfare system. In recent years, while the increased demand for social services resulting from demographic and socioeconomic challenges has further strengthened the role of communal support, the capacity of traditional networks to secure the wellbeing of residents has been undermined by urbanisation, diversification of residential patterns and family structures. The weakening of locally-based relationships of mutual aid encouraged the emergence of alternative networks of assistance, in some cases centred on institutions maintaining a complex relationship with society. These networks often draw on their unique positioning to provide innovative solutions to prominent social challenges. For these organisations, social care provision becomes an opportunity to create new roles for themselves within local communities, and to reformulate their interaction with broader society. This panel focuses on these emergent forms of care in contemporary Japan. Drawing from ethnographic research with a religious organization, a volunteer-led NPO, and two nursing care facilities, the panel provides grounded analysis on multiple forms of assistance, exploring the mutually transformative relationships among organizations, communities, and broader practices of care within Japanese society.

Soka Gakkai is Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. The religion is best known for its affiliated political party, Komeito (the Clean Government Party), which comprises part of the ruling coalition in Japan’s National Diet, and it exerts considerable influence in education, media, finance, and other key areas. Levi McLaughlin’s comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its institutional development beyond Buddhism and suggest how we should understand the activities and dispositions of its adherents. McLaughlin explores the group’s Nichiren Buddhist origins and turns to insights from religion, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies to characterize Soka Gakkai as mimetic of the nation-state. Ethnographic vignettes combine with historical evidence to demonstrate ways Soka Gakkai’s twin Buddhist and modern humanist legacies inform the organization’s mimesis of the modern Japan in which the group took shape. To make this argument, McLaughlin analyzes Gakkai sources heretofore untreated in English-language scholarship; provides a close reading of the serial novel The Human Revolution, which serves the Gakkai as both history and de facto scripture; identifies ways episodes from members’ lives form new chapters in its growing canon; and contributes to discussions of religion and gender as he chronicles the lives of members who simultaneously reaffirm generational transmission of Gakkai devotion as they pose challenges for the organization’s future. Readers looking for analyses of the nation-state and strategies for understanding New Religions and modern Buddhism will find Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution to be an especially thought-provoking study that offers widely applicable theoretical models.

一貫道最早向國外傳播的地方是韓國與日本．到現在為止，兩國一貫道已經通過七十多年的本地化，這樣的過程中跨文化發展已經很明顯．本文探討一貫道或是說屬於所謂「先天大道系統」的宗教團體在日本的發展與現況．本文以本地的「天道」與「道德會館」為例，介紹一貫道日本化的一些方面，包括語言、人員、組織、儀式、宗教實踐（religious practice）等．天道是1949年被台灣天道（師兄派）天浩總壇領導人員在神戶成立的，1983年以後分裂出來的當地日式宗教團體．道德會館原來是1940年代從天津道德壇傳播出來的，1972年第一代前人王建東歸空、當地日本人當前人以後也歸屬日式宗教團體．通過兩個月的田野調查（2018年4月～6月）與歷史研究方式，本文介紹關於一貫道在日本跨文化過程的一些思考．