Kiyozawa Manshi

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Kiyozawa Manshi (1863-1901) was a Japanese Shin Buddhist reformer of samurai background who studied at Tokyo University in Western philosophy under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa.^[1]

Many Shin scholars feel that Kiyozawa's viewpoints are comparable to the religious existentialism of Europe.^[2]

Many Higashi Honganji scholars trace their line of thought to Kiyozawa Manshi, including such men as Akegarasu Haya (1877-1967), Kaneko Daiei (1881-1976), Soga Ryojin (1875-1971) and Maida Schuichi (1906-1967).^[1]

In his, life, however, Kiyozawa was an ambivalent figure. He was emblematic of both the need for modernization and its pitfalls. Accordingly, many of his disciples were branded heretics. Kiyozawa himself died of tuberculosis before any judgment could be passed on his own thought. Kiyozawa's rise to fame in the Otani school is primarily a post-war development, and it has been one marked with controversy. Even today, many conservative Shin thinkers see Kiyozawa as being emblematic of what has gone wrong with the Otani school.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Popular Buddhism In Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture by Esben Andreasen, p. 40 / University of Hawaii Press 1998, ISBN: 0824820282
^ Popular Buddhism In Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture by Esben Andreasen, p. 42 / University of Hawaii Press 1998, ISBN: 0824820282