臺灣少年感化教育之開端與日本真宗本願寺派的關係：以成德學院設立之背景為考察中心=The Beginning of Juvenile Reformatory Education in Taiwan with Shin Sect Hongan-ji School: The Established Background of Seitoku Institute
In 1895, Taiwan became a Japanese colony. Japanese Buddhism was introduced to Taiwan by the monks who came with Japanese army. Seitoku Institute was a reformatory educational institute for juvenile delinquents established by the Hongan-ji School of the Japanese Buddhist Shin Sect in Taipei in October 1909, with permission from Office of the Governor-General. Previous research on the Seitoku Institute mostly revolves around the founding history of the institute without addressing the social background of Taiwan and Japan at that time. Therefore, this paper first inquires into the relationship between the Hongan-ji School and the reign of Emperor Meiji and the evolution of reformatory educational institutes in Japan. Then the paper reviews how, after Japanese Buddhism was introduced to Taiwan, and while competing with Christian missionaries, the Hongan-ji School monks propagated their teachings in jails in Tainan, Taipei, and Taichung. Aware of the rising rate of juvenile delinquency and the absence of reformatory facilities in Taiwan, the Hongan-ji School applied their experiences in reformatory education in Japan to establish the Seitoku Institute in Taipei. In 1922 it was taken over by the Office of the Governor-General, and Seitoku Institute become an official institute and was renamed the Provincial Seitoku Institute. This paper discusses about the period of Hongan-ji School’s management in Seitoku Institute. Reformatory education is more challegning than regular education. In addition to teaching a core curriculum, the Hongan-ji School instilled juvenile delinquents with Buddhist morals in order to reform them, and the results were positive. This paper draws references from Buddhist magazines, official newspapers, Taiwan’s Nichinichi Newspaper, and the literature of Hongan-ji School and historical data of the Office of the GovernorGeneral, to study the funding history of Seitoku Institute.
