The focal point for the modern debate over clerical marriage and familial succession in non-Jodo Shinshu Buddhist denominations in Japan was the decriminalization of nikujiki saitai (meat eating and clerical marriage) by the Meiji government in 1872. Seen by government officials as part of a larger policy to disestablish the Buddhist church, the legalization of marriage for the Buddhist clergy had far-ranging implications for the development of modern Buddhism. The Buddhist leadership, which was struggling to adjust to the new policies of the Meiji government, resisted the spread of clerical marriage for decades following the promulgation of the new measure. Despite the uniform, vigorous opposition of the leadership of the non-Jodo Shin Buddhist denominations to clerical marriage, the practice spread among the clergy. As the number of covertly married clerics grew and problems associated with marriage became more visible, the leaders gradually were forced to temper their opposition.
In the dissertation I examine the historical circumstances of the decriminalization and analyze the pro- and anti-clerical marriage literature. The introduction provides an overview of the problem of clerical marriage in pre-Meiji Buddhism. In the second chapter I examine the context for the promulgation of the nikujiki saitai law. In particular chapter 2 focuses on the overall changes in clerical status that occurred at the start of the Meiji period and the reactions of the Buddhist clergy to their shifting circumstances. Chapter 3 describes the efforts of Otori Sesso, a member of the Sotoshu, and several other clerics to have clerical marriage decriminalized. In chapters 4 and 5 the tracts attacking clerical marriage and institutional measures instituted to stop the spread of that practice are studied. In chapter 6 I describe the defense of marriage and the rejection of clerical practice by one Nichiren Buddhist, Tanaka Chigaku. Finally, in chapter 7 I detail the spread of marriage among the clergy and show how changing mores and the practical problem of unrecognized temple wives and families forced the Buddhist establishment to accept tacitly the legitimacy of clerical marriage.
