This dissertation examines the relationships between the Japanese and Korean Buddhist communities in the decades before and during Japan’s colonial rule over Korea. By analyzing the sporadic and largely unsuccessful Japanese missionary efforts that accompanied the political domination of Korea, it offers an account of the possibilities and limitations of modern Japanese Buddhism. In addition, this study also shows the diversity of responses that exposure to Japanese Buddhist practice elicited among Korean Buddhist clergy and laity.
After an introduction to the relevant historiography and the missionary activities of another Japanese religion in Korea, the dissertation proceeds in chronological sequence, with each of the four chapters focused on a different problematic. Chapter One charts the breakdown of the initial feelings of solidarity that many Japanese Buddhist missionaries in Korea manifested toward their Korean brethren from 1877, the year of the reopening of contact between the two communities, until 1894, the year of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Chapter Two takes up efforts in the late 1890s and 1900s to present Japanese Buddhism as undertaking a “civilizing mission” in Korea, and Japanese Buddhists’ attempt to solicit the cooperation of their Korean counterparts through the rhetoric of a “civilized, modern” Buddhism. Chapter Three centers on the 1910s, demonstrating the ways in which colonized Korean Buddhists sought to appropriate from their Japanese counterparts during this decade. Chapter Four focuses on the 1920s, a decade in which the Japanese colonial government sought to deploy Buddhism as part of its campaign for reconciliation between Japanese settlers and the Korean colonized. The conclusion with addendum summarizes the findings of the dissertation and sketches out one path for future research, centered on the colonial fate of the material culture of Korean Buddhism.*
*This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat.
