Exploring church-state relations in modern Japan: Count Otani Kozui's quest for the pure land in an age of turbulence

Ōtani Kōzui (1876-1948), the twenty second patriarch of the HonpaHonganji denomination of Buddhist Jōdo Shinshū sect (True Pure Landor Shin Buddhism) and the chief-abbot of its head-temple WesternHonganji, Kyoto. He lived through the Meiji, Taishō and the first half ofthe Shōwa periods and witnessed the rapid transformation frompre-modern to modern his society went through. Likewise, WesternHonganji, the largest and most influential religious institution in thecountry had played a crucial role in the making of the Meiji Restorationand in the settling of secularism in Japan.Ōtani Kōzui was the leader of this institution between 1903-1914, butthen he resigned and started living a secular life in China. He is knownfor the three Ōtani Expeditions into Central Asia but most of his otherdeeds remain in obscurity. Kōzui was an Asianist who, in ten volumes ofhis Kōa Keikaku (The Construction of Asia Project) had proposed aTokyo-Istanbul-Berlin railway. He was an agriculturalist who hadplantations in Johor (Malaysia), Singapore, Sulawesi and Java islands(Indonesia), Kaohsiung (Taiwan) as well as investments in Ankara GaziFarm and Bursa Turkish-Japanese Silk Weaving Factory. He was theadviser to the Konoe and Koiso cabinets, and a public opinion leaderwhose followers had established "The Gate of Kōzui Society"(Zuimonkai ).The dissertation focuses on Count Ōtani Kōzui's multi-faceted life anddemonstrates the role of a religious institution,Western Honganji in themaking of modern Japan.