Shinshū Sect Proselytizing Center, 1901
1 media/ShinshūHonganji_Fukyōsho_thumb.jpg 2020-07-26T16:05:32-04:00 Evan Dawley 7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44 35 1 This image is of a new proselytizing center established by the Shinshū Japanese Buddhist sect, in the vicinity of Jilong. plain 2020-07-26T16:05:32-04:00 20050809 162149+0000 Evan N. Dawley Ōhashi Sutesaburō, ed., "A History of the Shinshū Honganji Sect's Establishment in Taiwan (Shinshū hon pai honganji Taiwan kaikyō shi)" (Taipei: Shinshū hon pai honganji Taiwan betsuin, 1935) Evan Dawley 7a40080bd5bb656cee837d5befaa3ea8e7a2ac44This page is referenced by:
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Buddhism in Jilong: The Proselytizing Centers
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This page will explore the early efforts by Buddhist sects to find converts among Japanese settlers and Taiwanese residents.
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2020-08-20T23:22:54-04:00
25.1276, 121.73918
1895-1945
Evan N. Dawley, Becoming Taiwanese
Evan N. Dawley
Sōdō sect; Pure Land sect; Shinshū sect Marui Keijirō; Jiufen; Jinguashi
Leaders of the Buddhist sects moved to Taiwan not simply to provide sacred space for their adherents, but went there to actively find more members among the Japanese settlers and the native community. Monks representing the Sōdō, Pure Land, and Shinshū sects all quickly established proselytizing centers (fukyōsho) in Jilong, with branches across the hinterland, and sought converts with a missionary zeal comparable to that of the thousands of North American and European missionaries then active across East Asia. (These towns are marked on the map on the Sacred Geography and the Everyday page.) In the first four months of 1902, the Sōdō monks held ten public sessions of religious training at its mission stations in and near Jilong; the Shinshū missionaries held sixty-nine sessions for Japanese settlers and sixteen for the Taiwanese; and those from the Pure Land held about a dozen sessions, focusing primarily on the Taiwanese who worked in the gold and coal mines near Jiufen and Jinguashi, east of Jilong. According to a report on these activities filed with the Government General, the Japanese Buddhists sought to “break down the old customs of the islanders” in order to ensure that they “receive the corrective influence bestowed by Buddhist doctrines." As with the reconsecration of existing temples, these proselytizing centers aimed at a spiritual reterritorialization of Taiwan. However, they achieved an uneven rate of success. The first major survey of religion in Taiwan, led by the scholar and bureaucrat Marui Keijirō and published in 1919, noted around four thousand members of these sects among the Japanese settlers, or close to seventy percent of all Japanese in Jilong, but less than fifteen hundred Taiwanese, or under eight percent of the total.
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