Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan - Buddhism and Its Persecution

How did Buddhism, so prominent in Japanese life for over a thousand years, become the target of severe persecution in the social and political turmoil of the early Meiji era? How did it survive attacks against it and reconstitute itself as an increasingly articulate and coherent belief system and a bastion of the Japanese national heritage? Here James Ketelaar elucidates not only the development of Buddhism in the late nineteenth century but also the strategies of the Meiji state.

About the author

James Edward Ketelaar is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan was a finalist for the Hiromi Arisawa Prize Award given by the American Association of University Presses.

Summary

How did Buddhism, so prominent in Japanese life for over a thousand years, become the target of severe persecution in the social and political turmoil of the early Meiji era? How did it survive attacks against it and reconstitute itself as an increasingly articulate and coherent belief system and a bastion of the Japanese national heritage? Here James Ketelaar elucidates not only the development of Buddhism in the late nineteenth century but also the strategies of the Meiji state.

Additional text

"Well-researched and insightful."---Janine A. Sawada, Journal of Asian Studies.

Product details

• Authors: James Ketelaar, James Edward Ketelaar
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.03.1993
• EAN: 9780691024813
• ISBN: 978-0-691-02481-3
• No. of pages: 300
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 230 mm x 18 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Japan, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, RELIGION / Buddhism / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, Buddhism, Political oppression & persecution, Political oppression and persecution