Introduction
On the afternoon of 26 November 1932, about 70 people gathered on the third floor of a building on Mingshi Street in the Japanese concession in Tianjin. The occasion for this gathering was the inauguration of the Tianjin branch of the Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism (Jp. Chūnichi mikkyō kenkyūkai, Ch. Zhongri mijiao yanjiuhui).Footnote 1 The room in which the ceremony was held featured an image of the ninth-century founder of the Japanese Buddhist Shingon sect, Kūkai (774–835), and the event was attended by an illustrious group of people. Alongside a cross-section of the local Japanese business community, the more prominent attendees included the Japanese consul-general in Tianjin, Kuwashima Kazue (1884–1958), as well as several Chinese political figures who had held senior office in the Beiyang governments during the early Republic—Wang Yitang (1878–1946), Gao Lingwei (1870–1940), and Sun Runyu (1879–1960). Last but not least, the ninth Panchen Lama had sent a representative as well. Japanese and Chinese burnt incense together in front of the images of worshipFootnote 2 and proceeded to read out inaugural declarations in Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan. As one Japanese participant observed, this linguistic mix created a sense of wonder in those gathered and when the brand-new ritual implements donated to the Society were placed next to the images of worship, the onlookers were moved to tears. The ceremony ended with a joint call to follow a path of mutual kindness, to cease feelings of anger, and to establish peaceful coexistence and co-prosperity (J. kyōzon kyōei) among the nations of East Asia based on the teachings of esoteric Buddhism.Footnote 3
This article investigates the activities of a young Japanese Shingon priest, Yoshii Hōjun (1899–1993), in North China from the late 1920s until the end of the Second World War. It was Yoshii who founded and largely led the Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism described above. The Study Society existed from the early 1930s until 1945 and was dedicated to propagating esoteric Buddhism (J. mikkyō, Ch. mijiao). This form of Buddhism emphasizes the use of ritual, spells (Sk. dhāraṇī), and symbolic gestures (Sk. mudrā) to empower the practitioner.Footnote 4 The Study Society may have been the most successful Japanese Buddhist organization active in Asia outside the Japanese colonies in terms of attracting non-Japanese members. In contrast to the vast majority of Japanese Buddhist groups that usually quickly gave up any attempt to work with local populations and turned to focusing on Japanese communities in China instead, the Study Society attracted a substantial Chinese membership. While overall numbers are hard to come by, its Chinese membership appears to have numbered at least in the hundreds.Footnote 5 Despite this fact, the Study Society has so far received very little academic attention.Footnote 6 Furthermore, when it is discussed in the literature, it is most often cast as part of Japanese efforts to recruit collaborators or gather intelligence for further expansion. Japanese researchers such as the activist Buddhist scholar Nakano Kyōtoku have characterized the Society as specifically serving the purpose of intelligence gathering for which religion provided superficial cover.Footnote 7 Chinese publications also draw connections between the Society and Japanese military intelligence; for example, the Minguo fojiao qikan wenxian jicheng (Complete Collection of Republican-era Buddhist Periodical Literature) ascribes the creation of the Society to ‘the high-ranking staff officer (Ch. gaoji canmou) Ishii Yoshiho of the North China Garrison Army’, who ‘used the study of Buddhism as a pretext to win over (Ch. longluo) warlord politicians and shape public opinion in support of Japan’s invasion of China’.Footnote 8 In online Chinese sources, Ishii is also frequently described as a military intelligence officer belonging to the special services division (J. tokumu kikan), the military intelligence wing of the Japanese Army.Footnote 9 This would indeed put the Study Society squarely within the field of espionage and intelligence work. The fact that many prominent Chinese members of the Study Society ended up taking up leadership positions in the collaborationist regimes of North China after the outbreak of full-scale hostilities in 1937 makes this assessment appear compelling.Footnote 10
The intent of this article is not to absolve the Study Society of having played any role in Japan’s imperial policies. This it did—and I will delve into this in detail below. However, I also wish to challenge the characterization of the Society as that of merely being a tool of Japanese military intelligence. Things, as they tend to be, were a lot more complicated. Yoshii and the Study Society provide an excellent vantage point from which to think through the complexities of Buddhist exchange against the background of the expanding Japanese empire of the immediate pre-war period. As I hope the discussion below will show, the relationship between religion and politics as manifested in the Study Society was more organic, rather than religion serving merely as a cover for what were ultimately secular political aims. In this regard, the Study Society proposed a vision of empire grounded in Buddhism. Further, rather than seeing empire as a highly centralized effort in which everything follows a carefully laid plan, it is more fruitful to see it as an entity that evolves and expands by drawing on the varied creative and affective energies of the people operating within its realm. In the article’s conclusion, I will return to this point regarding the allure of empire as a space that promises the possibility of dream-fulfilment.
But first, I discuss the background of the founding of the Study Society and locate it within its historical context. This is followed by an examination of the further development of the organization as well as Yoshii’s ultimate fate. The conclusion brings these different strands together in my evaluation of the place of the Study Society in Japan’s wartime empire. The focus of the article is Yoshii Hōjun, who kept the organization going from its beginnings to its ultimate demise, as well as other Japanese members and associates of the Study Society. Regrettably, due to space constraints, I will limit myself mostly to the Japanese side of the Study Society and will leave a detailed discussion of its Chinese membership for another time. A further disclaimer is necessary at the outset. The study of Japanese activities—be they cultural, political, or religious in nature—in 1930s North China in the run-up to the Sino-Japanese War is complicated by the fact that many relevant documents have been either lost, destroyed, or might still be classified. Some of the relationships and connections identified in this article can therefore ultimately not be fully reconstructed at this point.
The Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism was active at a time when relations between China and Japan were gradually escalating into full-scale war. Northern China—the region referred to as Huabei in Chinese, spanning modern-day Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong as well as Beijing and Tianjin—was an area contested by both the Nationalist (Kuomintang) government in Nanjing and the Japanese military forces stationed in mainland Asia. The relationship between the two countries became particularly volatile after the Japanese Kwantung Army (J. Kantōgun) invaded and occupied Manchuria in September 1931, leading to the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo headed by the last Qing emperor, Puyi (1906–1967), in February 1932. In the years that followed, officers of the Japanese military forces continuously looked for opportunities to expand Japanese control, causing a number of skirmishes and battles with Chinese forces and encroaching further into northern China. Part of the reason for this was the aim of creating an independent pro-Japanese regime in North China—the so-called ‘North China Buffer State Strategy’ (J. Kahoku bunri kōsaku). This period of time in North China until the outbreak of full-scale war in July 1937 was characterized by espionage, assassinations, and covert operations, and it is not surprising that military intelligence officers belonging to the so-called ‘Special Services Division’ of the Japanese Army such as Doihara Kenji (1883–1948), Itagaki Seishirō (1885–1948), and Imai Takeo (1900–1982) were among the most central Japanese military actors during this time.
It was against this historical background that the Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism was founded, and it may thus be unsurprising that when the Society is mentioned in the existing literature, it has been framed in the context of the clandestine machinations of the Japanese military. However, although the aforementioned Ishii Yoshiho was indeed attached to the staff of the North China Garrison Army (J. Kahoku chūtongun) stationed in Tianjin, he only arrived there in March 1935,Footnote 11 several years after the founding of the Tianjin branch of the Study Society in 1932. I have not been able to discover any sources tying Ishii to the Society, and in my view his involvement in the founding of the Study Society can therefore be ruled out. What, then, about other military actors? The group photo taken on the occasion of the inauguration of the Tianjin branch reveals the presence of at least three Japanese military officers. Only one of them can be identified: Colonel Hata Shigekazu (n.d.), a regimental commander who represented the commander of the North China Garrison Army, General Nakamura Kōtarō (1881–1947), at the ceremony. The congratulatory statement sent by General Nakamura and read by Hata on the occasion was a short two-line statement, welcoming the inauguration of the Tianjin branch and wishing the Study Society well for the future.Footnote 12 While members of the North China Garrison Army were thus indeed present at the inauguration of the Society, their involvement in it does not seem to have been extensive. To fully understand the relationship of the Study Society to the expanding Japanese empire, we have to focus on the young Buddhist priest Yoshii Hōjun around whom most of the organization’s activities revolved.
Yoshii Hōjun and the founding of the Society
We know comparatively little about Yoshii’s early life. He was born in 1899 in Kagawa Prefecture and was ordained at Entsū Temple in 1907. He went on to train at Kōyasan University in the Kogi Shingon branch of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. This sect is one of the major proponents of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. Yoshii graduated in 1925 and received permission to study in China, embarking for Beijing in March 1926 where he would spend the next four years.Footnote 13 The sources often describe Yoshii as having a sickly constitution (J. byōjaku no mi).Footnote 14 According to Yoshii’s recollections, he was affiliated with the ‘Department of History and Geography at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Peking University’ (Ch. Beijing daxue wenxueyuan shidixi).Footnote 15 It is not entirely clear what prompted his interest in studying in China, but it seems to have been personally motivated, since China appears to have been sacred ground to him.Footnote 16 In 1924, he spent time at Tenri University (an educational institution belonging to Tenrikyō, a Shinto-based Japanese new religious movement) to study Chinese, as this was the only place nearby that offered such classes for missionary purposes. In June 1926 a Tenrikyō publication—the journal Michi no tomo—featured an article by Yoshii, which reveals him to have been quite an idealistic individual. In the article, Yoshii states that only a sense of pure religious inspiration (J. kangeki) can save the world, and that unfortunately the majority of religious organizations in the world lack precisely such a sense of inspiration.Footnote 17
Some of the correspondence between Yoshii in China and people back in Japan, as it was reproduced in Shingon publications, is available. One of these is a letter Yoshii sent to Wada Shōkai (1879–1962), a fellow Shingon priest, that was published in the Kōyasan jihō magazine in April 1928. The letter mentions that Yoshii was undertaking a homestay with a Chinese family in the Wuliang Daren Hutong neighbourhood (today’s Hongxing Hutong) of Beijing. It also mentions frequent visits to the Yonghegong, Beijing’s foremost Tibetan Buddhist temple, to enquire about Tibetan Buddhism as well as extensive contact with the Chinese scholar of Buddhism Yu Daoquan (1901–1992).Footnote 18 The letter further contains a statement that foreshadows the later founding of the Study Society. Yoshii expresses his wish to create a group of leading members of the Shingon sect to establish contact with the Panchen Lama and Tibetan Buddhism in general. He concludes that the revival of esoteric Buddhism in China and Korea would be a significant contribution towards repaying the debt owed by followers of the Shingon tradition to their founder for transmitting esoteric Buddhism to Japan.Footnote 19 A further article in the Shingon journal Rokudai shinpō states that Yoshii had made the acquaintance of a range of upper-class Chinese with an interest in esoteric Buddhism. These included the physician Wang Wushang (Hunfang, 1884–1949), as well as Li Yaokai (n.d.), who was secretary to the warlord politician Wu Peifu and also worked as a judicial officer (J. shihōkan) in Zhili province. For Li, his wife, and another person, Yoshii conducted an initiation into the secret ‘three-seven dharma’ of the esoteric deity Cundi (J. Jundei, Ch. Zhuntei), a technique to prolong life. The article mentions that Yoshii found it very difficult to refuse such requests from Chinese people,Footnote 20 suggesting that there was strong interest in esoteric Buddhism on the Chinese side and a willingness to seek out Japanese priests with the required knowledge. The growing number of Chinese approaching Yoshii for his specialist knowledge of esoteric Buddhism is also evidenced by the names included in a later recollection by Tanaka Seijun of the beginnings of the Study Society. Apart from the Li family, the list of these early contacts includes the former head of the Bureau of Finance (Ch. caizheng zongzhang) of Sichuan province Liu Jiechu (Rongze, n.d.) and the former parliamentarian and army general Kang Ji (n.d.). It is further stated that Yoshii had entered into a ‘dharmic bond’ (J. hōen) with these individuals, showing the existence of a teacher and disciple relationship between them.Footnote 21 Yoshii seems to have been well-integrated into the Japanese community in Beijing. For instance, he had contact with the Japanese scholar of Chinese literature Hashikawa Tokio (1894–1982), who was also involved in promoting cultural contacts between the two countries. One of Yoshii’s greatest achievements during this time was the acquisition of a complete set of the Derge edition of the Tibetan Buddhist canon at the request of Toganoo Shōun (1881–1953), a scholar of esoteric Buddhism at Kōyasan University. Yoshii managed to achieve this with the help of the khan of the Kharchin Mongols in Beijing.Footnote 22 When the canon finally arrived from Tibet in Tianjin several years later, its transport back to Japan was facilitated by the commander of the Japanese garrison force, Kikuchi Mon’ya (1883–1964).Footnote 23
In 1930, towards the end of his stay in Beijing, Yoshii began to publish a short-lived bilingual (Chinese and Japanese) magazine on esoteric Buddhism entitled Mandara. The journal provides a good sense of what drove Yoshii. According to the ‘Message on the Founding of the Journal’ in the first issue, esoteric Buddhism was deemed to have been lost in China following the Five Dynasties period in the tenth century, while continuing in an unbroken line in Japan. It was the journal’s mission to provide information on esoteric Buddhism in order to propagate the teachings of Yoshii’s sect and contribute to the revival of esoteric Buddhism in China.Footnote 24 It is in the second issue of the journal that the name ‘Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism’ is used for the first time, when Yoshii remarked that what had been a gathering of only two or three interested persons would be fundamentally reorganized and men of influence (J. yūryokusha) would be approached to participate as charter founders (J. hokkinin).Footnote 25 This suggests that there already existed a loose organization before the group’s official founding.
Interestingly, none of the Chinese figures mentioned above reappear in relation to the reorganized Study Society and instead a different group of Chinese began to take centre stage. Chief among them was Duan Qirui (1865–1936), who had held numerous leadership positions during the early Republic, including as premier of the State Council (Ch. guowu zongli) of the Republic of China. He was also known as a devout Buddhist lay practitioner. As well as Duan, there were Wang Yitang, Gao Lingwei, Sun Runyu, Sun Chuanfang (1885–1935), Cao Rulin (1877–1966), and Liang Hongzhi (1882–1946), among others. All of them had held political office during the 1910s and 1920s, but by the late 1920s had been ousted from power by the establishment of the Nationalist government headed by Chiang Kai-shek. Members of the North Chinese art and cultural world, such as the painters Jin Kaifan (1895–1946) and Zhang Shanzi (1882–1940), were also among the members of the Society, as well as prominent Japanese residents of Tianjin and Beijing. It is not quite clear how contact with these figures was established. In Mandara, Yoshii stated that he began to approach these men of influence, while in the 1980s, he wrote that Duan had asked him to stay in China in order to initiate him and his associates into esoteric Buddhism.Footnote 26 Shifting focus to a pair of different figures will shed some light on this issue.
The Study Society and the Japanese community in North China
As part of these efforts to turn a loose study group into something more organized, members of local Japanese communities became active, too. One such figure that repeatedly appears in the sources as pivotal to organizing the Study Society was Ochi Jōkichi (1876–?), a resident of China since 1893 and member of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Beijing (J. Pekin shōkōkai), who was also an ardent Shingon believer. Most likely an even more crucial person was Nozaki Nobuchika (1884–1947), an entrepreneur and long-term resident of North China. An article from the Ōsaka mainichi newspaper reported that Yoshii’s decision to create a fully fledged Buddhist association was made after consulting with Nozaki in Tianjin.Footnote 27 Nozaki’s life is shrouded in mystery, but he was known to have had excellent contacts with the Anfu Club, the group of Beiyang-era politicians to which Duan Qirui, Wang Yitang, and other future members of the Study Society belonged.Footnote 28 I strongly suspect that it was these two figures—well-entrenched in both the Japanese and Chinese communities of North China—who established contact with the various parties that eventually made up the founding membership of the Study Society. As the result of these efforts, a group of 57 people representing a cross-section of the Japanese community as well as about a dozen Chinese signed a petition to the headquarters of the Kogi Shingon sect to support the founding of the Society. Kongōbu Temple, the chief temple of the Kogi Shingon sect, signalled that it was willing to cover the costs of establishing the Study Society. Further, it was decided that the head of the Kogi Shingon sect, Ryūchi Mitsuō (1843–1934), would act as the organization’s superintendent (J. sōsai) while Duan Qirui would be its director (J. kaichō). A group of Chinese and Japanese signatories then travelled to Mount Kōya, the sect headquarters, in May 1931 for the inauguration ceremony. This marked the official launch of the Study Society. Finally, in December it was decided that the Kogi Shingon sect would cover the Society’s operating costs. A founding charter (J. shuisho) was published in June 1931 that outlined its objectives and background.
This is a good point at which to delve into how the Study Society positioned itself ideologically. The charter’s opening paragraph reads:
Needless to say, mutual substantial friendship between Japan and China has to await a spiritual and religious connection. There is nothing that bonds [people together] from the depth of their gut like religion. That is because if one is truly called a brother in faith (J. dōitsu kyōto), even if one’s country or race are different, one can attain a sense of opening one’s heart so strongly that one does not consider anyone else as a different person (J. tanin).
Reflecting this, the Society’s main principle (J. shugi) was declared to be the ‘spiritual unity of the peoples of East Asia’ and ‘their cultural improvement through their spiritual revival’. This was supposed to be achieved through the revival of orthodox esoteric Buddhism in China and the establishment of an alliance with so-called Lamaism (J. ramakyō), that is, Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism.Footnote 29 The founding charter thus foregrounds the Society’s social function. Religion was to work as a kind of spiritual glue to bind together different ethnicities and nationalities. In fact, this notion can already be seen in the pages of Mandara, where Yoshii declared that friendship between China and Japan (Ch. Zhongri qinshan) could not just rely on geographical proximity as this could equally lead to competition (Ch. zhengjing). Instead, internal factors such as shared language and shared race (Ch. tongwen tongzhong) were crucial to establishing true friendship.Footnote 30 The hope that esoteric Buddhism could provide such higher bonds was an extension of this argument.
The charter goes further into why such a spiritual bond was more necessary than ever. The outline of the founding process opens by stating that anti-Japanese sentiment had reached new heights in China following the invasion of Manchuria, as, for example, in the boycott of Japanese goods and calls for the downfall of Japanese imperialism. The text points out that such sentiments were currently even expressed in elementary school textbooks, and thus the movement needed to go beyond being a mere populist movement and turn into an educational and intellectual movement. Those suffering the most from these tensions, it claims, were the Japanese residing in China (J. zairyū hōjin), and thus it was this community that was the most ardently interested in realizing friendship between China and Japan.Footnote 31 The charter goes on to explain that the only thing that the Chinese currently sought from Japan was esoteric Buddhism, which gave it a privileged position in connecting the two nations. This high level of interest in esoteric Buddhism stemmed from the belief that 1) it provides magical means to deal with real-life problems, 2) it could give the intellectual means to foster coexistence and co-prosperity (J. kyōzon kyōei) against the chaos that was currently dominating the Chinese intellectual world, and 3) the Tang dynasty—the ideal state of the Han people—was founded in large part on the spirit of esoteric Buddhism.Footnote 32 Identified here is a combination of interest in the magical properties of esoteric Buddhism (dhāraṇī spells, esoteric initiations, etc.) and the potential for it to act as a unifying thought in society. The revival of esoteric Buddhism would thus have not only religious, but also wider social and political implications. Esoteric Buddhism provided a means by which to overcome conflicts of interest in the material realm between the two countries by sublimating them at a higher spiritual level.
This founding charter reflects a range of interests and concerns. In addition to Chinese elites’ curiosity in esoteric ritual and thought, and Yoshii’s dreams of repaying a karmic debt to his sect’s founder by reviving esoteric Buddhism in China, it reflects the local Japanese community’s wish to counteract growing Chinese resentment against Japanese policies, which threatened their business interests. This can also be explained by the fact that the charter appears to have been written by Nozaki Nobuchika, a central member of that community.Footnote 33 Thus, the picture that emerges is that it was not the Japanese military, but rather another element of the Japanese empire that took particular interest in Yoshii’s popularity among Chinese elites. The Japanese business community in China was in dire need of mending relations. More than military officers, it was local representatives of the Japanese Foreign Ministry—tasked with looking after the needs of the Japanese community—who became active in facilitating the Society’s founding and promoting its activities. Instrumental in helping Yoshii set up the Study Society were Yano Makoto (1884–1962), counsellor (J. sanjikan) at the legation in Beijing, and Kuwashima Kazue, consul-general in Tianjin.
Anti-Japanese sentiment and the boycott of Japanese products had been an issue for several years for Japanese businessmen, but after the invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, the treaty port of Tianjin, with its sizeable Japanese community, became a major flash point in the struggle between the Chinese and Japanese states. The infamous military-intelligence officer Doihara Kenji arrived in Tianjin in late 1931 and instigated two armed incidents that resulted in Puyi being spirited out of the town to Manchukuo to be made emperor there. The incidents resulted in significant economic fallout for the Japanese community, leading to a high level of dissatisfaction with the actions of the Japanese military among Japanese residents of Tianjin.Footnote 34 Through actions such as these, the military increasingly challenged the leadership of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, which tended to emphasize the necessity of engagement with the Kuomintang government, rather than confrontation, in handling relations with China. This ultimately led the diplomats to essentially be pushed out of the decision-making process in regard to China policies during the Sino-Japanese War, but between the invasion of Manchuria and the outbreak of full-scale war in 1937, a kind of tug-of-war ensued between the Foreign Ministry and the Army in China.Footnote 35 In dispatches to Foreign Minister Shidehara, Kuwashima himself vocally criticized the invasion of Manchuria, the designs to partition Manchuria off from the rest of China, and the establishment of a monarchy headed by Puyi as advocated by Doihara and others in the Kwantung Army.Footnote 36 In the aftermath of the invasion of Manchuria, diplomatic personnel such as consul Kuwashima thus had to deal with a difficult situation created by the actions of the Japanese special services division and military while perceiving the need to reassert themselves.
It is therefore not surprising to see this particular aspect also reflected in Kuwashima’s inaugural address at the Tianjin branch of the Study Society, where he expressed despair at the fact that, despite being destined for mutual prosperity, relations had gradually worsened in recent times and anti-Japanese sentiment in China was expressed in the boycotting of Japanese products and the cutting of economic ties (J. Nikka haiseki keizai zekkō). He went on to state that the effects on Japanese residing in China were tremendous and that, as someone standing on the frontlines of this issue, it was his task to find a solution.Footnote 37 These were also concerns reflected in Kuwashima’s dispatches to the Japanese foreign minister Uchida Kōsai (1865–1936) when reporting on the situation in Tianjin following the invasion of Manchuria and the clashes instigated by Doihara.Footnote 38
My reading is that Kuwashima hoped that the Study Society could contribute to solving this situation by strengthening ties between the Chinese and Japanese while also giving diplomats more influence on the ground. Kuwashima and the Tianjin consulate helped facilitate the organization of the Tianjin branch in 1932, inviting the parties involved to a preparatory meeting at the consulate on 29 May.Footnote 39 Kuwashima would stay in close contact with the Study Society even after he left his post as consul-general and became head of the Bureau of Asiatic Affairs (J. Ajia kyoku) and the Bureau of East Asian Affairs (J. Tōa kyoku) at the Foreign Ministry. The same is true for Yano, who visited the Kiyomizu Temple in 1933, and sent a message from Spain, where he had been posted, on the occasion of the commemoration service for the deceased Panchen Lama in 1938.Footnote 40
Overall, rather than seeing the Study Society as a creation of the Japanese military, it appears to have been more closely connected to interests that sought to balance the adverse effects of the Japanese military’s actions and protect the prerogatives of the Foreign Ministry against encroachment by other actors. This can also be derived from Yoshii’s ongoing contacts with Japan’s chief diplomat in China, Ariyoshi Akira (1876–1937), who was also known for his conciliatory position towards the Chinese government and for criticizing the actions of the Japanese military, expressing that they had gone too far.Footnote 41 Although these actors attached themselves to Yoshii’s project, Yoshii himself remained its driving force. Indeed, Yano initially was doubtful about the entire venture: when Yoshii and his master Tanaka Seijun (1876–1942) visited Yano at the Beijing embassy, Yano expressed doubts that old men such as Duan Qirui and Gao Lingwei had anything of substance to contribute to the revival of esoteric Buddhism in China. To this, Yoshii replied that he wished to make Duan the director of the Society as he was impressed by his ‘pure personality and devout faith’ (J. junketsu naru jinkaku to tokushin naru shinkō), not because Duan had held positions of political authority. Yoshii let his idealism shine through once again when he explained that in order to reform his sect back home, it was necessary to first create an ‘ideal organization’ (J. risōteki dantai) and exert pressure from the outside.Footnote 42
The further development of the Study Society
Although the Study Society was founded in June 1931, its activities only became more visible in April 1932 when Yoshii returned to China. A later publication describes it as running into problems.Footnote 43 The exact nature of these problems is not specified, but I suspect that the invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 and the subsequent founding of Manchukuo created tensions within the Study Society.Footnote 44 Together with the consulate, he began preparations for the November opening of the Tianjin branch described at the beginning of this article. Yoshii began to conduct esoteric initiations for Chinese members of the Study Society; indeed such initiations (Ch. rutan guanding shoufa) were made prerequisites for full membership (Ch. zhenghuiyuan) status.Footnote 45 Housed in a four-story Western-style building owned by Wang Yitang, the Tianjin branch was registered as a temple of the Kogi Shingon sect under the name the Kongō Temple.Footnote 46
Besides providing ritual services to its members, the Society ran an Esoteric Buddhist Academy (Ch. Mijiao xueyuan), which opened its doors in January 1934. The academy trained missionaries (Ch. xuanhuashi) in Japanese Shingon thought and practice. It was presided over by the former Beiyang-era politician Cao Rulin (1877–1966) and the first batch of students graduated in September 1934.Footnote 47 The Study Society also sent students for further study and training to Japan.Footnote 48 The academy’s teaching staff included Chinese and Japanese lecturers, including Nakano Gishō (1891–1977), another Kogi Shingon priest who had been dispatched by the sect to assist Yoshii in his endeavours in China. In November 1934, a women’s group (J. Mikkyō fujinkai) was founded and publication began of the bilingual magazine Chūnichi mikkyō (Sino-Japanese Esoteric Buddhism), which provided information on esoteric Buddhism and other aspects of Buddhist history and thought.Footnote 49 The Society also issued other publications, such as a volume by Nakano Gishō on the third century bce Indian ruler Asoka, who had become a symbol of ideal Buddhist kingship.Footnote 50
These activities required funding, and in July 1935 a support group—the East Asian Association for Esoteric Buddhism (J. Tōa mikkyō kyōkai)—was founded in Japan. The membership of this association was illustrious, including the former prime minister Count Kiyoura Keigo (1850–1942), the former mayor of Tokyo Nagata Hidejirō (1876–1943), the former army lieutenant general Banzai Rihachirō (1871–1950), the former foreign minister and parliamentarian Yoshizawa Kenkichi (1874–1965), China expert and Buddhist priest Mizuno Baigyō (1877–1949), as well as Kuwashima Kazue, among others.Footnote 51
March 1934 had already seen the founding of a branch of the Society at the Kiyomizu Temple in Shizuoka, Japan, where Yoshii’s master Tanaka Seijun was abbot, and Kiyomizu Temple became a Japanese hub for Sino-Japanese religious exchange. To reflect this growing status, a hall was built—referred to as the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hall (J. Nikka shinzenden)—that incorporated Chinese Buddhist architectural elements. The temple had many Chinese visitors, most notably the Chinese ambassadors to Japan, Jiang Zuobin (1884–1942) and Xu Shiying (1873–1964).Footnote 52 It thus appears that the Society was also perceived as a potential resource to balance relations with Japan by the Kuomintang government at a time when Chiang Kai-shek sought to focus on eliminating the communists and improving relations with Japan.Footnote 53 Another noteworthy figure to visit the Kiyomizu Temple was Liu Pengyi (n.d.), head of the Anhui Province Bureau of Finance (Ch. caizheng ting) and vice-secretary of the North China Buddhist Lodge (Ch. Huabei jushilin), in June 1935.Footnote 54 Through an introduction by Ambassador Xu Shiying, the Kiyomizu Temple was also visited in June 1936 by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs involved in the tea business who were touring the Shizuoka area to inspect the tea industry there.Footnote 55
To quickly sketch further developments preceding the outbreak of war in 1937, in April 1936 the Society opened a branch in Beijing. Jiang Chaozong (1861–1943), another Beiyang-era political figure, became head of the branch, which was initially housed in the facilities of another religious group, the Wutaishan Puhua Buddhist Society (Ch. Wutaishan puhua fojiaohui).Footnote 56 The Beijing branch eventually moved into the Xuanren Temple, popularly known as the Wind God Temple (Ch. Fengshenmiao), which was facilitated by local powerholders.Footnote 57
The developments above show that, rather than being a mere front, the Study Society functioned as a religious organization and may be said to have done so quite successfully. Certainly, one reason for its success was that the Society served a variety of interests going beyond the purely ‘religious’. On the Japanese side, figures drawn from business, diplomatic, and political circles stand out. Indeed, Yoshii’s master Tanaka Seijun, who attended the inauguration of the Tianjin branch to represent the head of the Kogi Shingon sect, spoke of ‘religious diplomacy’ (J. shūkyōteki gaikō) as one important function of the Society.Footnote 58 In this regard, the Society played a role in the cultural diplomacy between the two countries at the time, with like-minded Chinese and Japanese finding opportunities to bond and strengthen their ties. Beyond that, the Society provided a range of contacts due to its wide-ranging membership that could further individual business interests, as the example of the tea traders shows. However, before the image of the Society as a completely innocuous gathering becomes too strong, I intend to complicate this picture in the next section.
Entanglements with the Japanese military
While I do think that the Study Society was generally closer to the ‘diplomats’, there is indeed some evidence to link it to Japanese military intelligence after all. When Yoshii was searching for a location for the Beijing branch, he mentions that his search was not only facilitated by Chinese powerholders, but also by the head of the Beijing Special Services section at the time, Major-General Matsumuro Takayoshi (1886–1969).Footnote 59 Replacing Doihara Kenji, Matsumuro had arrived in Beijing in March 1936 with orders to gather intelligence as well as provide guidance to the newly created East Hebei-Chahar Political Council (Ch. Jicha zhengwu weiyuanhui) that was to institute local self-rule in northern China.Footnote 60 Having acted as adviser to the warlord Feng Yuxiang (1882–1948) in the 1920s, Matsumuro had extensive experience in China. Before coming to Beijing, he had been posted to Inner Mongolia, where he was tasked with preparing the ground for the establishment of a pro-Japanese Mongolian regime. As part of his considerations, he had identified Mongolian Buddhism as an important tool to be used to foster a sense of independence from China among the Mongols.Footnote 61 Throughout his career, Matsumuro’s intelligence work focused on the mobilization of religion to further Japan’s strategic goals. During the war, he was also associated with the Lamaism Research Institute (J. Ramakyō kenkyūjo) of the Shingon sect.Footnote 62 Of more immediate relevance to the matter at hand, there is a photo showing Matsumuro standing next to Jiang Chaozong on the occasion of a lecture given by Matsumuro at an assembly of the Wutaishan Puhua Buddhist Society and the Study Society in Beijing on 27 October 1936. The photo also shows Colonel Matsui Takurō (1887–1969), who was to succeed Matsumuro in the role of head of military intelligence in Beijing.Footnote 63 This suggests that Matsumuro’s connections to the Study Society and esoteric Buddhism more generally were more than merely incidental.
Another notable connection between the Japanese military goes through Nozaki Nobuchika. While the exact nature of these contacts cannot be ascertained at this point, Nozaki met with the commander of the Kwantung Army, Honjō Shigeru (1876–1945), on four occasions between November 1931 and July 1932: that is, in the period following the invasion of Manchuria and leading up to the founding of the Tianjin branch of the Study Society. On one of these occasions, Nozaki is described as having delivered a secret message (J. naimei) from Duan Qirui.Footnote 64
These facts suggest that there was clearly more going on behind the scenes than is currently possible to tell from the available sources. However, without such documentation, it is difficult to make a proper assessment of the ultimate intentions of Honjō and Matsumuro.Footnote 65 Indeed, some scholars suggest that Matsumuro’s task in Beijing was to work against the designs of the Kwantung Army on the orders of Ishiwara Kanji (1889–1949), at the time the chief of operations at the General Staff of the Japanese Army.Footnote 66 Certainly, as the Study Society expanded and drew more prominent Chinese into the ranks of its membership, it became an ever more noteworthy asset for a range of actors, including the Japanese military. Helping Yoshii find a permanent address for the branch office was not just a mere act of kindness. It offered Matsumuro and Matsui the opportunity to build up relationships with local elite networks and thus develop assets that could be tapped when the need arose. Nozaki’s case seems more ambiguous, but his interactions with Honjō show the complex nature of the game he was playing.
Wartime and conflicts with the sect leadership
On 7 July 1937, full-scale war broke out between China and Japan. With this, a new era also began for the Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism. While some core members such as Wang Yitang, Gao Lingwei, and Jiang Chaozong moved to outright collaboration with Japan, others left the organization.Footnote 67 For Yoshii, the war also brought great difficulties, as financial support for his activities from his sect appears to have dried up, a situation he noted with great irritation. Commenting on necessary repairs at the Wind God Temple, he defiantly wrote that, ‘I will abandon all political attitude (J. seisakuteki taido) and proceed from here on out in a purely religious manner, replacing the roof tiles one by one using so-called pure funds donated through the joy of hearing the dharma (J. hōetsu kisha no jōzai).’Footnote 68 Indeed, the situation seems to have been dire for Yoshii, who is described as struggling with ill health and poverty in sect publications.Footnote 69
At the same time, all Japanese sects were requested to contribute to the war effort, leading to their increased engagement on the Asian mainland. The Kogi Shingon leadership planned an expanded presence in North China and in June 1938 the Study Society was put under the jurisdiction of the Supervisory Office for Missionary Activities in North China (J. Hokushi kaikyō kantokusho) of the Shingon sect.Footnote 70 Sect headquarters dispatched a senior priest, Fukudenji Kaishō (n.d.), to act as superintendent for missionary activities (J. kaikyō sōchō) in North China. Yoshii helped Fukudenji prepare the ground for his mission, introducing him to prominent Japanese and Chinese, but when Fukudenji sought to turn the Wind God Temple into his headquarters, Yoshii furiously resisted the move. Barred from that location, Fukudenji contacted Chinese authorities to look for an alternative location for the official branch (J. betsuin) of the Kogi Shingon sect and was eventually granted use of the Baoguo Temple for this purpose.Footnote 71 This episode triggered tensions about the place of Yoshii and the Study Society in the overall missionary efforts of the Kogi Shingon sect.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, local forces took Yoshii’s side in this confrontation. In July 1938, Fukudenji and Yoshii had a meeting with Nozaki, who had in the meantime advanced to the position of supreme adviser (J. saikō komon) of the local Special Services division. Referring to a lack for support from sect headquarters, Nozaki noted that under the current circumstances, the Study Society was unable to operate either the Academy or their magazine, which led to a great ‘loss of face’ (J. kao mo maru tsubure) for Nozaki. He threatened Fukudenji that if this state of affairs should continue, no help could be expected from him in the future.Footnote 72 Nozaki was critical of the fact that the Study Society received a mere hundred yen per month, while the official branch temple received 600 yen even though it did little beyond conducting funerals for the local Japanese community.Footnote 73 The problem was discussed widely in Shingon journals as well at the sect administrative assembly (J. shūkai) on Mount Kōya.Footnote 74 Yoshii’s detractors complained about his attitude, pointing out a lack in awareness of his subordination to the sect headquarters.Footnote 75 There were also rumours that Yoshii acted arrogantly towards the sect and had inflated his standing within the sect to the Chinese, claiming to be only second to the overall head of the sect.Footnote 76 Maybe due to the pressure and threats from Yoshii’s supporters on the ground in China, a solution was found that allowed the coexistence of both Yoshii and Fukudenji in their respective temples. Funding for the Study Society was increased to 600 yen from the Kogi Shingon Sect, with an additional 600 yen coming from the Kongōbu Temple.Footnote 77 Repairs to the Wind God Temple also proceeded apace.Footnote 78 To my eyes what this episode reveals is the extent to which no one party could lay claim to ownership of the Study Society and the degree to which matters hinged on Yoshii’s dedication to the project. With the exception of these tensions about funding in 1938–1939, discussions of the Study Society in the pages of Shingon sect publications notably decrease during the war. Despite the increase in funding, there is no evidence that either the Esoteric Buddhist Academy or the journal Chūnichi mikkyō were ever reactivated.
Between 1937 and 1945, Yoshii cooperated with the occupation forces in a variety of ways. Due to his contacts with Chinese elites and the nature of the Study Society, he was frequently to be found in politically charged spaces. For example, a dinner given by Jiang Chaozong in September 1938 to celebrate the indefinite lease of the Wind God Temple to the Study Society was attended by Beijing’s police chief, the head of Beijing’s Bureau of Social Affairs, a representative from the Japanese embassy, the head of the local military intelligence section, Nemoto Hiroshi (1891–1966), and a certain Lieutenant Colonel Hiraoka (no first name given) from the propaganda division. On this occasion Yoshii gave his thanks and expressed his wish to establish peace and friendship in East Asia through Buddhism.Footnote 79 There is also evidence that at least one more branch of the Study Society was established during the war with the involvement of the Japanese military. In July 1939 it was reported that Yoshii would soon travel to Datong in Shanxi province to open a branch there in cooperation with the Jinbei Sino-Japanese Buddhist Association (Ch. Jinbei rihua fojiao lianhehui).Footnote 80 His name also appears in an annual report of the New People’s Society (Ch. Xinminhui), a mass movement organized by the Japanese military and the collaborationist regime. He seems to have attended a discussion on how Japanese religionists could assist the New People’s Society in their suasion campaigns (Ch. jiaohua gongzuo) in the Beijing area.Footnote 81 Yoshii’s assistant Nakano Gishō also participated in this organization’s propaganda activities, lecturing to Chinese elementary and middle school students about Shingon founder Kūkai as part of a campaign to instil a ‘New People’s spirit’ (J. shinmin seishin) in the population under occupation.Footnote 82 The Taiwanese writer Hong Yanqiu (1899–1980), who had helped out with translations into Chinese when Yoshii published Mandara years earlier and who lived in Beijing during the 1930s and 1940s, recalled how Yoshii sought to win him over to collaborate during the war.Footnote 83 Yoshii also conducted surveys of Buddhist relics for the Culture Bureau (J. Bunkakyoku) of the Asia Development Board (J. Kōain).Footnote 84 Lastly, Yoshii was on the board of a Chinese middle school, whose director was a member of the Study Society.Footnote 85 People like Yoshii, with years of experience in China and good language skills, were sought after by the occupation authorities to assist in shoring up Japanese rule. It was probably hard for someone in Yoshii’s position to avoid cooperating, but while his writings are not particularly sanguine when it comes to the Japanese empire, equally there are no condemnations, however faint, either.
Thus, Yoshii remained active during the war years, but, overall, the heyday of the Study Society as a centre for powerful people seems to have been over. The Chinese elites did not abandon him as, aside from any political motivations, they do appear to have been genuinely interested in esoteric Buddhism. However, a 1940 report by two Japanese researchers of the Asia Development Board quotes Yoshii as saying, ‘The true golden age for a religious organisation is when it is humbly and earnestly devoting itself to the path of faith outside the limelight (J. hito ni shirarezu), while it becomes corrupt when it receives wide attention.’Footnote 86 This would seem to suggest that Yoshii was re-evaluating the role of the Study Society and wished to re-dedicate himself to his religious mission. The latest mention of the Study Society that I was able to find, which dates back to before the end of the war, occurs in the memoirs of Tsushima Juichi (1888–1967), who headed the North China Development Company (J. Kitashina kaihatsu kabushiki geisha) at the time. Tsushima recounts how on New Year’s Eve 1944, he had invited about 30 members of the Study Society to his residence for dinner. At 11 o’clock, the party moved to Yoshii’s temple to recite sutras before ringing in the New Year by striking the temple bell 108 times.Footnote 87 This episode shows how dedicated at least the core membership appears to have been to the organization. It also shows that the Society had not lost its function as a hub for liaising beyond purely religious concerns, as exemplified by Tsushima’s involvement. Religion and politics were not separated so easily after all, it seems.
After the war
The activities of the Study Society came to an end with Japan’s defeat in the war. When the war ended in August 1945, Yoshii was captured and held prisoner for two years—by whom is not clear. He was freed from his predicament by Lin Daozi (n.d.), the widow of a rich Shanghai industrialist, who was born in Yokohama and had been a supporter of the Study Society.Footnote 88 Yoshii set foot again in Japan in January 1947, finding himself back at the Kiyomizu Temple in Shizuoka with little means of support. In an article written in 1951, Yoshii reflected on his return to Japan in a bitter tone, calling his repatriation a ‘landing in the face of the enemy’ (J. tekizen jōriku)—a somewhat obscure expression that I read as reflecting Yoshii’s frustration at returning to Japan only to find himself in adverse conditions yet again after his life on the continent had gone bust (J. gohasan).Footnote 89 Despite his initial difficulties, Yoshii quickly recovered and even sought to revive engagement with China. In May 1948, the founding ceremony of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Society (J. Chūnichi shinzen kai) was held at the Kiyomizu Temple, which was attended by representatives of the Overseas Chinese Association (J. Kakyo sōkai). Yoshii mentioned that there was criticism at the time of the founding of this new organization, but stressed that it was a purely cultural and spiritual movement seeking to establish spiritual bonds between the two nations beyond any economic, diplomatic, or military issues, and that it should not be mistaken for a political movement as had existed during the war.Footnote 90 Despite Yoshii’s protestations, this organization sounds very much like a direct continuation of at least part of the project of the Study Society, albeit under changed political circumstances. Part of his post-war vision was to establish contact with the Changkya Khutukhtu, a Mongol living buddha associated with Mount Wutai, who had joined the remnants of the Kuomintang in Taiwan after 1949. This contact would then be used to establish ties with the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama in China, which could contribute to creating peaceful relations between the liberal and communist camps as well as the Communist and Nationalist governments of China.Footnote 91 Unfortunately, it is not known what happened to these plans, but the fact that Yoshii developed cataracts and became nearly blind probably hampered any further activities. One of the last activities related to his time in China that is recorded is the construction of a memorial stupa (J. kuyōtō) in 1987 for Japanese who had died in China and whose ashes (J. bunkotsu) Yoshii had brought back from the Asian mainland.Footnote 92 Yoshii Hōjun passed away in January 1993 in Shizuoka due to a cerebral stroke.Footnote 93
Conclusion
How, then, to evaluate the Sino-Japanese Society for the Study of Esoteric Buddhism, in particular the activities of Yoshii? There seems to exist a willingness to retrospectively locate Japanese cultural and religious activities within the context of intelligence operations without providing much evidence.Footnote 94 I hope to have shown that looking at the Society’s origins reveals a more complex picture. Some circumstantial evidence does link the Study Society to Japanese military intelligence, but it is one thing to define an organization as a mere front for espionage activities and another to look at the role and function of individuals as evolving in ways in which they may wittingly or unwittingly came to be linked to intelligence networks.
In my view it is important to see the Study Society as a conglomerate of a variety of interests. For Yoshii and other members of the Shingon sect, the Society provided an opportunity to locate their sect in a central role in regional politics and envision it as an arbiter of peace in East Asia. For local Japanese businessmen in North China, it represented an avenue by which they could protect their businesses. For Japanese diplomatic staff in China, it was a way to protect the local Japanese communities’ economic interests and maintain control at a time when the Japanese military was increasingly taking the lead in shaping policy. Simultaneously, Japanese military intelligence officers such as Matsumuro and Matsui were on the lookout for new assets to cultivate. When evaluating the place of the Study Society in the politically charged environment of 1930s North China, this diversity of goals within the same network ought to be preserved, and reducing them to any one of these dimensions is to be avoided.
The same also goes for the Japanese empire as such. As shown, the Study Society first attracted support from sectors of the Japanese empire that disagreed with the military’s aggressive policies in China. This means that the Japanese empire needs to be broken down into its different constituent parts to make sense of the dense web of contacts and relationships that developed in contested spaces such as 1930s North China. The Kwantung Army and the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic corps both sought to further imperial interests, but how they defined those interests could vary substantially. This approach allows us to recognize how the Study Society did form part of Japan’s larger designs on the Asian continent without immediately having to reduce it to the most warlike actors. I am making this argument not to exculpate anyone, but to underline the contingent nature of Japanese empire-making. An honest wish to foster friendly relations could ultimately still end up furthering imperial interests.
This complexity is also evident when looking at the Chinese membership. More needs to be said about the Chinese members of the Study Society on a future occasion, but they, too, cannot be merely brushed aside as cynical actors. My view is that the Study Society did indeed form part of a wider network out of which some of the chief collaborators emerged and its political functions cannot, and should not, be ignored or downplayed. However, we cannot project the motivations of these collaborators onto the Society’s entire Chinese membership. For instance, a post-war account of the Study Society mentions that an unnamed Chinese member stood up at the founding ceremony on Mount Kōya in 1931 to denounce the aggressive actions of the Japanese military in China and called on the Japanese Buddhist leadership to create a countermovement against the military for the sake of peace.Footnote 95 Such views could be voiced as part of membership in the Society and indeed were recorded in the sources on a number of occasions.
Having said that, the Sino-Japanese Study Society for Esoteric Buddhism would have never existed in the way and on the scale that it did had it not been for the Japanese empire and its expansion on the Asian mainland during the 1930s. Without this context, it would have not received the attention and resources that helped it develop into something more than a handful of people interested in esoteric Buddhism. At the same time, the Society could also not have existed had it not been for Yoshii and his dreams of engaging in some utopian religious project. As I hope has become clear, Yoshii actively engaged in the Society’s political aspects, but what struck me most was his idealistic dedication to the project. I would like to know more about Yoshii’s motivations. Was he perhaps willing to strike a deal with other interests so that he could realize his own vision? Most Japanese Buddhists at the time were more than willing to do their share for the national interest and I assume that Yoshii saw his contributions in this regard as a very welcome benefit of his activities in China. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any writings in which Yoshii reflected on his own activities beyond fairly descriptive accounts of his time in China. Whatever his true motivation may have been, any notion of keeping religion and politics separate was muted as soon as the revival of esoteric Buddhism in China became cast as a means by which to attain political stability in the region. The way in which national ties between China and Japan were envisioned through the lens of esoteric Buddhism needs to be taken seriously. It was not mere window-dressing for Society members, but constituted a religious vision of regional order.Footnote 96 Indeed, for some of the Beiyang-era politicians who formed the Chinese leadership of the Study Society, a politics grounded in religion was essential for a healthy body politic.Footnote 97
It is perhaps here in the muddled nature of Yoshii’s motivations that we find an important aspect of empire-building at work. Empires rely on opening up spaces in which people can see the possibility of fulfilling their dreams. They can then exploit the resources generated by the affective forces unleashed. I see this dynamic as akin to what Hannah Arendt calls the tradition of ‘dragon-slaying’ in her well-known work on the origins of totalitarianism: the power of fantasy to draw people into the structures of imperialism and turn them into its agents.Footnote 98 In the case of Yoshii, his fantasies of reviving esoteric Buddhism in China and thus repaying a karmic debt owed since Kūkai transmitted it from Tang China to Japan was the affective fuel that powered the formation and development of the wider network that emerged around him.Footnote 99
Competing interests
The author declares none.
