日本仏教と国民精神 : 初期堀一郎の文化史学批判序説

The argument of Hori Ichiro (1910-1974) during the WWII includes nationalistic discourse which has seldom been discussed. In 1940, Hori published two books: Nihon Bukkyō Shiron (On the History of Japanese Buddhism) and Nihon Jōdai Bunka to Bukkyō (Japanese Ancient Culture and Buddhism), which consist of articles written in the 1930s and 40s. Focusing on these two books and his unpublished diary, this article elucidates the process in which he gradually became a nationalist who asserted the superiority of Japanese culture and spirit.//Having graduated from Tokyo Imperial University as a major in Indian philosophy, Hori advanced to graduate school in the same discipline in 1932. Becoming more interested in Japanese Buddhism than Indian philosophy, he decided to methodologically base his studies on bunkashi (cultural history). Focusing on Buddhist narrative literature such as Nihon Ryōiki that had been ignored by historians and Buddhologists, Hori became a pioneer in this new academic field located in the borderland of history, Buddhology, and literature.//His innovative method, however, bore the possibility of producing a nationalistic discourse. Perhaps inspired by the analytical concept jōmin (“common people”) presented by his father-in-low Yanagita Kunio, Hori began using the term shominsei (“commonness”) in 1938. Shominsei is, according to Hori, nothing but kokumin seishin or national spirit that never changes. On the other hand, in Nihon Bukkyō Shiron mentioned above, we find an argument that insists that Japanese Buddhism is superior to Buddhism in other Asian countries.//Hori’s nationalistic discourse was produced not only due to his personal inner orientation but also under the influence of his colleagues. Among them, the most important scholar was Kihira Tadayoshi (1878-1949), a very influential ultra-nationalistic philosopher at the time who became Hori’s advisor in 1935. Kihira was a fellow at Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusho (The Center for the Study of National Spiritual Culture), a national institute established in 1932 to create nationalistic discourses, at which Hori started working in 1939.//With his academic orientation that sought to identify religious and cultural elements that have not changed over the course of Japanese history, and due to the academic conditions surrounding him, Hori’s ground-braking approach turned into a discipline that produced a nationalistic discourse.論文/Article