著者

TEEUWEN Mark

出版者

International Research Center for Japanese Studies

雑誌

Japan review : journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:09150986)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.25, pp.3-19, 2013-01-01

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Seji kenbunroku (Masters of the World: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard) is an extensive critique of all manner of social evils, written by an anonymous samurai author with the pseudonym of Buyo Inshi in 1816. Although this work is much quote, it has hardly been studied in any depth. By analyzing the (overwhelmingly negative) role ascribed to "priests" in this work, this article seeks to shedlight on early modern understandings of "religion" before that concept was introduced to Japan. Buyo goes beyond the anti-clericalism shared by many Edo period authors and develops a more elaborate critique of all "Ways," either as inherently corrupt or as mere moralistic pretense. In Buyo's discourse, a secular domain sets bounds to the realm of religion in a manner that reminds one of modern notions of secularity. Buyo was hardly an original thinkers; rather, his ideas should be seen as representative for a larger body of opinion in the later Edo period. To understand perceptions of religion in this period, we must recognize the existence of secularis thought prior to the introduction of the conceptual pair of religion and secularity in modern times. This goes against the notion, established under the influence of writes such as Talal Asad and Charles Taylor, that secularism is a product of Western history exported around the globe by colonialism. This article argues that analyses of Seji kenbunroku and similar works will reveal the existence of non-Western secularist ideas that must have hada a considerable impact on the reception of modern secularism in the second half of the nineteenth century.