Future Perfect: Tolstoy and the Structures of Agrarian-Buddhist Utopianism in Taisho Japan
This study focuses on the role played by the work of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in shaping socialism and agrarian-Buddhist utopianism in Japan. As Japanese translations of Tolstoy's fiction and philosophy, and accounts of his life became more available at the end of the 19th century, his ideas on...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
MDPI
[2018]
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| In: |
Religions
Year: 2018, Volume: 9, Issue: 5, Pages: 1-12 |
| Further subjects: | B
Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927)
B Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) B Utopianism B Violence B Japanese Buddhism B agrarian way of life B nonresistance B Nonviolence B Mushakoji Saneatsu (1885-1976) B Eto Tekirei (1880-1944) |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This study focuses on the role played by the work of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in shaping socialism and agrarian-Buddhist utopianism in Japan. As Japanese translations of Tolstoy's fiction and philosophy, and accounts of his life became more available at the end of the 19th century, his ideas on the individual, religion, society, and politics had a tremendous impact on the generation coming of age in the 1900s and his popularity grew among young intellectuals. One important legacy of Tolstoy in Japan is his particular concern with the peasantry and agricultural reform. Among those inspired by Tolstoy and the narodniki lifestyle, three individuals, Tokutomi Roka, Eto Tekirei, and Mushakoji Saneatsu illustrate how prominent writers and thinkers adopted the master's lifestyle and attempted to put his ideas into practice. In the spirit of the New Buddhists of late Meiji, they envisioned a comprehensive lifestyle structure. As Eto Tekirei moved to the village of Takaido with the assistance of Tokutomi Roka, he called his new home Hyakusho Aidojo (literally, Farmers Love Training Ground). He and his family endeavored to follow a Tolstoyan life, which included labor, philosophy, art, religion, society, and politics, a grand project that he saw as a non-religious religion. As such, Tekirei's utopian vision might be conceived as an experiment in alter-modernity. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel9050161 |