Unification and Spiritual Activism
Chapter 2, "Unification and Spiritual Activism: Murakami and Manshi" begins with an analysis of an academic movement called Daijō hibusseturon大乗非仏説論, which argued for a return to early Buddhism by critiquing the Mahāyāna derivations that had come to dominate in East Asia. It then turns to the work of two scholar-priests, both associated with the Ōtani-ha (Higashi Honganji) branch of the Shin sect: Murakami Senshō and Kiyozawa Manshi. Murakami and Kiyozawa might accurately be considered late representatives of the Buddhist Enlightenment. However, this chapter argues that they establish a bridge from the work of the early Buddhist modernists and reformers to the New Buddhists of the early twentieth century. In short, these two immensely influential figures established two distinctive possibilities for the emergent Buddhist modernisms of the early twentieth century.