Conclusion

Evolutionary theory was not passively accepted but actively interpreted, constructed, and used over the course of a century. In pre-war Japan evolutionary theory and religion clashed mainly for political reasons. But overall religious thought and evolutionary theory mutually stimulated each other. Throughout Japanese modern history, religious thinkers tried to come to terms with evolution while rejecting materialist and individualist interpretations of nature, and find alternatives to the "struggle for survival" by finding the divine in nature and evolution itself.

“Evolutionary Theory Is the Superstition of Modernity”

The 1930s and the wartime period saw the rise of religious—mainly Shintō—antievolutionary thought. Evolutionary theory took on a complex role in this period, as it was discussed by biologists, Marxists, liberals, Kyoto School philosophers, and Shintō ideologues, among whom Kihira Tadayoshi is the central figure. Antievolutionary thought in Japan emerged largely as a reaction against the use of evolution by the Japanese Left, and also as part of a larger skepticism and reaction against modernity, ideas of progress, and the West. Evolutionary theory was attacked for its association with both liberalism and Marxism. Ultimately, despite the conflict between religiously inspired state ideology, evolutionary theory and religion found an uneasy coexistence.

Evolution, Individuals, and the Kokutai

The Meiji period saw the development of political tensions between evolutionary theory and the emerging kokutai ideology of the Japanese state. Kokutai ideology emerged as an unstable hybrid of mainly Shintō, but also Confucianism, Bushidō, and other religious and semi-religious elements. Important ideological thinkers began to reject elements of evolutionary theory, finding the “struggle for survival,” materialism, and individualism in tension with kokutai ideology and its emphasis on harmony, obedience, and spirit. Herbert Spencer’s influence waned and his thought was criticized.

Kannon’s Enduring Embrace

Postwar Japan saw a remarkable popularity and influence of non-selectionist theories of evolution. This can be seen most noteably in the works of Imanishi Kinji, postwar Japan’s most well-known and controversial biologist. Through his appropriation of the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō, Imanishi’s ideas, among those of others, contain a strong religious, mainly Buddhist, component, and took on a quasi-religious role in postwar society. Imanishi’s influence meant that Japanese religious thought indirectly exerted a subtle influence on biology worldwide.

The Promise of Utopia

In early twentieth century Japan, socialists and anarchists appropriated evolutionary theory and reoriented evolutionary theory to the Left. They promoted ideas of materialism with a critique of the ideology of the kokutai and State Shintō, thus triggering clashes between evolutionary theory and the ideology of the state. This development was balanced by the emergence of new visions of evolutionary utopianism, with Buddhist and Christian variants. New theories of evolution were introduced, such as those of Kropotkin and Bergson, and theories of vitalism emerged as a new form of resisting materialism. Utopianists, such as Kita Ikki, Kagawa Toyohiko, and Nichiren Buddhists, used evolutionary theory to predict extreme optimistic visions of the future. Both the left and utopianists deployed evolutionary theory to produce visions of modernization and progress that were very different from the vision of modernization produced by the state or by the religious ideology of the kokutai.

The Dharma after Darwin

Modernizing Buddhists such as Inoue Enryo in the Meiji period actively and creatively embraced, interpreted, and disseminated evolutionary theory. Buddhists also created new evolutionary theories. This was partly because of the competition between Buddhists and Christians. Religious plurality and competition stimulated the dissemination of scientific thought. Buddhism also stimulated creative biological thought, especially in the works of Minakata Kumagusu and Oka Asajiro. In contrast to associating evolutionary theory with nineteenth century progress, Buddhists often casted doubt on evolution as progressive.

The Religious Transmission of Evolutionary Theory in Meiji-Era Japan

Religion was a crucial mediating factor in the early transmission of evolutionary theory to Japan. Even before the Meiji period, certain evolutionary ideas appeared within a religious context. Evolutionary theory and Christianity arrived in Japan in the same period, and conflict ensued as the early conveyors of evolutionary theory, such as Edward S. Morse and Ernest Fenollosa presented the theory as one that delegitimized Christianity; simultaneously, several important Christian missionaries and Japanese Christian thinkers, presented science and Christian faith as part of one package necessary for the modernization of Japan.

Introduction

In 1935, Nishida Kitarō, modern Japan’s most important philosopher and, at the time, also a well-known public intellectual, was invited to a government committee for the reform of education. Nishida was not too enthusiastic about it. After economic crises, attempted coup d’états, and political assassinations, Japanese society had been in turmoil for some years. Tensions with the West were rising and, under pressure within from military and right-wing movements, the country was steering away from democracy. Marxism enthralled many students and intellectuals, while government- and right-wing ideologues, alarmed as much by the rampant consumerism in the cities as by international communism, were calling for a spiritual mobilization and unity under the emperor, who was considered a descendant of the Shintō gods. At this committee, Kihira Tadayoshi, who is now forgotten but at the time was a well-known philosopher and professor working for the Ministry of Education, circulated a proposal. Nishida was aghast at its contents, but did not dare to protest openly. These were dangerous times. But Nishida did complain in private, writing to his friend, the philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō:...