Uchiyama Gudō

Uchiyma Gudo (May 17, 1874-January 24, 1911) was a Soto Zen priest and anarcho-socialist activist executed in the High Treason Incident. He was one of few Buddhist leaders who spoke out against the Meiji government in its imperialist projects. Gudo was an outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji emperor system, encouraging conscripts to desert en masse and advancing democratic rights for all (Victoria, 40 44 46). He criticized Zen leaders who claimed that low social position was justified by karma and who sold abbotships to the highest bidder (Victoria, 43).

Biography

Student, Village Priest and Social Activist

Uchiyama Gudo learned the trade of carving wooden statues, including Buddhist statues and family alters, from his father. As a student, Uchiyama received a prefectural award for educational excellence and became influenced by Sakura Sogoro. Uchiyama's father died when he was 16.

Gudo was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1897 and and became the abbot of Rinsenji temple amid the rural region of the Hakone Mountains in 1904, thus completing his Zen studies (Victoria, 39). According to town legend, every Autumn, he distributed the harvest of the temple's trees to local families, who were generally poor (Victoria, 40). In the same year that Gudo became abbot of Rinsenji, he reflected on the Chinese sangha of his Buddhist lineage as a model of communal lifestyle without private property. By this time, he had begun to identify as an anarcho-socialist after encountering the ideology in the newspaper Heimin Shimbun. Quoting passages from the Lotus Sutra and the Diamond Sutra in the January of 1904 edition of Heimin Shimbun, Gudo wrote:

As a propagator of Buddhism I teach that "all sentient beings have the Buddha nature" and that "within the Dharma there is equality, with neither superior nor inferior." Furthermore, I teach that "all sentient beings are my children." Having taken these golden words as the basis of my faith, I discovered that they are in complete agreement with the principles of socialism. It was thus that I became a believer in socialism (Victoria, 41)"

After government persecution pushed the socialist and anti-war movements in Japan underground, Gudo visited Kotoku Shusui in Tokyo in 1908 and purchased equipment which he later used to set up a secret press in his temple. Gudo used the printing equipment to turn out popular socialist tracts and pamphlets and also to publish some of his own work (Victoria, 43).

Imprisonment, Trial and Execution

Resulting from the popularity of Gudo's subversive publications, he was arrested in May of 1909 and charged with violating press and publication laws. After searching Rinsenji, police claim to have encountered materials used to make explosive devices. As a result, Gudo was tied to the High Treason Incident, in which 12 alleged conspirators were convicted and executed for plotting to assassinate the emperor in 1911 (Victoria, 45).

Yoshida Kyuichi records that as Gudo climbed the scaffold stairs:

he gave not the slightest hint of emotional distress. Rather he appeared serene, even cheerful-so much so that the attending prison chaplain bowed as he passed (Victoria, 48).

Deprivation and Restoration of Priesthood

In July of 1909, before Gudo's conviction, officials of the Soto Zen sect moved to deprive Gudo of his abbotship. After he was convicted, they deprived him of his status as a priest in June of 1910. Gudo continued to consider himself a priest until he died.

In 1993, the Soto Zen sect restored Gudo's status as a priest citing that "when viewed by today's standards of respect for human rights, Uchiyama Gudo's writings contain elements that should be regarded as farsighted" and that "the sect's actions strongly aligned the sect with an establishment dominated by the emperor system. They were not designed to protect the unique Buddhist character of the sect's priests" (Victoria, 47).

References

Books

• Victoria, Brian (1998). Zen at War. Weatherhill.