Buddhism in Korea - Buddhism During Japanese Colonial Rule

Buddhism During Japanese Colonial Rule

Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 brought great suffering on the Korean people as a whole, and to the Korean sangha in particular, as it had to comply with an extensive set of Japanese regulations. Under the Meiji Restoration in Japan during the 1870s, the government abolished celibacy in the Buddhist monkhood, which violates the traditional Buddhist code of conduct, the Vinaya. Japanese Buddhists demanded the right to proselytize in the cities, lifting the five-hundred year ban on monks and nuns entering cities. The Japanese Jōdo Shinshū and Nichiren schools began sending missionaries to Korea. The formation of new Buddhist sects, such as Won Buddhism, combined with the presence of Christian missionaries during this period, led to further turbulence in traditional Korean Buddhism.

Soon after the Japanese annexation of Korea, Korean Buddhism encountered many changes. The Temple Ordinance of 1911 (寺刹令) virtually dismantled the traditional Korean system, whereby temples were run as a collective enterprise by the Sangha, replacing this system with Japanese-style management practices, in which temple abbots appointed by the Japanese Governor-General were given private ownership of temple property and given the rights of inheritance to such property. The new-found powers of the government-appointed abbots led to great fiscal abuses and excesses. More importantly, monks from pro-Japanese factions began to adopt Japanese practices, by marrying and having children. The Japanese practice of allowing Buddhist priests to marry contradicted the Vinaya and the lifestyle of Korean Buddhist monks and nuns, who traditionally lived as celibates.

In 1920, the Temple Ordinance was revised to reorganize temple administration and allow the Japanese government to directly oversee the 31 main temples in the country, with new headquarters at Kakwangsa (now Jogyesa). Following the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, Korean Buddhism was placed under greater control. Japanese authorities had many temples' artworks shipped to Japan. Negotiations for the repatriation of Korean Buddhist artworks are still ongoing.