Meiji Prison Religion

Abstract

This article examines the origins of prison proselytization in Japan in the 1870s and 1880s by exploring the relationship between the Great Promulgation Campaign (daikyō senpu undō 大教宣布運動) and the development of a modern carceral system. It argues that prison chaplaincy (kyōkai 教誨) developed as the “spiritual successor” to the Great Promulgation Campaign’s national instructor (kyōdōshoku 教導職) system. The article concludes that local activism on the part of Buddhists was the driving force behind the introduction of Buddhist teachings to prisons and that Buddhists mobilized in this way because they found it politically advantageous to position themselves as guardians of the public good.