Kanzo Uchimura and His Time（１） ―The lese majesty incident

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  • 内村鑑三とその時代（１）―不敬事件
  • ウチムラ カンゾウ ト ソノ ジダイ(1)フケイ ジケン

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Abstract

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Kanzo Uchimura （1861-1930） was a representative Japanese Christian who exerted great influence on modern Japanese Christian history. This article refers to the Lese Majesty Incident in which Uchimura was prominently involved. This important affair symbolized the collision between Japanese national polity, kokutai, and Christianity, and resulted in the persecution of Christianity. The incident happened because Uchimura rejected the worship specified in the Imperial Rescript on Education, causing a dispute over the compatibility of Christianity and national education based on the rescript, or kokutai. Tetsujirou Inoue （1856-1944）, a famous Tokyo Imperial University professor, attacked Uchimura and Christianity by publishing a series of articles named Collision between Education and Religion. In response to this criticism, Tokio Yokoi, of the Kumamoto faction, Masahisa Uemura, from Yokohama and Uchimura who came from Sapporo, refuted Inoue‘s thesis from their own standpoints. This article tries to clarify Uchimura and Uemura’s standpoint on the one side and the problematic standpoint of the Kumamoto faction on the other, and point out two different responses within Christianity concerning the relationship between Chistianity and kokutai. Also we must remember that this difference is closely connected with theological issues, that is: orthodox theology as distinct from liberal theology. We will deal with this issue in the next article: Kanzo Uchimura and His Time（ 2） - Theological issues.

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