Articles
Women in Modern Nichiren Buddhism
Without the Salvation of Women, No Living Faith in the Lotus Sutra: Koizumi Kikue’s Feminist Nichirenism in Wartime Japan
Abstract
This article tells the story of Koizumi Kikue (1904–1992), an ordinary woman from the Tohoku region who became a leading figure in the East Asia League Movement (Tōa Renmei Undō), a Pan-Asianist and Nichirenist movement in wartime Japan. Koizumi developed into an independent Nichirenist thinker, writer, and activist whose faith inspired her advocacy for women’s liberation. A product of her time, she was also a radical nationalist and militarist, although these aspects were encapsulated in a larger Buddhist utopianism. The article argues that an analysis of Koizumi’s life and thought demonstrates that in contrast to its image as a closed and exclusivist movement, Nichirenism also proved open to, and functioned as a catalyst for, new ideas. Koizumi’s story shows the importance of carefully examining the lives and lived experience of practioners and less prominent figures in modern Buddhism. This article tells the story of Koizumi Kikue (1904–1992), an ordinary woman from the Tohoku region who became a leading figure in the East Asia League Movement (Tōa Renmei Undō), a Pan-Asianist and Nichirenist movement in wartime Japan. Koizumi developed into an independent Nichirenist thinker, writer, and activist whose faith inspired her advocacy for women’s liberation. A product of her time, she was also a radical nationalist and militarist, although these aspects were encapsulated in a larger Buddhist utopianism. The article argues that an analysis of Koizumi’s life and thought demonstrates that in contrast to its image as a closed and exclusivist movement, Nichirenism also proved open to, and functioned as a catalyst for, new ideas. Koizumi’s story shows the importance of carefully examining the lives and lived experience of practioners and less prominent figures in modern Buddhism.