JJRS > Volume 33 Issue 2 Kuroda Toshio (1926–1993) on Jōdo Shinshū: Problems in Modern Historiography

Yoshida, Tomoko

Download PDF

Kuroda Toshio’s revisionist history of medieval Japan is well known, but the historiography behind the revisions is not fully understood. This article first places Kuroda among other post-war Japanese intellectuals and then examines the particular significance of his work. Kuroda’s contribution is not limited to medieval history, but has much broader implications for comparative studies in areas such as the relationship between religion and politics or religion and the modernization process. Because Kuroda viewed the Pure Land Buddhist Sect, Jōdo Shinshū, as the most progressive and politically independent sect in the medieval period, Shinshū plays a particularly important role in Kuroda’s history of Japanese Buddhism.