[Buddha-l] Re: Buddhist Intolerance?

[jkirk]

David Fiordalisi  wrote:
I wonder what conditions are necessary [my emphasis, JK]for the type of intolerance you describe. In other words, what position would Buddhism have to occupy in a society in order to be able to work actively to prevent others from practicing their religion? 
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  The conditions probably would always be political. 

  One of the most famous examples of Buddhists enforcing the practice of Buddhism (and/or Shinto) on the population while executing Christian converts is the politics that preceded the closing of Japan by the Tokugawa shogunate. Here is just one among many descriptive briefs on the topic of "Buddhist intolerance"-- as expressed by forced registration as Buddhist/Shinto, and persecution of Christians. The question here might be: was this "religious intolerance," or was it mainly political expediency?

  From http://experts.about.com/e/t/to/Tokugawa_shogunate.htm
  Seclusion and Social Control
  Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade but also was suspicious of outsiders. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he learned that the Europeans favored ports in Kyushu and that China had rejected his plans for official trade, he moved to control existing trade and allowed only certain ports to handle specific kinds of commodities.

  The "Christian problem" was, in effect, a problem controlling both the Christian daimyo in Kyushu and trade with the Europeans. By 1612 the shogun's retainers and residents of Tokugawa lands had been ordered to forswear Christianity. More restrictions came in 1616 (the restriction of foreign trade to Nagasaki and Hirado, an island northwest of Kyushu), 1622 (the execution of 120 missionaries and converts), 1624 (the expulsion of the Spanish), and 1629 (the execution of thousands of Christians). Finally, in 1635 an edict prohibited any Japanese from traveling outside Japan or, if someone left, from ever returning. In 1636 the Portuguese were restricted to Dejima, a small artificial island - and thus, not true Japanese soil - in Nagasaki's harbor.

  The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-38, in which discontented Christian samurai and peasants rebelled against the bakufu - and Edo called in Dutch ships to bombard the rebel stronghold - marked the end of the Christian movement, although some Christians survived by going underground. Soon thereafter, the Portuguese were permanently expelled, members of the Portuguese diplomatic mission were executed, all subjects were ordered to register at a Buddhist or Shinto temple, and the Dutch and Chinese were restricted, respectively, to Dejima and to a special quarter in Nagasaki. Besides small trade of some outer daimyo with Korea and the Ryukyu Islands, to the southwest of Japan's main islands, by 1641 foreign contacts were limited 
  ...to Nagasaki.

  Joanna Kirkpatrick

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