Gudo Uchiyama

Background

Gudo Uchiyama was born on May 17, 1874 in Kanagawa, Japan.

Education

Gudo Uchiyama learned the trade of carving wooden statues, including Buddhist statues and family altars, from his father. As a student, Uchiyama received a prefectural award for educational excellence and became influenced by Sakura Sōgorō. Uchiyama's father died when he was 16.

Career

Gudo Uchiyama was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1897 and became the abbot of Rinsenji temple amid the rural region of the Hakone Mountains in 1904, thus completing his Zen studies. In the same year that Gudō became abbot of Rinsenji, he reflected on the Chinese sangha of his Buddhist lineage as a model of communal lifestyle without private property. By this time, he had begun to identify as an anarcho-socialist after encountering the ideology in the newspaper Heimin Shimbun.

After government persecution pushed the socialist and anti-war movements in Japan underground, Gudō visited Kōtoku Shūsui in Tokyo in 1908 and purchased equipment which he later used to set up a secret press in his temple. One of his most widely read and circulated works was a "scathing denunciation" of the entire government of Japan and its autocratic system: In contrast to the official teachings at the time, he argued that the emperors of the Imperial family were neither divine nor the destined rulers of Japan.

Resulting from the popularity of Gudō's subversive publications, he was arrested in May 1909 and charged with violating press and publication laws. After searching Rinsenji, police claimed to have encountered materials used to make explosive devices. As a result, Gudō was tied to the High Treason Incident, in which 12 alleged conspirators were convicted and executed for plotting to assassinate the emperor in 1911.

Views

Gudo Uchiyama was an outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji emperor system, encouraging conscripts to desert en masse and advancing democratic rights for all. He criticized Zen leaders who claimed that low social position was justified by karma and who sold abbotships to the highest bidder.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Yoshida Kyuichi records that as Gudo climbed the scaffold stairs, "he gave not the slightest hint of emotional distress. Rather he appeared serene, even cheerful-so much so that the attending prison chaplain bowed as he passed."