Medical Discourses and Practices in Contemporary Japanese Religions

Abstract

In contemporary Japan, many religious actors engage in therapeutic practices with the intention of curing or preventing disease, whether in new religious movements and the Japanese New Age, in folk religion or in “established religions” ( kisei sh ū ky ō ). Notwithstanding the prominent role of Buddhist scriptures, temples, and priests in medical practice and knowledge in premodern Japan, the introduction of a public healthcare system in the Meiji era (1868–1912) based on German medicine resulted in a functional and institutional differentiation between medicine and religion. Therefore, the question arises how contemporary religious actors offering therapeutic practices can legitimize their actions and position themselves in Japanese society. By choosing the example of a Nichiren-Buddhist priest’s concepts of Buddhist medicine and Buddhism as medicine, as well as healing practices in a new religion called Perfect Liberty Ky ō dan, two strategies of legitimizing and positioning therapeutic practices in the religious field will be described: the scientification of religious practice, and code-switching between the semantic fields of medicine and religion.