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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2025
This article examines the activities of the Japanese Buddhist priest Ueda Tenzui (1899–1974) in wartime Thailand and Burma. Ueda initially went to Southeast Asia to pursue his studies of Buddhist precepts. During the war, he joined a pacification team of the Japanese military in occupied Burma and, as part of this role, became the headteacher of a Japanese language school. He was later ordained and served for some time as a monk in the Burmese Theravada tradition. Since the 1970s, research on Japanese Buddhist involvement in Japan’s wars has focused on criticizing those who cooperated with the war effort and praising those who resisted. In this regard, Ueda is unquestionably a ‘collaborator’. Yet, his case demonstrates the importance of the concept of the ‘grey zone’ between the two extremes of collaboration and resistance. While we have to acknowledge that Ueda acted in support of the war effort at the request of the military, he was also a scholar and a practitioner who deepened his understanding of Theravada Buddhism through personal experience. Ueda criticized the war after Japan’s defeat and also came to actively appreciate Burmese Buddhism’s strict adherence to the precepts. At the same time, he never showed a critical attitude towards Japanese Buddhism. Ueda’s thinking is characterized by his ability to find commonalities between Burmese and Japanese Buddhism without ranking them according to some hierarchy of superiority and inferiority, while also recognizing the differences that exist between these two branches of Buddhism.
1 Although Burma changed its English name to Myanmar in 1989, it was commonly called Burma before and after the Second World War, and the cited literature also uses Burma. Therefore, I will use ‘Burma’ in this article to avoid any confusion. Moreover, in Japan at that time, the terms ‘Hinayana Buddhism’ or ‘Southern Buddhism’ were used to indicate Theravada Buddhism, but since especially Hinayana Buddhism is a derogatory term used by Mahayana Buddhists, I will use ‘Theravada Buddhism’ in this article. However, when Hinayana or Southern Buddhism is used in the references cited, the original text is kept.
2 Bur. before Romanization indicates that the word is Burmese.
3 Kōji, Ōsawa, ‘Senjika Biruma ni okeru senbu katsudō to Nihonjin bukkyōsha—Ueda Tenzui wo chūshin ni’, Shūkyōgakuronshū, no. 27, 2008, pp. 67–97Google Scholar.
4 Kojima Takahiro, ‘Myanmā jōza bukkyō to Nihonjin—Senzen kara sengo ni kakete no kōryū to danzetsu’, in Bukkyō wo meguru Nihon to Tōnan Ajia chiiki, (ed.) Ōsawa Kōji (Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2016), pp. 43–64; and Kojima Takahiro, ‘Senchū sengo ni okeru Nihonjin to Biruma bukkyōto no kōryū’, Shūkyō kenkyū, no. 94 bessatsu, 2021, pp. 12–15.
5 Hakugen, Ichikawa, Bukkyōsha no sensō sekinin (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1970)Google Scholar; Kyōtoku, Nakano, ‘Chūgoku shinryaku sensō to shūkyō—shūkyōsha no sensō sekinin no akashi toshite’, Sekai, no. 316, 1972, pp. 53–68Google Scholar; Kyōtoku, Nakano (ed.), Kōza Nihon kindai to bukkyō 6—senjika no bukkyō (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1977)Google Scholar.
6 Itō Rikkyō, ‘Bukkyōto no “kusa no ne” teikō to junan’, in Kōza Nihon kindai to bukkyō 6, (ed.) Nakano Kyōtoku.
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21 Mizuno Kōgen, ‘Pāri bukkyō’, p. 54; and Jaffe, Seeking Sakyamuni, p. 233.
22 Mizuno Kōgen, ‘Pāri bukkyō’, p. 54.
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24 According to a chronological table of Japanese ossuaries in Thailand, Yoshioka was ordained in 1933: Taikoku Nihonjin nōkotsudō konryū gojusshūnen kinenshi (Koyasan: Kōyasan Shingonshū Taikoku Kaikyō Ryūgakusō no Kai, 1987), p. 750, but, based on Yoshioka’s own account, the period is from 1936 (Shōwa 11) to 1939 (Shōwa 14): Yoshioka Chikyo, ‘Taikoku Bukkyō no gaiken’, Mikkyō Kenkyū, no. 75, 1940, p. 100.
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27 Fujii Shinsui, ‘Nihonjin nōkotsudō konryū he no gaiyō—Nittai bukkyō shinzen kōryū wo fukumete’, in Kōyasan Shingonshū Taikoku Kaikyō Ryūgakusō no Kai, Taikoku nihonjin nōkotsudō konryū gojusshūnen kinenshi (Koyasan: Kōyasan Shingonshū Taikoku kaikyō ryūgakusō no Kai, 1987), pp. 5–6.
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30 Fujii Shinsui, Budda no saigen (Tokyo: Zenponsha, 1973), p. 56.
31 Ibid., p. 57.
32 Ibid., p. 61. The exact date of Fujii’s ordination as a bhikkhu is not known, but can be estimated to have occurred in 1933, based on a record dating to six months after he entered Wat Anong Karam in September 1932.
33 Fujii Shinsui, Budda no saigen, p. 57.
34 Yoshioka Chikyō, ‘Taikoku bukkyō no gaiken’, p. 100.
35 Ueda Tenzui, Gendai mikkyō no anshin, p. 108.
36 Jaffe, Seeking Shakyamuni.
37 Kōyasan Shingonshū Taikoku kaikyō ryūgakusō no kai, Taikoku nihonjin nōkotsudō konryū gojusshūnen kinenshi (Koyasan: Kōyasan Shingonshū Taikoku kaikyō ryūgakusō no kai, 1987), pp. 736 and 751.
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42 Ibid., p. 2.
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45 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, pp. 4–6.
46 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, pp. 106–107.
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50 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 118.
51 Ibid., p. 119.
52 Tenzui, Ueda, ‘Nihongo gakkō no sōsetsu to shoki no Rangūn Nihongo gakkō’, in Sekupan—Biruma Nihongo gakkō no kiroku, (ed.) kai, Sekupan (Tokyo: Shūdōsha, 1970), pp. 9–10Google Scholar.
53 Ueda Tenzui, Kairitsu no shisō to rekishi, p. 357.
54 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 123.
55 Ibid., pp. 123–124.
56 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 134.
57 Kawashima Tokumatsu, ‘Nihongo kyōkasho hensan yodan’, in Sekupan, (ed.) Sekupan kai, p. 52.
58 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 134.
59 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 50.
60 After the war, Ven. Withokda was known as the author of a Pali-Burmese dictionary. He also played an important role in the Sixth Buddhist Council (1954–1956), and was awarded the honorific monastic title, Aggamahāpaṇḍita, in 1956.
61 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 51.
62 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, pp. 148–149.
63 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 64.
64 Ibid., p. 25.
65 Ibid., p. 29.
66 Ibid., p. 65.
67 Ibid., pp. 66–67.
68 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 156.
69 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 30.
70 Ibid., pp. 31–32.
71 Ibid., pp. 69–70.
72 Ibid., pp. 70–71.
73 Tenzui, Ueda, Kairitsu shisōshi (Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1940), p. Google Scholar.
74 Ibid., p. 162.
75 The Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra is a large and influential doctrinal compendium, associated with Sanskritic Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogācāra. A considerable portion of the Sanskrit original, its Tibetan translation, and its Chinese translation still exists today. It presents ideas at a stage of transition from doctrines close to those of traditional schools such as Sabbatthivāda and Mahīśāsaka to those of Mahayana Buddhism.
76 Kakushin, Manai, Kōbō daishi no shūkyō yori mitaru Shina jihen no igi (Kyoto: Kōbō daishi kōtankai honbu, 1938), p. Google Scholar.
77 Shōtoku, Itō, ‘Shingonshū ni okeru senji kyōka no ichi yōsō—Shina jihen no zengo wo chūshin ni’, Rengeji bukkyō kenkyūjo kiyō, no. 14, 2021, pp. 295–298Google Scholar.
78 Ueda Tenzui, Kairitsu shisōshi, p. 163.
79 Ibid., p. 200.
80 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 157.
81 Ibid., p. 159.
82 Ibid., p. 161.
83 Ōsawa Kōji, ‘Bukkyō gakusha no Ueda Tenzui to rikugun chūjō no Mutaguchi Ren’ya’, p. 94.
84 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 83.
85 Ibid., p. 84.
86 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 10.
87 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 118.
88 Ueda Tenzui, Nanpō bukkyō shūgakuki, p. 30.
89 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 155.
90 Ibid., pp. 236–237.
91 Ibid., p. 237.
92 Ibid., pp. 237–238.
93 Ibid., p. 161.
94 Ibid., p. 166.
95 Guyot, Dorothy, ‘The uses of Buddhism in wartime Burma’, Asian Studies, no. 7, 1969, p. Google Scholar.
96 Ibid., pp. 60–62.
97 Ibid., p. 50.
98 For example, Cady, A history of modern Burma, pp. 464–465; and Mendelson, Sangha and state in Burma, pp. 236–239.
99 Takeshi, Ishida, Nihon no seiji to kotoba (ge)—‘Heiwa’ to ‘kokka’ (Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai, 1989), pp. 92–106Google Scholar.
100 Ueda Tenzui, Seimei aru dentō.
101 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, p. 234.
102 Ibid., p. 1.
103 Nishimura Akira, ‘Irei to heiwa’’, in Haisen kara kōdo seichō e: Haisen-Shōwa chūki, Kindai nihon shūkyōshi 5 (Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 2021), pp. 189–192.
104 The interview with Ven. Nakashita Zuihō was conducted at Jōfukuin on 10 May 2014.
105 Ichihara Mizumaro, Pagoda he no michi jōkan: Shūkotsu no tabi (Kitakyushu: Asahi shinbun seibu honsha henshū shuppan sentā, 1988); Ichihara Mizumaro, Pagoda he no michi chūkan: Konryū hiwa (Kitakyushu: Asahi shinbun seibu honsha henshū shuppan sentā, 1992); and Mori Sodō, ‘Biruma sen’yūkai tō no busshari hōshi: Jirei kenkyū’, in Nanpō Jōzabukkyō no tenkai to sōgo kōryū ni kansuru sōgōteki kenkyū, (ed.) Mori Sodō (Heisei 4-5 nendo monbushō kagaku kenkyūhi [sōgōkenkyū A] hōkokusho, 1994), pp. 116–132.
106 Ueda Tenzui, Biruma senseki junreiki, pp. 224–225.
107 Ibid., pp. 230–231.