Buddhist priest
Professor of English at the Ryūkoku University in Kyoto.
Nishū 宇津木二秀 in Hong Kong During the Japanese Occupation Period (1941–1945).
In February 1942, two months after Japan occupied Hong Kong, Utsuki Nishū, a Nishihonganji priest with a remarkable track record of international collaboration and a professor of English at the Ryūkoku University in Kyoto, was transferred to the missionary unit of his temple and later dispatched to the former British colony. Utsuki then began his career as a representative of the local chapter of Nishihonganji, and was entrusted by the Japanese military government with oversight of local Buddhist affairs. Like many of his progressive co-religionists from the late-Meiji/Taishō period, Utsuki was keen to share his vision of brotherhood and solidarity with his fellow overseas Buddhists in the newly-minted Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. As the brutality of the Pacific War continued, leading ultimately to the defeat of Japan, the gap between Chinese and Japanese Buddhism proved to be too wide to be mended, and Utsuki’s vision untenable. The legacy of Utsuki’s effort nonetheless survived, most notably in the formation of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, as well as the beginning of a long process of reconciliation between Chinese and Japanese Buddhists.
Japanese Buddhism in Hong Kong Prior to and at the Beginning of the Japanese Occupation.
Prior to Japan’s unannounced invasion of Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, Japanese Buddhism already had decades of presence in the British colony, largely serving the local Japanese expatriate community.1 While Japanese Buddhist missionary activities of various sects began in Mainland China as early as the early Meiji Period, only two sects successfully established.