The Pure Heart: A Medieval Japanese Buddhist Political Theory of Legitimacy

Due to narratives stemming from the currently-dominant Eurocentric belief-system, contemporary works on legitimacy generally avoid the inclusion of ‘belief’ as a core analytical tool. However, pioneer of social science studies Max Webber clarified in The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) the necessary relationship between beliefs and legitimacy when he demonstrated that structures of authority/power can never be legitimate based only on their existence alone; rather, they find their legitimacy through the belief system which sustains them. This means that to understand catalyzers of political change – even more so the legitimizing of new political dynamics – political theorists need to set aside their Eurocentric assumptions and start engaging with beliefs seriously again.

Translating and applying an East-Asian commentary methodology to texts written in the Heian 平安 (794-1185) and Kamakura 鎌倉 (1185-1333) era of Japanese history, this work excavates key beliefs that play a central role in discussions surrounding politics. More specifically, this work focuses on passages found in the works of Buddhist authors, namely Eisai 栄西 (1141-1215), Dōgen 道元 (1200-1253), and Nichiren 日蓮 (1222-1282). Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to systematize these passages into a coherent medieval Japanese Buddhist political theory of legitimacy, while clarifying the core beliefs in which this theory is anchored. This work first establishes that the medieval Japanese Buddhist political theory of legitimacy places at its core beliefs in the heart (kokoro 心), purity (shōjō 淸淨) and karma (gō 業), and proposes political analyses of and solutions to legitimate leadership stemming from such beliefs.