In Meiji period, due to the influence of the anti-Buddhist movement, discussions on Buddhism became so lively that magazines were launched one after another all over the country.
Tomomatsu Entai (1895-1973), who established the "Historiographical Institute of Meiji Buddhism" in the early Showa period, sought the cooperation of temples throughout the country to collect these documents, which are extremely important for tracing Meiji Buddhism, in order to prevent their dispersion. Thus, a unique collection that transcends sectarian sects was born.
Now this new database contains over 1,000 selected volumes from this collection, mainly those not held by the National Diet Library of Japan and makes cross-sectional searches possible by magazine name, volume, publication date, headline, author, etc. This database allows smooth access to a vast number of articles, including editorials by a diverse group of authors, miscellaneous news and photos reporting on the trends of various sects and temples, and more. It is an essential database for multiple fields, including Buddhist studies, religious studies, intellectual history, folklore, publishing culture history, and modern history.
It is included in the J-DAC "Social and Cultural History Database," and cross-searches with existing rare magazine collections such as "Nihon Shinrei" are also possible.