近世浄土真宗修学僧に関する一考察 : 農民子弟の学寮修学と寺院住持

It is known that Japan was a hierarchical society based on status in the Edo Period. Was it possible for people to catch opportunities to change their social status under the class system? The system was a rigid framework, however, we should have a thought that the class system had also a certain degree of flexibility which allowed for the status mobility. For example, a career path of changing status among people could be notable in the track of becoming Buddhist priests. That is to say, people who became priests were basically children of farmers, merchants, artisans and so on. They were educated for Buddhism for several years and then entered each temple to work and live as a chief priest.
In this paper, three priests’ careers in the Jodo Shinshu sect are examined. Particularly, a case of Gijo, who was born as the second son of a farming family in Owari Province in the end of the nineteenth century and became a priest, is analysed by his letters. Gijo got an education of Buddhism at Gakuryo, the central educational institution attached to Higashi Honganji Temple in Kyoto, and during his stay at Gakuryo he wrote several letters to his home temple in Owari Province which he entered into priesthood.
One end of the possibility of changing social status was opened to people including farmers for becoming priests. Each of Buddhist sects established its own educational institution like Gakuryo at Higashi Honganji Temple around the middle of seventeenth century. It is pointed out that these educational institutions for priests played a role of channel to change people’s given status into newly priest status.