Who Gets to Represent Korean Buddhism? The Contest to Control Buddhism in Colonial Korea, 1920–1945

In 1920, a new Buddhist organization was formed to build a bridge between the Korean and Japanese Buddhist communities in colonial Korea. With support from the colonial government, the Association of Korean Buddhism (Chōsen Bukkyōdan) created a nationwide network, publications, large-scale public events, and missionary initiatives. As this association potentially undermined the established, indigenous leadership of the Korean Buddhist community, Korean Buddhist leaders reacted by making major changes in their own institution. This article reveals that the association, rendered by the historiography of colonial Korean Buddhism as ineffective and irrelevant, served as a major catalyst in the modern transformation of Korean Buddhism.