Buddhist Studies in Japan: The Case of Takakusu Junjirō
In: Learning from the West, Learning from the East: The Emergence of the Study of Buddhism in Japan and Europe before 1900Search for other papers by Ōmi Toshihiro in
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Abstract
Takakusu Junjirō, an international scholar of Buddhism in modern Japan, developed various academic achievements and projects, based on his extensive Western experience since his youth. During his student days in Japan, he reinterpreted the temperance movement, which had originated in Christianity, from a Buddhist point of view, and promoted a Buddhist social reform movement to preserve the “national essence.” Afterwards, he went to study in England and other European countries, and after receiving academic training there, he established a form of Buddhist studies that made full use of his knowledge of Sanskrit and Pali as well as Chinese literature. After returning from Europe, Takakusu aimed for a “religious reform” based on new academic knowledge, and together with his colleagues he published the Taishō Canon to show the world the significance of Japanese research on Buddhism. Takakusu’s series of activities was aimed at overcoming the theory that the Mahāyāna was not really Buddhism, which had a great influence on modern Japanese Buddhism, and at the same time to spread Mahāyāna Buddhism to Western societies.