Nanjō Bunyū’s sanskritization of Buddhist studies in modern Japan
- Author
- Paride Stortini (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This chapter analyzes the role played by the Jōdo Shinshū priest and scholar Nanjō Bunyū (1849–1927) in introducing modern approaches to the study of Sanskrit and Indology in Japanese Buddhist studies. Traditional narratives of such process focus on Nanjō’s period of study at Oxford under the philologist and scholar of religion Friedrich Max Müller, suggesting the idea of a one-way transfer of knowledge from Europe to Japan. Contrary to such narratives, this paper shows how Nanjō actively redeployed ideas about language and religion learnt in Europe to defend the goodness of the Mahāyāna and of Pure Land doctrines, that were criticized as a corruption of the original teaching of Shakyamuni by Western Orientalists. In addition, he contradicted the expectations of Max Müller, who saw his Japanese pupil as a forerunner of a renewal of Japanese Buddhism through the rediscovery of its ancient Indian sources that would prepare the ground for dialogue with Christianity. Instead of disavowing his faith in Pure Land, Nanjō proposed a view of Buddhism, specifically the one developed in Japan, as a model for the Western societies whose loss of faith and spirituality had fueled the atrocities of the first World War.
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01HD3XN6QBKFXZJ91X2P5ZXEBV
- MLA
- Stortini, Paride. “Nanjō Bunyū’s Sanskritization of Buddhist Studies in Modern Japan.” Buddhism in the Global Eye : Beyond East and West, edited by John S. Harding et al., Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, pp. 137–49, doi:10.5040/9781350140660.0018.
- APA
- Stortini, P. (2020). Nanjō Bunyū’s sanskritization of Buddhist studies in modern Japan. In J. S. Harding, V. S. Hiro, & A. Soucy (Eds.), Buddhism in the global eye : beyond east and west (pp. 137–149). https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350140660.0018
- Chicago author-date
- Stortini, Paride. 2020. “Nanjō Bunyū’s Sanskritization of Buddhist Studies in Modern Japan.” In Buddhism in the Global Eye : Beyond East and West, edited by John S. Harding, Victor Sogen Hiro, and Alexander Soucy, 137–49. London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350140660.0018.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Stortini, Paride. 2020. “Nanjō Bunyū’s Sanskritization of Buddhist Studies in Modern Japan.” In Buddhism in the Global Eye : Beyond East and West, ed by. John S. Harding, Victor Sogen Hiro, and Alexander Soucy, 137–149. London: Bloomsbury Academic. doi:10.5040/9781350140660.0018.
- Vancouver
- 1.Stortini P. Nanjō Bunyū’s sanskritization of Buddhist studies in modern Japan. In: Harding JS, Hiro VS, Soucy A, editors. Buddhism in the global eye : beyond east and west. London: Bloomsbury Academic; 2020. p. 137–49.
- IEEE
- [1]P. Stortini, “Nanjō Bunyū’s sanskritization of Buddhist studies in modern Japan,” in Buddhism in the global eye : beyond east and west, Univ British Columbia, Vancouver, CANADA, 2020, pp. 137–149.
@inproceedings{01HD3XN6QBKFXZJ91X2P5ZXEBV,
abstract = {{This chapter analyzes the role played by the Jōdo Shinshū priest and scholar Nanjō Bunyū (1849–1927) in introducing modern approaches to the study of Sanskrit and Indology in Japanese Buddhist studies. Traditional narratives of such process focus on Nanjō’s period of study at Oxford under the philologist and scholar of religion Friedrich Max Müller, suggesting the idea of a one-way transfer of knowledge from Europe to Japan. Contrary to such narratives, this paper shows how Nanjō actively redeployed ideas about language and religion learnt in Europe to defend the goodness of the Mahāyāna and of Pure Land doctrines, that were criticized as a corruption of the original teaching of Shakyamuni by Western Orientalists. In addition, he contradicted the expectations of Max Müller, who saw his Japanese pupil as a forerunner of a renewal of Japanese Buddhism through the rediscovery of its ancient Indian sources that would prepare the ground for dialogue with Christianity. Instead of disavowing his faith in Pure Land, Nanjō proposed a view of Buddhism, specifically the one developed in Japan, as a model for the Western societies whose loss of faith and spirituality had fueled the atrocities of the first World War.}},
author = {{Stortini, Paride}},
booktitle = {{Buddhism in the global eye : beyond east and west}},
editor = {{Harding, John S. and Hiro, Victor Sogen and Soucy, Alexander}},
isbn = {{9781350140639}},
language = {{eng}},
location = {{Univ British Columbia, Vancouver, CANADA}},
pages = {{137--149}},
publisher = {{Bloomsbury Academic}},
title = {{Nanjō Bunyū’s sanskritization of Buddhist studies in modern Japan}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.5040/9781350140660.0018}},
year = {{2020}},
}
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