Kenneth Ken'ichi Tanaka (born 1947), also known as Kenshin Tanaka or Ken'ichi Tanaka is a scholar, author, translator and ordained
Jōdo Shinshū
, also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran.
Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.
History
Shinran ( ...
priest.
He is author and editor of many articles and books on modern
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
.
Biography
Tanaka was born in 1947 in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
but grew up in
Mountain View, California
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376.
Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...
.
He received his B.A in Anthropology from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1970. He then received his masters in Philosophy and Indian Studies and his Ph.D. through the Graduate School of Humanities Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.
In 1991 Tanaka was appointed the Rev. Yoshitaka Tamai Professor at the
Institute of Buddhist Studies
The Institute of Buddhist Studies is a Jodo Shinshu-affiliated seminary and graduate school, located in Berkeley, California. It is a member school of the Graduate Theological Union, also located in Berkeley. Its mission is to provide graduate lev ...
, an affiliate of the
Graduate Theological Union
The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...
at
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
. He was president of the Buddhist Council of Northern California and served as editor of ''Pacific World: The Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies''.
In 1995 he became the pastor of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church.
Tanaka is the author of numerous articles and books on the subject of
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
. He was interviewed as part of the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
report ''Tensions in American Buddhism'' in 2001 and
Talk of the Nation
''Talk of the Nation'' (''TOTN'')
is an American talk radio program based in Washington D.C., produced by National Public Radio (NPR) that was broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. It focused on current events and controversial issu ...
program of
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
.
In 1998 he became professor of
Buddhist Studies
Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarianism, Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the natur ...
at
Musashino University
is an institution of higher education in Ariake, a district in Kōtō, Tokyo, with a suburban campus in Nishitōkyō. Musashino University is uniquely focused on the ideals associated with the Hongwanji Jodo Shinshu School of Buddhism.
Histor ...
in
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. He produced and appeared in a television series sponsored by the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai foundation that aired in 2005, with DVDs later distributed.
He gave the keynote address at the 750th memorial observance of
Shinran
''Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture'' by Esben Andreasen, pp. 13, 14, 15, 17. University of Hawaii Press 1998, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the turbulent close of ...
in February 2010.
Works
* SUNY series in Buddhist studies
*
*
*
* Preface: "Responsibility" and Chapter 17: "Ethics in American Jōdo-Shinshū: Trans Ethical Responsibility"
* Volume 17 of ''Studies in East Asian Buddhism''
* Issue 8 of Faculty of philosophy, Dharma Endowment Lectures
*
*''The Eastern Buddhist New Series Vol. XXXVII'' (The Eastern Buddhist Society, 2005)
* Volume 58 of Buddhist traditions
*
References
External links
American Buddhism's Racial Divide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Kenneth K.
1947 births
20th-century Buddhists
21st-century Buddhists
American Buddhists
American Buddhist spiritual teachers
American Buddhist studies scholars
American academics of Japanese descent
American writers of Japanese descent
Buddhist translators
Buddhist writers
Living people
Japanese Buddhists
Japanese emigrants to the United States
Japanese scholars of Buddhism
Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests
Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhists
Shin Buddhists
University of California, Berkeley alumni