![Anesaki Masaharu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Anesaki_Masaharu.jpg)
, also known under his pen name , was a leading Japanese intellectual and scholar of the
Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
. Anesaki is credited as being the father of religious studies in Japan, but also wrote on a variety of subjects including culture, literature, and politics. He was also a member of the
International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, sometimes League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, was an advisory organization for the League of Nations which aimed to promote international exchange between scientists, r ...
of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
.
After studies in Philosophy at the
Tokyo Imperial University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
, he spent three years in Europe (1900–1903). During this time he studied under
Deussen,
Hermann Oldenberg
Hermann Oldenberg (31 October 1854 – 18 March 1920) was a German scholar of Indology, and Professor at Kiel (1898) and Göttingen (1908).
Work
Oldenberg was born in Hamburg. His 1881 study on Buddhism, entitled ''Buddha: Sein Leben, seine Lehr ...
,
Gerbe
In mathematics, a gerbe (; ) is a construct in homological algebra and topology. Gerbes were introduced by Jean Giraud (mathematician), Jean Giraud following ideas of Alexandre Grothendieck as a tool for non-commutative cohomology in degree 2. Th ...
, and
Albrecht Weber in Germany, as well as
Thomas William Rhys Davids
Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies.
...
in England.
He spent more than another year abroad in 1908–09 with partial support from
Albert Kahn, the French Philanthropist. During that time he traveled extensively through Italy, tracing the steps of Saint Francis of Assisi. His travelogue ''Hanatsumi Nikki'' (Flowers of Italy) recounts that journey.
He spent 1913 to 1915 as a visiting scholar at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
lecturing on Japanese literature and life. The lecture notes from this period were revised and were later the base for the book ''History of Japanese Religion''. He was also instrumental in founding the scholarly collection that became the library of the
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
.
A devout
Nichiren Buddhist
Nichiren Buddhism ( ja, 日蓮仏教), also known as Hokkeshū ( ja, 法華宗, meaning ''Lotus Sect'') is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of ...
, he also published such titles as "How Christianity appeals to a Japanese Buddhist" (Hibbert Journal, 1905). He translated Schopenhauer's ''
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung'' into Japanese and explored terms of understanding between Buddhism and Western Philosophy.
Selected works
* Nichiren: The Buddhist Prophet, 1916.
* Hanatsumi Nikki, 1909 (recently translated as Flowers of Italy, 2009)
* Quelques pages d'histoire religieuse du Japon, 1921
* A Concordance to the History of Kirishitan Missions, 1930
* History of Japanese Religion. With special Reference to the social and moral Life of the Nation, 1930
* Art, Life and Nature in Japan, 1933
* Religious Life of the Japanese People. Its present Status and historical Background, 1938
* Waga Shogai (My Life), 1951
References
Sources
*
Kitagawa, Joseph M. (1964), ''Review of History of Japanese Religion by Masaharu Anesaki'' The Journal of Religion 44 (3), pp. 273–274.
* Ishibashi, Tomonobu (1943)
Masaharu Anesaki. Ein kurzes Lebensbild Monumenta Nipponica 6 (1/2), i-x
* Isomae, Jun'ichi; Jacobowitz, Seth (2002), The Discursive Position of Religious Studies in Japan: Masaharu Anesaki and the Origins of Religious Studies. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 14 (1), 21-46
* Bloom, Alfred (May, 1964)
Review: History of Japanese Religion; with Special Reference to the Social and Moral Life of the Nation The Journal of Asian Studies 23 (3), 476
External links
International Dictionary of Intellectual HistoriansMasaharu Anesaki: A Life Chronology
Japanese academics
Japanese writers
Japanese non-fiction writers
English-language writers from Japan
1873 births
1949 deaths
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
University of Tokyo alumni
Nichiren Buddhists
Japanese Buddhists
Japanese scholars of Buddhism
League of Nations people
{{Japan-academic-bio-stub