Nanjō Bun'yū (南条文雄) (1 July 1849 – 9 November 1927) was a Buddhist priest and one of the most important modern Japanese scholars of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. Nanjō was born to the abbot of Seiunji Temple (誓運寺), part of the Shinshu Ōtani sect (真宗大谷派) of the

Higashi Hongan-ji , or, "the Eastern Monastery of the Original Vow", is one of two dominant sub-sects of Shin Buddhism in Japan and abroad, the other being Nishi Honganji (or, 'The Western Temple of the Original Vow'). It is also the name of the head temple of t ...

(東本願寺) branch of

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran (founder) S ...

Biography

Nanjō studied Classical Chinese texts and Buddhist doctrine in his youth before being sent to

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in 1876 to study

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

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from European scholars, including

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born British comparative philologist and oriental studies, Orientalist. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indology and religious s ...

, under whom Bunyu studied in

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. While there he met the Chinese Buddhist Yang Wenhui, whom he helped to acquire some three hundred Chinese Buddhist texts that had been lost in China to be reprinted at Yang's printing house in Nanjing. In September 1880, Nanjō examined and cataloged a complete edition of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist

Tripitaka There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons.

that had been gifted to the India Office Library in London by the Japanese government. He determined that the India Office Library collection contained the same works as those mentioned in the oldest catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka compiled in 520 AD. Nanjō endeavored to make the Buddhist canon more accessible to practitioners. He did this in part by collaborating with Maeda Eun to compile the **Bukkyō Seiten** (仏教聖典), also known as the 'Buddhist Bible,' published in 1906 by Sanseidō. He returned to Japan in 1884 and served as a professor or head of a number of Buddhist seminaries and universities until his death.

Major publications

* (Co-editor with F. Max Müller) ''Buddhist Texts from Japan.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881–84. * Nanjo Bunyu (1883). '' A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, Compiled by Order of the Secretary of State for India.'' Oxford, Clarendon Press. * '' A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects. Translated from the Original Japanese by Bunyiu Nanjio.'' Tokyo, Bukkyo-Sho-ei-yaku-Shuppan-sha, 1886. * (Co-author) ''An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, with Copious Illustrations, by Capt. F. Brinkley.'' Tokyo, Sanseido

896 __NOTOC__ Year 896 ( DCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * February – King Arnulf of Carinthia invades Italy at the head of an East Frankish expeditionary army. He storms ...

* B. Nanjio (ed.). The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Kyoto, Otani University Press 1923 n Nāgarī * H. Kern; B. Nanjio (ed.); ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīka;'' St. Pétersbourg 1908-1912 (Imprimerie de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences), XII, 507 S.; Sert.: Bibliotheca Buddhica, 10 [In Nāgarī
Vol.1Vol. 2Vol 3Vol. 4Vol. 5
* Maeda Eun and Nanjo Bunyu
Bukkyō Seiten 仏教聖典
Tokyo: Sanseidō. 1906.

Notes

References

1849 births 1927 deaths Japanese academics Japanese scholars of Buddhism Japanese Buddhist clergy Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests {{Japan-reli-bio-stub