Cultivating Spirituality: A Modern Shin Buddhist Anthology

Chapter 1: Shin Buddhism in the Meiji Period

ix FOREWORD on Shinran’s thought and the Shin fellowship through his study of not only Buddhism, but also a wide variety of Western philosophical works. To introduce the thought of these scholars, it was decided to translate of some of their most representative works. The problem then became which of these scholars’ works to translate, and whom to ask to do the translations. Fortunately, four extremely capable scholars agreed to help us with our project. Mark Blum, one of the editors of this volume, had been engaged in research into Shinran’s Kyøgyøshinshø 教行信証 as well as Shin thinkers in the modern period since he was a graduate student at the University of California. He came to Otani University to look into the life and thought of Kiyozawa Manshi, while also preparing an article on that subject for publication in The Eastern Buddhist. The late Jan Van Bragt, a Catholic priest who resided in Japan and served at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, was deeply impressed by modern Japanese thought, particularly the philosophy of religion developed by Nishitani Keiji 西谷啓治. His translation of Nishitani’s seminal collection of essays, Religion and Nothingness, has had an enormous impact on the ongoing dialogue between Christianity and Japanese religions. At the same time, Van Bragt was, from very early on, also familiar with the writings of Soga Ryøjin, who had    @      Robert Rhodes, the other editor of this volume, is a scholar of Buddhist studies whose area of expertise lies in Japanese and Chinese Buddhism. He developed a strong interest in Kaneko Daiei’s methodology for conducting Buddhist studies both during his time as a student at Otani University, where he came in contact with the academic tradition begun by Kaneko, and also while studying at Harvard University, where he became acquainted with Western academic methods. Paul Watt, a scholar of Japanese thought specializing in Jiun Sonja 慈雲尊者, a Shingon monk active in the late Edo period, had often visited the Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute to conduct research since he was teaching at Columbia University. By chance, he happened to read one of Yasuda Rijin’s works and was attracted to both Yasuda’s thought and his way of life as a Buddhist. When, at our request, Blum, Van Bragt, Rhodes, and Watt joined the International Buddhist Studies Research Group as guest researchers, we began holding meetings as often as possible to discuss the translations. Unfortunately, due to the busy schedules of the translators, we were not able to hold such meetings very frequently. However, these meetings were both stimulating and enjoyable. In x FOREWORD particular, Jan Van Bragt’s warm personality was always a source of inspiration for us. Deeply regretting his early passing, I cannot help but again feel awed remembering his many important achievements.3 After the careful editing of these translations by Professors Blum and Rhodes, this work has reached completion and we now have the opportunity to introduce one portion of the thought of modern Shin Buddhist thinkers to the people of the world. With a sense of respect for all of the hard work of the many people involved with this project, I want to express my deepest gratitude to those who have made this work possible. In closing, I would like to thank the many people who made these translations possible. First and foremost, I must express my appreciation to the four chief translators who put so much time and effort into the project. I must also thank members of the working group that reviewed the translations and handled the countless odd jobs that helped to make the project proceed smoothly: Higuchi Shoshin, Inoue Takami, Inui Fumio, Ito Ejin, Kaku Takeshi, Kigoshi Yasushi, Kuroda Shinji, Minoura Akio, Miyamoto Hirotaka, Miyashita Seiki, Ogawa Naohito, Ozawa Chiaki, Saito Ken, Tamura Akinori, Watanabe Hiromasa, and Yamamoto Kazuhiko. Finally, special thanks   &X   %       the translation and making valuable suggestions, saw the anthology         Yasutomi Shin’ya Former Chief of the International Buddhist Studies Research Group Otani University Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute Notes 1. Andreasen 1998. 2. Blum and Yasutomi 2006. 3. Hase 2008. xi Abbreviations It is our policy at the Institute to allow translators to use their own voices and therefore not require them to adhere to our own notions of how technical terms should be translated. Due to this and the fact that the translators worked on their projects independently, the reader will notice...