Gereon Kopf

Editor

Francesca Soans
Assistant Editor

The Dao Companion

to Japanese Buddhist
Philosophy
Editor
Gereon Kopf
Luther College
Decorah, IA, USA
University of Iceland
Reykjavík, Iceland

ISSN 2211-0275 ISSN 2542-8780 (electronic)

Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy
ISBN 978-90-481-2923-2 ISBN 978-90-481-2924-9 (eBook)
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Introduction

When Dr. Yong Huang asked me whether I was interested in editing the Dao
Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy, I said, of course, “Yes!” These are
exciting times for scholars in the field of Japanese Philosophy and Buddhist
Philosophy as the visibility of these fields in academia has increased sharply. New
academic societies such as the International Association of Japanese Philosophy
and the International Society for Buddhist Philosophy (ISBP), journals such as the
Journal of Japanese Philosophy as well as the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, and
academic positions dedicated to these two areas have been added to previously
existing ones in Comparative Philosophy, Japanology, and Buddhist Studies. At the
same time and interestingly enough, the field of Japanese Buddhist philosophy still
seems to lead some kind of shadow existence. Buddhist philosophy is often attrib-
uted, if not limited, to texts and thinkers of the South East Asian Buddhist traditions,
while Japanese philosophy is mostly associated with post-Meiji Japanese responses
to Continental philosophy and often reduced to the philosophers of the Kyoto
School and their successors. When Japanese Buddhist philosophy is mentioned, it is
frequently limited to the “usual suspects,” Kūkai 空海 (774–835) and Dōgen 道元
(1200–1253), with, perhaps, a sprinkling of Kyoto School philosophy.
Due to historical reasons addressed in quite a few of the chapters in this volume,
premodern Japanese intellectual achievements have been usually classified as
“thought” (J. shisō 思想) and thus demarcated from “philosophy” (J. tetsugaku 哲
学) as such. Post-Meiji and contemporary Buddhist thought, on the other hand, has
been identified as “critical-constructive reflection,” to use the classification of the
A.A.R., of “engaged Buddhism” and thus, again, distinguished from philosophy
proper. INOUE Enryō 井上円了 (1858–1919) applied the term “Buddhist philoso-
phy” (J. bukkyō tetsugaku 仏教哲学) to premodern Japan, but his usage is far from
being accepted as the norm or even as convention. TAKEMURA Makio’s 竹村牧男
Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction (J. Nyūmon: tetsugaku toshiteno bukkyō
入門:哲学としての仏教), published in 2009, drew up a first draft of how to con-
ceive of Japanese Buddhist philosophy as philosophy and constitutes an important
step in the perception of Japanese Buddhist philosophy as philosophy but, unfortu-
nately, has not yet been translated into English. However, the by now famous

v
vi Introduction

Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook (2011) was probably the first volume to take
seriously the task of discussing Japanese premodern and contemporary Buddhist
philosophy as philosophy and, as such, it constitutes a good place to start our dis-
cussion. The key question that the Sourcebook raises is how we can conceive of and
talk about Japanese Buddhist philosophy. This is the question this volume seeks to
answer.
Concretely, the questions this volume wants to clarify are the following: What is
philosophy? What is the Japanese Buddhist tradition? How do Japanese Buddhists
do philosophy? What are the sources, questions, and principles that drive Japanese
Buddhist philosophy? What is “Buddhist” about Japanese Buddhist philosophy?
What is “Japanese” about Japanese Buddhist philosophy? What are the classics and
what is the canon of Japanese Buddhist philosophy? How does their philosophy
shape the worldview, beliefs, practices, ethics, and self-understanding of the
Japanese Buddhists? How does Japanese Buddhist philosophy help understand
Buddhism, Japanese identity, and/or philosophy? What is the relevance of Japanese
Buddhist philosophy for Japanese Buddhism in particular, Buddhism in general,
and, even more universally, humanity? How does Japanese Buddhist philosophy
help us understand what it means to be human?
The formulation of these guiding questions seems to imply that “Japanese
Buddhism,” “Buddhism,” and even “philosophy” are, in some sense, monolithic,
have an identifiable essence, and can be clearly distinguished from those areas and
discourses the category “Japanese Buddhist philosophy” seems to exclude. A quick
reading of the essays in this volume, however, demonstrates that despite the fact that
it is easy and, in some sense, necessary, to use the category “Japanese Buddhist
philosophy,” the very assumptions this term arouses are rather difficult, to say the
least. So is the question of the canon of Japanese Buddhist philosophy, that is, the
sine qua non that has to be included in such a volume.
The answer to these questions is, of course, an immense task and thus demands
a monumental work to tackle them. Nothing less has been attempted in this volume.
To solve this task, this volume has drawn on the expertise of three academic disci-
plines, philosophy, religious studies, and Japanology, as well as the wisdom of
established scholars and the enthusiasm of a new generation of experts in the field
of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. The essays of Richard Payne, John Maraldo,
Makio Takemura, as well as Rein Raud, Pamela Winfield, Ralf Müller, and Tomomi
Asakura, examine and, to some degree, destabilize the very category that gave our
volume its title, “Japanese Buddhist philosophy.” Rein Raud and Pamela Winfield
explore the limits and limitations of the discipline and the discourse of philoso-
phy––the former by emphasizing the philosophy of poems and the poetry of phi-
losophy, the latter by analyzing Shingon art as an embodiment of philosophy.
Interestingly enough, INOUE Enryō, the first Japanese to use the term “Buddhist
philosophy,” built a park, the “Park of the Philosophy Temple” (J. tetsugakudō kōen
哲学堂公園), to visualize his philosophy as outlined in his famous Buddhist
Philosophy (J. Bukkyō tetsugaku 仏教哲学). Ralf Müller and Tomomi Asakura
investigate if and how it is meaningful to delineate separate traditions even though
their representatives interacted and influenced each other.
Introduction vii

Michiko Yusa, Manabu Watanabe, and James Shield challenge the canon of and
the ideology associated with Japanese Buddhism. Michiko Yusa highlights the role
of women as authors and subjects of Japanese Buddhist philosophy usually forgot-
ten in introductions and surveys. Manabu Watanabe and James Shields question the
widespread assumptions that Buddhists in general are peace-loving and, ironically,
that Japanese Buddhists of the Meiji and early Shōwa periods tended to be nation-
alistic. The image of Japanese Buddhists is further diversified by the essays of
Saeko Kimura, James Ford, Steffen Döll, Shūdō Ishii, and Makio Takemura insofar
as these authors introduce what can be called the minority report of Buddhist phi-
losophers in Japan. Andrew Whitehead, Enshō Kobayashi, Rainer Schulzer,
Toshi’ichi Endō, Robert Rhodes, and Brett Davis add the voices of Buddhist phi-
losophers well known in Japan but rarely, if at all, heard in the Anglophone world.
Finally, my colleagues who wrote about the “big names” of Japanese Buddhist phi-
losophy, Victor Forte, Mark Blum, David Gardiner, Steven Heine, Dennis Hirota,
Ruben Habito, Juhn Ahn, Michiko Yusa, Mayuko Uehara, André van Braak, and
John Krummel did so by exploring new themes and highlighting features and con-
cepts hitherto neglected or devalued.
Every reader who takes time to plough through this rather extensive volume will
soon recognize central names and common themes as well as multiple and dissonant
variations. There are common names such as Prince Shōtoku 聖徳太子 (574–622),
Kūkai, and Dōgen who are evoked as the foundation of the canon but also as the rep-
resentatives of an identity of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. This identity was con-
structed and reinforced only during the Meiji (1886–1912) and Shōwa (1926–1989)
periods by ideologues as well as by philosophers such as INOUE Enryō, WATSUJI
Tetsurō 和辻哲郎 (1898–1960), and NISHITANI Keiji 西谷啓治 (1900–1990).
Thus, the idea of a Japanese Buddhist philosophical identity is a decisively modern
construct. The tension that runs through all the essays in our volume is that between
the myth of one “Japanese Buddhist philosophy” and the fact that there were, and are,
Buddhist thinkers in Japan doing philosophy with tremendous implications on how
we human beings conceive of ourselves. This is the thesis of Takemura’s Buddhism as
Philosophy: An Introduction and Chap. 3 of this volume. Each chapter plays a slightly
different variation of the theme “culturally specific expression and discourse with
universal ramifications,” whether it is the construction or the destabilization of a cul-
tural or discursive identity, whether it is a reflection on individual Buddhist religious
systems or a contribution to a particular philosophical problem, whether it is a passing
observation or a profound and earth-shattering insight. It is my hope that this volume
will inspire passion for the Japanese culture, the Buddhist tradition, and the philo-
sophical discipline; that it will open the eyes of the reader to appreciate many, and
perhaps new, ways of doing philosophy and thinking about the world. Most of all, it is
my hope that this volume will facilitate a deeper understanding of what it means to be
human. If only one reader gains such an understanding, then all the work that went
into this volume was worth the effort.
It is, of course, impossible to produce such a massive volume by oneself. It is
thanks to the vision of Dr. Yong Huang and the patience of the editors at Springer
that this volume is finally able to see the light of day. Of course, this publication
viii Introduction

would not have been possible without the above-mentioned contributors and the
translators, Eiji Suhara, Ching-yuen Cheung, and John Krummel, who donated their
expertise and time to this work. I would like to thank John Krummel and Francesca
Soans, who helped with proofing and formatting during the challenging editing pro-
cess. I also thank my assistants who helped during the various stages of the book
over the years, Hannah Lund, Kat Bay, Joie Tanaka, Mengyu Duan, Lauren Knuckey,
and Ngoc Ho as well as the Dean’s office at Luther College who lent financial sup-
port. Finally, I would like to thank all the mentors and friends who inspired and
motivated me to take on and see through this project through the years: James
Heisig, Richard Payne, Makio Takemura, Jin Park, Michiko Yusa, Tsutomu Sagara,
Rein Raud, Mayuko Uehara, Patrick Malloy, Aleksi Järvelä, Timothy Knepper,
Ching-yuen Cheung, and Francesca Soans. The many conversations and expres-
sions of support have been an incredible inspiration and motivation to persevere
with this project and to keep exploring the importance and import of philosophy,
Japanese Buddhist and otherwise.

Decorah, IA, USA Gereon Kopf

Reykjavík, Iceland

Work Cited

Takemura, Makio 竹村牧男. 2009. Nyūmon: tetsugaku toshiteno bukkyō 『入門:哲学としての

仏教』 [Introduction: Buddhism as Philosophy]. Tokyo: Kōdansha.
Contents

Part I Basic Issues in Japanese Buddhist Philosophy

1 “Japanese Buddhism”: Constructions and Deconstructions . . . . . . . 3
Richard K. Payne
2 The “Philosophy” in Japanese Buddhist Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
John C. Maraldo
3 One Step Towards Buddhism as Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Makio Takemura
4 Japanese Buddhism and Women: The Lotus, Amida,
and Awakening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Michiko Yusa
5 Buddhist Philosophy and the Japanese Cultural System . . . . . . . . . . 135
Rein Raud
6 The Philosophical Reception of Japanese Buddhism After 1868 . . . . 155
Ralf Müller
7 Interaction Between Japanese Buddhism and Confucianism . . . . . . 205
Tomomi Asakura
8 The Philosophy of the Mandala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Pamela D. Winfield
9 Carrying Buddha into the Streets: Buddhist Socialist Thought
in Modern Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
James Mark Shields
10 Salvation and Violence in Japanese Buddhism: The Case
of Aum Shinrikyō . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Manabu Watanabe

ix
x Contents

Part II Individual Philosophers in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition

11 Saichō: Founding Patriarch of Japanese Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Victor Forte
12 Kūkai’s Shingon Philosophy: Embodiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
David L. Gardiner
13 Jōkei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
James L. Ford
14 Hōnen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Mark L. Blum
15 Zen Master Dōgen: Philosopher and Poet of Impermanence . . . . . . 381
Steven Heine
16 Keizan Jōkin and His Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Shūdō Ishii
17 How to Read Shinran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Dennis Hirota
18 Lotus Land in This Very Body: The Religious Philosophy
of Nichiren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Ruben L. F. Habito
19 Born into a World of Turmoil: The Biography and Thought
of Chūgan Engetsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Steffen Döll
20 Ikkyū Sōjun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Andrew K. Whitehead
21 Bankei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Enshō Kobayashi
22 Hakuin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Juhn Y. Ahn
23 The Religious Philosophy of Kiyozawa Manshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Robert F. Rhodes
24 Inoue Enryō’s Philosophy of Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Rainer Schulzer
25 Nishida Kitarō as Buddhist Philosopher: Self-Cultivation,
a Theory of the Body, and the Religious Worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Mayuko Uehara
26 D. T. Suzuki and the “Logic of Sokuhi,” or the “Logic
of Prajñāpāramitā” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Michiko Yusa
Contents xi

27 Hiratsuka Raichō: Feminism and Androgynous Sexuality . . . . . . . . 617

Saeko Kimura
28 Hisamatsu Shin’ichi: Oriental Nothingness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
André van der Braak
29 Nishitani Keiji: Nihilism, Buddhism, Anontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
John W. M. Krummel
30 Nakamura Hajime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Toshi’ichi Endo
31 On the Buddhist Thought of Tamaki Kōshirō . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Makio Takemura
32 Expressing Experience: Language in Ueda Shizuteru’s
Philosophy of Zen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Bret W. Davis

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739