하타니 료타이와 후카우라 세분의 학문과 방법

Abstract

Japan began its modernization in the Meiji(明治) period in the late 19th century. At that time, the Japanese Buddhist community sent student monks to Europe where they studied modernized European Buddhism and brought it back to Japan. Hatani Rōtai(羽溪了諦) and Hukaura Seibun(深 浦正文) studied this modernized European Buddhism at the end of the Meiji era or in the early Taishō(大正) era, taking them away from traditional Buddhist research. They devoted themselves to their research. They recognized the importance of linguistics, bibliography, and history, which were necessary for such study, and they had the ability to apply them. They also thought that knowledge of archeology, philosophy, literature, and art were necessary for the study of Buddhism. They also suggested that the world of Buddhist thought needed to be explained and presented integrated and balanced results of their research, which included everything from bibliography to art. However, as monks of the Jōdoshinshū School(淨土眞宗), they did not consider Buddhism only a subject to be researched. For example, in the debate over whether Mahayana concepts were heterodoxy or orthodoxy, Hukaura perceived Buddhism from within, not without.(I’m not sure what this implies.) He insisted that Mahayana Buddhism was not pure Buddhist doctrine in the historical sense, but more of a dogma.