Abstract
The so-called “department of Indian philosophy” in a Japanese university covers not only Indian (philological) studies but also Buddhist studies. Junjiro Takakusu came back from Oxford University and was appointed the first Chair of the Sanskrit Department at the University of Tokyo in 1901. It is, however, hasty to conclude that Indian and Buddhist studies in Japan were mere imports from the West. In the beginning the main focus was on the doctrinal aspects of Buddhism. Such early studies were oriented towards the apologetics of Buddhist doctrine that “reached a climax in Japan”. Buddhist texts in classical Chinese were compared with Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan sources through the western philological method. This comparative method, which is most typically observed in the works by Hakuju Ui, was followed by his successors as one of the most promising paths for Japanese scholarship. Essentially, “Indian philosophy” in Japan consisted (and still consists) of Indology, Tibetology and Sinology/Japanology. In 1943, Hajime Nakamura was appointed to the chair of Indian philosophy at the University of Tokyo. Unlike his predecessors and colleagues in the department, he was not a Buddhist monk. His appointment clearly marks a new era. Diversification of topics and methods are plainly visible in his works. In addition to philology, linguistics and philosophy, which had been the core of “Indian philosophy” in Japan, other perspectives such as historical study, anthropology, art history, archaeology and religious studies were introduced into the field. In Kyoto, the influence of French Indology was particularly salient. Susumu Yamaguchi (Otani University), who studied under Sylvain Levi, also taught at Kyoto University as a lecturer. His style was inherited by Gadjin M. Nagao. The famous “three Munis” in Kyoto University-Yutaka Ojihara, Masaaki Hattori and Yuichi Kajiyama-educated many scholars who sustain Japanese Indology today. Many of them studied in and attained their degrees in western universities. Ojihara's dream of “participating in western Indology on equal footing” is a reality today. However, whereas rigid philology and specialization in each topic has led to international fame in the Academy, interest in contemporary India as well as the urge to return scholarly fruits to society and other disciplinary areas seem to have diminished among Japanese indologists. This has been particularly true after the deaths of Hajime Nakamura (1999), Katsuhiko Kamimura (2003) and other prominent scholars.
