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Title: THERAVĀDA BUDDHIST STUDIES IN JAPAN

Author: Keiko Soda

Category: History, Philosophy, Geography, Religion
Number of pages: 136
Size: A5

Notice: The e-book is available on Amazon Kindle Store.

Language: English

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Book Summary

People of the world have an idea that Japan is only a Mahāyāna Buddhist country. They have no idea how far Theravāda Buddhist studies have been done in Japan. From my research we come to know how Japanese scholars devoted largely for the study of Theravāda Buddhism for the last 100 years. And I think this is the only Mahāyāna Buddhist country where Theravāda Buddhism has been studied so thoroughly. This is the only country where the entire Pāli canon has been translated into Japanese. In no other country we can find like this. Not only Pāli canon but also even most of the popular non-canonical Pāli texts have been translated into Japanese, which is not found in any other country. Many scholars have studied Theravāda Buddhism as a religion in their own way. They have expressed their own ideas about the basic doctrines of Theravāda Buddhism. Some Japanese scholars have done comparative studies of Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine. And now the present Japanese scholars have come to the conclusion that without the study of Theravāda Buddhism,the study of Buddhism will be incomplete. So now-a-days the tendency in universities where Buddhism is taught in Japan there is a regular course of study of the Pāli texts and Theravāda Buddhist texts so that the students may have a good idea of the original Buddhism. And by this comparative study, they will have the clear idea about their own Buddhism what they are practising now.

The people of the world have no idea, what the Japanese scholars have done in Japan regarding Theravāda Buddhist studies. Because most of the studies are in Japanese, but the scholars in other countries cannot understand Japanese. So they have no idea what we have done so far as Theravāda Buddhism is concerned. I have taken this venture to inform the world what we have done. Though we follow and practise Mahāyāna Buddhism, still we have best regard for Theravāda Buddhism and many of our scholars for the last 100 years have devoted whole of their life on the study of Theravāda Buddhism.


June,1998　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 KEIKO SODA

Author Profile

Keiko Soda is a Japanese scholar. She was graduated from Waseda University, Tokyo. She got the Master's degree from the same University in 1983. She is a professor of Showa Women's University. She has studied Japanese Buddhism, but she had a critical outlook to find out the difference between Japanese Buddhism and Buddhism practiced in other Asian countries. She went to India to study in Calcutta University under the supervision of professor Dr. Sukomal Chaudhuri in 1989 and got the Ph.D.degree in 1994.

She is the author of the following other books and research papers: IPPEN'S BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND HIS LIFE, Tokyodo, Tokyo, 2013; DICTIONARY OF RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE IN THE WORLD, Tokyodo, Tokyo, 1999(in collaboration); THERAVADA BUDDHIST STUDIES IN JAPAN, Atisha Memorial Publishing Society, Calcutta, 1998; BUDDHIST THOUGHTS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN AND CHINA, Sankibo Busshorin, Tokyo,1992 (in collaborationn); IPPEN'S BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND HIS LIFE, Tokyodo, Tokyo, 2013; RELIGIOUS ART, Journal of the Showa Women's University, Tokyo, 1995-1997.

From the Author