A Japanese Philosopher

Category:Japanese philosophers

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It asserts that all sentient beings possess a Buddha-nature , a nature of inherent wisdom and virtue , which lies hidden in the depths of their minds. Zen practitioners attempt to discover this Buddha-nature within themselves, through meditation and mindfulness of daily experiences.

Zen sitting meditation , such as the lotus, half-lotus, Burmese or seiza postures is known as zazen. The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are Soto largest , Rinzai split into several sub-schools and Obaku smallest. Pure Land or Amidist Buddhism: Pure Land is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism and currently one of the most popular schools of Buddhism in East Asia, along with Zen.

It is a devotional or "faith"-oriented branch of Buddhism focused on Amitabha Buddha. Pure Land Buddhism teaches that through devotion to just Amitabha, one will be reborn in the Pure Land in which enlightenment is guaranteed. In medieval Japan it was also popular among those on the outskirts of society, such as prostitutes and social outcasts , who were often denied spiritual services by society but could still find some form of religious practice through worshipping Amitabha.

It focuses on the Lotus Sutra and an attendant belief that all people have an innate Buddha-nature and are therefore inherently capable of attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime.

It was particularly popular among the merchants of Kyoto in Japan's Middle Ages, and among some ultranationalists during the pre-World War II era, and has something of a reputation for missionary zeal and strident pushes to convert others. Two other religions that were brought into Japan from mainland China are Confucianism and Taoism.

A Japanese Philosopher in Pre-War Paris | Affidavit

According to early Japanese writings, Confucianism was introduced to Japan via Korea in the year A. Some of the most important Confucian principles are humanity , loyalty , morality and consideration on an individual and political level. However, in the late noble era when pessimism was popular due to the "belief that Buddhism will decline during the latter days of this world", the Pure Land movements spread out encouraging anticipation of a "future life" as a means to cope with desperation over "life in this world".

In ancient Japan, the arrival of Buddhism closely relates the national construction and the national centralization of power. The thought that national peace and security came through the power of Buddhism is called the "making a country safe" thought. The Buddhist policy of the state reached its apex during the Nara period, as evidenced by Jianzhen of the Tang dynasty bringing an imperial ordination platform to Todai-ji Temple,. While Nara Buddhism followed only the "making a country safe" thought, Heian Buddhism brought not only national peace and security but also the personal worldly profit.

By the late Heian era, the earthly focus of Heian Buddhism led Buddhist monks to declare a "sinful age" wherein the possibility of relief in this world was denied and therefore a trend of looking for reincarnation to the Buddhists' paradise after death arose.

The classical period

Additionally, the new thought that "Buddhism will decline during the latter days of this world" led to the rise of the Pure Land movement. He preached his pupils to believe in Amitabha and to earnestly pray " namu-amida-butsu ", and so they would go to the paradise. His pupil, Shinran who initiated Pure Land Buddhism , thoroughly carried out Honen's teaching and preached the absolute dependence. In addition, Shinran advocated that an object of the relief of the Amitabha was a criminal who was aware of a worldly and desirous criminal oneself.

Ippen , who initiated the Jishu sect, began "the chanting religious dance". Eisai learned Rinzai sect in China. He gave pupils a difficult problem and he made them solving the problem, and so his pupils would be enlightened by themselves. Rinzai Zen was supported widely by the upper samurai class in the Kamakura period. Soto Zen was supported by the local samurais.

Most schools of Nichiren Buddhism Japanese: In his teachings he underlined the, to his mind, supremacy of the Lotus Sutra. Whereas the ancient and medieval thought of Japan was tied closely to Buddhism , the early modern thought of Japan was mainly Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism , which was designated for official study of the Tokugawa shogunate.

In addition, rational Confucianism stimulated Kokugaku , Rangaku and the non-official popular thought after the middle Edo period. In the Edo period , Confucianism was the authorised study. Various schools of neo-Confucianism were popular. The Zhu Xi school of neo-Confucianism respected family -like feudal social position order. Hayashi Razan assumed the Zhu Xi school of neo-Confucianism to be the theoretical basics of the Tokugawa shogunate.

By the Kansei Reforms , the Zhu Xi school of neo-Confucianism were still more strengthened and authorized by the Tokugawa shogunate. In addition, the thought of a school of the Zhu Xi school of neo-Confucianism gave big influence to the political movement advocating reverence for the Emperor and the expulsion of foreigners of the late Tokugawa era.

Japanese philosophy

In contrast with the Zhu Xi school of neo-Confucianism, the Wang Yangming school of neo-Confucianism respecting practical ethics consistently monitored and oppressed by the Tokugawa shogunate because of criticisms for the socio-political conditions under the Tokugawa shogunate. The third schools of neo-Confucianism took consideration into the real intentions of original texts by Confucius and Mencius. In the middle of the Edo period , Kokugaku , the study of ancient Japanese thought and culture, became popular against foreign ideas such as Buddhism or Confucianism.

By Sakoku policy of the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo intellectuals could not have any positive contact with Western civilization, and so Rangaku , Dutch learning, was the only window to the West. In the middle days of the Edo period, Kokugaku became popular while being influenced by positivist Confucianism with nationalism as a background. Kamo no Mabuchi wrestled with the study of "Manyoshu" and called " masurao-buri " for masculine and tolerant style, and he evaluated the collection as pure and simple.

Through his study of the Kojiki , Motoori Norinaga argued that the essence of the Japanese literature came from " mono no aware " which was natural feelings to occur when you contacted with an object. According to him, Kokugaku should pursue Japanese old way of " Shinto ". Through his study of Kokugaku, Hirata Atsutane advocated nationalistic State Shinto , the obedience to the Emperor and abolition of Confucianism and Buddhism.

It was a driving force to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. Dutch learning unfolded to other Western studies such as British, French and American studies by the late Tokugawa era. In the Edo period , private schools were opened by samurais , merchants and scholars who played an active part. Their thoughts were criticisms for the dominant feudal order.

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Ishida Baigan synthesized Confucianism , Buddhism and Shinto , and established practical philosophy for the masses. He recommended working hard at commerce as the effect by honesty and thrift. Ando Shoeki called nature's world the ideal society where all human beings engaged in farming and they lived self-sufficiently without artificiality. He criticized a lawful society where there were feudal class discrimination and the difference between the rich and poor.

Ninomiya Sontoku insisted that people must repay the virtues , which supported their existence, with own virtue. Instead, they focused primarily on the social and political dimensions of human life. The modern period of Japanese philosophy began with the Meiji Restoration in and the subsequent opening of Japan to Western influences, including Western philosophy.

In fact, a new word, tetsugaku —from the words for wisdom tetsu and learning gaku —was coined to translate the Western term philosophy. Although tetsugaku was initially restricted to scholarly reflection on Western philosophy to the exclusion of Japanese philosophy, it soon encompassed a broader range of studies. For example, the metaphysical speculations of Nishitani Keiji —90 further explored the nature of Nothingness, integrating insights from both Zen Buddhism following Nishida and the German philosopher Martin Heidegger , under whom Nishitani studied.

The wellspring of ethics , then, is the recognition that personhood is articulated amid this continuous opposition between self and society rather than through an unbalanced focus on one or the other. The end of World War II brought greater freedom of thought and expression to Japanese society, liberating Japanese philosophers from the context of wartime ideologies which some had endorsed , others had opposed, and others had tried to ignore.

A Japanese Philosopher in Pre-War Paris

The postwar period also stimulated philosophical reflection upon the role that philosophy had played in the rise of ultranationalism and militarism. Because no intellectual system can ever be universal or absolute, he argued, every responsible philosophy contains a metanoetic dynamic that serves to undermine any tendency to treat it as such. Academic philosophy continues to thrive in Japan.

While some philosophers have stayed within the parameters demarcated by Western philosophy, others have developed philosophies out of traditional Asian ideas. Still others continue to engage other traditions—Western and Asian—in hopes of developing philosophical insights suitable to a global, and not merely monocultural, perspective. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.

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Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Epistemology , the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. Epistemology has a long history within Western philosophy, beginning with the ancient…. Ethics , the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. How should we live? Shall we aim at happiness or at knowledge, virtue, or the creation of beautiful…. Aesthetics , the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

To provide more than a general definition of….

Metaphysics , the philosophical study whose object is to determine the real nature of things—to determine the meaning, structure, and principles of whatever is insofar as it is.

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