Inoue Enryō

Enryō Inoue (Japanese井上 円 了; born Inoue Kishimaru井上 岸 丸; born May 18, 1858 in Echigo, Japan, † June 6, 1919 in Dalian, China ) was a Japanese philosopher of the Meiji period. He is known primarily for his observations of Buddhism and its discussion of the supernatural, which it the name " Dr. Monster " (妖怪 博士, yōkai hakase ) entered.

Life

Inoue Enryō was born in 1858 in rural Inoue Kishimaru Echigo, the son of the monk Inoue Engo (井上 円 悟). The father stood before the small temple Jiko -ji (慈光 寺), who belonged to the Otani branch of the Buddhist sect Jōdo Shinshu. According Enryōs memoirs the family lived in relative poverty; nevertheless was not saved in the upbringing of his first son. At a young age Enryō studied the Chinese classics at the young doctor Tadanori Ishiguro石 黒 忠 徳, after which he became a novice of the Otani sect and after his ordination took the Buddhist name Enryō. As of 1873 the 15 -year-old is said to have moved his study focus on Western studies, which he studied in a small school Dutch and a year later moved to Nagaoka - school for Western studies. There he was junior teaching assistant before he went to the English Academy in Niigata in 1877.

In 1881 he was accepted as the first Buddhist monk at the Imperial University of Tokyo. In his studies, the young monk specializing in philosophy and took lessons among others Ernest Fenollosa and at Hara Tanzan (原 坦 山), a Zen priest of the Soto sect, who was the first professor of Buddhist studies at the University.

As a student appeared Enryō deep into the world of philosophy and dealt with matters of religion and education. In his early academic activities and the successful completion of the course as a Bachelor of the Arts in 1885, however, was followed by two difficult years for Enryō in which he turned down a position at the Ministry of Education, his ordination returned as a monk and lost his job as a researcher at the Imperial University. His mental problems he later led to the fact that he had wrestled with the question of how one can create that status as a recognized religion to Buddhism again. From 1887 Enryō devoted in several publications as well as numerous public speeches and lectures then his life's work, rehabilitation and thus redefinition of Buddhism. 1896 awarded him the Imperial University of Tokyo doctoral degrees. His travels took the philosophers throughout Japan and to China, where he died in 1919.

Work

Already as a student involved Inoue Enryō 1882 on the establishment of the Philosophical Society (哲学 会, Tetsugaku -kai ), in which many prominent scholars came and went, including Nishi Amane, Shigeki Nishimura and Hiroyuki Katō. In addition, he began in 1886 the publication of the influential philosophical journal Tetsugaku zasshi (哲学 雑 志), in which he published himself. In the course of his research to the supernatural, he also founded the "Society for Research of the supernatural " (不 思议 研究 会, Fushigi Kenkyūkai ), later in "Monster Research Society " (妖怪 研究 会, Yōkai Kenkyūkai ) has been renamed. 1887, Inoue the "Private Institute of Philosophy " (私立 哲学 馆, Shiritsu Tetsugaku -kan ), which later became Toyo University was.

Among the best known works of the philosopher counts Bukkyo Katsuron (佛教 活 论), in which he seeks a redefinition of Buddhism. In the Edo period (1603-1868), Buddhism was a supporting element in the political system of the Tokugawa Shoguns and defined rather by a number of fixed practices because by a single philosophy. In the subsequent Meiji period (1868-1911), Buddhism therefore came under the influence of Western ideas and of the developing State Shinto in the criticism and threatened its recognition as a religion to lose. Inoue's concerns in Bukkyo Katsuron is to prove that Buddhism is a religion. For this, he draws on his thoughts on the supernatural and superstition, which he discusses in his second well-known work " meishinkai " (迷信 解). The result of Inoue's thinking is that many traditional rituals of Buddhism as faith healing, divination, etc. Talismanverkauf be recognized as superstition and criticized so that a true Buddhist philosophy of striving is left for the absolute. This interpretation of Buddhism represents a radical break with traditional interpretations

Inoue's ideas were in the 1890s of new Buddhist societies such as the "Company New Buddhists " (新 仏 教徒 同志 会, Shin Bukkyōto Dōshikai ) taken, which included many influential scholars of the time in addition to Enryō, including Inoue Tetsujiro and Ouchi Seiran.

Swell

• The Inoue Enryo Center, Toyo University
• Josephson, Jason Ananda. "When Buddhism Became a" Religion, " Religion and Superstition in the Writings of Inoue Enryō ( ​​Online), in: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 33/1 (2006 ), pp. 143-168

• Philosopher (19th Century )
• Philosopher ( 20th century)
• Religious philosopher
• Publisher
• Author
• Japanese
• Born in 1858
• Died in 1919
• Man