Buddha no fukuin: The deployment of Paul Carus's Gospel of Buddha in Meiji Japan

Abstract

Budda no fukuinThe Deployment of Paul C a r a s ， s Gospel o f Buddha in Meiji Japan Ju dith S n o d g r a s s Why did the R inzai Zen abbot Shaku Soen publish a Japanese translation of the life of the Buddha that had been written by an American philoso pher to promote Christian monism ?In seeking to answer this question, this paper examines first P au l Cams ' s mission to overcome the perceived conflict between Christianity and science in the late nineteenth century.It then considers how his introduction to Mahdydna Buddhism through the delegation of Japanese priests to the World's Parliam ent of Religions, Chicago 1893，resulted in a book that aimed to popularize his vision.Finally, it positions the translation of this book (Budda no fu k u in ) in the discursive contexts of M eiji Japan fo r the ideological future of the modern nation to show how it sewed, the aims of the M eiji Buddhist revival.W ith in m onths o f its American release, Paul Carus's The Gospel o f B ud dha had been translated by D. T. Suzuki and published in Japan with a preface and endorsement by Rinzai Zen abbot Shaku Soen.1 1 his book, B ud da no fu k u in , a conscientiously literal translation of the original text, was imbued with the political concerns of Meiji Japan.Contrary to the assumption of Carus's biographers, the reason for the publication was not that Cams was "one to whom Buddhists through out the world looked for source material and instruction in their own religion" (Fader 1982, p. 141), but rather its strategic value in the dis course on Meiji religion.The content of the book， though of use to the reform movement, was of secondary importance to the publica tion^ strategic function in the cause of Buddhist revival.Carus5 s work was archetypically orientalist, appropriating Buddhism 1 Budda no fukuin was first published in

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