| NOTA |
(★)(´Japanese Buddhism´ is complementary to Sir Charles Eliot´s earlier three-volume work ´Hinduism and Buddhism.´ In his memoir of the author, Sir Harold Parlett wrote :´It may be asked what influenced him in the selection of this particular field for investigation, why his choice did not instead fall on China, Tibet, Burma, or Siam, older adherents to the faith and closer to its cradle. A partial answer is perhaps to be found in certain advantages which Japan offered for his purpose. For although in all these countries alike a vast wealth of material existed, the accumulation of centuries of patient and pious toil, not in every one was it uqually accessible ; and in China, in fact, it was scattered over a very wide area. In Japan, however, not only was this material available in a form both compact and complete ; but also, owing to the [then] insular position of the country, and its practical isolation from the rest of the world for more than two hundred years, the practices, ritual, documents, and iconography of Mahayanist Buddhism had been preserved in singular integrity. Moreover, its history offered phenomena of peculiar interest to the student of religion --the conflict between Church and State, the growth of protestant sects, the preaching of national or universal religion, the evolution of an Established Church lapsing finally into comfortable torpor-- to mention only a few examples. To them might be added a deep and abiding interest in Japan itself and its people, and the unique opportunities which his position offered for collection of data. The fact that his appointment as Ambassador had obliged him materially to abridge his earlier work on the subject, lest his views be taken as official rather than those of a private individual, resulted in the very brief survey of the subject contained in ´Hinduism and Buddhism.´ The material he had collected however was not lost and became the basis on which, some months after his retirement, he commenced the present work. He died in 1931 and was buried at sea in the Straits of Malacca. Only the final chapter was incomplete and this was finished by G.B. Sansom who had read the manuscript in draft form and had also supplied Sir Charles with information on Japanese history and art.´) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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