Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

7-1992

Abstract

This volume contains an English translation of Okina no fumi (Writings of an Old Man) (1746) and Shutsujo-kogo (Emerging from Meditation) (1745), by Tominaga Nakamoto (1715-1746), preceded by the translator's Introduction and followed by a Note on the editions used, the Conventions adopted in translation, a Bibliography, and Indexes of writings and characters for titles of writings and other names. Pye's translation assertively brings onto the Western academic stage a free and critical thinker, Tominaga Nakamoto-an unexpected but by no means unusual product of Tokugawa Japan, as Pye makes clear in his Introduction-who has hitherto been given very little attention by the majority of modern scholars both in Japan and overseas. Tominaga was what we today call a historian of religions and ideas, and a highly controversial figure of his time. He approached Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto (and, to a much lesser extent, Daoism) with his theory of historical development of religious traditions, which he called kajo, "adding [to the existent tradition] and superceding [it]." That is, "those who preach a moral way and establish a law of life ... tried to emerge above those who went before," as aptly quoted by Pye.

Publication Title

Philosophy East & West

Volume

42

Issue

3

First Page

532

Last Page

536

Required Publisher's Statement

Copyright 1992 University of Hawaii Press and author's.

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Religion--Controversial literature--Early works to 1800; Buddhism--Controversial literature--Early works to 1800

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Tominaga, Nakamoto, 1715-1746. Okina no fumi; Tominaga, Nakamoto, 1715-1746. Shutsujō kōgo

Genre/Form

reviews (documents)

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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