Exploring Japanese Thought

Japanese history is filled with many great writers and thinkers whose names live on today. While some are well-known abroad, like the Zen scholar Suzuki Daisetsu and the writer Miyazawa Kenji, others remain confined to the realm of scholarship. This book introduces forty-five works of thought to a general readership, put into context with insightful and evocative commentary. Grouped into seven themes, each essay deals with topics such as the relationship between people and nature, the living and the dead, introspection to secular engagement, the nature of the physical body, redefining Buddhism, traditional thought and culture throughout the ages, and the function of the state in society. By examining the ideas of the past, Exploring Japanese Thought offers wisdom for living in the present.

SUEKI Fumihiko
Sueki Fumihiko is professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto. He was born in 1949 in Yamanashi Prefecture and received his PhD from the University of Tokyo. His areas of specialization are Buddhist studies and the history of Japanese thought, and he has published widely on these topics. In addition to research into Japanese religious and intellectual history, he explores how these ideas persist in the context of philosophy and ethics. He has collaborated with international scholars in this field, and his work has appeared in such academic journals as the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, and The Eastern Buddhist. His contributions to edited works include Adding Flesh to Bones: Kiyozawa Manshi’s Seishinshugi in Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought (Mark L. Blum and Michael Conway, eds.) and Beyond Zen: D. T. Suzuki and the Modern Transformation of Buddhism (John Breen, Sueki Fumihiko, and Yamada Shōji, eds.). Monographs translated into English include Religion and Ethics at Odds: A Buddhist Counter-Position (2016) and Philosophy Live: A Perspective from Japan (2018).

*information as of time of publication

Philosophy & Religion

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
OPEN ACCESS / NOT FOR SALE
ISBN 9784866582542
210 mm x 148 mm / 250 pp. / March 2025

eBook
OPEN ACCESS / NOT FOR SALE
ISBN 9784866582559 (PDF)

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

CONTENTS
Preface to the English Edition
Introduction
I. People and Nature
II. Questions from the Dead
Thinking about Japanese Ideas (1): The Three Traditions
III. From Introspective Life to Secular Engagement
IV. Views on the Physical Body
V. Redefining Buddhism
Thinking about Japanese Ideas (2): Understanding the Great Tradition
VI. What Is “Japan”?
VII. Society and the State
Timeline
Book Guide
About the Author and Translator

未来を考えるために、思想と文化を古典から読み解く、日本思想史入門。

空海、鴨長明、荻生徂徠、伊藤仁斎、福沢諭吉、南方熊楠、西田幾多郎……実に多様で新鮮な思想が、この国にはある。
人間や自然だけでなく、目に見えない死者や神仏との関係も親密なものとして捉えてきた。
他者との関係性のなかで自己を捉える視点こそ、いま求められている。
自然を考え、人間を考え、宗教を考え、社会や国家を考える。
単行本から新たに2編追加し、45編の日本の思想史を彩る著作をひもといて、未来を生きるためのヒントを見出す。
各著作の解説と原文抜粋を載せ、巻末には年表とブックガイドも収録する。

末木文美士
1949年、山梨県生まれ。東京大学大学院人文科学研究科博士課程修了。博士(文学)。現在、東京大学名誉教授、国際日本文化研究センター名誉教授。比較思想学会会長。専門は仏教学・日本思想史。仏教を含めた日本思想史・宗教史の研究とともに、広く哲学・倫理学の文脈のなかで、現代に生きる思想としてそのあり方を模索。『日本宗教史』(岩波新書)、『日本仏教史』『仏典をよむ』(新潮文庫)、『日本仏教入門』『日本の思想をよむ』(KADOKAWA)、『草木成仏の思想』(サンガ)、『親鸞』(ミネルヴァ書房)など、著書多数。