News & Topics

Rev. Numata:

Congratulations on your awards. The awarding of your BUNKA-SHŌ and KŌRŌ-SHŌ awards were decided by Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai’s distinguished Selection Committee, and I do not need to reiterate your achievements. But I believe that one of your greatest contributions is the encouragement you provide to others from the many eloquent materials developed during your distinguished academic careers. In addition, I sincerely appreciate your understanding and support of BDK’s mission and our activities; especially the English translation project of the Buddhist Canon.

Today, I would like both of you to share your thoughts about the future of BDK activities from your viewpoints, most certainly based on ideas cultivated by your achievements and research.

Rev. Fukuyama:

I offer my congratulations to both of you on your receiving this year’s BDK awards. Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai was established and initiated by the late Rev. Dr. Yehan Numata, the father of Rev. Toshihide Numata, and is a noble organization. Therefore, truly deserving hand-picked recipients have been presented these awards every year. I was impressed by your selection as two individuals who share the essential spirit of Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai. After hearing your introductions by your friends at the presentation ceremony, I was very surprised to hear about many achievements which I was not previously familiar with. I sincerely wish both of you more success in your continued research.

Annually I have been asked to submit recommendations for the awards, however I have always responded that I don’t have anyone to nominate because of my limited sphere of action and knowledge. All recipients have been such distinguished awardees. Previously, close friends have been selected, such as Rev. Shunto Aoyama and now Rev. Yasuaki Nara. I have been surrounded by many wonderful and distinguished people. I will try my best to nominate a worthy person next year.

Rev. Numata:

Thank you very much for your wonderful comments. Now, I would like to ask that Rev. Nara talk about the BUNKA-SHŌ award and the English translation project of the Buddhist Canon.

Rev. Nara:

I was surprised to receive the BUNKA-SHŌ award this year. As I mentioned earlier at the presentation ceremony, there are many great names in the history of BUNKA-SHŌ such as my teacher, Prof. Hajime Nakamura and other recipients whom I look up to. I am very thankful to have my name added to this distinguished list and I offer my deepest thanks to Rev. Numata, Rev. Fukuyama, and BDK for this award presentation.

Concerning the BDK English translation project of the Buddhist Canon, I have been supporting this translation project from the beginning going back to when Rev. Shoyu Hanayama was working as the chief editor and I strongly agreed with the late Rev. Dr. Yehan Numata’s great motivation for this project. That is, the Buddhist Canon is very dogmatic, and also includes a lot of useful information for our daily life.

I believe Buddhism is not only a dogma but also has faithful life at its base and is diversely related to societies and cultures. The Buddhist Canon contains not only profound dogmas and philosophy but also contains history and knowledge penetrating our daily life. To translate these contents into English means to create an important opportunity where Westerners, who understand Buddhism as doctrine, can study the world of Buddhism in a much wider way.

As a matter of fact, the appointed scholars try their best to translate as accurately as possible. And, they advocated for the addition of annotations. I still remember that Rev. Hanayama was greatly anguished because of the many complications with the translation project. However, it is wonderful that the project has been running so smoothly by overcoming various difficulties. I sincerely wish for the completion of this project.

Rev. Numata:

Thank you very much. You are also supporting the Buddhist Canon database project called “The SAT Daizōkyō Text Database” (hereafter referred to as “SAT”),” aren’t you?

Rev. Nara:

Yes. There are many stories regarding the project. For example, this project was originally initiated by Mr. Ekyo Eshima and was going to be terminated because of a lack of financial support. At that point, I set up the “Fundraising Campaign for SAT” and was appointed the secretary-general of this campaign. Fortunately we were able to raise the funds due to everyone’s support and effort. I would like to express my appreciation to you, Rev. Fukuyama and Rev. Numata for supporting this project.

After completion of the SAT project, the method by which Buddhist studies used Chinese texts drastically changed. Previously, we used to study Buddhist texts by making many cards with Buddhist terms and sorting them out. For example, the word “nirvana” appears in text “A” and has various meanings of “nirvana.” Then when we read the next text “B,” we might have found additional meanings of “nirvana.” Using this method, we had to check all texts to make a card for one word or term.

However, because of SAT, we can now instantly find all the meanings and usage of the term. We can no longer use an excuse like “I have not read this text or that text.” Although our research range has become wider and more comprehensive, at the same time, it has become more complicated.

The other day, I spoke with Dr. Masahiro Shimoda of Tokyo University who was in charge of SAT’s practical affairs to discuss the future of the SAT. We agreed that SAT will in time come to be incorporated into the BDK English Daizōkyō Project. That is, we hope that the BDK English Translation of the Buddhist Canon Project and SAT might be merged in the future. In this sense, I believe that BDK’s English Translation of the Buddhist Canon Project has a very significant meaning.

Rev. Numata:

As you explained, the completion of the SAT project digitalizing quantities of text data is marvelous. I believe that this database will be inherited by our posterity as a great contribution. You are one of the contributors who inspired this great project, and I believe that this must have been one of the reasons for your selection as a BUNKA-SHŌ recipient. Congratulations.

Now, I would like Rev. Inagaki to talk about the meaning of English translation of Buddhist sutras and your experience of the promotion of Buddhism in foreign countries.

Rev. Inagakai:

Regarding the promotion of Buddhism, I, myself have given Dharma messages to many people, but my core Buddhist promotional activities center on my presentations of Buddhism at international conferences, publication of new English translations of books that have never translated into English before, and writing interpretative books of Buddhism. When we think “promotion of the path,” or Dendo in Japanese, we presume that means to give a talk with a big voice to many people. However, my Dendo is not such a direct path. I am incorporating paths which I can leave for the future. In order to make our descendants taste the Dharma and to leave it for the next generation, I believe writing is very important.

However, I realized that path was not sufficient enough and then established the European Shinshu Conference where European Dharma friends can gather to share the Dharma. At first, it was difficult for everyone to assemble together since the European Shinshu members were living great distances apart, but we founded the Conference with a wish of studying together. This conference has been held every other year with the support of the Nishi Hongwanji temple, the head temple of a major Jodo Shinshu sect and the International Association of Buddhist Culture.

I was recently surprised when I found that my publication had been translated in a language I don’t know. The other day out of the blue, I received a book which was sent to me by a Brazilian. The book was from a lecture I gave for the Numata Program in Buddhist Studies at Leiden University in 1992.　I had delivered a 40 minutes lecture titled “Shinran and Jodo Shinshu,” and this lecture was published as a book. Then, the German and French translations of this book came out. And, recently, a Brazilian translated the book in Portuguese. I asked a researcher of the Hongwanji International Center who knows Portuguese to read the book, and he told me that this translation of the book and my original lecture was very well done.

I was impressed by the Brazilian book, and I unexpectedly received the book translated into Hungarian last week. I do not understand Hungarian, but I was very surprised to know that my book has been translated into Hungarian. Considering the origin of these flows, I am reassured by the importance of writing as a means for promoting Buddhism.

When I look back around the time that Rev. Yehan Numata started the translation project of the Buddhist Canon, there were some people who did not believe the achievement of this project was possible. Everybody understood the difficulty of sutra translation; however since then, translated sutra volumes have been published one after another.

The translated books are used for individual research and at universities. I also supported this project by serving as a translator of “The Three Pure Land Sutras.” A few years after the publication of this volume, I was asked to republish the book by the University of California, Berkeley since they wanted to use the book as the text for their Buddhism class. Then I corrected some errors on the first edition and published the second edition of book. In that way, the work of translation has eternal connotations. I think many unfinished translation sutras still remain in the project, but I feel that it is important and necessary to continue promoting and accomplishing this project by cooperating with many research facilities and translators.

（Continue to VolumeⅡ）