Buddhist-Confucian Polemics in Seventeenth-Century Japan

This annotated translation of two polemic treatises gives a unique insight into Buddhist-Confucian polemics in Japan. Composed in 1686 and 1687, they highlight the importance of Shinto and the influence of Sendai kuji hongi taiseikyō within the contemporary debate.

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The History of Thought of the Edo Period is a lively area of research. You have the choice between Shinto, Confucianism, Buddhism, National Studies, and Dutch Studies, none of which was the state ideology, and all of which were practised together in a small, interactive intellectual world. The intellectuals shared a common language (classical Chinese), and polemics was one of the ways in which they interacted.

This volume contains the new, annotated translations of two of such polemical treatises (dating from 1686 and 1687): two Buddhist monks attacking the "arch-Confucian" Hayashi Razan (1583-1657) in the name of Buddhism and Shinto.