Remembering Seizan Yanagida
Sitting from left are: William Powell, Carl Bielefeldt, Yanagida-sensei, Bernard Faure;
standing from left: Richard Lynn, Robert Gimello, Philip Yampolsky, Peter Gregory, Mrs. Yanagida Shizue, Urs App, Robert Buswell, Griffith Foulk and John McRae.
Thanks to Prof. Urs App for this photograph!
Seizan Yanagida (聖山 柳田, 19.12.1922 - 08.09.2006) was one the most important Japanese Buddhologists in the 20.th century. He was born in a small mountain temple of the Rinzai-Zen School in the hamlet Inae near Kyōto (Japan). His major area of work was the research of Chinese Chan-Buddhism. Since the year 1960 he taught as a professor at the Institute for Buddhist Studies at Hanazono-University in Kyōto and after his retirement in 1986 he founded the IRIZ (International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism) in Kyōto, that became an important research institution for many Western Buddhologists, as well. In the course of his life Prof. Yanagida published 50 books and several hundred research papers - see the selected bibliography from Prof. Bernard Faure:
Bernard Faure: Bibliographie sélective de Yanagida Seizan.
A excellent review article about Prof. Yanagidas extensive work was published by the US Sinologist and Chan-researcher, Prof. John R. McRae:
John McRae: Yanagida Seizan's Landmark Works on Chinese Ch'an.
The Swiss Buddhologist and philosopher Prof. Urs App worked for many years as assistant, personal interpreter and vice director of the IRIZ for Prof. Yanagida. Two very impressive and very private lectures were given by Prof. Yanagida in the SFZC (San Francisco Zen Center) on the occasion of his US lecture tour in 1989. These lectures were kindly translated into English and published by Prof. App:
| A short biography of Seizan Yanagida (see also: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/柳田聖山) |
|
| 1922 | birth in the hamlet Inae in prefecture Shiga, |
| 1940 | degree from the highschool of prefecture Shiga in Hikone, |
| 1942 | degree from the Rinzai college (now Hanazono-college) in Hikone, begins rigorous Zen-training in the Rinzai-Zen monastery Eigen-ji, |
| 1948 | degree in literature at Ōtani-University, |
| 1949 | assistant for Buddhism at Hanazono-University in Kyōto, |
| 1954 | assistant-professor at Hanazono-University, |
| 1960 | habilitation at Hanazono-Universit, professor at the Institute for Buddhist-Studies at Hanazono-University, |
| 1962 | award from the Japanese Association for Indian and Buddhist Studies, |
| 1968 | head of the Institute for Literature at Hanazono-University, |
| 1976 | head of the Institute for Humanities at Hanazono-University, |
| 1981 | Yomiuri-Literature award for his book "Ikkyu - the world of Kyounshu", |
| 1986 | retirement (Prof. Emeritus), foundation of the IRIZ (International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism) at Hanazono University, |
| 1989 | donation of his private library of 14.000 books to IRIZ, USA lecture tour, |
| 1990 | inauguration of a Ryōkan-memorial bridge at Mt. Emei in the chin. province Sichuan, |
| 1991 | Korean tour on the occasion of the inauguration of Haein-sa Sangha University, |
| 1991 | Puple Ribbon Medal, |
| 1993 | donation of his private house to Hanazono University - this is renamed in Shimonkan and becomes part of IRIZ, |
| 1993 | 27. culture awards of the Buddhist Mission, |
| 1996 | retirement as direktor of IRIZ, Medal of the Holy Treasure - Isao Grade 3, |
| 2003 | visit of the Collège de France in Paris, |
| 2006 | death. |
Lovely and touching is the following volume of commemoration, compiled after the death of Yanagida-sensei by Prof. Urs App and numerous Western and Japanese Buddhologists:
Urs App, et al., Volume in Commemoration of Prof. Yanagida Seizan,
Kyōto: Zenbunka Kenky sho, 2008. Institute of Zen Studies Kyōto.
These private memories show us Yanagida-sensei not only as an outstanding and great scientist, but, at the same time, as an extraordinary human beeing: hospitable, sensitive, alert, interested in every question, undogmatic, very freedom-loving - and in his heart a great friend of the Zen-monk and Zen-poet Ryōkan.
One of Yanagidas favorite poems of Ryōkan was:
My life may appear melancholy,
But traveling through this world
I have entrusted myself to Heaven.
In my sack, three shō of rice;
By the hearth, a bundle of firewood.
If someone asks what is
the mark of enlightenment or illusion,
I cannot say - wealth and honor
are nothing but dust.
As the evenig rain falls
I sit in my hermitage,
And stretch out both feet in answer.
One Robe, One Bowl,
The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan, p.26.
John Stevens, Weatherhill Inc., New York and Tokyo, 1977.
This photograph shows Yanagida-sensei in the year 2003.
Thanks to Prof. Urs App for this photograph!
M.B. Schiekel, Ulm, April 2015.
