Nakamura Hajime

Nakamura Memorial House

Nakamura Hajime ( Japanese 中 村 元 ; born November 28, 1912 in Matsue ( Shimane Prefecture ); died October 10, 1999 ) was a Japanese orientalist and Indologist.

Live and act

Nakamura Hajime graduated from the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities at Tōkyō University . In 1943 he became an assistant professor at the faculty and received his doctorate, both at an extraordinarily young age. He became a professor at his alma mater until 1973 when he was adopted as "Meiyo Kyōju".

From 1950 to 1956 Nakamura published the "History of the Early Vedanta Philosophy" (初期 ヴ ェ ー ダ ー ン タ 哲学 史, Shoki Vedanta tetsugaku-shi) in four volumes. In 1957 he received the imperial honorary award (恩賜 賞, Onshi-shō) of the Academy of Sciences , of which he was a member. In 1968 he founded the “Society of East Asian Studies” (東邦 研究 会, Tōhō Kenkyūkai) and the “Institute for East Asian Studies” (東方 学院, Tōhō Gakuin) and became its director.

Nakamura's books deal with Indian philosophies, with Buddhism, with comparative philosophy, with the history of the philosophies of the world and other fields, which he presented with academic thoroughness and advanced into new areas. In 1975 he was awarded the Mainichi Culture Prize for his "Great Lexicon of Buddhist Terms" (仏 教 語 大 辞典, Bukkyōgo daijiten).

In 1977 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and was awarded the Order of Culture in the same year .

His book "Preparation of Science" (学問 の 開拓, Gakumon no kaitaku) from 1985 describes academics and other personalities semi-autobiographically. It contains an 82-page bibliography on the subject.

In 2012 the “Nakamura Hajime Memorial House” (中 村 元 記念 館, Nakamura Hajime kinenkan) was opened in Matsue on the occasion of the 100th birthday.

Remarks

1. ↑ Meiyo Kyōju (名誉 教授) is occasionally rendered in German as "Professor emeritus". But in contrast to this title, which is automatically used on retirement, this is a special award only occasionally granted in Japan.
2. ^ Translated: A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi 2004.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Nakamura Hajime . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1039.

Web links

• Biographies Nakamura Hajime in the Kotobank, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nakamura is the family name, Hajime the first name.