Author Affiliations: professor at The University of Tokyo
關鍵詞
John White; haiku; East Asia as a method; foregrounding; linguistic media; literary form
摘要
The significance of East Asian research is a longstanding issue in the humanities that is yet to be sufficiently addressed. At the same time, it is true that Buddhist thought is now a research subject shared among scholars across and beyond the boundaries of the East and the West. Then, the question may well be posed as to whether Buddhist thought ought to be examined through a specific East Asian research lens. With this question in mind, I will focus on the topic of “East Asia as a Method of Research” by considering the example of haiku interpretations, with reference to the work of John White (1924–2021), a preeminent scholar of Medieval and Renaissance art. In so doing, this short article will demonstrate that the haikus cited here vividly expound the content of such Buddhist principal concepts as impermanence, non-self, emptiness, dependent origination, and the unity of being and not being, without referring to them explicitly. Second, it elucidates the universal nature of this phenomenon, which has been discerned by John White, a specialist in Western humanities. Third, it will enable us to reconsider the conventional methods of Buddhist studies not only from the viewpoint of East Asia but also from that of literariness.
目次
Abstract 16 Oneness and Dependent Origination 18 Non-self and Impermanence 21 Transmigration 23 Notes 26 References 27
