A Brief History of the Theosophical Society in Japan in the Interwar Period

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023442%3A_____%2F20%3AN0000010" target="_blank" >RIV/00023442:_____/20:N0000010 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/tjoc_4_5_full_issue.pdf" target="_blank" >https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/tjoc_4_5_full_issue.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

A Brief History of the Theosophical Society in Japan in the Interwar Period

Original language description

The article presents for the first time a brief, yet still quite detailed, history of the Theosophical Society (TS) in Japan based on research of primary sources, mainly in the headquarters of the Society in Adyar, a suburb of Chennai, India. Three decades after the first contacts made during the visits by the TS President, Colonel H.S. Olcott (1832–1907), in 1889 and 1891, the first TS lodge in Japan, the Tokyo International Lodge, was established by James Henry Cousins (1873–1956) in 1920. Cousins' initiative stimulated interest in the TS, and other lodges were established, although the duration of their activities was sometimes quite short: Orpheus and Mahayana launched in 1924, while Miroku (Maitreya) Lodge did the same in 1928. The analysis of the interwar history of the TS in Japan points to two key issues. One is the fact that the TS resonated with those Japanese who were committed to restoring Buddhism for modern Japanese society. Thus, the TS was an interim interest for them rather than something in which they desired permanent membership. Second, the impulse to establish the TS in Japan came from the Adyar headquarters, and the messengers were non-Japanese. This led to a persistent problem: namely a lack of study materials in Japanese language. This issue became the key obstacle in effectively spreading the Theosophical teachings. Only in the postwar period did translation activity come to the fore as key texts were translated into the Japanese language.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60401 - Arts, Art history

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

The Journal of CESNUR

ISSN

2532-2990

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

4

Issue of the periodical within the volume

5

Country of publishing house

IT - ITALY

Number of pages

24

Pages from-to

3-26

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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