Kuwabara Naoki -  Panel 13 ENOJP Paris
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2018-03-04

“Pedro Gomez and the Japanese Buddhism in the 16th and
the 17th Century” — Naoki Kuwabara, University of Tsukuba

At the end of the 16th century, the Society of Jesus established a collegium (higher education institute) in Japan. Pedro Gomez (1535–1600) was a professor of the collegium. Gomez edited the material which he taught in the collegium and published them as the “Compendium Catholicae Veritatis ( 『イエズス会日本コレジヨの講義要綱』 ).” In the Compendium, Gomez introduces “De Anima” of Aristotle (322–384 bc) basically following the commentary of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). In this presentation, I will try to give an overview of the historic significance of Gomez’ theory on the anima. 
Gomez follows the Thomistic interpretation of the Aristotle’s theory of the intellect. On one hand, Aquinas interprets the “active intellect” of Aristotle as inherent in a personal soul. The “active intellect” is the intellect that Aristotle himself declared to be immortal. On the other hand, Aquinas insists that the whole soul is self-existent and therefore it is an immortal “intellectual soul (anima intellectualis)”. In short, the characteristic of the Thomistic interpretation that Gomez adopted was to emphasize the immortality of the human soul. Further-more, Gomez writes down several chapters emphasizing the immortal nature of the soul based on the non-material character of the soul in addition to the introduction of “the soul theory” of Aristotle.
The above-mentioned points are important in the context of the situation in Japan at that time where Gomez played an active part. The Jesuits in Japan confronted Japanese Buddhism in those days. Among the forms of Japanese Buddhism of those days, the tendency of the “Tendai Hongaku Thought ( 天台本覚思想 )” was dominant. The Jesuits considered that there is a tendency of the “Tendai Hongaku Thought” to be without moral norms. Therefore, the Jesuits criticized such a tendency by emphasizing the immortality of the soul as the ethical subject. The doctrine of the “Jodo-Shin-Shu [True Pure Land sect] ( 浄土真宗 )” especially showed a common structure with that of Reformers because both emphasized the powerlessness of human nature. The Jesuits are well-known to have spearheaded what is known as the “Counter-Reformation”. In Japan, they found opponents parallel with those
whom they confronted in Europe. Furthermore, the Jesuits
emphasized the intellectual nature of the human soul distinguished from that of animals and plants. They resolved to criticize the Animistic interpretation of the “tathagatagarbha”( 如 藏 ).
Gomez emphasizing the immortality of the human soul set
the background for such circumstances in Japan at that time.

This talk took place at the 3rd Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy in Paris, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris 1) and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) from November 2-4, 2017. 

For more informations: http://enojp.org/ http://chisokudopublications.com/

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