Okakura traces how Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism fused into the Japanese national character, from the Samurai code and hara-kiri to the tea ceremony and the seventeen-syllable hokku. A Japanese professor explains his country to a Western audience.
Books mentioned in The Japanese Spirit (14)
Kojiki by O no Yasumaro: “One thing is certain about them, that they were not free from influences exerted by the different myths prevalent among the Chinese and the Indians at the time when they were written down in our earliest history, the Ko-ji-ki or Records of Ancient Matter, completed in A.D. 712.”
Analects by Confucius: “We are told that a certain prince was put under the tutorship of a learned Corean scholar of Chinese, who, at the request of the emperor, came over to Japan with the Confucian Analects (Iun-yue) and some other Chinese classics as a tribute from the King of Kudara.”
Classic of Filial Piety: “The Hsiao King, or the 'Sacred Book of Filial Piety,' which is supposed to record conversations held between Confucius and his disciple Tsang Ts'an on that weighty subject, has the following passage:”
Lotus Sutra: “The sonorous reading of the Book of Filial Piety was heard all over the country, echoing with the loud recital of the Myoho-renge-kyo (or Saddharma Pundarika Sutra).”
Tao Te Ching by Laozi: “…Laoism, through the wonderful Tao-teh-king, a small book by Lao-tze himself, but especially through Chwang-tze, a work in ten books by his famous follower Chwang-chow, has exercised considerable influence on our thought for twelve centuries, a word about it may not be out of place before we go on to consider the doctrine of Shakya-muni.”
Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou: “…Laoism, through the wonderful Tao-teh-king, a small book by Lao-tze himself, but especially through Chwang-tze, a work in ten books by his famous follower Chwang-chow, has exercised considerable influence on our thought for twelve centuries, a word about it may not be out of place before we go on to consider the doctrine of Shakya-muni.”
Man'yoshu: “Here is one of the earliest odes to Fujiyama, contained in a collection of lyrical poems called Man-yo-shu, or 'Myriad Leaves,' by Prince Moroe (died A.D. 757), somewhere in the first half of the eighth century:”
Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation by Lafcadio Hearn: “…down to the admirable Interpretation written last year by the late Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, in whose death Japan lost one of her most precious friends, possessing as he did the scholar's insight and the poet's pen, two heavenly gifts seldom found united in a single man.”
Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe: “As for books on the subject from the pen of the Japanese themselves, Dr. Nitobe's Bushido, Explanations of the Japanese Thought, and my brother K. Okakura's Ideals of the East, besides a volume by several well-known Japanese, entitled Japan by the Japanese, are to be specially mentioned.”
The Ideals of the East by Kakuzo Okakura: “As for books on the subject from the pen of the Japanese themselves, Dr. Nitobe's Bushido, Explanations of the Japanese Thought, and my brother K. Okakura's Ideals of the East, besides a volume by several well-known Japanese, entitled Japan by the Japanese, are to be specially mentioned.”
Buddhism by T. W. Rhys Davids: “Those who would care to read about it will find an excellent supply of knowledge in two little books called Buddhism and Buddhism in China, written respectively by Dr. Rhys Davids and the late Rev. S. Beal, not to mention the late Sir Monier Williams' standard work.”
Buddhism in China by Samuel Beal: “Those who would care to read about it will find an excellent supply of knowledge in two little books called Buddhism and Buddhism in China, written respectively by Dr. Rhys Davids and the late Rev. S. Beal, not to mention the late Sir Monier Williams' standard work.”
The Religion of China by James Legge: “'To give oneself,' he said on one occasion, 'to the duties due to men, and while respecting spiritual things to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom.' Legge's The Religion of China, p. 137.”
The Doctrines of Confucius by Ernst Faber: “…were of the opinion that more real good was to be achieved in proceeding straight to action under the guidance of conscience which was heaven and all, than in indulging in idle talk about the subtlety of human nature. Faber's Doctrines of Confucius, p. 33.”