Background
Junjirö Takakusu was born in 1866 in the area that later became Hiroshima Prefecture; his family name was originally Sawai.
高峰 譲吉
Junjirö Takakusu was born in 1866 in the area that later became Hiroshima Prefecture; his family name was originally Sawai.
He spent the years from 1888 to 1896 in Europe, studying at Oxford under Max Müller, the eminent Indologist, and at other universities in France and Germany.
In 1900 he received the Ph.D. degree.
After serving as a primary school teacher in his native place, he entered a school called Bun- gakuryö operated by Nishi Hongan-ji, one of the main temples of the Jodo Shin sect. There he formed a society for ethical culture called the Hanseikai. The Hanseikai Zasshi, a magazine representing the views of the society, later evolved into a general magazine called Child Koron, which continues in existence today. In 1887, he was adopted into the Takakusu family of Kobe.
In 1899 he became a professor of Tokyo Imperial University. In 1900 he became president of Tokyo Gaikokugo Gakkö. In 1912 he became a member of the Japan Academy. Earlier, in 1904, he had been sent to London by the Japanese government to carry on negotiations with the British government in connection with the Russo-Japanese War and was thus active in many spheres other than the academic. In 1927, after his retirement from Tokyo Imperial University, he became president of Töyö University.
In 1944 he received a Cultural Medal. His disciples include Kimura Taiken and Ui Hakuju, both men who have helped to raise Japanese Buddhist studies to a level comparable to those anywhere in the world.