Background
Senjō Murakami was born in 1851. He was the son of a priest of Kyokaku-ji, a temple of the Otani branch of the Jôdo Shin sect in the province of Tamba.
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Senjō Murakami
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As a boy he became an apprentice priest in another temple and, later attended a private school in Himeji. After studying Yuishiki (Consciousness Only) Buddhism under Takeda Gyôchü in Echigo, he entered the Higashi Hongan-ji normal school.
In 1898 he received his Ph.D. degree.
Career
In 1887 he went to Tokyo, where he lectured on Buddhism at Sotoshü University, Tetsugakkan, and Tokyo Imperial University. At the same time he set up in the Kanda area of Tokyo an institution called the Bukkyô Kôwasho, where he gave popular lectures on Buddhism. In 1890 he joined with Washio Junkyo and Sakaino Kôyô in founding a scholarly journal called Bukkyô shirin, playing a leading role in the study of Buddhism according to modern critical methods.
He later served as a professor of Tokyo Imperial University, as president of Otani University, and became a member of the Japan Academy.
Works
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In 1901 he published a work entitled Bukkyô tôitsu-ron in which he argued that Mahayana Buddhism is quite different from the doctrine preached by Gautama Buddha. Though this has since become the accepted view in academic circles, it was highly offensive to the more conservative elements in the Buddhist world at the time, and Murakami was led to withdraw from the clergy as a result, though he returned to clerical status in 1912.
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