Toshihiko Izutsu | |
|---|---|
井筒 俊彦 | |
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| Born | (1914-05-04)4 May 1914 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | 7 January 1993(1993-01-07) (aged 78) Kamakura, Japan |
| Known for | His translation of theQurʾān into Japanese |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Keio University |
| Influences | Junzaburo Nishiwaki[1] |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
Toshihiko Izutsu (井筒 俊彦,Izutsu Toshihiko; 4 May 1914 – 7 January 1993) was a Japanese scholar who specialized inIslamic studies andcomparative religion.[3] He took an interest inlinguistics at a young age,[4] and came to know more than thirty languages, includingArabic,Hebrew,Turkish,Persian,Sanskrit,Pali,Hindustani,Russian,Greek, andChinese.[5][6][1][4] He is widely known for his translation of theQurʾān into Japanese.[1]
He was born on 4 May 1914[7] into a wealthy family inTokyo,Japan. From an early age, he was familiar withzen meditation[4] andkōan, since his father was also acalligrapher and a practising layZen Buddhist. He entered the Faculty of Economics at Keio University but transferred to the Department of English literature, wishing to be instructed by ProfessorJunzaburō Nishiwaki. Following his bachelor's degree, he became aresearch assistant in 1937.[full citation needed]
In 1958, he completed the first directtranslation of the Quran from Arabic into Japanese (the first indirect translation had been accomplished a decade prior byOkawa Shumei). His translation is still renowned for its linguistic accuracy[8] and is widely used for scholarly works. He was extremely talented in learning foreign languages and finished reading the Quran a month after beginning to learn Arabic. Between 1969 and 1975, he became a professor of Islamic philosophy atMcGill University inMontreal,Quebec (Canada). He was the professor of philosophy at theIranian Research Institute of Philosophy, then known as the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, inTehran,Iran. While in Iran, he worked and collaborated withSeyyed Hossein Nasr,William Chittick,Peter Lamborn Wilson and others.[9] He came back to Japan from Iran after theIslamic Revolution in 1979, and he wrote, seemingly more assiduously, many books and articles in Japanese onEastern philosophy and its significance.
In understanding Izutsu's academic legacy, there are four points to bear in mind: his relation toBuddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism, his interest in language, his inclination towardspostmodernism, and his interest incomparative philosophy.[10]
InSufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts (1983), he compared the metaphysical and mystical thought-systems ofSufism andTaoism, and asserted that, although historically unrelated, these two traditions share similar features and patterns.[10]
He died inKamakura[1] on 7 January 1993.[7]
