Toshihiko Izutsu

Toshihiko Izutsu (井筒 俊彦, Izutsu Toshihiko, 4 May 1914 – 7 January 1993) was a Japanese scholar who specialized in Islamic studies and comparative religion.[3] He took an interest in linguistics at a young age,[4] and came to know more than thirty languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Hindustani, Russian, Greek, and Chinese.[5][6][2][4] He is widely known for his translation of the Qurʾān into Japanese.[2]

Toshihiko Izutsu
井筒 俊彦
Izutsu in Ascona in 1979[1]
Born(1914-05-04)4 May 1914
Tokyo, Japan
Died7 January 1993(1993-01-07) (aged 78)
Kamakura, Japan
Known forHis translation of the Qurʾān into Japanese
Academic background
EducationKeio University
InfluencesJunzaburo Nishiwaki[2]
Academic work
Institutions

Life and academic career

He was born on 4 May 1914[7] into a wealthy family in Tokyo, Japan. From an early age, he was familiar with zen meditation[4] and kōan, since his father was also a calligrapher and a practising lay Zen Buddhist. He entered the Faculty of Economics at Keio University, but transferred to the Department of English literature wishing to be instructed by Professor Junzaburō Nishiwaki. Following his bachelor's degree, he became a research assistant in 1937.

In 1958, he completed the first direct translation of the Quran from Arabic into Japanese (the first indirect translation had been accomplished a decade prior by Okawa Shumei). His translation is still renowned for its linguistic accuracy[8] and 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 1969–1975, he became professor of Islamic philosophy at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). He was the professor of philosophy at the Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy, formerly Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, in Tehran, Persia. He came back to Japan from Persia after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and he wrote, seemingly more assiduously, many books and articles in Japanese on Eastern philosophy and its significance.

In understanding Izutsu's academic legacy, there are four points to bear in mind: his relation to Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism, his interest in language, his inclination towards postmodernism, and his interest in comparative philosophy.[9]

In Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts (1983) he compared the metaphysical and mystical thought-systems of Sufism and Taoism, and asserted that, although historically unrelated, these two traditions share similar features and patterns.[9]

He died in Kamakura[2] on 7 January 1993.[7]

Notable works

Documentaries

References
  1. Izutsu, Toshihiko (2008). The Structure of Oriental Philosophy: Collected Papers of the Eranos Conference: Volume I (PDF). Tokyo: Keio University Press. ISBN 978-4-7664-1430-1.
  2. "Toshihiko Izutsu: The Genius That Bridged East & West". Keio Times. 28 May 2021. Archived from the original on 1 August 2022.
  3. Masataka, Takeshita (2016). "Toshihiko Izutsu's contribution to Islamic Studies" (PDF). Journal of International Philosophy. 7: 78–81. doi:10.34428/00008151.
  4. Chittick, William C. (1994). Foreword. Creation and the Timeless Order of Things: Essays in Islamic Mystical Philosophy (PDF). By Toshihiko Izutsu. Ashland, Oregon: White Cloud Press. pp. vii–ix. ISBN 1-883991-04-8.
  5. "Japanese religion expert Toshihiko Izutsu under spotlight in "The Eastern"". Tehran Times. 10 July 2018. Archived from the original on 13 July 2018.
  6. Muzaqqi (2016). "Semantic Approaches in Islamic Studies: The Review of Toshihiko Izutsu's Thought" (PDF). Pedagogik: Jurnal Pendidikan. 4 (1): 45–53.
  7. Albayrak, İsmail (2012). "The Reception of Toshihiko Izutsu's Qur'anic Studies in the Muslim World: With Special Reference to Turkish Qur'anic Scholarship". Journal of Qur'anic Studies. 14 (1): 73–106. JSTOR 41719816.
  8. Al-Daghistani, Sami (2018). "The Time Factor – Toshihiko Izutsu and Islamic Economic Tradition". Asian Studies. 6 (1): 55–71. doi:10.4312/as.2018.6.1.55-71. hdl:10852/70994. S2CID 148845337.
  9. Nakamura, Kojiro (2009). "The Significance of Toshihiko Izutsu's Legacy for Comparative Religion". Intellectual Discourse. 17 (2): 147–158.
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