Hajime Nakamura

This is a peculiar book. The author sets out to analyze the characteristic ways of thought in India, China, Tibet and Japan by focusing on Buddhism as the common denominator. In the beginning he emphasizes the importance of logic and language as elements of useful comparative analysis. This seems like a sensible approach, but unfortunately he doesn't apply it consistently. He first analyzes Indian thought in a very interesting and well-written section. The emphasis is clearly on language and logic, with Buddhism in the background.

But when he gets to China the roles are reversed: much more time is spent on the development Buddhist doctrines than on language or logic. And the final section on Japan, which actually constitutes nearly half the book, is overwhelmingly focused on the beliefs of various Japanese Buddhist sects. Interesting as that may be, the discussion just rambles on without any structure at all, with only scattered references to language and logic. I couldn't discern any clear ideas about Japanese thought here. In conclusion, after a promising start this book grew tedious and lost focus quite badly. I can only recommend it to students of Buddhism, particularly those looking for a pan-Asian perspective.… (mere)