Mujū Ichien and his Time

Abstract

The article deals with Japanese 13th century Buddhist thinker Mujū Ichien’s life and work. His Shasekishū, one of the major sources to the history of East philosophy in its practical application, contains stories about the well-known sages of India, China and Japan, legends of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, instructive stories of emperors, courtiers, priests, monks, warriors and commoners. Mujū Ichien discuss on this examples such issues as wisdom and stupidity, vice and virtue, human goals on the earth and human salvation. On different instances he urges the importance of diversity of doctrines, ceremonies, beliefs, when each person fi nd for itself a suitable guidance for everyday life. It is possible to judge on its example, how the heritage of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese thought was claimed and rethought in Kamakura Japan. The publication presents fragment from Shasekishū (3–1) translated into Russian.