Budda no fukuin : the deployment of Paul Carus's Gospel of Buddha in Meiji Japan

Within months of its American release, Paul Carus's The Gospel of Buddha had been translated by D.T. Suzuki and published in Japan with a Preface and endorsement by Rinzai Zen abbot Shaku SÅen. This book, Buddha no Fukuin, a conscientiously literal translation of the original text, was imbued with the political concerns of Meiji Japan. Contrary to the assumption of Carus's biographers, the reason for the publication was not that Carus was "one to whom Buddhists throughout the world looked for source material and instruction in their own religion" (Fader 1982, 141), but rather its strategic value in the discourse on Meiji religion. The content of the book, though of use to the reform movement, was of secondary importance to the publication's strategic function in the cause of Buddhist revival.