Zen to nihon bunka
Showa period, dated 1940 / Book, typeset on paper
Trans: Momo'o Kitagawa September 30, 1940 First
Edition
A work dealing with Zen thought as Eastern philosophy. The book
was originally written in English and intended as an introduction for Westerners
to Japanese culture as influenced by Zen Buddhist thought. The first English
edition was published by the Eastern Buddhist Society. Following this, the
Japanese translation by Momo'o Kitagawa was published by Iwanami Shoten and
remains a widely read work in Japan as both an introduction to Zen Buddhism and
a tool for deepening understanding of Japanese culture. It is considered a
classic work on both subjects. The earlier English version was translated into
German and published in 1941, and in 1958 was revised and released as Zen and
Japanese Culture out of New York and London.
Zoku zen to nihon bunka
Showa period, dated 1942 / Book, typeset on paper
Trans: Momo'o Kitagawa October 15, 1942 First
Edition
Zoku Zen to Nihon bunka is a Japanese translation of the
second half of Suzuki's English-language work Zen Buddhism and Its Influence
on Japanese Culture (1938, Eastern Buddhist Society, Kyoto) along with the
additional chapter "Zen to kūkan". Along with the previously published Zen to
Nihon Bunka from Iwanami Shoten, this meant that the original English
version had now been fully translated. For the sake of convenience, however, the
categorization and order of the material was altered for this second Japanese
volume so that two new chapter headings, "Zen to mondō" and "Zen to noh," were
added, and chapter seven of the English original, "Zen to chajin," was moved to
this volume, subtitled "Zen to Nihonjin no shizenkan."