RT Article
T1 A Brief History of the Theosophical Society in Japan in the Interwar Period
JF The journal of CESNUR
VO 4
IS 5
SP 3
OP 26
A1 Čapková, Helena
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1739204298
AB The  article  presents  for  the  first  time  a  brief,  yet  still  quite  detailed,  history  of  the Theosophical Society (TS) in Japan based on research of primary sources, mainly in the headquarters of the Society in Adyar, a suburb of Chennai, India. Three decades after the first contacts made during the visits by the TS President, Colonel H.S. Olcott (1832-1907), in 1889 and 1891, the first TS lodge in Japan, the Tokyo International Lodge, was established by James Henry Cousins (1873-1956) in 1920. Cousins’  initiative  stimulated  interest  in  the  TS,  and  other  lodges  were  established,  although  the duration of their activities was sometimes quite short: Orpheus and Mahayana launched in 1924, while Miroku (Maitreya) Lodge did the same in 1928. The analysis of the interwar history of the TS in Japan points to two key issues. One is the fact that the TS resonated with those Japanese who were committed to  restoring  Buddhism  for  modern  Japanese  society.  Thus,  the  TS  was  an  interim  interest  for  them rather  than  something  in which  they  desired  permanent  membership.  Second,  the  impulse  to  establish the TS in Japan came from the Adyar headquarters, and the messengers were non-Japanese. This led to a persistent  problem:  namely  a  lack  of  study  materials  in  Japanese  language.  This issue  became  the  key obstacle in effectively spreading the Theosophical teachings. Only in the postwar period did translation activity come to the fore as key texts were translated into the Japanese language.
K1 Beatrice Lane Suzuki
K1 Daisetsu T. Suzuki
K1 James H. Cousins
K1 Mirra Richard/the Mother
K1 Noemi Raymond
K1 Theosophical Society
K1 Theosophy in Japan
K1 Theosophy
DO 10.26338/tjoc.2020.4.5.1