Ōtani University (大谷大学, Ōtani Daigaku) is a private Buddhist university in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Ōtani University is a coeducation institution with an emphasis on Buddhist studies. A two-year private junior college is associated with the university. The university is associated with the Ōtani School of Jōdo Shinshū, or Shin, school of Buddhism.[1][2][3]
History
Ōtani University traces its origin to the early Edo period (1603 – 1868). It was founded in 1655, and served as the seminary of Higashi Hongan-ji. The shōgunTokugawa Ieyasu founded Higashi Hongan-ji in 1602 by splitting it from Nishi Hongan-ji to diminish the power of Buddhism's Shin sect. The seminary was strengthened and revived in 1755, and developed a broader curriculum throughout the 19th century.[3][4]
The modern university was founded in 1901 as Shinshū University in Tokyo's Sugamo neighborhood. Shinshū University was closely associated with Kiyozawa Manshi (1863–1903), a Shin Buddhist reformer from a low-ranking samurai background who studied at the University of Tokyo under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908).[5] Kiyozawa also served as the first dean of the university.[1][2][6] In 1904 the university achieved the legal status of senmon gakkō, or vocational school.
Shinshū University moved from Tokyo to Kyoto in 1911. It had a curriculum of three years of general study, two years of specialized study, and four years of graduate-level study. The university moved to new buildings in the Koyamahigashifusa-chō neighborhood of Kita-ku in 1913, remains at this location. Shinshū attained university status in 1922, and was renamed Ōtani University the same year. Under the Education Law of 1947 Ōtani University transitioned to the post-World War II educational system, and was reclassified as a university.[2][4]Ōtani University Museum opened in 2003.[7]
^December Fan: The Buddhist Essays of Manshi Kiyozawa translated by Nobuo Haneda, pp. 86–87 (biography by Thomas Kirchner) / Kyoto: Higashi Honganji 1984, OCLC 20248970
