ABSTRACT
When the Meiji government in 1868 opened the country to the West and abolished the privileged position of Buddhism, the Buddhist religions found out that they needed to know more about the development of Buddhism in order to match modern Western history of religions. Until then the Japanese had concentrated on Chinese sources and the Chinese did not develop Indian studies once the texts were translated. Moreover, the 250 years of isolation during the Tokugawa period were not conducive to foreign languages studies.
