by Shinichi Yamamuro

“Philosopher’s Garden: Kyoto, Japan, 2012”; original photograph, by Michael Sawyer.

Non-violence often comes to mind when we think of the term ahimsa, which, for example, Gandhi used. The word himsa in Hindi means, “to inflict injury on a person,” in other words to hurt a person. The word ahimsa,  “non-violence,” is formed by adding the negative adverb a. What exactly is  “inflicting injury”? Naturally, it is easy to understand physical violence, such as war, in which people are harmed, but are there other ways of inflicting injury? If so, how should we understand non-violence?

Read all of this article: The Source and Development of Japan’s Philosophies of Non-Violence

EDITOR’S NOTE: Shinichi Yamamuro is professor at the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, and recipient of the Medal with Purple Ribbon, a government of Japan award for outstanding academic achievements. He has also been visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute. His book Manchuria under Japanese Dominion is considered the definitive work on the subject, and he is generally recognized as a leading authority on modern Japanese history and politics. This article is a summary of a talk he gave in Tokyo on 24 November 2009.