I received from Professor Mieko Kajihara (Tokyo) the sad news that Professor
Masato Fujii passed away yesterday, the 11th of October 2024. Having worked
closely with Masato for decades, I personally feel his passing as a great and
painful loss, for he was a wonderful colleague and friend.
Masato Fujii was Professor of Indology at the Institute for Research in
Humanities, Kyoto University from 1993 to March 2020, when he retired at the
age of 65. Soon afterwards he was diagnosed to have kidney cancer, and he
spent long periods in the hospital as the doctors were able to control the
cancer to some extent. Eventually, however, his cancer spread to liver and
could no longer be checked.
Masato studied Sanskrit, Buddhism and Indian Philosophy at the
University of Osaka under Professor Noritoshi Aramaki. Aramaki suggested the
Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa and its contribution to Indian philosophy as the
themeforf Masato’s doctoral research. Aramaki also suggested that in
preparation for this task, Masato should study Sāmaveda and its ritual.
Masato spent the academic year 1984-85 as my student at the University
of Helsinki. We translated into English the Jaiminīya-Śrautasūtra and its
commentary by Bhavatrāta, a Brahmin from Kerala who lived around 700 CE. In
1985 Masato was part of my research team studying the Gṛhya rituals of
Jaiminīya Sāmaveda and photographing manuscripts of texts belonging to this
Vedic school in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We continued hunting, documenting and
photographing Jaiminīya manuscripts and history together during many years
until 2006, mostly with Japanese funding obtained by Masato, who published our
cumulative results in 2012. A detailed catalogue of the texts photographed in
2002-2006 was published in 2016. After our Jaiminīya project was over, Masato
continued documenting the Nampūtiri Vedic traditions in Kerala with his
Japanese colleagues, focusing now of the Vādhūla school earlier documented by
Yasuke Ikari.
In 2004, Masato took his doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki
with a thesis entitled The Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa: A study of the earliest
Upaniṣad, belonging to the Jaiminīya Sāmaveda. The official opponent was
Professor Henk Bodewitz (Leiden/Utrecht). The thesis comprised a number of his
penetrating papers related to this text, which remained the main topic of his
research until the very end. His truly monumental critical edition, annotated
translation and study of the Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa has been “almost ready
for publication” already a long time, and will now come out posthumously.
Bibliography
Fujii, Masato, 1984. On the unexpressed gāyatra-sāman in the
Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa. Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku
bukkyōgaku kenkyū) 32 (2): 1123-1121.
Fujii, Masato, 1986. The Bahiṣpavamāna ritual of the Jaiminīyas. Machikaneyama
Ronso (Philosophy) 20 (12), Osaka University: 3-25. [An annotated English
translation of JŚS 1,10-11 and Bhavatrāta's commentary.]
Fujii, Masato, 1987. The Gāyatra and ascension to heaven
(Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa 1,1-7; 3,11-14). Journal of Indian and Buddhist
Studies (Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū) 35 (2): 1005-1002.
Fujii, Masato, 1988. Three notes on the Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa 3,1-5.
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū) 37 (1):
1002-994.
Fujii, Masato, 1989. Saishoki-upanishaddo-bunken no seiritsu to densho [On the
formation and transmission of the Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa]. Machikaneyama
Ronso (Philosophy) 23 (12), Osaka University: 13-25.
Fujii, Masato, 1990. Nidōsetsu no seiritsu — kōkivēda no saiseisetsu. [The
formation of the Devayāna and Pitṛyāna theory.] The Journal of the Nippon
Buddhist Research Association 55: 43-56.
Fujii, Masato, 1991. The Brahman priest (Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa 3,15-19).
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū) 39 (2):
1054-1050.
Fujii, Masato, 1994. On the textual formation of the Nīlamata-Purāṇa. Pp. 55-82
in: Yasuke Ikari (ed.), A study of the Nīlamata: Aspects of Hinduism in ancient
Kashmir. Kyoto: Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.
Fujii, Masato, 1997. Kena-Upaniṣad (= Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa 4,10
[4,18-21]). Pp. 821-842 in: Imanishi Junkiihi kyojukanreki kinen ronshoo: Indo
shishoo to bukkyoo bunka (Collected essays in memory of the 60th anniversary of
Professor Imanishi Junkiihi: Indian Philosophy and Buddhist culture.) Tokyo:
Shunjuusha.
Fujii, Masato, 1997. On the formation and transmission of the
Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa. Pp. 89-102 in: Michael Witzel (ed.), Inside the
texts, beyond the texts: New approaches to the study of the Vedas. (Harvard
Oriental Series, Opera Minora, 2.) Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Sanskrit and
Indian Studies, Harvard University.
Fujii, Masato, 1999. The gâyatra: chanting innovation and Sâmavedic textual
development. Paper read at the Second International Vedic Workshop, Kyoto 31
Oct 1999 (handout 7 pp.)
Fujii, Masato, 1999. A common passage on the supreme prāṇa in the three
earliest Upaniṣads (JUB 1,60 - 2,12; BĀU 1,3; ChU 1,2). Zinbun: Annals of the
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, 34 (2): 51-86.
Fujii, Masato, 2001. The Brahman priest in the history of Vedic texts. Pp.
147-160 in: Klaus Karttunen & Petteri Koskikallio (eds.), Vidyārṇavavandanam:
Essays in honour of Asko Parpola. (Studia Orientalia, 94.) Helsinki: The
Finnish Oriental Society..
Fujii, Masato, 2004. The Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa: A study of the earliest
Upaniṣad, belonging to the Jaiminīya Sāmaveda. (Publications of the Institute
for Asian and African Studies, 4.) Helsinki: Institute for Asian and African
Studies, University of Helsinki. 200 pp. Ph. D. dissertation, University of
Helsinki. 200 pp.
Fujii, Masato, 2009. The Kena-Upaniṣad and its succeeding portions in the
Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa. Paper read at the 14th World sanskrit Conference,
Kyoto, 1-5 September, 2009. Handout of 3 pp.
Fujii, Masato, 2009-2010. The Gāyatra-Sāman: Chanting innovations in the
Sāmavedic Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣad. Zinbun: Annals of the Institute for Research
in Humanities, Kyoto University, 42: 1-37.
Fujii, Masato 2010. Kodai-Indo ni okeru Ōken to Girei. Pp. 114-117 in: N. Nara
and M. Shimoda (eds.), Bukkyō Shutsugen no Haikei. Tokyo: Kōsei-Shuppan.
Fujii, Masato, 2011. The Sāmavedic śākhā backgrounds of the
Jaiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa and the Chāndogya-Upaniṣad: A comparison. Paper
read at the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest 20-23 Sept 2011.
Handout 2 pp.
Fujii, Masato, 2011. The recovery of the body after death: A prehistory of the
devayāya and pitṛyāna. Pp. 103-120 in: Bertil Tikkanen & Albion M. Butters
(eds.) 2011. Pūrvāparaprajñābhinandanam: East and West, Past and Present.
Indological and other essays in honour of Klaus Karttunen. (Studia Orientalia
110.) Helsinki: The Finnish Oriental Society.
Fujii, Masato, 2012. The Jaiminīya Sāmaveda traditions and manuscripts in South
India. Pp. 99-118 in: Saraju Rath (ed.), Aspects of manuscript culture in South
India. (Brill's Indological library, vol. 40.) Leiden: Brill.
Fujii, Masato, & Asko Parpola 2016. Manuscripts of the Jaiminīya Sāmaveda
traced and photographed in 2002-2006. Pp. 127-162 in: Asko Parpola & Petteri
Koskikallio (eds.), Vedic investigations. (Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit
Conference, vol. 1.) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Fujii, Masato, 2016. The Veda and the Nampūtiri society. Paper read at the
Kickoff International Symposium "Brahmanism and Hinduism: Change and continuity
in South Asian society and religion - prolegomena", Kyoto 11 March 2016.
Handout 4 pp.
Fujii, Masato, 2020-2021. Soma and Surā: The Sautrāmaṇī in the Vedic kingship
rituals. Journal of Indological Studies 32 & 33: 1-20.
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