ANESAKI MASAHARU (1873–1949) is known as the founder of religious studies in modern Japan. Through his "Introduction to Religious Studies" lectures at Tokyo Imperial University and the publication of his book General Introduction to Religious Studies (1900), Anesaki established a new form of the academic study of religion in Japan. Thereafter he became a professor and occupied the chair of religious studies (established in 1905) at the Imperial University. He later became chairman of the Japanese Religious Studies Association. Anesaki's life itself reflects the development of religious studies in Japan before the outbreak of World War II.

Anesaki's early ideas concerning religious studies were expressed in his General Introduction to Religious Studies. He thought that the subject of religious studies should be constituted into three areas: religious psychology, religious ethics, and religious sociology. His main goal was to comprehend religion as an expression of the human desire for the...