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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