ERNEST SATOW'S "LIFE OF BUDDHA" on
00:00 Intro
02:17 Reading of paper (condensed translation）
01:17:10 Outro
This paper, read here for the first time by Ian Ruxton for his YouTube channel on 25 August 2024, appeared under the title 'Life of Buddha' in the Journal of the Buddhist Text Society of India (Calcutta), Vol. 2, part 3 (1894): appendix 1, pp. 1-11.
It is a condensed translation of 釈迦 実録 (Shaka Jitsuroku, The true story of the Life of Buddha).
Names appear in romanised Japanese then in brackets in romanised Sanskrit.
The paper appears to be one of only two which Satow the diolomat and Japanology scholar wrote about Buddhism. The other is 'History of the Introduction of Buddhism into Japan', Journal of the Buddhist Text Society of India (Calcutta) Vol. 2, part 3 (1894): pp. 23-30.
Both papers are reproduced in The Collected Works of Ernest Satow (Collected Papers Volume 3, 1880-1894), copublished by Ganesha of London and Edition Synapse of Tokyo in 2001.
It is not known whether Satow himself ever read his paper aloud to an audience. If he did not, this may well be the first time it has ever been read publicly. Until now I have not felt inclined to read the very dense text, but on reading it for YouTube have myself at last learned its contents.