History of Japanese Religion: With Special Reference to the Social and Moral Life of theNation by M. AnesakiReview by: D. E. M.Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Sep. - Dec., 1963), p. 527Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/597190 .

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Brief Notices of Books 527

The Early Institutional Life of Japan: A Study in the Reform of 645 A. D. By K. ASAKAWA. With an in- troduction by HYMAN KUBLIN. Pp. 355. (Reprint; first edition of Tokyo, 1903). New York: 1963. Professor Asakawa is best known for his study of feudal institutions entitled The Documents of Iriki, published in the later years of his academic life in 1929 and reprinted in 1955. However, his Early Institutional Life of Japan, based on the thesis for which he was awarded a Yale doctorate in 1902, was in its time almost equally epoch-making, and the sixty years which have passed since its publication in 1903 have not seriously impaired its value to present-day students. The reprinting of this pioneer study of the Taika reform and the influence of Chinese political ideas on the building of the Yamato state is greatly to be welcomed.

(D. E. M.)

History of Japanese Religion: With Special Reference to

the Social and Moral Life of the Nation. By M. ANESAKI. (Reprint; first edition of London, 1930). Pp. xxii+423. Tokyo: 1963. Like Asakawa, Pro- fessor Anesaki was an example of that rare phe- nomenon, a Japanese scholar able to publish in English as well as Japanese. Another similarity between them was their ability to approach their subjects with a somewhat broader view than the average Japanese scholar of their time. Anesaki acknowledges his debt to modern Western science and declares himself eager to be a scientific his- torian, not an apologist or propagandist. His History of Japanese Religion is a standard work, which has been too long out of print. It is a broad survey, inevitably lacking the detail of, say, Sir Charles Eliot's Japanese Buddhism. But it is all the more valuable for its combination of doctrinal exposition with discussion of wider aspects of, and the realities of religion in, Japanese cultural and social life. (D. E. M.)

NOTES OF THE SOCIETY

LIDZBARSKI MEDAL

It is my privilege to report to the Plenary Session of the XXVIth International Congress of Orientalists on behalf of the "Deutsche Morgenliindische Gesellschaft" that, as was done at the Congresses held at Munich and at Moscow, the Lidzbarski Medal was also awarded at the present Congress. Unfortunately no manuscript dealing with the subject proposed at Moscow namely " The Poetic Literature of Ugarit " had been received by the Secretary of the Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesell- schaft. Therefore the Lidzbarski committee composed of four members, one each from England, France, Germany and the United States, decided to award the Lidzbarski Medal to a Scholar whose work in the field of Semitic Studies is outstanding and merits the award. The Scholar unanimously selected by the committee is:

Lady E. S. Drower (Oxford, England).

The award is made in acknowledgment of her achieve- ments concerning the traditions and the language of the

Mandeans. Lady Drower's studies, begun during a stay of many years in Baghdad, and recently crowned by the publication of a Mandaic dictionary, may justly be con- sidered as the immediate continuation and the final con- summation of Lidzbarski's work. Thus, the award to her of the Lidzbarski Medal will serve as a fitting symbol for the grateful appreciation with which Lady Drower's work has met in the scholarly world.

The Lidzbarski Committee has the additional duty to propose a new subject for the next competition. The subject selected is: " Aspects of Pagan or Gnostic Re- ligion in the Near East." Manuscripts may be composed in Germany, English, or French, and must be submitted to the Secretary of the Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesell- schaft six months in advance of the next International Congress of Orientalists at the latest.

A. Falkenstein, Heidelberg E. P. Dhorme, Paris G. R. Driver, Oxford F. Rosenthal, New Haven

NOTES OF OTHER SOCIETIES

The American Council of Learned Societies invites interested scholars to call to its attention the titles of books in the humanities and social sciences, written in languages not widely known in this country, that deserve to be published in translation for the use of American scholars. The ACLS has initiated a program devoted to making such works available by sponsoring their trans- lation into English; it will not itself publish them, but it will arrange for their publication.

Works proposed for translation should be major works of scholarship that are not available in any of the four

languages - French, German, Spanish, Italian - that American scholars may be assumed to read without great difficulty.

Suggestions should be addressed to the Scholarly Translations Program, American Council of Learned Societies, 345 East 46th Street, New York, New York 10017. Each nomination should include an analytical precis of the book in either English or French, together with the name and address of at least one scholarly authority who is competent to evaluate the work's im- portance to American scholars.

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