| Takakusu Junjiro | |
| Birth Date: | 29 June 1866 |
| Birth Place: | Yahata, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan |
| Othername: | Umetarō Sawai |
| Occupation: | Buddhist scholar |
, who often published as J. Takakusu, was a Japanese academic, an advocate for expanding higher education opportunities, and an internationally known Buddhist scholar.[1] He was an active Esperantist.
Takakusu was born in Yahata in Hiroshima Prefecture, adopted by the Takakusu family of Kobe, and sent to England to study Sanskrit at Oxford University (1890). After receiving his doctorate, he continued his studies in France and Germany.
Upon his return to Japan in 1894, he was appointed lecturer and then professor at the Tokyo Imperial University and director of Tokyo School of Foreign Languages.[2]
He founded the Musashino Girls' School in 1924. The institution evolved on the principle of "Buddhist-based human education," moving in 1929 to its present location in Nishitōkyō, Tokyo and becoming Musashino Women's University. The institution Takakusu founded is now known as .[1]
From 1924 to 1934, Takakusu and others established the, later known as the, which collected, edited, and published the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō. This massive compendium is now available online as the SAT Taishō Database, and the CBETA Tripitaka.[3] [4]
In 1930, he was named President of the Tokyo Imperial University. He was a member of the Imperial Academy of Japan and a Fellow of the British Academy. He was a recipient of Asahi Cultural Prize and the Japanese government's Order of Culture. He was awarded an honorary degree by Tokyo Imperial University; and he was similarly honored by the universities at Oxford, Leipzig, and Heidelberg.
At the time of his death in June 1945, he was Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at the Tokyo Imperial University.
In 1906, he was one of the founder member of the Japanese Esperantists Association (JEA), and its head in the Tokyo section. When in 1919, a new organization, the (JEI) was founded, he became a member of the director board.