A Study Of The First Otani Expedition To Chinese Central Asia

In the middle19th century, Japan carried out The Meiji Reformation, Buddhism which occupied an important position for a long time in the religion suffered serious blew. Faced with the crisis and problems, Count Otani Koson, the abbot of pure land Buddhism Honganji monastery, carried out reform following the trend of the times. Otani Kozui cruised to Europe for study and inspection. Affected by the boom of international exploration in Central Asia, national sense of mission and religious commitment, on his way back, Otani Kozui carried out a expedition in Chinese Central Asia. Otani expedition is the important components of international exploration in Central Asia in the late19th and early20th Century. His activities caused serious loss of china’s cultural relics, and the activity records are the component of historical geography material of Central Asia. There is little systematical research on the background and process about Otani Expedition in Central Asia. Reference of existing research results, this paper introduced the first Otani expedition from the background, expedition route, exploration process and collection of artifacts in detail based on the travel dairy and communication materials of team members.