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Takes the reader on a pilgrimage to Mount Kōya, the holy Buddhist mountain in Japan.
Kukai, more commonly known by the honorific Kobo Daishi, was one of the great characters in the development of Janpanese culture. He was active in literature, engineering, calligraphy, and architecture and is represented in this work in terms of his major effort--the introduction of esoteric Buddhism from China, which resulted in the formation of the Shingou sect still active in Japan. Eight of his works are presented here.
Winner of the Association of Asian Studies's Southeast Conference Book Prize (2014) Does imagery help or hinder the enlightenment experience? Does awakening involve the imagination or not? Can art ever fully represent the realization of buddahood? In this study, Pamela D. Winfield offers a fascinating comparison of two pre-modern Japanese Buddhist masters and their views on the role of imagery in the enlightenment experience. Kukai (774-835) believed that real and imagined forms were indispensable to his new esoteric Mikky? method for "becoming a Buddha in this very body" (sokushin jobutsu), yet he also deconstructed the significance of such imagery in his poetic and doctrinal works. Conversely, Dogen (1200-1253) believed that "just sitting" in Zen meditation without any visual props or mental elaborations could lead one to realize that ''this very mind is Buddha'' (sokushin zebutsu), but he also privileged select Zen icons as worthy of veneration. In considering the nuanced views of both Kukai and Dogen anew, Winfield updates previous comparisons of their oeuvres and engages their texts and images together for the first time. In so doing, she liberates them from past sectarian scholarship that has pigeon-holed them into iconographic/ritual vs. philological/philosophical categories. She also restores the historical symbiosis between religious thought and artistic expression that was lost in the nineteenth-century disciplinary distinction between religious studies and art history. Finally, Winfield breaks new methodological ground by proposing space and time as organizing principles for analyzing both meditative experience and visual/material culture. As a result, this study presents a wider and deeper vision of how Japanese Buddhists themselves understood the role of imagery before, during, and after awakening.
First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The first volume in a new series generated by a multiyear project at the U. of Chicago Divinity School. Twelve essays (all but two are edited versions of papers presented at one of six semi-annual conferences) address the nature of religion, the nature of philosophy, and their relationships. Several argue that the philosophy of religions should be global in its orientation, comparative in its approach, and grounded in the empirical study of religious traditions. Others deal with historical data, shifting from the discussion of theoretical and methodological issues. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book provides an overview of religion in Japan, from ancient times to the present. It also emphasizes the cultural and attitudinal manifestations of religion in Japan, withough neglecting dates and places.
A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism offers a comprehensive, nuanced, and chronological account of the evolution of Buddhist religion in Japan from the sixth century to the present day. Traces each period of Japanese history to reveal the complex and often controversial histories of Japanese Buddhists and their unfolding narratives Examines relevant social, political, and transcultural contexts, and places an emphasis on Japanese Buddhist discourses and material culture Addresses the increasing competition between Buddhist, Shinto, and Neo-Confucian world-views through to the mid-nineteenth century Informed by the most recent research, including the latest Japanese and Western scholarship Illustrates the richness and complexity of Japanese Buddhism as a lived religion, offering readers a glimpse into the development of this complex and often misunderstood tradition
Kukai the Universal is an extensively researched biography chronicling the life of Kukai, the visionary Japanese monk of the ninth century whose profound influence touched every aspect of Japan's civilization. Kukai was born in 774 into a declining aristocratic family, whose design was for him to become a statesman. However, he soon became disillusioned with the ways of politics and took a new path in life, pursuing his Buddhist studies and practicing meditation while roaming the country as an itinerant hermit. At the age of 30, Kukai sailed to China to become a student monk under the tutelage of Huiguo, the patriarch of esoteric Buddhism. Returning to Japan in 806 as a master of esoteric Buddhist teachings, Kukai initiated the building of a monastic center on Mt. Koya for the practice of Buddhism. This, and the founding and systemization of the Shingon doctrine were Kukai's major concerns for the remainder of his life. In 823 the Emperor Saga presented him with Toji, the most important temple in Kyoto, which became the headquarters for the Shingon sect. Kukai is known as the father of Japanese culture: he invented the kana syllabary, the basis of Japanese written language forms, was the originator of the pilgrimage circuit of 88 temples in Shikoku, a builder of lakes, a poet, calligrapher, sculptor, and the lexicographer who complied the oldest extant dictionary. He was also founder of the oldest school in Japan. Kukai is undoubtedly the greatest figure in Japan's history, creating the very fundamentals of its national culture. For this he was honored as a saint, under the name of Kobo Daishi. Book jacket.