Donald Keene Lecture 4: Donald Keene Lecture 4: Meiji and War

February 29, 2000

Donald Keene Lecture 4: Meiji and War
Altschul Auditorium (417 International Affairs Building), Columbia University (118th St. and Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

March 2 (Thursday)
Lecture: Textile Metaphor and Studying Kukai: Another Thought on the Origin and Influence of Esoteric Buddhism in Japanese History
Ryuichi Abe (Kao Associate Professor of Japanese Religion, Department of Religion, Columbia University); Discussion with Robert Thurman (Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

Booktalk on his recent work, The Weaving of Mantra, Kukai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse

Ryuichi Abe’s book is an attempt to present a new way of studying Kukai (774-835).  Departing from the conventional notion of Kukai as the founder of a Japanese Buddhist sect, which Abe views as a modern myth, the author worked to embed Kukai and his introduction of Esoteric Buddhism within the fabric of political and social life in ninth-century Japan. What emerged from Abe’s observation is a picture drastically different from conventional ones, in which Kukai’s invention of a new type of religious discourse planted a seed that triggered changes–the collapse of ancient institutional structure that in turn encouraged the rise of medieval social order. The development of native Japanese syllabary, the Buddhisization of Japanese Emperorship, and the growth of popular legends on Kukai are among topics discussed.