Sociedad Asiática: H-Buddhism.

TALK> Abigail I. MacBain, Kyoto Asian Studies Group Meeting, October 15

by Niels Van Steenpaal

Dear colleagues,

The speaker for the October meeting of the Kyoto Asian Studies Group is Abigail I. MacBain, who will present “Platforms of Legitimacy: Searching for a Precepts Master and Shifting Monastic Ordinations in Eighth Century Japan” (see abstract below).

The talk will be held on Tuesday, October 15^th, 18:00-20:00 in Room 212 of the Fusokan on the Doshisha University Campus (see link below for access information).

Abstract

Platforms of Legitimacy: Searching for a Precepts Master and Shifting Monastic Ordinations in Eighth Century Japan

The ninth Japanese diplomatic mission set off for Tang China in the year 733, purportedly in part to recruit a precepts master willing to relocate to Japan. The envoy returned three years later with a diverse group of Buddhist monks, all of whom settled in the capital city of Nara. This mission’s greatest dividend arrived nearly twenty years later in the form of Ganjin (Ch. Jianzhen 鑑真), a renowned precepts master who established Tōshōdaiji Temple and the country’s first ordination platform.

This presentation addresses the role of monastic precepts in early Japan, especially the argument that the 733 mission sought out a precepts master due to anxiety that monastic ordinations in Japan were not wholly legitimate. This concern relates to a requirement that 10 fully ordained monks or nuns must preside over ordination ceremonies, which had never been the case in Japan. However, Japan did have sufficient monks to meet a reduced requirement for outlying areas, and the 733 mission did bring a precepts master capable of conducting ordinations in the same manner as Ganjin. Why, then, was there no appreciable change in ordination procedures until Ganjin’s arrival?

Alongside examining ordinations and monastic precepts prior to and after Ganjin’s arrival, this presentation will consider Ganjin’s ordination platform within the broader context of increased state regulations over monks and nuns, a crackdown on private monks, and the promulgation of state-protection temples. With the establishment of two more ordination platforms at Dazaifu and Shimotsuke, this shift in ordination practices arguably allowed for greater government control throughout the countryside. As such, when looking at the ordination practices popularized by Ganjin, their purpose may have been as political as it was religious.

Abigail I. MacBain is a PhD candidate with the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures at Columbia University, and is presently a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellow at Kyoto University.

Sponsored by the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. For access information see:

http://www.doshisha.ac.jp/en/information/campus/imadegawa/imadegawa.html

Please refrain from bringing food or drinks into the meeting room.

Contact: Niels van Steenpaal, nielsvansteenpaal@hotmail.com

About the Kyoto Asian Studies Group:

The KASG is a long-standing Kyoto-based research network that hosts monthly research presentations by experts from various Asian Studies fields. Emphasizing long Q&A sessions, we aim to provide an informal atmosphere in which scholars can freely exchange ideas concerning both finished and in-progress research. Admission is free, and we always welcome new members and presenters.

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NEW PUBLICATION> Buddhist Apologetics in East Asia

by Uri Kaplan

Dear colleagues,
I would like to introduce my new book:
Buddhist Apologetics in East Asia: Countering the Neo-Confucian Critiques in the Hufa lun and the Yusŏk chirŭi non (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
While the Neo-Confucian critique of Buddhism is fairly well-known, little attention has been given to the Buddhist reactions to this harangue. The fact is, however, that over a dozen apologetic essays have been written by Buddhists in China, Korea, and Japan in response to the Neo-Confucians. Buddhist Apologetics in East Asia offers an introduction to this Buddhist literary genre. It centers on full translations of two dominant apologetic works—the Hufa lun (護法論), written by a Buddhist politician in twelfth-century China, and the Yusŏk chirŭi non (儒釋質疑論), authored by an anonymous monk in fifteenth-century Korea. Put together, these two texts demonstrate the wide variety of polemical strategies and the cross-national intertextuality of East Asian Buddhist apologetics.

Sincerely,
Uri Kaplan

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CONFERENCE> The Philip Kapleau Papers: Zen Buddhism in Post-World War II Japan and the United States

by Richard Jaffe

The Philip Kapleau Papers: Zen Buddhism in Post-World War II Japan and the United States

Saturday, October 12, 10:00 AM–3:00 PM

Duke University, West Campus, Rubenstein Library, Room 249

In Spring 2018, the senior leadership of the Rochester Zen Center gifted the papers of their founding teacher, Philip Kapleau-rōshi (1912–2004) and documents concerning the Center, which Kapleau-rōshi founded in 1966, to the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University. One of the early centers of convert Zen Buddhist practice in the United States, Kapleau-rōshi helped popularize Zen Buddhism outside Japan through his teaching at the Center, his frequent offering of introductory workshops on Zen across the United States, and his writings, most notably the Three Pillars of Zen. The members of the Center have graciously opened these archives, which detail much about Kapleau-rōshi’s teaching and intimate exchanges with his teachers and students, to researchers who wish to access the papers at the Rubenstein Library.

In recognition of the donation of these documents and other materials, we will host a half-day symposium at Duke University on Kapleau-rōshi’s teachings and legacy. The event is funded through the generosity of Duke University’s Department of Religious Studies, Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Rubenstein Library, as well as gifts from the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism (Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai), and the Venerable Subul Sunim.

Speakers at the event will include:

Mitra Bishop (Sanmonji Zen Center)

Bodhin Kjolhede (Rochester Zen Center)

Peter Gregory (Smith College, emeritus)

Richard M. Jaffe (Duke University)

Rebecca Mendelson (Duke University)

Jeffrey Wilson (Renison University College, University of Waterloo)

Richard M. Jaffe,
Duke University

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CFP> Vol. 5 of the Journal of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JJADH)

by A. Charles Muller

CFP Volume 5 JJADH

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The Journal of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (in English) is now inviting submissions for Volume 5 of the journal to be issued in September 2020. We ask that papers be submitted according to the guidelines and web-submission process stipulated in detail below.

The JJADH is a peer-review and open-access journal, online at

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jjadh/4/0/_contents/-char/en

The editorial board encourages international submissions and will consider papers pertaining to DH on a broad range of disciplinary interests:

(1) Papers should be between 10 and 18 pages in length (4,000 to 8,000 words) A4 or letter, double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman.

(2) Please submit your paper (written in English) in MS-Word (*.doc, *.docx) or LibreOffice (*.odt) format.

(3) Because this journal is an online publication, you may include hyperlinks, images, graphics, and so forth, as necessary.

(4) For your references/bibliography, please follow the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) guidelines (readily available online).

(5) Please also follow CMS guidelines for other aspects of prose styling, such as italicization of foreign words, monograph titles, and so forth.

(6) If you are not a native speaker of English, please have your paper proofread by a scholar who is a native speaker before submission.

(7) Except in cases where a scholar is invited to submit, papers will undergo a double-blind review by academic peers, with reader’s comments made available upon completion of the review.

Directions for online submission:

To submit your paper, please access the online submission system at:

https://www.jadh.org/journals2/index.php

Then please register with the journal by clicking the "register" link. Make sure to register as "Author" on the bottom of the registration page. Once you have registered, you can submit your paper by clicking "New submission" on the journal page. Please read the instructions on the pages carefully.

Submissions will be accepted until December 10th, 2019.

JJADH Editorial Board

Thomas Dabbs (Aoyama Gakuin University) Editor in Chief

Christian Wittern (Kyoto University, Japan) Managing Editor

Kiyonori Nagasaki (International Institute for Digital Humanities, Japan) Technical Editor

Hilofumi Yamamoto (Tokyo Institute of Technology) Advisory Editor

A. Charles Muller (Musashino University)

Paul Arthur (University of Western Sydney, Australia)

Susan Brown (University of Guelph)

Bor Hodošček (Osaka University)

Asanobu Kitamoto (National Institute of Informatics)

Maki Miyake (Osaka University)

Hajime Murai (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Yusuke Nakamura (University of Tokyo)

Geoffrey Rockwell (University of Alberta, Canada)

Ray Siemens (University of Victoria)

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