Selected Summaries - Includes both Course Materials and Other Materials of Possible Interest

REL444/544 Medieval Japanese Buddhism

Click on selected titles for summaries.

Buddhism in India and China

Hisao INAGAKI, The Three Pure Land Sutras: A Study and Translation (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1994) 3-18 ("Outlines of the Three Sutras," "The Source of the Three Sutras); 106-114 (Shan-tao); 235-243 ("The Larger Sutra on Amitayus"); 317-327, 347-350 (The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus).

Thomas Cleary, trans., The Flower Ornament Scripture: Entry into the Realm of Reality: The Gandavyuha (Boston: Shambhala, 1989) 1-8, 49-58, 187-200.

Taitetsu Unno, "Philosophical Schools-San-lun, T'ien-t'ai, and Hua-yen" in Buddhist Spirituality, ed. by Takeuchi Yoshinori (New York: Crossroad, 1993) 343-365.

Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History-India and China (NY: Macmillan Publishing, 1984) 85-94.

Buddhism in Medieval Japan

Kazuo Osumi, "Buddhism in the Kamakura Period," 544-582 (not in course reader; gives background of Buddhism during the critical Kamakura Period when the founding figures of major sects emerged).

Mark Unno, "Zhuangzi and Myoe Koben: The Butterfly and the Mushroom," unpublished paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the AAR 1998: 1-18 (not in course reader).

Kosho UCHIYAMA, Refining Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment, trans. Tom Wright (New York: Weatherhill, 1983) vii-xiv, 3-19.

Barbara Ruch, "The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan," in The Cambridge History of Japan-Vol. 3 Medieval Japan, ed. Kozo YAMAMURA (NY: Cambridge University Press) 500-511.

Carl Bielefeldt, "Recarving the Dragon: History and Dogma in the Study of Dogen," in Dogen Studies, ed. William LaFleur (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985) 21-53.

Mark Unno, "The Nembutsu of No-Meaning and the Problem of Genres in the Writings and Statements of Gutoku Shinran," The Pure Land 10-11 (12/1994) 1-9. Summary 2

Buddhism and Japanese Women in Modernity

Shosan Victoria Austin, "Suzuki Sensei's Spirit," in Buddhist Women on the Edge 209-216.

Kumiko UCHINO, "The Status Elevation Process of Soto Sect Nuns in Modern Japan," Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 10:2-3: 177-184.

Paula Arai, "Soto Zen Nuns in Modern Japan: Keeping and Creating Tradition," Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture 14 (Summer 1990) 38-51.