REL 444/544
Medieval Japanese Buddhism: Weekly Schedule
[All
readings from Course Packet unless followed by (RT)=(Required Text)] (Focus
pages marked with asterisk*)
Week
I: Oct 2: Introduction-Course Overview: The Background of Buddhism; Buddhism
and Japanese Religion
Peter
Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1990), 9-26.
Robert
A. F. Thurman, trans., The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti (University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987), 56-63, 73-77.*
Hayao
KAWAI, "Japanese Mythology: Balancing the Gods," in his Dreams,
Myths and Fairy Tales in Japan (Daimon, 1995), 67-97.*
Week
II: Oct 9: Background of Japanese Buddhism-Religion and the State; Karma in
Medieval Japan
Toshio
Kuroda, "Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion," tr. by James
Dobbins and Suzanne Gay, Journal of Japanese Studies 7:1 (Winter 1981),
1-21.*
Joseph
Kitagawa, "Chapter 6. The Shadow and the Sun: A Glimpse of the Fujiwara
and the Imperial Families in Japan," in his On Understanding Japanese
Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 98-116.
William LaFleur, "Chapter 2 In and
out of the Rokudo," Karma of Words-Buddhism and the literary arts in
medieval Japan (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1983), 26-59
(48-59*).
Week III: Oct 16: Buddhism in the Kamakura Period: Themes and
Background EXAM IN CLASS
Helen Craig McCullough, tr. The Tale of the Heike (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1988), 1-6, 17-19, 23-37.*
Robert E. Morrell, "Tendai's Jien
as Buddhist Priest," Early Kamakura Buddhism-A Minority Report,
23-43.
Jeffrey P. Mass, "The Emergence of
the Kamakura Bakufu [Military Government]" in Medieval Japan-Essays in
Institutional History, ed. John W. Hall and Jeffrey P. Mass (Stanford:
Stanford University Press), 127-156.
Kazuo Osumi, "Buddhism in the
Kamakura Period," tr. by James Dobbins, in The Cambridge History of
Japan-Volume 3 Medieval Japan, 544-563 (544-555, 560-563*).
Week IV: Oct 23: Myoe Koben: Kegon and Shingon Monk
PAPER
I DUE on Canvas 1 pm
Mark Unno, Shingon Refractions: Myōe
and the Mantra of Light (Boston: Wisdom, 2004), (1-72, 111-149*) (RT).
Lori Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence
of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan, 250-300.
Week
V: Oct 30: Eihei Dogen: Zen Master of the Soto School
Mark
Unno, “Philosophical Terms in the Zen Buddhist Thought of Dōgen.”*
Mark Unno, “18. Shushōgi Paragraph
30,” Engaging Dōgen’s Zen (Boston: Wisdom), 179-184.*
Norman Waddell & Masao Abe, tr.
"Shōbōgenzō Genjōkōan," by Dōgen Kigen, The Eastern Buddhist
5:2 (10/1972), 129-140.*
Steven Heine, The Zen Poetry of
Dogen (Boston: Tuttle, 1997), 1-34.
Barbara Ruch, "The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan," in The
Cambridge History of Japan - Volume 3 Medieval Japan, ed. by Kozo Yamamura
(Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 500-511.*
Week VI: Nov 6: Gutoku Shinran:
Foolish Being of Pure Land Buddhism Brief Research Proj DUE 1 pm
Mark Unno, “The Original Buddhist Rebel - Shinran,” Tricycle (Winter
2017), 1-16. on
Canvas
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.*
Mark Unno,
"The Nembutsu as the Path of the Sudden Teaching," unpublished paper,
IASBS Conference, 1995, 1-7 (online, course web site).(Optional)
Taitetsu Unno, Tannisho: A Shin Buddhist Classic (Honolulu:
Buddhist Study Center Press, 1987)(RT).*
Week VII: Nov 13: Between Pre-modern and Modern I:
Coffinman PAPER
II DUE on Canvas 1 pm
Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist
Mortician (Anaheim, CA: Buddhist Education Ctr, 2002)(RT).*
Week VIII: Nov 21: Between Pre-modern and Modern II: Maura
“Soshin” O’Halloran
Maura “Soshin” O’Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind (Somerville,
MA: Wisdom, 2017)(RT).*
Week IX: Nov 27: Discussion of Paper Topics
Week X: Dec 4: Wrap Lecture and Discussion
FINAL PAPER DUE on Canv 12/6
Wrap-up remarks and discussion.