Customer Reviews

The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are a dizzying multitude of Buddhist scriptures, but in East Asia one of the most influential by far is the Lotus Sutra. This book contains an excellent array of fine scholarly articles exploring this influence in the case of Japan from before the Nara period to the present. And it does this from a wide variety of angles: artistic, poetic, political, geographical, doctrinal, liturgical, and so on. The Sutra's place in both Tendai and Nichiren is addressed in the process, though the discussions are not limited to the sectarian dimension. A great variety of people should find this book interesting and useful.

After an introduction by the editors, the articles are as follows:

1. "The Meaning of the Formation and Structure of the Lotus Sutra" by Shiori Ryodo

2. "The Ideas of the Lotus Sutra" by Tamura Yoshiro

3. "The Lotus Sutra and Saicho's Interpretation of the Realization of Buddhahood with This Very Body" by Paul Groner

4. "Pictorial Art of the Lotus Sutra in Japan" by Miya Tsugio (includes eight illustrations)

5. "Poetry and Meaning: Medieval Poets and the Lotus Sutra" by Yamada Shozen

6. "The Lotus Sutra and Politics in the Mid-Heian Period" by Neil McMullin

7. "Historical Consciousness and Honjaku Philosophy in the Medieval Period on Mount Hiei" by Kuroda Toshio

8. "The Textualized Mountain--Enmountained Text: The Lotus Sutra in Kunisaki" by Allan G. Grapard

9. "Tanaka Chigaku: The Lotus Sutra and the Body Politic" by George J. Tanabe, Jr.

10. "The Lotus Sutra in Modern Japan" by Helen Hardacre