Plotting the Prince

Plotting the Prince PDF Author: Kevin Gray Carr
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865723
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Plotting the Prince traces the development of conceptual maps of the world created through the telling of stories about Prince Shōtoku (573?–622?), an eminent statesman who is credited with founding Buddhism in Japan. It analyzes his place in the sacred landscape and the material relics of the cult of personality dedicated to him, focusing on the art created from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. The book asks not only who Shōtoku was, but also how images of his life served the needs of devotees in early medieval Japan. Even today Shōtoku evokes images of a half-real, half-mythical figure who embodied the highest political, social, and religious ideals. Taking up his story about four centuries after his death, this study traces the genesis and progression of Shōtoku’s sacred personas in art to illustrate their connection to major religious centers such as Shitenno-ji and Hōryū-ji. It argues that mapping and storytelling are sister acts—both structuring the world in subtle but compelling ways—that combined in visual narratives of Shōtoku’s life to shape conceptions of religious legitimacy, communal history, and sacred geography. Plotting the Prince introduces much new material and presents provocative interpretations that call upon art historians to rethink fundamental conceptions of narrative and cultic imagery. It offers social and political historians a textured look at the creation of communal identities on both local and state levels, scholars of religion a substantially new way of understanding key developments in doctrine and practice, and those studying the past in general a clear instance of visual hagiography taking precedence over the textual tradition.

Plotting the Prince

Plotting the Prince PDF Author: Kevin Gray Carr
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865723
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Plotting the Prince traces the development of conceptual maps of the world created through the telling of stories about Prince Shōtoku (573?–622?), an eminent statesman who is credited with founding Buddhism in Japan. It analyzes his place in the sacred landscape and the material relics of the cult of personality dedicated to him, focusing on the art created from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. The book asks not only who Shōtoku was, but also how images of his life served the needs of devotees in early medieval Japan. Even today Shōtoku evokes images of a half-real, half-mythical figure who embodied the highest political, social, and religious ideals. Taking up his story about four centuries after his death, this study traces the genesis and progression of Shōtoku’s sacred personas in art to illustrate their connection to major religious centers such as Shitenno-ji and Hōryū-ji. It argues that mapping and storytelling are sister acts—both structuring the world in subtle but compelling ways—that combined in visual narratives of Shōtoku’s life to shape conceptions of religious legitimacy, communal history, and sacred geography. Plotting the Prince introduces much new material and presents provocative interpretations that call upon art historians to rethink fundamental conceptions of narrative and cultic imagery. It offers social and political historians a textured look at the creation of communal identities on both local and state levels, scholars of religion a substantially new way of understanding key developments in doctrine and practice, and those studying the past in general a clear instance of visual hagiography taking precedence over the textual tradition.

Shotoku

Shotoku PDF Author: Michael I. Como
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198040733
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Prince Shotoku (573?-622?), the purported founder of Japanese Buddhism, is widely referred to as Japan's first national hero. The cult that grew up around his memory is recognized as one of the most important phenomena in early Japanese religion. This book examines the creation and evolution of the Shotoku cult over the roughly 200 years following his deatha period that saw a series of revolutionary developments in the history of Japanese religion. Michael Como highlights the activities of a cluster of kinship groups who claimed descent from ancestors from the Korean kingdom of Silla. He skillfully places these groups in their socio-cultural context and convincingly demonstrates their pivotal role in bringing continental influences to almost every aspect of government and community ideology in Japan. He argues that these immigrant kinship groups were not only responsible for the construction of the Shotoku cult, but were also associated with the introduction of the continental systems of writing, ritual, and governance. By comparing the ancestral legends of these groups to the Shotoku legend corpus and Imperial chronicles, Como shows that these kinship groups not only played a major role in the formation of the Japanese Buddhist tradition, they also to a large degree shaped the paradigms in terms of which the Japanese Imperial cult and the nation of Japan were conceptualized and created. Offering a radically new picture of the Asuko and Nara period (551794), this innovative work will stimulate new approaches to the study of early Japanese religion focusing on the complex interactions among ideas of ethnicity, lineage, textuality, and ritual.

The Prince and the Monk

The Prince and the Monk PDF Author: Kenneth Doo Young Lee
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791480461
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The Prince and the Monk addresses the historical development of the political and religious myths surrounding Shōtoku Taishi and their influence on Shinran, the founder of the Jōdo-Shinshū school of Pure Land Buddhism. Shōtoku Taishi (574–622) was a prince who led the campaign to unify Japan, wrote the imperial constitution, and promoted Buddhism as a religion of peace and prosperity. Shinran's Buddhism developed centuries later during the Kamakura period, which began in the late twelfth century. Kenneth Doo Young Lee discusses Shinran's liturgical text, his dream of Shōtoku's manifestation as Kannon (the world-saving Bodhisattva of Compassion), and other relevant events during his life. In addition, this book shows that Shinran's Buddhism was consistent with honji suijaku culture—the synthesis of the Shinto and Buddhist pantheons—prevalent during the Kamakura period.

Shotoku

Shotoku PDF Author: Michael Como
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195188616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Prince Shotoku (573?-622?), the purported founder of Japanese Buddhism, is widely referred to as Japan's first national hero. The cult that grew up around his memory is recognized as one of the most important phenomena in early Japanese religion. This book examines the creation and evolution of the Shotoku cult over the roughly 200 years following his deatha period that saw a series of revolutionary developments in the history of Japanese religion. Michael Como highlights the activities of a cluster of kinship groups who claimed descent from ancestors from the Korean kingdom of Silla. He skillfully places these groups in their socio-cultural context and convincingly demonstrates their pivotal role in bringing continental influences to almost every aspect of government and community ideology in Japan. He argues that these immigrant kinship groups were not only responsible for the construction of the Shotoku cult, but were also associated with the introduction of the continental systems of writing, ritual, and governance.By comparing the ancestral legends of these groups to the Shotoku legend corpus and Imperial chronicles, Como shows that these kinship groups not only played a major role in the formation of the Japanese Buddhist tradition, they also to a large degree shaped the paradigms in terms of which the Japanese Imperial cult and the nation of Japan were conceptualized and created. Offering a radically new picture of the Asuko and Nara period (551794), this innovative work will stimulate new approaches to the study of early Japanese religion focusing on the complex interactions among ideas of ethnicity, lineage, textuality, and ritual.

Prince Shotoku's Commentary on the Srimala Sutra

Prince Shotoku's Commentary on the Srimala Sutra PDF Author: Shōtoku Taishi
Publisher: BDK English Tripitaka
ISBN: 9781886439436
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Prince Shōtoku's Commentary on the Śrīmālā Sutra is a translation of the Shōmangyō-gisho (Commentary on the Śrīmālādevīsimhanāda-sūtra), one of three Buddhist commentaries written in classical Chinese that have been attributed to Japan's Prince Shōtoku (574-622). A master politician and shining figure in the imperial line, Prince Shōtoku played a leading role in government and with promoting diplomatic, cultural, and religious contacts with China and Korea. He is also remembered as a devout practitioner and generous patron of Buddhism who studied Buddhist doctrine under the instruction of continental tutors, and offered lectures at court on the Lotus Sutra and the Śrīmālādevī-sūtra, a key early Mahayana sutra that espouses the tathāgatagarbha, the "seed" of enlightenment said to be present in all sentient beings, and the ekayāna, or "One Vehicle." Shōtoku's lectures on the Śrīmālādevī-sūtra are believed to be the source of the Shōmangyō-gisho, a text that has had undeniable influence in both premodern and modern forms of Japanese Buddhism, and which continues to be a source of inspiration for many.

The Shōmangyō-Shōtoku Taishi

The Shōmangyō-Shōtoku Taishi PDF Author: Mark W. Dennis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description


Prince Shōtoku

Prince Shōtoku PDF Author: Masaharu Anesaki
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description


The Million Charms of Empress Shotoku

The Million Charms of Empress Shotoku PDF Author: R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bookbinding
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
A collection of vignettes about the work done by the "Donnelley Extra Bindery" from the monthly bulletin of the department of fine hand binding and document restoration at R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company.

Buddhist Encounters and Identities Across East Asia

Buddhist Encounters and Identities Across East Asia PDF Author: Ann Heirman
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004366156
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
Encounters, networks, identities and diversity are at the core of the history of Buddhism. They are also the focus of Buddhist Encounters and Identities across East Asia, edited by Ann Heirman, Carmen Meinert and Christoph Anderl. While long-distance networks allowed Buddhist ideas to travel to all parts of East Asia, it was through local and trans-local networks and encounters, and a diversity of people and societies, that identities were made and negotiated. This book undertakes a detailed examination of discrete Buddhist identities rooted in unique cultural practices, beliefs and indigenous socio-political conditions. Moreover, it presents a fascinating picture of the intricacies of the regional and cross-regional networks that connected South and East Asia.

The Historians' History of the World: Poland, The Balkans, Turkey, Minor eastern states, China, Japan

The Historians' History of the World: Poland, The Balkans, Turkey, Minor eastern states, China, Japan PDF Author: Henry Smith Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World history
Languages : en
Pages : 720

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Book Description