Ryogen And Mount Hiei

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Ryōgen and Mount Hiei

Author : Paul Groner
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824864204
Total Pages : 546 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Ryōgen and Mount Hiei by : Paul Groner

Download or read book Ryōgen and Mount Hiei written by Paul Groner and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-06-30 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ryogen and Mount Hiei focuses on the transformation of the Tendai School from a small and impoverished group of monks in the early ninth century to its emergence as the most powerful and influential school of Japanese Buddhism in the last half of the tenth century—a position it would maintain throughout the medieval period. This is the first study in a Western language of the institutional factors that lay behind the school's success. At its core is a biography of a major figure behind this transformation, Ryogen (912–985). The discussion, however, extends well beyond a simple biography as Ryogen's activities are placed in their historical and institutional context. Unlike the recluses and eccentrics that have so often attracted Western readers of Buddhism, Ryogen was a consummate politician and builder. Because he lost his major monastic sponsor at an early age, he was forced to find ways to advance his career with little support. His activities reveal much about the path to success for monks during the tenth century. Skill in debate, the performance of Esoteric Buddhist ritual, and strategic alliances with powerful lay and monastic figures were important to his advance. In 966 Ryogen was appointed head of the Tendai School and served until his death nineteen years later. He has been vilified at times for his loyalty to his own faction within Tendai at the expense of other groups. Careful analysis of the political and social factors behind his attitudes, however, places his activities in their appropriate context. The study concludes with a discussion of the ordinations and roles of nuns during the early Heian period. An examination of Ryogen's close relation with his mother helps define the ambiguities of a school that prohibited women from the precincts of its temple yet performed rituals to insure safe childbirth and frequently attracted their patronage. A number of primary sources are translated in the appendices.

Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries

Author : Mikael S. Adolphson
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082483013X
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries by : Mikael S. Adolphson

Download or read book Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries written by Mikael S. Adolphson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first three centuries of the Heian period (794-1086) saw some of its most fertile innovations and epochal achievements in Japanese literature and the arts. This work examines the early Heian from a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives.

Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603

Author : Stephen Turnbull
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782000100
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 by : Stephen Turnbull

Download or read book Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 written by Stephen Turnbull and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'), the warrior monks were anything but peaceful and meditative, and were a formidable enemy, armed with their distinctive, long-bladed naginata. The fortified cathedrals of the Ikko-ikki rivalled Samurai castles, and withstood long sieges. This title follows the daily life, training, motivation and combat experiences of the warrior monks from their first mention in AD 949 through to their suppression by the Shogunate in the years following the Sengoku-jidai period.

Encyclopedia of Monasticism

Author : William M. Johnston
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113678716X
Total Pages : 2000 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (367 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Monasticism by : William M. Johnston

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Monasticism written by William M. Johnston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 2000 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan

Author : Sherry D. Fowler
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824856252
Total Pages : 457 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan by : Sherry D. Fowler

Download or read book Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan written by Sherry D. Fowler and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhists around the world celebrate the benefits of worshipping Kannon (Avalokiteśvara), a compassionate savior who is one of the most beloved in the Buddhist pantheon. When Kannon appears in multiple manifestations, the deity’s powers are believed to increase to even greater heights. This concept generated several cults throughout history: among the most significant is the cult of the Six Kannon, which began in Japan in the tenth century and remained prominent through the sixteenth century. In this ambitious work, Sherry Fowler examines the development of the Japanese Six Kannon cult, its sculptures and paintings, and its transition to the Thirty-three Kannon cult, which remains active to this day. An exemplar of Six Kannon imagery is the complete set of life-size wooden sculptures made in 1224 and housed at the Kyoto temple Daihōonji. This set, along with others, is analyzed to demonstrate how Six Kannon worship impacted Buddhist practice. Employing a diachronic approach, Fowler presents case studies beginning in the eleventh century to reinstate a context for sets of Six Kannon, the majority of which have been lost or scattered, and thus illuminates the vibrancy, magnitude, and distribution of the cult and enhances our knowledge of religious image-making in Japan. Kannon’s role in assisting beings trapped in the six paths of transmigration is a well-documented catalyst for the selection of the number six, but there are other significant themes at work. Six Kannon worship includes significant foci on worldly concerns such as childbirth and animal husbandry, ties between text and image, and numerous correlations with Shinto kami groups of six. While making groups of Kannon visible, Fowler explores the fluidity of numerical deity categorizations and the attempts to quantify the invisible. Moreover, her investigation reveals Kyushu as an especially active site in the history of the Six Kannon cult. Much as Kannon images once functioned to attract worshippers, their presentation in this book will entice contemporary readers to revisit their assumptions about East Asia’s most popular Buddhist deity.

Religions of the World [6 volumes]

Author : J. Gordon Melton
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1598842048
Total Pages : 3788 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Religions of the World [6 volumes] by : J. Gordon Melton

Download or read book Religions of the World [6 volumes] written by J. Gordon Melton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 3788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This masterful six-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive, global coverage of religion, emphasizing larger religious communities without neglecting the world's smaller religious outposts. Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices is an extraordinary work, bringing together the scholarship of some 225 experts from around the globe. The encyclopedia's six volumes offer entries on every country of the world, with particular emphasis on the larger nations, as well as Indonesia and the Latin American countries that are traditionally given little attention in English-language reference works. Entries include profiles on religion in the world's smallest countries (the Vatican and San Marino), profiles on religion in recently established or disputed countries (Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as profiles on religion in some of the world's most remote places (Antarctica and Easter Island). Religions of the World is unique in that it is based in religion "on the ground," tracing the development of each of the 16 major world religious traditions through its institutional expressions in the modern world, its major geographical sites, and its major celebrations. Unlike other works, the encyclopedia also covers the world of religious unbelief as expressed in atheism, humanism, and other traditions.

The Power of the Buddhas

Author : sem Versmeersch
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684174767
Total Pages : 523 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (841 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of the Buddhas by : sem Versmeersch

Download or read book The Power of the Buddhas written by sem Versmeersch and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Buddhism in medieval Korea is characterized as “State Protection Buddhism,” a religion whose primary purpose was to rally support (supernatural and popular) for and legitimate the state. In this view, the state used Buddhism to engender compliance with its goals. A closer look, however, reveals that Buddhism was a canvas on which people projected many religious and secular concerns and desires. This study is an attempt to specify Buddhism’s place in Koryo and to ascertain to what extent and in what areas Buddhism functioned as a state religion. Was state support the main reason for Buddhism’s dominance in Koryo? How actively did the state seek to promote religious ideals? What was the strength of Buddhism as an institution and the nature of its relationship to the state? What role did Confucianism, the other state ideology, play in Koryo? This study argues that Buddhism provided most of the symbols and rituals, and some of the beliefs, that constructed an aura of legitimacy, but that there was no single ideological system underlying the Koryo dynasty’s legitimating strategies."

Collected Bodhi Leaves Volume II

Author : P. M. Rao
Publisher : Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 13 : 9552403502
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (524 download)

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Book Synopsis Collected Bodhi Leaves Volume II by : P. M. Rao

Download or read book Collected Bodhi Leaves Volume II written by P. M. Rao and published by Buddhist Publication Society. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains thirty numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaves Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching. 31 Meditation—First Steps to Control of the Senses—P. M. Rao 32 The Threefold Division of the Noble Eightfold Path—Piyadassi Thera 33 Extinction Without Remainder—Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 34 Protection Through Satipatthana—Nyanaponika Thera 35 The Four Cankers (Asava)—T. H. Perera 36 Renunciation—T. Prince 37 The Preparatory Path—John D. Ireland 38 The Advantages of Merit—Bhikkhu Khantipalo 39 The Supreme Conqueror—Francis Story 40 Right Understanding—Bhikkhu Silabhadra 41 Applications of Dhamma—Siri Buddhasukh 42 Buddhism: A Method of Mind Training—Leonard Bullen 43 The Relevance of Buddhism in the Modern World—Princess Poon Pismai Diskul 44 Three Mental Faculties and Guarding the Doors of the Senses—Dr. Elizabeth Ashby 45 This Self Business and Other Essays—M. O’C. Walshe/Natasha Jackson/Dr. Elizabeth Ashby 46 The Way to Happiness—H. L. B. Ellegala 47 Women in Ancient India—C. D. Weerasinghe 48 Buddhist Observances and Practices—Piyadassi Thera 49 Saísara and The Way of Dispassion—Francis Story 50 Buddhist Ideas in English Poetry—Cyril Moore 51 Meditation: The Inward Journey—John Andrew Storey 52 Mindfulness: An All-Time Necessity—C. F. Knight and Reg McAuliffe 53 Why Buddhism? Why Theravada? Theravada, Mahayana, Hinayana—M. O'C. Walshe 54 Rebirth—John Andrew Storey 55 The Scientific Approach to Buddhism and The Appeal of Buddhism—Francis Story 56 Three Buddhist Tales—Various Authors 57 The Story of the Mahinda, Sanghamitta and the Sri Maha-Bodhi—Piyadassi Thera 58 An Actual Religion—Bhikkhu Silacara 59 Buddhist Lay Ethics—Francis Story 60 Mindfulness and Awareness—Nyanavira Thera

Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603

Author : Stephen Turnbull
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782000410
Total Pages : 66 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 by : Stephen Turnbull

Download or read book Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 written by Stephen Turnbull and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'), the warrior monks were anything but peaceful and meditative, and were a formidable enemy, armed with their distinctive, long-bladed naginata. The fortified cathedrals of the Ikko-ikki rivalled Samurai castles, and withstood long sieges. This title follows the daily life, training, motivation and combat experiences of the warrior monks from their first mention in AD 949 through to their suppression by the Shogunate in the years following the Sengoku-jidai period.

A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism

Author : William E. Deal
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118608313
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (186 download)

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Book Synopsis A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism by : William E. Deal

Download or read book A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism written by William E. Deal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism offers a comprehensive, nuanced, and chronological account of the evolution of Buddhist religion in Japan from the sixth century to the present day. Traces each period of Japanese history to reveal the complex and often controversial histories of Japanese Buddhists and their unfolding narratives Examines relevant social, political, and transcultural contexts, and places an emphasis on Japanese Buddhist discourses and material culture Addresses the increasing competition between Buddhist, Shinto, and Neo-Confucian world-views through to the mid-nineteenth century Informed by the most recent research, including the latest Japanese and Western scholarship Illustrates the richness and complexity of Japanese Buddhism as a lived religion, offering readers a glimpse into the development of this complex and often misunderstood tradition

The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics

Author : Daniel Cozort
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191063177
Total Pages : 736 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics by : Daniel Cozort

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics written by Daniel Cozort and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many forms of Buddhism, divergent in philosophy and style, emerged as Buddhism filtered out of India into other parts of Asia. Nonetheless, all of them embodied an ethical core that is remarkably consistent. Articulated by the historical Buddha in his first sermon, this moral core is founded on the concept of karma—that intentions and actions have future consequences for an individual—and is summarized as Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, three of the elements of the Eightfold Path. Although they were later elaborated and interpreted in a multitude of ways, none of these core principles were ever abandoned. The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics provides a comprehensive overview of the field of Buddhist ethics in the twenty-first century. The Handbook discusses the foundations of Buddhist ethics focusing on karma and the precepts looking at abstinence from harming others, stealing, and intoxication. It considers ethics in the different Buddhist traditions and the similarities they share, and compares Buddhist ethics to Western ethics and the psychology of moral judgments. The volume also investigates Buddhism and society analysing economics, environmental ethics, and Just War ethics. The final section focuses on contemporary issues surrounding Buddhist ethics, including gender, sexuality, animal rights, and euthanasia. This groundbreaking collection offers an indispensable reference work for students and scholars of Buddhist ethics and comparative moral philosophy.

Monastic Education in Korea

Author : Uri Kaplan
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824882385
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Monastic Education in Korea by : Uri Kaplan

Download or read book Monastic Education in Korea written by Uri Kaplan and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Buddhist monks learn about Buddhism? Which part of their enormous canonical and non-canonical literature do they choose to focus on as the required curriculum in their training, and what do they elect to leave out? The cultural depository of Buddhism includes some four thousand canonical texts, hundreds of other historical works, modern textbooks, oral traditions, and more recently, an increasingly growing body of online material. The sheer diversity of this mass of information makes the pedagogical choices of monastics worthy of close study. Monastic Education in Korea is essentially a biography of the Korean Buddhist monastic curriculum over the past five centuries. Based on extensive ethnographic work and archival research in Korean monasteries, it illustrates how a particular premodern syllabus was reimagined in the twentieth century to become the sole national Korean monastic pedagogical program—only to be criticized and completely restructured in recent years. Through a detailed analysis of these modifications, the work demonstrates how Korean Buddhist reformers today tend to imitate the educational practices and canonize the textual totems of the contemporary international discipline of Buddhist studies, and how, by doing so, they ultimately transform the local Korean tradition from a particular brand of Chinese-centered scholastic Chan into the inclusive, pluralistic, Indian-focused Buddhism common in English-language introductions to the religion. The book further examines the proliferation of diverse graduate schools for the sangha, as well as the creation of a novel examination system for all monastics. It reveals some of the realities of operating large monastic organizations in contemporary Asia and portrays a living, vibrant Buddhist community that is constantly negotiating with modern values and reformulating its core orthodoxies.

The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China

Author : Yifa
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824824945
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (249 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China by : Yifa

Download or read book The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China written by Yifa and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China contains the first complete translation of China's earliest and most influential monastic code. The twelfth-century text Chanyuan qinggui (Rules of Purity for the Chan Monastery) provides us with a wealth of detail on all aspects of life in public Buddhist monasteries during the Sung (960-1279). Part One consists of Yifa's overview of the development of monastic regulations in Chinese Buddhist history, a biography of the text's author, and an analysis of the social and cultural context of premodern Chinese Buddhist monasticism. Of particular importance are the interconnections made between Chan traditions and the dual heritages of Chinese culture and Indian Buddhist Vinaya. Although much of the text's source material is traced directly to the Vinayas and the works of the Vinaya advocate Daoan (312-385) and the Lu master Daoxuan (596-667), the Chanyuan qinggui includes elements foreign to the original Vinaya texts - elements incorporated from Chinese governmental policies and traditional Chinese etiquette. Following the translator's overview is a complete translation of the text, extensively annotated.

The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra

Author : Tony See
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031178521
Total Pages : 86 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra by : Tony See

Download or read book The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra written by Tony See and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-01 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most important sūtras in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Translated by Kumārajīva in the 5th century, its teachings have inspired many Buddhist scholars such as Chih-i and Saichō from the Tiantai (Tendai) tradition, Dōgen from the Zen tradition and Nichiren the 13th century Kamakura founder and reformer. There is a relative lack of scholarly works that are devoted to an examination of how its philosophical ideas were received and developed throughout history. This book remedies that lack by tracing the origin and development of Lotus Sūtra thought, and interprets the text from the perspective of the doctrine of Buddha-nature in Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”

Author : Sujung Kim
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824877993
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” by : Sujung Kim

Download or read book Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” written by Sujung Kim and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-11-30 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ambitious work offers a transnational account of the deity Shinra Myōjin, the “god of Silla” worshipped in medieval Japanese Buddhism from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries. Sujung Kim challenges the long-held understanding of Shinra Myōjin as a protective deity of the Tendai Jimon school, showing how its worship emerged and developed in the complex networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”—a “quality” rather than a physical space defined by Kim as the primary conduit for cross-cultural influence in a region that includes the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the East China Sea, and neighboring coastal areas. While focusing on the transcultural worship of the deity, Kim engages the different maritime arrangements in which Shinra Myōjin circulated: first, the network of Korean immigrants, Chinese merchants, and Japanese Buddhist monks in China’s Shandong peninsula and Japan’s Ōmi Province; and second, that of gods found in the East Asian Mediterranean. Both of these networks became nodal points of exchange of both goods and gods. Kim’s examination of temple chronicles, literary writings, and iconography reveals Shinra Myōjin’s evolution from a seafaring god to a multifaceted one whose roles included the god of pestilence and of poetry, the insurer of painless childbirth, and the protector of performing arts. Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” is not only the first monograph in any language on the Tendai Jimon school in Japanese Buddhism, but also the first book-length study in English to examine Korean connections in medieval Japanese religion. Unlike other recent studies on individual Buddhist deities, it foregrounds the need to approach them within a broader East Asian context. By shifting the paradigm from a land-centered vision to a sea-centered one, the work underlines the importance of a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhist deities.

Shotoku

Author : Michael I. Como
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780198040736
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Shotoku by : Michael I. Como

Download or read book Shotoku written by Michael I. Como and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan

Author : Edward R. Drott
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824851501
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan by : Edward R. Drott

Download or read book Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan written by Edward R. Drott and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have long remarked on the frequency with which Japanese myths portrayed gods (kami) as old men or okina. Many of these “sacred elders” came to be featured in premodern theater, most prominently in Noh. In the closing decades of the twentieth-century, as the number of Japan’s senior citizens climbed steadily, the sacred elder of premodern myth became a subject of renewed interest and was seen by some as evidence that the elderly in Japan had once been accorded a level of respect unknown in recent times. In Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan, Edward Drott charts the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to old age in medieval Japan, tracing the processes by which the aged body was transformed into a symbol of otherworldly power and the cultural, political, and religious circumstances that inspired its reimagination. Drott examines how the aged body was used to conceptualize forms of difference and to convey religious meanings in a variety of texts: official chronicles, literary works, Buddhist legends and didactic tales. In early Japan, old age was most commonly seen as a mark of negative distinction, one that represented the ugliness, barrenness, and pollution against which the imperial court sought to define itself. From the late-Heian period, however, certain Buddhist authors seized upon the aged body as a symbolic medium though which to challenge traditional dichotomies between center and margin, high and low, and purity and defilement, crafting narratives that associated aged saints and avatars with the cults, lineages, sacred sites, or religious practices these authors sought to promote. Contributing to a burgeoning literature on religion and the body, Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan applies approaches developed in gender studies to “denaturalize” old age as a matter of representation, identity, and performance. By tracking the ideological uses of old age in premodern Japan, this work breaks new ground, revealing the role of religion in the construction of generational categories and the ways in which religious ideas and practices can serve not only to naturalize, but also challenge “common sense” about the body.