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UID:20160724T1906Z-1469387188.0953-EO-20730-2671@137.82.234.16
STATUS:CONFIRMED
DTSTAMP:20260521T013225Z
CREATED:20160721T164803Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20181214T233303Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20160810T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20160810T210000
SUMMARY: Japanese Buddhism’s ‘Western Turn’: South/Southeast Asia and the F
orging of the Japanese Buddhist Modern
DESCRIPTION: Scholars have long portrayed the construction of twentieth-cen
tury Buddhism in Japan as a result of changes forced upon or willfully adop
ted by Japanese Buddhists as a result of ever more frequent contacts with t
he “West\,” that is\, the United States and Europe. The intellectual\, scho
larly\, and religious exchanges that reshaped the Japanese Buddhist world f
rom the late-nineteenth and first […]
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: 
Scholars have long portrayed the construction of twent
ieth-century Buddhism in Japan as a result of changes forced upon or willfu
lly adopted by Japanese Buddhists as a result of ever more frequent contact
s with the “West\,” that is\, the United States and Europe. The intellectua
l\, scholarly\, and religious exchanges that reshaped the Japanese Buddhist
world from the late-nineteenth and first half of the twentieth-centuries\,
thus largely have been understood as overwhelmingly bipolar ones. The rece
ived narrative describing the numerous changes in modern Japanese Buddhism
as a product of “Westernization\,” however\, overlooks almost completely th
e role played by cultural flows between Japan and Asia\, especially South a
nd Southeast Asia\, in catalyzing the reconceptualization of Japanese Buddh
ism as a pan-Asian and\, even\, global\, tradition. South and Southeast Asi
a served as crucial contact zones for Asian Buddhists. During the Meiji\, T
aishō\, and early Shōwa eras Japanese Buddhists traveled along the new “Cot
ton Road” living\, practicing\, and studying in such enterpots as Bangkok\,
Benares\, Bombay\, Calcutta\, Chittagong\, Lhasa\, and Rangoon. There they
encountered Buddhists and Buddhist sympathizers from around the world\, ex
changing practices\, texts\, ideas\, and material cultural objects. Returni
ng to Japan in the wake of these Asian encounters\, Japanese Buddhists were
stimulated to reshape numerous facets of their tradition\, including secta
rian scholarship\, the practice of the precepts\, denominational structure\
, and Buddhist material culture. In this presentation\, I will show how thi
s Asian turn was a crucial element in creating a distinctive Japanese Buddh
ist modernity.
***Lectures are free and open to the public. No re
gistration required. Seating on a first-come\, first-served basis.***<
/p>
Full Event Details
Here
R
ichard M. Jaffe is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duk
e University. He received his Ph.D. in religious studies with a concentrati
on in Buddhist studies from Yale University in 1995. A specialist of Japane
se Buddhism and modernity\, he authored Neither Monk nor Layman: Cleric
al Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism (Princeton University Press\,
2002). He is currently working on a study of travel and encounters between
Japanese and other Buddhists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries\
, as well as overseeing the publication of four volumes of the writings of
D.T. Suzuki (plus a one-volume Suzuki Reader from the University of Califor
nia Press). The first two volumes were recently published: Selected Wor
ks of D.T. Suzuki\, Volume I: Zen (2014) and Volume II: Pure Land<
/em> (2015)\, the latter edited by James C. Dobbins. His faculty profile ma
y be viewed here.
LOCATION:Asian Centre Auditorium
GEO:49.266835;-123.258576
URL;VALUE=URI:https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/japanese-buddhisms-western-
turn-southsoutheast-asia-and-the-forging-of-the-japanese-buddhist-modern/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sppga.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/07/slider_jaffe-300x128-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
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DTSTART:20160313T100000
TZNAME:PDT
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Scholars have long portrayed the construction of twent
ieth-century Buddhism in Japan as a result of changes forced upon or willfu
lly adopted by Japanese Buddhists as a result of ever more frequent contact
s with the “West\,” that is\, the United States and Europe. The intellectua
l\, scholarly\, and religious exchanges that reshaped the Japanese Buddhist
world from the late-nineteenth and first half of the twentieth-centuries\,
thus largely have been understood as overwhelmingly bipolar ones. The rece
ived narrative describing the numerous changes in modern Japanese Buddhism
as a product of “Westernization\,” however\, overlooks almost completely th
e role played by cultural flows between Japan and Asia\, especially South a
nd Southeast Asia\, in catalyzing the reconceptualization of Japanese Buddh
ism as a pan-Asian and\, even\, global\, tradition. South and Southeast Asi
a served as crucial contact zones for Asian Buddhists. During the Meiji\, T
aishō\, and early Shōwa eras Japanese Buddhists traveled along the new “Cot
ton Road” living\, practicing\, and studying in such enterpots as Bangkok\,
Benares\, Bombay\, Calcutta\, Chittagong\, Lhasa\, and Rangoon. There they
encountered Buddhists and Buddhist sympathizers from around the world\, ex
changing practices\, texts\, ideas\, and material cultural objects. Returni
ng to Japan in the wake of these Asian encounters\, Japanese Buddhists were
stimulated to reshape numerous facets of their tradition\, including secta
rian scholarship\, the practice of the precepts\, denominational structure\
, and Buddhist material culture. In this presentation\, I will show how thi
s Asian turn was a crucial element in creating a distinctive Japanese Buddh
ist modernity.