A01=Jonathan Morris Augustine
Alien Affairs
Author_Jonathan Morris Augustine
Buddhist Hagiography
Buddhist monastic charitable activities
Buddhist Monastic Establishment
Buddhist saints
Category=GTM
Category=NH
Category=QRA
Category=QRF
Category=QRRL
Celestial Bodhisattvas
Central Palace
court
Early Japanese Buddhism
Eminent Monks
Emperor Kanmu
Emperor Tenmu
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eq_history
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Final Vows
Gravestone Memorial
halls
Holy Man
imperial
Inoue Mitsusada
Ir Ak
Japanese religious history
Kizu River
Kokan Shiren
medieval Japanese biography
monastic regulations
nara
Nara Court
Nara period politics
nihon
nihongi
practice
Practice Halls
Prince Asaka
Provincial Temples
Road Side Shelters
roadside
shelter
shoku
Shoku Nihongi
social welfare movements
Uji Bridge
Vairocana Buddha
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780415322454
- Weight: 500g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 28 Oct 2004
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Hagiographies or idealized biographies which recount the lives of saints, bodhisattvas and other charismatic figures have been the meeting place for myth and experience. In medieval Europe, the 'lives of saints' were read during liturgical celebrations and the texts themselves were treated as sacred objects. In Japan, it was believed that those who read the biographies of lofty monks would acquire merit. Since hagiographies were written or compiled by 'believers', the line between fantasy and reality was often obscured. This study of the bodhisattva Gyoki - regarded as the monk who started the largest social welfare movement in Japan - illustrates how Japanese Buddhist hagiographers chose to regard a single monk's charitable activities as a miraculous achievement that shaped the course of Japanese history.
Jonathan Morris Augustine is an Associate Professor of International Communication at the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan. Since 1973 he has spent most of his life in Asia with the exception of a decade at Princeton University where he obtained his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.
