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"The Shadow of Xuanzang: On the Question of Yogacara and Shingon Lineages in Late Heian Japanese Buddhism" – Ryuichi Abe, Harvard University

February 10, 2014

This talk reinterprets the Shingon hasso gyōjōzu (Deeds of the Shingon Eight Patriarchs) as a visual metaphor in which images of the deeds of the Shingon patriarchs are simultaneously mapped onto celebrated episodes from Xuanzang’s historic journey to India. An analysis of the installation of the Gyōjōzu paintings in the Shingondō further reveals that the Daijō-in supervised the production of the paintings as a pivotal means of demonstrating the legitimacy of practicing Esoteric Buddhism side by side with Hossō Buddhism at its branch temple, Eikyūji. Based on this evidence, my talk also suggests that the Gyōjōzu was painted by Fujiwara Munehiro, the court painter renowned for … Read more

Triangle East Asian Colloquium (TEAC): Sex Work and Trafficking in East Asia

January 27, 2014

Schedule: 9:30am:  Coffee 10:00am-12:30pm:  Morning Session “That Special Business: An International History of Sex Work in Occupied Japan” – Sarah Kovner, University of Florida “Deflowering Attachments: Sex Work, Popular Culture, and Affective Histories of Chineseness” – Lily Wong, American University … Read more

Cine-East: "Always – Sunset on 3rd Street"

January 10, 2014

Screening in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (SEC/AAS), Jan 17-19 Introduced by Simon Partner (History, Duke) Set in a digitally recreated postwar Tokyo (in 1958), Takashi Yamazaki’s Always – Sunset … Read more

Medicine Without Borders in Premodern Asia

November 26, 2013

This event on medicine in pre-modern Asia will include two talks: “Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China” – C. Pierce Salguero, Assistant Professor of Asian History at The Pennsylvania State University and Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellow in the Religion … Read more

Cine-East: "From Up on Poppy Hill"

November 1, 2013

(Goro Miyazaki, 2011, 91 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, Color, BluRay) With an introduction by Eileen Chow (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke) Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill was the top-grossing animated film in Japan in 2011, and … Read more