Events

The Columbia Center for Japanese Religion presents
the 2010 John C. Weber Symposium on Japanese Religion and Culture: Images and Objects in Japanese Buddhist Practice.

Columbia University
116th street and Broadway
New York, NY, 10027

The Columbia Center for Japanese Religions announces the first annual John C. Weber International Symposium on Japanese Religion and Culture. The 2010 symposium, entitled Images and Objects in Japanese Buddhist Practice, will be held in Room 301 Philosophy Hall at Columbia University from October 7th to the 9th, 2010.

It will begin with a keynote address on the evening of Thursday October 7 and will be followed by two days of papers and discussion on Friday and Saturday, October 8th and 9th. The symposium will bring together scholars of Japanese Buddhist art from Japan, Europe, and North America to critically examine the historical use of objects of visual and material culture in Japanese Buddhist practice. Through the presentation and discussion of new scholarly work from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, this symposium will explore the relations between images, objects, and ritual in the history of Japanese Buddhism.

The symposium is free and open to the public.

CCJR offers travel grants to help cover the expenses of any graduate student who wishes to attend.

THURSDAY, October 7 th
6:00 - 6:30pm Reception

6:30 - 8:00pm Mimi Yiengpruksawan, Yale University
Fire Starter: The Local and Global Implications of Fujiwara no Yukinari’s Devotion to Blue Acala


FRIDAY, October 8th
9:30 - 10:25am Helmut Brinker, University of Zurich
The Iconic Body as Insight into Japanese Buddhist Practice

10:50 - 11:45am Nedachi Kensuke, Kyoto University
Materiality and Meaning: Sacred Trees and the Construction of Buddhist Images

1:00 - 1:55pm Cynthea Bogel, University of Washington
Representation, Visual Efficacy, and the Impact of Mikkyo
2:30 - 3:25pm Nagaoka Ryusaku, Tohoku University
Landscape and Buddha Image: Place and Symbolic Function in Buddhist Practice

4:00 - 4:55pm Sherry Fowler, University of Kansas
Finding the Feminine in the Thirty-Three Kannon


SATURDAY, October 9th
9:30 - 10:25am Samuel Morse, Amherst College
Securing a Place: Chindangu in Early Japan

10:50 - 11:45am Yui Suzuki, University of Maryland
Possessions: Spirits, Objects, and Bodies in Heian Birthing Rituals

1:00 - 1:55pm Yonekura Michio, Sophia University
Format and Function: On Hanging Scrolls Depicting
the Lives of Eminent Monks

2:30 - 3:25pm Bernard Faure, Columbia University
The Benzaiten and Dakiniten Mandalas: A Problem or an Enigma?

4:00 - 4:55pm Abe Yasuro, Nagoya University
Performing the Prince: Shotoku Taishi in Medieval
Religious Text, Image, and Ritual Space