THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
A Conference Celebrating 35 Years of Partnership between the Numata Foundation and the University of Chicago
October 17-18, 2022
David Rubenstein Forum
1201 E. 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Sponsored by the Numata Foundation with additional sponsorship from the Divinity School and the Committee on Japanese Studies at the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies.
Click here to download the event poster.
The partnership between the University of Chicago and the Numata Foundation has been a long and fruitful one. This conference celebrates that cooperation by foregrounding moments in the interpretative histories of Japan and Buddhism, their representations and their representers. The notions both of Japan and of Buddhism each bear witness to a complex process of development and debate across centuries—both on their own terms as well as in their consequences for each other. This gathering examines the mutual interactions, influences, consequences, and meanings of our collective interpretations of Japan, of Buddhism, and of Japan interpreting Buddhism.
Mark Blum, Professor of Buddhist Studies and Shinji Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley
Melissa Curley, Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University
Mick Denekere, Ph.D., Lecturer, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Researcher, Institute of Japanese Studies, Ghent University
Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
Fujiwara Satoko, Professor of Religious Studies, Tokyo University
Clinton Godart, Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University
Iwamoto Akemi, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, D.T. Suzuki Museum
Richard Jaffe, Professor of Buddhist Studies, Department of Religious Studies, Duke University
James Ketelaar, Professor, Department of History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, The Divinity School, University of Chicago
Thomas Kirchner, Tenryûji
Orion Klautau, Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University
D. Max Moerman, Professor, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College, Columbia University
Michaela Mross, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University
Okada Masahiko, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Tenri University
Marta Sanvido, Shinji Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism, UC Berkeley
Paride Stortini, JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tokyo University
Bruce Winkelman, Divinity School Graduate Student, University of Chicago
Monday, October 17, 2022
Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at the Rubenstein Forum Peter May Boardroom.
8:30am Coffee
9:00am Opening Remarks
- James Robinson (Divinity School Dean)
- Brian Nagata (Numata & BDK Representative)
9:30am James Ketelaar, University of Chicago: “An Embroidered Buddhist Heaven”
10:15am Fujiwara Satoko, University of Tokyo: "Getting out of a Proxy War: History and Locality of the Japanese Religious Studies Academy and Buddhist Studies"
11:00am Mark Blum, UC Berkeley: “The Long Bridge Home: Evolving Authority in the History of Buddhism in Japan”
11:45am Lunch
1:00pm Michaela Mross, Stanford University: “Reflections on the Study of Kōshiki 講式 (Buddhist Ceremonials)”
1:45pm Richard Jaffe, Duke University: “Spreading Indra’s Net in Manhattan: D.T. Suzuki’s Columbia University Lectures”
2:30pm Marta Sanvido, UC Berkeley: “Secrecy and the Making of Modern Zen”
3:15pm Coffee
3:45pm Iwamoto Akemi, D.T.Suzuki Museum:「仏教学と鈴木大拙」/ “Buddhist Studies and D. T. Suzuki” [Talk in Japanese]
4:30pm Thomas Kirchner, Tenryûji: “Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Translating Zen”
6:00pm Dinner (for presenters only)
Rubenstein Forum, City View Room
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at the Rubenstein Forum Peter May Boardroom.
8:30am Coffee
9:00am Bruce Winkelman, University of Chicago: “History and the Making of Japanese Buddhisms”
9:45am Okada Masahiko, Tenri University: "Buddhist Science in the 19th Century and Modern Buddhism in Japan."
10:30am Mick Denekere, KU Leuven: “The Birth of Religious Studies in Early Meiji Japan: Exploring the introduction of the Concept of science des religions by Ishikawa Shuntai (1842–1931)”
11:15am Chelsea Foxwell, University of Chicago: “New Wine in Old Vessels? Notes on the Making of "Buddhist Art" in the Meiji Era”
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, Ohio State University: “Arguing with Shinran: Competing Understandings of Shinran as Oneself in Modern Japanese Thought”
1:45pm Clinton Godart, Tohoku University: “Lotus of Steel: Buddhist Utopianism and the Imperial Japanese Navy”
2:30pm D. Max Moerman, Barnard College, Columbia University: “Hōtan à Paris: The European Reception of the Japanese Buddhist World Map”
3:15pm Coffee
3:45pm Paride Stortini, University of Tokyo, “The Indian, the Japanese, and the American in Buddhism: Japanese Reimaginations of Ajanta in Sarnath, Kyoto, and Chicago”
4:30pm Orion Klautau, Tohoku University, “The Constitution of Essence: Shōtoku Taishi in Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Thought”
5:15pm Closing Remarks