Daitokuji

Daitokuji
Title Daitokuji PDF eBook
Author Gregory P. A. Levine
Publisher University of Washington Press
Pages 508
Release 2005
Genre Architecture
ISBN 9780295985404

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The Zen Buddhist monastery Daitokuji in Kyoto has long been revered as a cloistered meditation centre, a repository of art treasures, and a wellspring of the "Zen aesthetic." Gregory Levine's Daitokuji unsettles these conventional notions with groundbreaking inquiry into the significant and surprising visual and social identities of sculpture, painting, and calligraphy associated with this fourteenth-century monastery and its enduring monastic and lay communities. The book begins with a study of Zen portraiture at Daitokuji that reveals the precariousness of portrait likeness; the face that gazes out from an abbot's painting or statue may not be who we expect it to be or submit quietly to interpretation. By tracing the life of Daitokuji's famed statue of the chanoyu patriarch Sen no Riky-u (1522-91), which was all but destroyed by the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-98) but survived in Rash-omon-like narratives and reconstituted sculptural forms, Levine throws light upon the contested status of images and their mytho-poetic potential. Levine then draws from the seventeenth-century journal of K-ogetsu S-ogan, Bokuseki no utsushi, to explore practices of calligraphy connoisseurship at Daitokuji and the pivotal role played by the monastery's abbots within Kyoto art circles. The book's final section explores Daitokuji's annual airings of temple treasures not merely as a practice geared toward preservation but also as a space in which different communities vie for authority over the artistic past. An epilogue follows the peripatetic journey of the monastery's scrolls of the 500 Luohan from China to Japan, to exhibition and partial sale in the West, and back to Daitokuji. Illuminating canonical and heretofore ignored works and mining a trove of documents, diaries, and modern writings, Levine argues for the plurality of Daitokuji's visual arts and the breadth of social and ritual circumstances of art making and viewing within the monastery. This diversity encourages reconsideration of stereotyped notions of "Zen art" and offers specialists and general readers alike opportunity to explore the fertile and sometimes volatile nexus of the visual arts and religious sites in Japan.

Five Mountains

Five Mountains
Title Five Mountains PDF eBook
Author Martin Collcutt
Publisher BRILL
Pages 430
Release 2020-03-17
Genre History
ISBN 1684172179

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This work provides an in-depth history of the Rinzai Zen monastic institution in Medieval Japan. Contents include chapters on Japanese zen pioneers and their patrons; Chinese émigré monks and Japanese warrior rullers; the gozan system; Zen monastic life and rules; the monastery and its subtemples; and the Zen monastic economy. Includes a foreword by Edwin Reischauer.

The Cambridge History of Japan

The Cambridge History of Japan
Title The Cambridge History of Japan PDF eBook
Author John Whitney Hall
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 742
Release 1988
Genre History
ISBN 9780521223546

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Survey of the historical events and developments in medieval Japan's polity, economy, society and culture.

Lure Of The Japanese Garden

Lure Of The Japanese Garden
Title Lure Of The Japanese Garden PDF eBook
Author Alison Main
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Pages 236
Release 2002-06-04
Genre Architecture
ISBN 9780393730913

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This book is a delightful journey through the gardens of Japan, their art, culture, and history. This beautifully designed book is a guide to gardens in Japan and a revelation of their historical and cultural contexts. Offering a tour of over 120 gardens spanning east, west, north, and south in Japan, the authors provide a brief description, beautiful photographs, and directions for easy reference, interwoven with notes on personal experiences and travel in different seasons. A glossary of terms and a chronological summary of the gardens in different historical periods are included. A perfect reference for visitors to Japan as well as armchair travelers, this book is the first to show such a wide geographical spread of gardens throughout Japan, and will be beloved by all garden lovers and anyone captivated by this unique element of Japanese culture. 120 color photographs and illustrations. - Publisher.

History of Fermented Black Soybeans (165 B. C. To 2011)

History of Fermented Black Soybeans (165 B. C. To 2011)
Title History of Fermented Black Soybeans (165 B. C. To 2011) PDF eBook
Author William Shurtleff
Publisher Soyinfo Center
Pages 398
Release 2011
Genre Fermented soyfoods
ISBN 1928914411

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Eloquent Zen

Eloquent Zen
Title Eloquent Zen PDF eBook
Author Kenneth Kraft
Publisher University of Hawaii Press
Pages 284
Release 1997-01-01
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 9780824819521

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Zen master Daito (1282-1337) played a leading role in the transmission of Zen (Ch'an) from China to Japan. He founded Daitokuji, a major monastery that has been influential for centuries, and he provided interpretations of Chinese texts. Daito's traditional biography is full of vivid episodes, including his years among the beggars of Kyoto and ending with his dramatic death in the meditation posture. Despite his importance, however, Daito has remained virtually unknown in the West. With the publication of Eloquent Zen Kenneth Kraft offers the first comprehensive account of the life and teachings of one of the greatest of Japan's Zen masters. Dr. Kraft begins with the foundations of medieval Japanese Zen. He shows that Daito's predecessors were concerned with clarifying the essentials of Zen as it began to take root in Japan. During this formative phase, the Zen pioneers embraced varied conceptions of enlightenment and divergent notions of authenticity. Kraft places Daito's contributions within this context, offering new insights about early Japanese Zen and about Zen itself. Throughout this study, Kraft looks closely at the complex role of language in Zen--a tradition supposedly distrustful of words. Daito wrote haiku-like poetry, participated in brilliant dialogues, and delivered powerful sermons. His virtuosity in articulating the way of Zen, "beyond words, beyond silence, " is nowhere more apparent than in his use of the capping phrase, an interpretive and commentarial device unique to Zen. Analyzing Daito's use of this device, Kraft elucidates the significance of the literary and aesthetic dimensions of the Zen tradition. Eloquent Zen includes valuable translations of Daito's poetryand other writings. Illustrations include three classic portraits of Daito and rare examples of his calligraphy. This lucid and engaging study will interest scholars and nonspecialists interested in Zen, Japanese culture, and Asian philosophy, poetry, and related fields.

Another Kyoto

Another Kyoto
Title Another Kyoto PDF eBook
Author Alex Kerr
Publisher Penguin UK
Pages 288
Release 2018-07-05
Genre Travel
ISBN 0141988347

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Another Kyoto is an insider's meditation on the hidden wonders of Japan's most enigmatic city. Drawing on decades living in Kyoto, and on lore gleaned from artists, Zen monks and Shinto priests, Alex Kerr illuminates the simplest things - a temple gate, a wall, a sliding door - in a new way. 'A rich book of intimate proportions ... In Kyoto, facts and meaning are often hidden in plain sight. Kerr's gift is to make us stop and cast our eyes upward to a temple plaque, or to squint into the gloom of an abbot's chamber' Japan Times 'Kerr and Sokol have performed a minor miracle by presenting that which is present in Kyoto as that which we have yet to see. I know that I will never pass a wall, or tread a floor, or sit on tatami the same way again' Kyoto Journal