Date of Award
12-2008
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Comparative Religion
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Campus Only
Abstract
This thesis examines the Tokugawa (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) era Buddhist redactive strategies in construction of the figure of Kukai (774-835) in Kukai Major Works. The thesis argues that this arrives at a minimalist portrait which inaccurately portrays what this figure has meant in the history of religion in Japan. The thesis concludes by suggesting that this perspective be combined with a concomitant treatment of the large body of extant hagiography concerning Kukai, and that the field of Japanese Buddhist studies extend this examination to other major figures of Japanese Buddhist history.
Recommended Citation
DeBoer, Nathan F., "Kukai in The Making: Premodern and Modern Buddhist Redaction in the Modern Construction of Kukai" (2008). Masters Theses. 190.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/190