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Book Cover
E-book
Author Eubanks, Charlotte D. (Charlotte Diane), 1971- author.

Title Miracles of book and body : Buddhist textual culture and medieval Japan / Charlotte Eubanks
Published Berkeley : University of California Press, [2011]
©2011

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 269 pages) : illustrations
Series Buddhisms ; 10
Buddhisms ; 10.
Contents Introduction: the cult of the book and the culture of text -- The ontology of sutras -- Locating setsuwa in performance -- Decomposing bodies, composing texts -- Textual transubstantiation and the place of memory -- Conclusion: on circumambulatory reading
Summary " ... the first book to explore the intersection of two key genres of sacred literature in medieval Japan: sutras, or sacred Buddhist texts, and setsuwa, or "explanatory tales," used in sermons and collected in written compilations. For most of East Asia, Buddhist sutras were written in classical Chinese and inaccessible to many devotees. How, then, did such devotees access these texts? Charlotte D. Eubanks argues that the medieval genre of "explanatory tales" illuminates the link between human body (devotee) and sacred text (sutra). Her highly original approach to understanding Buddhist textuality focuses on the sensual aspects of religious experience and also looks beyond Japan to explore pre-modern book history, practices of preaching, miracles of reading, and the Mahayana Buddhist "cult of the book"."--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Buddhist literature, Japanese -- History and criticism
Folk literature, Japanese -- History and criticism
Books and reading -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism.
Buddhism -- Japan -- History -- 1185-1600.
Movement, Psychology of -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism.
RELIGION -- Buddhism -- General.
Movement, Psychology of -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism
Books and reading -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhist literature, Japanese
Folk literature, Japanese
Japan
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2010013953
ISBN 9780520947894
0520947894
1283277395
9781283277396
9786613277398
6613277398