Mahayana Buddhism: A New Introduction

After completing an undergraduate degree in economics at Keio University, Tokyo, Professor Ryuchi Abe acquired a master's degree from the School of Advanced International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University. He then turned to religious studies and was awarded an MPhil and PhD from Columbia University. Abe's research interests center around Buddhism and visual culture, Buddhism and literature, Buddhist theory of language, the history of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, Shinto-Buddhist interaction, and Buddhism and gender. He has been teaching wide-ranging graduate and undergraduate courses on East Asian religions and premodern and early modern Japanese religions. His publications include Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan (University of Hawaii Press), The Weaving of Mantra: Kukai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (Columbia University Press), "Word" (in Critical Terms in Buddhist Studies, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr, University of Chicago Press), "Genjo sanzo no toei: Shingon hasso gyojozu no saikaishaku" (in Tripitaka Master Xuanzang and His Reflections: reinterpreting the narrative painting series Deeds of the Shingon Patriarchs, edited by Sano Midori, et. al.), Chusei kaiga no matorikkusu II (Matrix of Medieval Paintings II, Seikansha Press), "Heian shoki tenno no seiken kotai to kanjo girei" (Early Heian Imperial Succession and Abhiseka Ritual, edited by Nemoto Seiji, et. al.,) Nara Bukkyo no dento to kakushin (Tradition and Innovation in the Buddhism of Nara, Bensei Shuppan Press), "Revisiting the Dragon Princess: her role in medieval origin stories and its implications in reading the Lotus Sutra" (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies), and "Women and the Heike nokyo: The Dragon Princess, the Jewel and the Buddha" (Impressions, The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America).