The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture - Visiting Fellows Fall 2002

Donald Keene Center Visiting Fellows

Fall 2002

MANABE Shunsho (President and Professor of Esoteric Buddhist Art, Hosen Gakuen College)

MANABE Shunsho Professor Manabe is an eminent specialist on Esoteric Buddhism in China and Japan, a painter of Buddhist art, an accredited restorer of Japanese art treasures, and a renowned curator of exhibitions, in addition to being a Shingon Buddhist priest. He received his M.A. in Indology and Buddhist History from Tohoku University and his Ph.D. in Literature from Toyo University. He currently is President of Hosen Gakuen College as well as Professor of Esoteric Buddhist Art. He was Director of the Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko Museum from 1997 to 2000 after consecutively serving as Head Curator and Vice Director. In addition, he was Adjunct Lecturer in Chinese Art History at Toyama University from 1994 to 1995, Adjunct Lecturer in Western Art History at Seishin Women's College from 1993 to 1994, and Adjunct Lecturer in Japanese Art History at Tokai University from 1983 to 1992.

Professor Manabe has published numerous academic papers and books on topics including Esoteric Buddhist art, mandalas, and Tibetan art. His publications include Kobo daishi gyojo ekotoba; Mandala no sekai; Tanka Chibetto, Neparu no butsuga; and Mikkyo zuten. He has appeared on NHK TV as a lecturer on Tibetan Buddhist art.

As a Visiting Fellow during fall 2002, he taught a graduate seminar on the history of Japanese Buddhist art at Columbia, which was attended by students in religion, art history, and history. He also traveled to numerous universities to give lectures on Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and mandala art, including Stanford University, the University of Washington, Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University. At Columbia, in addition to teaching and lecturing, Professor Manabe presented a paper at an international symposium on the study of Shinto across various interdisciplinary fields. He also co-organized a workshop with other Columbia faculty on Buddhist literature, emaki, and other forms of art that emerged in Japan from Buddhist influences from the Heian and Kamakura periods. The participants included scholars from Columbia and other institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

TAKAHASHI Genichiro (Author and Critic)

Genichiro Takahashi is one of Japan's leading postmodern writers. He has published numerous novels, short stories, and essays over the past two decades. His first novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi Sayonara, Gangsters, 1982), won the Gunzo Literary Award for First Novels. In addition, his Yuga de kansho-teki na Nippon-yakyuu (Japanese Baseball: Elegant and Sentimental) won the Mishima Yukio Award in 1988, and his Nihon bungaku seisui shi recently received the Itoh Sei Literature Award. His other works include Penguin mura ni hi wa ochite (Sunset in Penguin Village, 1989), Wakusei P-13 no himitsu (The Secret of Planet 13, 1990), and Gosutobasutazu (Ghostbusters, 1997). His essays cover topics from books to horse-racing.

During his month-long Visiting Fellow stay, Mr. Takahashi participated in a class on modern Japanese literature at Columbia and also gave a public lecture in which he read from his first published novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi, and shared his insights on Japanese literature from the turn of the 20th century to the present. His other lecture sites included Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, New York University, and the University of California-Los Angeles.