Kukai: Major Works - Softcover

Kūkai

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231059337 ISBN 13: 9780231059336

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1972

Synopsis

Kukai, more commonly known by the honorific Kobo Daishi, was one of the great characters in the development of Janpanese culture. He was active in literature, engineering, calligraphy, and architecture and is represented in this work in terms of his major effort--the introduction of esoteric Buddhism from China, which resulted in the formation of the Shingou sect still active in Japan. Eight of his works are presented here.

About this title

About the Author:

Hakeda was Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor of Religion at Columbia University. Ryuichi Abe is the Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions in the Department of Eas Aisan Languages and Cultures at Harvard University.

Review:

Kukai was a polymath who has achieved the status of demigod in popular legend: in part because of his virtuosity as a writer of Chinese, his books are too difficult to read by any but a very few scholars in Japan today. Hakeda's achievement in arriving at these lively and intelligible translations is of the highest order. (Choice)

This book serves two functions remarkably well: being an easy to follow, lucidly written introductory work for the non-initiated, and providing for the expert for the first time in English eight of Kukai's major works. (World Literature Today)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0231059337
• ISBN 13: 9780231059336
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 303