Ryuichi Abe has been a recipient of the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Award for distinguished teaching.
Acknowledgments xi Interaction of Kukai with the Nara Clergy xvIllustrations xixIntroduction 11. Kukai and (Very) Early Heian Society: A Prolegomenon - 19 Buddhism and the Ritsuryo State - 24 Kukai and His Alliance with the Nara Clergy - 41Part I Origins, Traces, Nonorigin - 67 2. Kukai's Dissent: Of Mendicancy and Fiction - 69 Kukai's Youth: Confucian Learning vis-a-vis Buddhist Practice - 71 The State, Ubasoku, and Popular Buddhism - 76 Lacuna of Esotericism: The Sangho shikki as a Self-Portrait - 83 Apologetics or Apologia: The Fictivity of the Roko shikki - 96 The Dilemma of Kukai's Fiction and Mikkyo - 1053. Journey to China: Outside Ritsuryo Discourse - 113 Foreign Language Studies and Esoteric Buddhism - 114 Master Hui-kuo and the Study of Esoteric Rituals - 120 Mantra and Abhiseka, the Genealogical Technologies - 127 Abhiseka as a General Theory of Enlightenment - 1414. (No) Traces of Esoteric Buddhism: Dharani and the Nara Buddhist Literature - 151 The Zomitsu/Junmitsu Scheme and Its Limitations - 152 (In)visibility of Esotericism in the Nara Buddhist Culture - 154 Dharani Exoteric and Esoteric Functions - 159 Esoteric Dharani in the Nara Ritual Space - 176 Discourse, Taxonomy and Kukai's Bibliography - 176Part II Cartography -185 5. Category and History: Constructing the Esoteric - 187 "Shinghon School" as an Ambivalence in Kukai's Writings - 189 Tokuitsu and Kukai: The Delineation of Mikkyo, the Esoteric - 204 Proof of Dharma Kaya's Preaching of the Dharma - 213 Troping the Lineage: The Construction of the Esoteric Nagarjuna - 2206. The Discourse of Complementarity Constructing the Esoteric II - 237 On the Ritual of the Golden Light Sutra - 238 The Exoteric and the Esoteric Reading of Prajna Patamita - 247 From Dharani to Mantra: A Paradigm Shift - 260Part III Writing and Polity - 275 7. Semiology of the Dharma; or the Somaticity of the Text - 275 Of Voice, Letter, and Reality - 278 Syntax of the World-Text - 281 On the Science of Writing - 288 Mantra as Textile Production - 293 Letters, Life Breath and the Cosmic Palace - 3008. Of Mantra and Palace: Textualizing the Emperor, Calamity and the Cosmos - 305 Rectification of Names: The Ritsuryo State - 310 Ritsuryo Buddhism and the Discourse of Calamities - 315 Refiguration of the Emperor: A Reinterpretation of Kukai's 10 Abiding Stages - 323 Mantra and the New Science of Calamities - 334 The Mishuho and the Ritual Reconstruction of the Imperial Palace - 3449. Genealogy of Mantra and Kukai's Legacy - 359 The Emperor's Coronation Abhiseka (sokui kanjo) - 367 Groth of Extra-ritsuryo Esoteric Monastaries - 371 Landscape of the Mediaeval Shinghon School - 376 Institution of the Dharma Emperor - 379 Conclusion: Kukai and Writing - Toward the Kukai of Extra-Sectarian History - 385Post-Script - 399 Problems of the Category of Heian Buddhism - 399 Kukai and the Limitation of Kuroda's Kenmitsu Theory - 416 Glossary - 429 Abbreviations - 449 Notes - 451 Selected Bibliography - 541 Index - 579
Ryuichi Abe is Kao Associate Professor of Japanese Religious Studies in the Departments of Religion and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He is the coauthor of Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan -- Poems, Letters, and Other Writings, and has been a recipient of the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Award for distinguished teaching.
"This is a remarkable book about one of the most remarkable figures in the history of Japanese Buddhism...Abe's book will certainly emerge and remain the primary examination of Kukai's life and thought for many years to come. It is thus a crucial read for anyone interested in early Japanese religion and intellectual history... The Weaving of Mantra provides a very lengthy, detailed, and substantial intellectual historical analysis of Kukai...[T]his book is a monumental achievement that will fascinate students of Japanese religion and stimulate much discussion among historians." -- Steven Heine, Journal of Asian Studies "Abe has made a major contribution to our understanding of the figure of Kukai, of Esoteric Buddhism, of the political, intellectual and religious situation of the Nara and early Heian periods, and of our view of medieval Japanese Buddhism as a whole. He has command of an impressive range of sources, both classical and modern, and he has a sophisticated grasp of recent theoretical discussions... Both in the new readings of early and medieval Japanese Buddhism that it advances and in the discussions that it will stimulate, this volume stands as a major addition to the field." -- Paul B. Watt, Journal of Asian History
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