Genshin's Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan by Robert F. Rhodes (review)

Abstract

Published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute HJAS 80.1 (2020): 258–264 iteration, thus generating new possibilities for individual and social transformation. As Lowe demonstrates in this study, Buddhist ritual and ritualized writing transformed eighth-century Japanese society in profound and dynamic ways. Although this brief review cannot really do justice to such an extraordinarily accomplished book, I would like to conclude by emphasizing what I think its main strengths are. First, I should note that the exhaustive research into sources is extraordinary—nothing Lowe says is ever unfounded, and this level of rigor is all the more impressive for a book that makes broad theoretical and historical arguments and articulates powerful critiques of previous approaches. Second, the book is interdisciplinary in the true sense of the word. Lowe is a master of his own discipline of religious studies in both its doctrinal and sociological aspects, but just as inspiring is the generous way he also speaks to the concerns of historians and literary scholars. He is deeply sensitive to historical context, and the ability with which he moves from bird’s eye macroscopic views of the Nara period down to a microhistorical level would serve as a model for any premodern historian. As a literary scholar myself, I am both impressed by and grateful for his sensitivity to the literary and rhetorical aspects of religious texts and to the ways in which Buddhist texts and Buddhism were deeply intertwined with literary culture. As the kind of scholarship that enriches all of our fields and disciplines, this book is certain to become a classic.