The great Buddhist priest Kukai (774-835) is credited with the introduction and establishment of tantric -or esoteric -Buddhism in early ninth-century Japan. In Ryuichi Abe examines this important religious figure -neglected in modern academic literature -and his profound influence on Japanese culture. Offering a radically new approach to the study of early religious history -combining historical research, discourse analysis, literary criticism, and semiology -Abe contends that the importance of Kukais transmission of esoteric Buddhism to Japan lay not in the foundation of a new sect but in...
The great Buddhist priest Kukai (774-835) is credited with the introduction and establishment of tantric -or esoteric -Buddhism in early ninth-century...
