Issei Buddhism in the Americas / edited by Duncan Ryûken Williams and Tomoe Moriya.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Williams, Duncan Ryūken, 1969-

Moriya, Tomoe, 1968-

Series:

Asian American experience

The Asian American experience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhism--America.

Buddhism.

Japanese--America.

Japanese.

Immigrants--America.

Immigrants.

America.

Physical Description:

xxi, 191 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2010]

Summary:

Rich in primary sources and featuring contributions from scholars on both sides of the Pacific, Issei Buddhism in the Americas upends boundaries and categories that have tied Buddhism to Asia and illuminates the social and spiritual role that the religion has played in the Americas. While Buddhists in Japan had long described the migration of the religion as traveling from India, across Asia, and ending in Japan, this collection details the movement of Buddhism across the Pacific to the Americas. Leading the way were pioneering, first-generation Issei priests and their followers who established temples, shared Buddhist teachings, and converted non-Buddhists in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book explores these pioneering efforts in the context of Japanese diasporic communities and immigration history and the early history of Buddhism in the Americas. The result is a dramatic exploration of the history of Asian immigrant religion that encompasses such topics as Japanese language instruction in Hawaiian schools, the Japanese Canadian community in British Columbia, the roles of Buddhist song culture, Tenriyko ministers in America, and Zen Buddhism in Brazil. Contributors are Michihiro Ama, Noriko Asato, Masako Iino, Tomoe Moriya, Lori Pierce, Cristina Rocha, Keiko Wells, Duncan Ryûken Williams, and Akihiro Yamakura.

Contents:

Introduction: dislocations and relocations of Issei Buddhists in the Americas / Duncan Ryûken Williams and Tomoe Moriya

Part 1. Nation and identity. "Can I put this Jizō together with the Virgin Mary in the altar?" : Creolizing Zen Buddhism in Brazil / Cristina Rocha

Bukkyōkai and the Japanese Canadian community in British Columbia / Masaka Iino

Part 2. Education and law. The Japanese language school controversy in Hawaii / Noriko Asato

The legal dimensions of the formation of Shin Buddhist temples in Los Angeles / Michihiro Ama

Part 3. Race and print culture. Buddhist modernism in English-language Buddhist periodicals / Lori Pierce

"Americanization" and "tradition" in Issei and Nisei Buddhist publications / Tomoe Moriya

Part 4. Patriotism and war. The United States-Japanese war and Tenrikyo ministers in America / Akihiro Yamakura

The role of Buddhist song culture in international acculturation / Keiko Wells.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780252035333

025203533X

9780252077197

0252077199

OCLC:

460058270