Bryan Lowe
Assoc. Prof. of Religion @Princeton. Historian of Japanese religions (esp. 7th-9th c.) & Buddhism. Author of Ritualized Writing (UH Press, 2017). Unapologetic Boston sports fan.
- Princeton is hiring a one-year lecturer position in Asian Religions. Please spread the word: apply.interfolio.com/180148
- In the 1930s, you could teach Japanese literature and reasonably expect the students to know French or German but not Japanese. nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ar...
- A new short piece of mine just came out in the centennial issue of Speculum that (briefly) tries out comparative, rather than global, history on medieval archives from the Shōsōin, Dunhuang, and the Cairo Geniza. www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/JRDRZ...
- Pleased with the hook in my new article, reviewing books on esoteric Buddhism. nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/is...
- Want this on my tombstone.
- My new book is coming out in August 2026. uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/how-bu...
- Hardly on here anymore, but if anyone is near Princeton and interested in book history, you MUST check out the absolutely amazing new exhibition Forms & Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making curated by Martin Heijdra at Firestone Library through 12/7 📖📜 library.princeton.edu/formsandfunc...
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- 🏹🏹🏹 Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library. dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...
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- Our Department is hiring in early Christianity. It's an assistant professor (tenure-track position). Spread the word! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
- Fascinating to see Usa today market itself as the birthplace of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, a very different view from that in Grapard, who describes an obliteration of syncretism in the wake of Meiji ideologues and their reforms.
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- This week's #ManuscriptMonday is this cool miniature replica of the illustrated hell scrolls that I bought at the Kyoto National Museum last week (next to an air conditioner remote for scale). You can get your own copy here for less than 6,000 yen! www.kyotobenrido.com/view/item/00...
- New journal issue edited by Sujung Kim focusing on Buddhist talismans: ijbtc.dongguk.edu
- Reposted by Bryan LoweSo, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9
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- Sometimes, when things get tough, you just need a Buddhist statue to come to life and give you a piggyback ride. Shakadō Engi, 16th c. Currently on display at the Kyoto National Museum and well worth it! www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/exhibitio...
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- By far the best summary I’ve read on the election.
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- For Marine Day in Japan, a #ManuscriptMonday of the 13th-century Illustrated Biographies of the Kegon School's Patriarchs 華厳宗祖師絵伝, which tells the story of a young Chinese woman who falls in love with a Korean monk. She throws herself into the sea and becomes a dragon who protects the returning ship
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- The same administrators who decry safe spaces and claim to protect free speech surround themselves with security and call the cops on students at the drop of a hat. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
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- Just got back from Hokkaidō, which inspired me to look up Ainu manuscripts for #ManuscriptMonday. Here's Stepan Krasheninnikov's 1738 "A Glossary: Latine-Ainu-Chukchi-Koryak-Itelmen," an early record of the Ainu language. For more on early manuscripts, see: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitst...
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- Interesting article in The New Yorker about scents being all the rage in the museum world these days. Shōsōin: The Show gave visitors the chance to smell ~8th-century Ranjatai 蘭奢待, a piece of agarwood, which is probably the most famous incense in the history of Japan and still extant in the Shōsōin.
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- This post inspired me. I wish we had more medieval art threads here! So I’ll be a part of the solution with one on this amazing silver incense globe from the Shōsōin. shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/treasu...
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- Veni, vidi, vici. It was awesome🤩🤩🤩
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- Off to Japan today to see Shōsōin: The Show, a digital, immmersive exhibition on the Shōsōin and its treasures, including a list of 660 objects recorded on this 8th-c. 14 meter scroll discussed and rewritten by these cute doggies. 📜🐶 #ManuscriptMonday #Shosoin shosoin-the-show.jp/osaka/english/
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- On vacation in Italy, so here’s a relevant #ManuscriptMonday on the 10,000+ Japanese documents in the Marega Collection of the Vatican. Apostasy oaths like this one were pasted together by village officials into scrolls sometimes reaching 24 meters in length! www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/marega...
- My understanding is that there will be a video made available of this session, which was great. So be sure to check it out if you missed it live!
- Happening right now: "New Works in Modern Indian Buddhisms" as part of the online AAR. If you are registered, come join. Should be great!
