Category Archives: News

I’ve been meaning to post this for a few weeks now. The National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) has been engaged in a long term project to create reproductions of Shōsōin documents (including the one used as the banner for … Continue reading →

Here’s another interview I did about my book. This one was with Luke Thompson for the New Books Network. I talk about the Shōsōin collection a bit, and I hope the interview also gives a sense of why the Shōsōin … Continue reading →

‘Tis the Shōsōin season. Unfortunately, teaching responsibilities will prevent me from attending the Shōsōin monjo conference and exhibition this year. But the program for the conference looks great. And the exhibition will surely be impressive, as it always is. Also, this isn’t … Continue reading →

I had a great time talking to Chris Benda about my book today in this interview. Chris really forced me to articulate some of the bigger issues my book is addressing. Give it a listen!

I would like to take this chance to announce the publication of my new book. It is the first book in English to use Shōsōin documents to examine sutra copying in ancient Japan: Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures … Continue reading →

A number of deadlines have prevented me from blogging about the 2016 Shōsōin exhibition, though I still do hope to get back to it. I will say that the Shōsōin documents conference was remarkably informative (a good summary, one far … Continue reading →

I’m particularly excited to announce the next Shōsōin exhibition, particularly because it will be the first one I have attended since 2010, due to teaching obligations in previous years. http://www.narahaku.go.jp/exhibition/2016toku/shosoin/2016shosoin_index.html I’ll blog about it after I get back.

I recently received a volume about the Shōsōin collection that contains valuable historiographical and methodological pieces by eminent Shōsōin scholars such as Sakaehara Towao, Yamashita Yumi, Iida Takehiko, Yamaguchi Hideo, and others. The volume is a must read for anyone … Continue reading →

The Tokyo Historiographical Institute has added a new resource for using Shōsōin documents to their database. This tool, called the SHOMUS 正倉院文書マルチ支援データベース, provides data from the Shōsōin monjo mokuroku, the key catalog for using Shōsōin documents, in an online and … Continue reading →

I won’t post every typo I find in my published works on this blog, but I did want to note one unfortunate infelicity regarding a date that was just brought to my attention. In a recent JJRS article, I refer … Continue reading →