Kukai: Major Works (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Japanese Series)

Hakeda, Yoshito S.

ISBN 10: 0231036272 / ISBN 13: 9780231036276

Published by Columbia University Press, 1972

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 27I91_34_0231036272

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Kukai: Major Works (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Japanese Series)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231036272
• ISBN 13: 9780231036276
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Kukai, more commonly known by the honorific Kobo Daishi, was one of the great characters in the development of Janpanese culture. He was active in literature, engineering, calligraphy, and architecture and is represented in this work in terms of his major effort--the introduction of esoteric Buddhism from China, which resulted in the formation of the Shingou sect still active in Japan. Eight of his works are presented here.

Review

Kukai was a polymath who has achieved the status of demigod in popular legend: in part because of his virtuosity as a writer of Chinese, his books are too difficult to read by any but a very few scholars in Japan today. Hakeda's achievement in arriving at these lively and intelligible translations is of the highest order. Choice This book serves two functions remarkably well: being an easy to follow, lucidly written introductory work for the non-initiated, and providing for the expert for the first time in English eight of Kukai's major works. World Literature Today