Description

Book Synopsis
In medieval Japanese literature, the practices of initiation ceremonies and secret transmissions found in esoteric Buddhism began to be incorporated into the teaching of waka poetry. The main figure in this development was 13th-century poet Fujiwara Tameaki, whose commentaries transformed secular texts into allegories of Buddhist enlightenment.

Trade Review
Klein offers a meticulous explication of a group of literary commentaries of the mid-thirteenth century in Japan that adapted precepts of esoteric Shingon Buddhism…to construct ‘hidden’ meanings in canonical texts such as the Tales of Ise and the Kokinshu poetry anthology… With brilliant and disarming clarity, Klein analyzes the operation of allegorizing strategies in literary discourse and the cultural and textual triggers that bring such readings into play. -- S. Arntzen * Choice *

Allegories of Desire Esoteric Literary

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    A Hardback by Susan Blakeley Klein

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      Publisher: Harvard University, Asia Center
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 30/05/2003
      ISBN13: 9780674009561, 978-0674009561
      ISBN10: 0674009568

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      In medieval Japanese literature, the practices of initiation ceremonies and secret transmissions found in esoteric Buddhism began to be incorporated into the teaching of waka poetry. The main figure in this development was 13th-century poet Fujiwara Tameaki, whose commentaries transformed secular texts into allegories of Buddhist enlightenment.

      Trade Review
      Klein offers a meticulous explication of a group of literary commentaries of the mid-thirteenth century in Japan that adapted precepts of esoteric Shingon Buddhism…to construct ‘hidden’ meanings in canonical texts such as the Tales of Ise and the Kokinshu poetry anthology… With brilliant and disarming clarity, Klein analyzes the operation of allegorizing strategies in literary discourse and the cultural and textual triggers that bring such readings into play. -- S. Arntzen * Choice *

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