This article focuses on ritualized scribal practices in eighth-century Japan. It uses colophons, scriptorium documents, and narrative tales to explore how sutra copyists upheld vegetarian diets, performed ablutions, wore ritual garments, and avoided contact with pollutants stemming from death and illness. Such practices, often described in terms…[Read more]

Study of an eighth-century Japanese Buddhist manuscript in the Gest Collection at Princeton University. It argues for a mutually empowering and interdependent relationship between the scribe, the patron, and the text. It also looks at issues related to manuscript cultures, gender, the materiality of prayer, and the religious significance of labor.