Handouts the author developed for classes in Japan requiring papers in English, from regular undergraduate EFL classes to graduate school international classes. Page 1 A) Outline of an Academic Paper: necessary elements, color-coded to show connections between parts of a paper; and B) Abstracts: often confused with introductions, need to stand…[Read more]

Short audio to download, introduces Keisei Awa no Naruto, a Bunraku puppet play, followed by discussion questions for educational use. This 18th Century Chikamatsu play plumbs the depths of pathos with Sophoclean fatalism, leaving the listener wondering, among other things, why such a drama of ‘mono no aware’ is still performed as a puppet play.…[Read more]

Short audio to download, introduces Keisei Awa no Naruto, a Bunraku puppet play, followed by discussion questions for educational use. This 18th Century Chikamatsu play plumbs the depths of pathos with Sophoclean fatalism, leaving the listener wondering, among other things, why such a drama of ‘mono no aware’ is still performed as a puppet play.…[Read more]

Handout for the 2005 Conference on Pedagogies and Learning: Meanings under the Microscope, held at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. A framework was sought for understanding concepts in new disciplines in their full dimensionality. Citing Plato’s Socrates, the nature of knowledge was examined, locating it not in information…[Read more]

By comparing the languages of the world, we gain invaluable insights into human prehistory, predating the appearance of written records by thousands of years. The traditional methods for language comparison are based on manual data inspection. With more and more data available, they reach their practical limits. Computer applications, however,…[Read more]

A gripping legend about the origin of the Pilgrimage of Shikoku seems to prove reincarnation. This five-minute podcast recounts the miracle story, then poses discussion questions that could, and have been, used educationally with groups to get at the underlying motive and purpose of the legend.

Three parts of a 2014 presentation at the National Museum of Ethnology Linguistics Circle in Osaka are compiled in this PDF file. 1st page: Abstract of the presentation “A Multidimensional Approach to Definitions, Applied to e-Learning in Language Education”; 2nd page: Chart “Contextualizing fields and terms in their fuller dimensionality: Example…[Read more]

Discount Flyer

The author contrasts Japan’s unsurpassed cultural preservation with the destruction of irreplaceable treasures of humanity in Afghanistan and Central Asia, showing the limitations of UNESCO and what factors lead to designation or not of World Heritage Sites. This short podcast concludes by theorizing how discrimination against women originated,…[Read more]

Based on a cluster of Great Peace (taiping 太平) and Weft (wei 緯) materials dealing with stages in human reproduction (impregnation, gestation, intrauterine infancy, birth) and the logic governing annual cycles, this study shows how ontological and cosmological representations were translated into religious discourse and practice in early medie…[Read more]

A state-of-the-art study of popular movements and religiosity in Late Antiquity China (1st–2nd cent. CE), focused on issues of theology, practice, sources and terminology, and including a critical assessment of received scholarship.

Review of MAKING TRANSCENDENTS: ASCETICS AND SOCIAL MEMORY IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA. By Robert Ford Campany. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009. Pp. xviii + 300.

Review of THE CHENWEI RIDDLE: TIME, STARS, AND HEROES IN THE APOCRYPHA. By Licia Di Giacinto. (Deutsche Ostasienstudien, vol. 13). Gossenberg: Ostasien Verlag, 2013. Pp. xi + 332. 25 Figures, 40 Tables, 4 Appendices, List of Illustrations, Bibliography.

Religions are widely accessible in the digital community and Hinduism and Hindu Nationalism Online engages with some of the internet’s representations of Hinduism, with a focus primarily on political and politico-nationalist representations. Juli L. Gittinger focuses on three organizations throughout the book: Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), R…[Read more]

Review of AFFILIATION AND TRANSMISSION IN DAOISM: A BERLIN SYMPOSIUM. Edited by Florian C. Reiter. (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. 78). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012. Pp. viii + 300 pages.

Review of THE EMERGENCE OF DAOISM: CREATION OF TRADITION. By Gil Raz. (Routledge Studies in Taoism). Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 2012. Pp. 292.

Review of CELESTIAL MASTERS: HISTORY AND RITUAL IN EARLY DAOIST COMMUNITIES. By Terry F. Kleeman. (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, 102). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016. Pp. xiii + 425. Maps, illustrations.

A review of THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF WORLD RELIGIONS: DAOISM. Edited by James Robson. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015. Pp. xxxii + 754 + A29. Map, illustrations.