Graduate Theological Union
The Institute of Buddhist Studies
Hongwanji Professor of Jodo Shinshu Studies

At GTU since 1996

Ph.D. Graduate Theological Union, 1996
M.A. Graduate Theological Union/Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1990
M.A. Ryukoku University, Kyoto, 1986
B.A. Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, 1983

Phone: 650/938-7192
E-mail: eishonasu@earthlink.net

Current Research and Teaching Interests

• History of Pure Land Buddhist Thought
• Shin Buddhist History and Thought
• Works of Shinran
• Readings in Mahayana Texts: the Three Pure Land Sutras

Selected Publications

• “Introduction of the Chinese God of the Dead into Medieval Japanese Religious Culture: A Study of Taizanfukun-san (Rites Honoring T’ai-shan Fu-chün),” in Asaeda Zensho Hakase kanreki kinen ronbunsh¥: Bukkyo to ningen shagaki no kenkyu (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 2004), 277–299.
• “The Pure Land and the Lotus: Zonkaku’s Ecumenical Vision of the One Vehicle (ekayana),” The Pure Land, New Series, No. 20 (2003): 33–50.
• “Naming the Vows: Ryogen’s Kuhon ojogi and Its Influence on Shinran’s Thought,” The Pure Land, New Series, No. 18 and 19 (2002): 89–98.
• “Ordination Ceremony of the Honganji Priests in Premodern Japanese Society,” in Engaged Pure Land Buddhism: Challenges Facing Jodo Shinshu in the Contemporary World (1998), 201–220.
• “Ocean of the One Vehicle: Shinran's View of the ekayana Ideal,” in Watanabe Takao kyoju kanreki kinen ronshu: Bukkyoshiso bunkashi ronso (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1997), 1156-1172.
• “A Critical Review of Joseph Kitagawa's Methodology of History of Religions in the Field of Japanese Religious Studies,” Pacific World, New Series, No. 10 (1994): 157-204.