Ethan Bushelle, PhD

Associate Professor

About

Education

Ph.D. Japanese Religions and Literature, Harvard University

 

Prof. Bushelle is a historian of premodern Japan. In both his teaching and research, he explores the intersection between ethnicity, religion, and power. He is currently working on a book on the role of religious ritual and myth in the politicization of ethnicity in Japan's early ancient period. In addition to courses on Japanese culture (HUMA 275: Humanities of Japan) and religion (REL/EAST 382: Religion and Society in Japan; REL 426/EAST 435: Shinto), Prof. Bushelle also teaches courses on Chinese religions (REL/EAST 380: Religion and Society in China), Buddhism (REL/EAST 375: Buddhism; EAST 497: Zen; EAST/REL 426: Tantra), and the academic study of religion (HNRS 219: Colloquium in Religious Studies). 

Research Interests

  • Japan, East Asia, religion, culture, ethnicity, political history, nationalism, Buddhism, Shinto, Tantra

Current Courses

HUMA 275: Humanities of Japan

REL/EAST 426: Tantra

Selected Publications

The Three Treasures: A Revised and Illustrated Study and Translation of Minamoto no Tamenori’s Sanbōe. With co-author Edward Kamens. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, 2023.

“The Mountain as Mandala: Kūkai’s Founding of Mt. Kōya.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Special Issue: Esoteric Buddhism 47(1): 43–83, 2020.

“The Green Bamboo is the Dharmakāya: Waka Poetry and the Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan.” In Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature. Rafal Stepien, ed. Albany, NY: State University of New York (SUNY) Press: 169–93, 2020.

“Mountain Buddhism and the Emergence of a Buddhist Cosmic Imaginary in Ancient Japan.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 45(1): 1–36, 2018.

“Setsuwa no gensetsu to ōken: Shōdō katsudō o jiku ni” (Sovereign Power and the Discourse of Setsuwa Tales: The Practice of Preaching as Mediating Link). Rikkyō Daigaku Nihon Bungaku: Komine Kazuaki Teinen Kinen Tokushūgō (Special Volume of Rikkyō University Journal of Japanese Literature in Honor of Komine Kazuaki’s Retirement), 111: 185–93, 2014.

“Seppō to ōken: Michinaga kara Go-Shirakawa made” (Buddhist Preaching and Sovereign Power: From Michinaga to Go-Shirakawa). Kokubungaku Tōsa, 26: 93–104, 2014.