People/Kumagai, S.

Seiji Kumagai

Seiji Kumagai was born in 1980 in Hiroshima (Japan). He studied Buddhist philosophy and received his Ph.D. in 2009 from Kyoto University. In 2011, he became an assistant professor at the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research of Kyoto University. Since 2013, he has been Uehiro Associate Professor at Kokoro Research Center of Kyoto University from then until the present. Since 2017, he has been a divisional director of the Department of Bhutanese Studies at Kokoro Research Center. He was invited by the University of Vienna as Numata Professor in 2018. His field of research is Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy in India, Tibet, and Bhutan, and also that of Bon religion. He has also conducted research on the history of Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhism. His most notable publications include books such as The Two Truths in Bon (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2011), Bhutanese Buddhism and Its Culture (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2014), and Buddhism, Culture and Society in Bhutan (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2018), as well as numerous academic articles on Indo-Himalayan Buddhism and Bon.

Library Items

Video

Seiji Kumagai at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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Seiji Kumagai discusses the theory of “innate enlightenment” (hongaku) in Japanese Buddhism. He argues that Shinran clearly showed a negative attitude toward innate enlightenment despite the fact that he used terms which are often regarded to be associated with the theory.

Kumagai, Seiji. "How the Concepts of 'Buddha-Nature' (Tathāgatagarbha) and 'Innate Enlightenment' (Hongaku) Were Interpreted by Shinran (1173–1263), Founder of the Jōdo-Shin-Shū School of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 47:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KwdudJF4hc.

Kumagai, Seiji. "How the Concepts of 'Buddha-Nature' (Tathāgatagarbha) and 'Innate Enlightenment' (Hongaku) Were Interpreted by Shinran (1173–1263), Founder of the Jōdo-Shin-Shū School of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 47:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KwdudJF4hc.;Seiji Kumagai at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Shinran;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism;Tien Tai;Genshin;Hōnen;Tanluan;Pure Land;Original Enlightenment;Tamura, Y.;Seiji Kumagai; How the Concepts of “buddha-nature” (Tathāgatagarbha) and “innate enlightenment” (Hongaku) were interpreted by Shinran (1173-1263)

Affiliations & relations

• Kyoto University · workplace affiliation