Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism
Kukai and Dogen on the Art of Enlightenment
Pamela D. Winfield
Reviews and Awards
Winner of the Association of Asian Studies's Southeast Conference Book Prize (2014)
"Ambitious and scholarly... Winfield guides the reader with apparent ease... Icons and Iconoclasm feels like the start of a much broader discussion, not just of art in a conventional sense but also of how we might create, interpret, and inhabit ritual space." --Buddhadharma: The Practioner's Quarterly
"Delightfully instantiates the converging trajectories of art history and Buddhist studies. At this intersection, each is more deeply informed by the other, and both are enriched. Winfield's study not only demonstrates the benefits of this conjunction of fields, but shows that no longer can Buddhist studies ignore art history, nor can art history remain uninformed by Buddhist thought."--Richard K. Payne, Dean and Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies, Institute of Buddhist Studies
"Pamela Winfield has written a very interesting and exciting book examining two major Japanese Buddhist thinkers. By focusing on the visual elements in their works in addition to the prominent texts of these giants, Winfield establishes a creative and constructive contrast between Kukai's 'unitive model' stressing non-dual union between the practitioner and ultimate reality and Dogen's 'purgative process' that highlights the individual's own experience of casting aside all distractions."--Steven Heine, editor of Dogen: Textual and Historical Studies