2016

Vincent Breugem

  • Independent Scholar
  • Independent Scholar
Picture of Vincent Breugem

Project

Darumashu: Japan's Forgotten Zen School

Program

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

Location

the Centre for Buddhist Studies, University of London

Abstract

This project focuses on a pioneering Zen movement known as Darumashū (School of Bodhidharma), founded by the monk Dainichibō Nōnin (fl. 1189). Though a central agent of early Zen in Japan, the Darumashū was later dismissed as heterodox by competing Buddhist groups, and consigned to the margins of the historical narrative. Using long-neglected sources and recently discovered documents the project uncovers the doctrinal and ritual dimensions of the Darumashū, and reinserts the movement into medieval Buddhist history and discourse.