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Bryan Lowe

@bryandaniellowe.bsky.social

1.8K followers 880 following 540 posts

Assoc. Prof. of Religion @Princeton. Historian of Japanese religions (esp. 7th-9th c.) & Buddhism. Author of Ritualized Writing (UH Press, 2017). Unapologetic Boston sports fan.

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · 13h

My new book is coming out in August 2026.
uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/how-bu...

How Buddhism Spread in Japan, 650-850

Between the late seventh and early ninth centuries, Japan changed from a land largely without Buddhism to a country where Buddhist ideas, images, and practices were everywhere. The introduction of …

uhpress.hawaii.edu

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · 13h

My new book is coming out in August 2026.
uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/how-bu...

How Buddhism Spread in Japan, 650-850

uhpress.hawaii.edu

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · 28d

Hardly on here anymore, but if anyone is near Princeton and interested in book history, you MUST check out the absolutely amazing new exhibition Forms & Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making curated by Martin Heijdra at Firestone Library through 12/7 📖📜 library.princeton.edu/formsandfunc...

Forms & Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making

Highlighting the diversity of global book making traditions using examples from the Princeton University Library, this exhibition focuses on the continuous transmission and exchange of formal aspects ...

library.princeton.edu

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Jacqueline Hidalgo @jaxhidalgo.bsky.social · Aug 10

Help me find a wonderful new colleague for our department! Specialty in religions of South Asia or Southeast Asia. #religiousStudies #tenuretrackjobs jobs.sandiego.edu/cw/en-us/job...

Details - Assistant Professor of Religious Studies with Specialization in Hindu Studies

jobs.sandiego.edu

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Aug 5

🏹🏹🏹

Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library.
dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...

Close up of archer in samurai armor, white face, black horse.

Full seen of archer on horse in water facing boats with other soldiers beneath him.

Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Morgan Pitelka @mpitelka.bsky.social · Aug 4

New issue of the Journal of Japanese Studies is out! Highlights include articles on kanpu masatsu, war photography, empire paranoia, Italian-Japanese children's lit, Seidensticker’s style, and a bonus piece on Black Rain and ritual. Don’t miss it!

online.ucpress.edu

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · Aug 2

The tragedy - and true horror - of many witch trials was that the impersonal machinery of the law took them inexorably forward, even if judges and lawyers (and even the public at large) were unconvinced. But the image popular media presents us with is one of mounting hysteria (cf. Miller’s Crucible)

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Natasha Heller @nlheller.bsky.social · Aug 1

A simple idea: faculty should be represented in the search for UVa’s next president: www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

www.cavalierdaily.com

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Aug 1

Congrats!

Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Aug 1

Academics late?

a man wearing a suit and tie looks at the camera

ALT: a man wearing a suit and tie looks at the camera

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Dr. Kaitlyn Ugoretz @kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social · Jul 30

The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social ✨50th anniv issue✨ abt past, present, & future of 🇯🇵 religious studies is out!

🙏Paul Swanson, Hayashi Makoto, Kawahashi Noriko, Keller Kimbrough, Emi Foulk Bushelle, @orionklautau.bsky.social @jolyonbt.bsky.social @aikerots.bsky.social

NIRC

nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Aug 1

Our Department is hiring in early Christianity. It's an assistant professor (tenure-track position). Spread the word! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

puwebp.princeton.edu

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 30

Fascinating to see Usa today market itself as the birthplace of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, a very different view from that in Grapard, who describes an obliteration of syncretism in the wake of Meiji ideologues and their reforms.

Flyer from temple emphasizing syncretism

Kindle book image describing obliteration of Buddhism at Usa

Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · Jul 28

For the first time since the Princeton Geniza Project began in 1986, we have published our metadata collated from over 30,000 Geniza documents and the People, Places, and histories of the Middle East and premodern Jewish communities found therein!

zenodo.org/records/1583...

Princeton Geniza Project Dataset

Since 1986, the Princeton Geniza Lab has been studying and digitizing historical documents from the Cairo Geniza, a cache of roughly 400,000 fragments of paper and parchment preserved in a medieval Eg...

zenodo.org

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 28

🐓🔥😈
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · Jul 21

Is there a collective noun for popes? 😉
#ManuscriptMonday
BL Cotton MS Nero D VII; The Benefactors' Book of St Albans Abbey (‘the Golden Book of St Albans’); 1380-c 1540; England (St Albans)

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Jul 21

A 13th-century-AD depiction of the 'pagan' Irish kingship ceremony, by priest and historian Gerald of Wales. He claimed the king bathed in the blood of a mare before sharing the meat with his courtiers 1/2

#ManuscriptMonday #MedievalMonday #Archaeology 🏺

📷 @britishlibrary.bsky.social / CC0 1.0

A manuscript page with Latin writing at the top and an illustration of a bearded person killing a horse with an axe, a pot suspended over a fire, and five bearded people eating strips of meat underneath. From Topographia Hibernica by Giraldus Cambrensis (British Library Royal MS 13 B. VIII f. 28v; reproduced under Creative Commons licence CC0 1.0).

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Save Redland Library @saveredlandlibr.bsky.social · Jul 21

Shared for #ManuscriptMonday

The Parker Library @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social · Jul 21

Have you ever seen angel's wings used to picture confession? How about a 'tree of consanguinity' drawn on the figure of a man? Perhaps you're a fan of calendars, genealogies, doodles & indexes?

If you missed our exhibition, you can always find it online!
www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/parker-libra...

Opening from medieval manuscript (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 10, fol. 330v) displaying a painting of a bearded and long-haird man with open arms (palms out) on the left, and canon law text on the right. The man is painted on deep blue background with red and partial green frame. A chart of multiple circles (empty) is superimposed on him.

Opening from a medieval manuscript (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 66, p. 100) with text on the right, and a painting of a six-winged angel on the left. Small-headed angel has bare feet and legs, and all six wings spread in pairs; first two as a modesty shield, second two at the side, and last pair of two wings over the head. A border with floral motif surrounds the angel, and contains four golden circles, one at each corner of the frame.

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Save Redland Library @saveredlandlibr.bsky.social · Jul 21

Shared for #ManuscriptMonday

National Museum of Ireland @nmireland.bsky.social · Jul 21

Today we’ve turned a new illuminated page in the Irish Gospels of St Gall (Cod. Sang. 51).
Explore the beauty of cross-carpets and Chi-Rhos in our latest blog, then see them in person at Words on the Wave
📍 National Museum of Ireland – Kildare Street
🔗 www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collec...

The cross-carpet and Chi-Rho pages in St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang 51, pp 6-7; © Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 28

Of course, the original is even more amazing and you can see that on eMuseum: emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langI...

e-Museum - Hell Scroll

文化財高精細画像公開システム(「e国宝」)

emuseum.nich.go.jp

Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 28

This week's #ManuscriptMonday is this cool miniature replica of the illustrated hell scrolls that I bought at the Kyoto National Museum last week (next to an air conditioner remote for scale). You can get your own copy here for less than 6,000 yen! www.kyotobenrido.com/view/item/00...

Picture of Japanese text with women in hell illustrated on either side.

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 28

If I'm ever missing Shosoin news reports that involve dragons and animal carcasses, I'm either dead already or it's time for me to retire. Either way, probably good to send someone to check on me.

Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 27

Bruh, bsky.app/profile/brya...

Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Apr 24

The Shōsōin mummified dragon is confirmed to be a marten. It either entered through a gap and died or was brought in as a mummy. Other animal products include molars from a Namadicus elephant, hyena teeth, imported antlers, rhinoceros horn, and whale ribs. www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · Jul 25

New journal issue edited by Sujung Kim focusing on Buddhist talismans: ijbtc.dongguk.edu

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

동국대학교 불교학술원 발행, 불교학 영문 학술지, 역사/문화/사상 등 연구 자료 수록,the International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture, IJBTC

ijbtc.dongguk.edu

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Lauren Ginsberg @laurenginsberg.bsky.social · Jul 24

So, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9

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Reposted by Bryan Lowe

Pieter Beullens @pieterbeullens.bsky.social · Jul 24

Western Medieval Manuscripts (and fragments) @keiouniversity.bsky.social (Japan)! Enjoy a few spare minutes and browse this remarkable collection! Something for everyone's taste and interest!
dcollections.lib.keio.ac.jp/en/western-m...

Thumbnails of manuscripts images of the Keio university collection of Medieval Western Manuscripts! Including fragments of Aristotelica and Dutch books of hours.

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