William M. Bodiford (born December 3, 1955) is an American professor and author. He teaches

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Studies and the religion of Japan and East Asia at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Education and early career

In his section "Acknowledgments" in his book ''Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan'', Bodiford thanks the monks of the

Eihei-ji 250px is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. In E ...

temple in Japan who "kindly broke the rules" to teach him, before his university education began, about

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān L ...

Zen and

Japanese beer Beer in Japan mostly comes from the country's four major breweries, Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory, which mainly produce pale lagers around 5% ABV. Beer is immensely popular, far ahead of sake consumption. As well as Pilsner style lagers, t ...

. Bodiford earned his PhD in Buddhist Studies at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and did additional graduate training at the

University of Tsukuba is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...

and

Komazawa University , abbreviated as 駒大 ''Komadai'', is one of the oldest universities in Japan. Its history starts in 1592, when a seminary was established to be a center of learning for the young monks of the Sōtō sect, one of the two main Zen Buddhist tra ...

. Before moving to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, he taught at

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

, the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, and

Meiji Gakuin University is a Christian university in Tokyo and Yokohama that was established in 1863. The Reverend Dr. James Curtis Hepburn was one of its founders and served as the first president. The novelist and poet Shimazaki Toson graduated from this colleg ...

in Tokyo and

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan.

''Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan''

Bodiford's book ''Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan'' (1993 and 2008) began as his dissertation written at Yale under Stanley Weinstein.

Fabio Rambelli Fabio Rambelli (born June 15, 1963) is an Italian academic, author and editor. He is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) faculty b ...

, who reviewed the book in 1994 for ''

The Journal of Asian Studies ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Asian Studies, covering Asian studies, ranging from history, the arts, social sciences, to phil ...

'', writes that the author delivers an alternative to the "traditional dichotomy between 'pure' Zen and 'popular' religion". Christopher Ives writes in the ''

Journal of Japanese Studies ''The Journal of Japanese Studies'' (JJS) is the most influential journal dealing with research on Japan in the United States. It is a multidisciplinary forum for communicating new information, new interpretations, and recent research results con ...

'' that the book is the "most important English work on Sōtō Zen to date".

Other activities and research

He presented his paper on the birth of Ise Shinto at the 2008 annual meeting of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annua ...

(AAS) in a session organized by Rambelli. In 2009, Bodiford participated with Shoji Yamada of

International Research Center for Japanese Studies The , or Nichibunken (日文研), is an inter-university research institute in Kyoto. Along with the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, and the National Museum of Ethnology, it is one of the Nati ...

in Japan and William R. Lafleur of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in a panel at the AAS annual meeting. In 2011, he sat on a panel with Steven Heine,

Taigen Dan Leighton Taigen Dan Leighton (born 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Sōtō priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryū Suzuki and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancien ...

, Shohaku Okumura and others for a conference on Dogen ''Zenji'' organized by Heine's school,

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

. Bodiford researches Japanese

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

from medieval times to the present. He has published works on the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

and

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions remai ...

Buddhist traditions, on

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

, and other subjects. He is an associate editor of

Macmillan Reference USA Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale G ...

's ''Encyclopedia of Buddhism''.

Publications

Books

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Articles

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Notes

External links

William Bodiford
UCLA, Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies {{DEFAULTSORT:Bodiford, William M. Living people American philosophy academics American religion academics American Buddhist studies scholars Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Tsukuba alumni Komazawa University alumni Davidson College faculty University of Iowa faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty American Japanologists 1955 births Meiji Gakuin University faculty