Department of Religions and Philosophies
Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhism
Centre of Buddhist Studies
Chair
Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions
Chair, Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions
Japan Research Centre
Academic Staff, Japan Research Centre
World Languages Institute
Member
I am currently carrying out two distinct (albeit interrelated) projects on Japanese religious culture.
The first project explores the discourse on the body in the ritual landscape of mediaeval
Japanese Buddhism, with the aim of demonstrating the fluidity of ritual knowledge and the need of linking Japanese notions of the body to continental (Tantric) practices. In the context of this large project I am addressing methodological questions related to the application of performative theories on Japanese premodern ritual (see also Dolce 2010a &b) and the possibilities of a practice-centred approach to analyse Japanese religion in its entirety.
The second project deals with the relation between Buddhism and ‘Shinto,’ in particular contemporary forms of associative practices. I have recently completed a co-edited volume (in Japanese), based on an international workshop held at SOAS in spring 2011, which reflects on the paradigms through which the ‘Buddho-Shinto combination’ has been studied (Dolce 2013) and the particularities of the locativization of Buddhism in Japan. I continue to explore this topic by addressing the revival of premodern practices in well-known shrines in the Kyoto area.
The Lucky Gods of Tokyo: Religious and Spatial Politics of a Contemporary Urban Pilgrimage (with Dr Tatsuma Padoan, Newton Fellow, 2014-2016)
This project explores how Tokyo urban space is reconfigured in specific pilgrimage routes connecting Buddhist and Shinto institutions: the pilgrimage of the Seven Gods of Fortune (shichifukujin). Focusing on a number of case studies, it seeks to study the processes of negotiation and confrontation between different institutions and institutional levels, as well as the dynamics of religious marketing that shape the relationship between cultic centres and practitioners.
Saints, Sects, and (Holy) Sites: The Jesuit Mapping of Japanese Buddhism (Sixteenth Century)
Dolce, Lucia, D'Ortia, Linda Zampol and Pinto, Ana Fernandes (2022). In: Curvelo, Alexandra, (eds.) and Cattaneo, Angelo, (eds.), Interactions Between Rivals: The Christian Mission and Buddhist Sects in Japan (c.1549-c.1647). Berlin: Peter Lang, pp 67-107
The Abhiṣeka of the Yogin: Bodily Practices and the Interiorization of Ritual in Medieval Japan
Dolce, Lucia (2022). In: Rambelli, Fabio, (eds.) and Porath, Or, (eds.), Rituals of Initiation and Consecration in Premodern Japan: Power and Legitimacy in Kingship, Religion, and the Arts. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp 275-320
The Embryonic Generation of the Perfect Body: Ritual Embryology from Japanese Tantric Sources
Dolce, Lucia (2016). In: Andreeva, Anna, (eds.) and Steavu, Dominic, (eds.), Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions. Leiden; New York: Brill, pp 253-310
Dolce, Lucia (2015). In: Laycock, Joseph P., (ed.), Spirit Possession around the World: Possession, Communion, and Demon Expulsion across Cultures. Santa Barbara; CA: ABC-CLIO, pp 178-185
Reconsidering the Origins of Nichiren's "Great Mandala of the Lotus Sutra"
Dolce, Lucia (2013). In: Hokekyô gakkai jitsugyô iinkai, (ed.), The Universal and International Nature of the Lotus Sutra. Tokyo: Sankibô shoten, pp 187-209
Daiei hakubutsukan zô no “Sanshû no jingi” zu: shinbutsu shûgô bijutsu to 19seiki Igirisu ni okeru Nihonteki shinkuretisumu rikai 大英博物館蔵の「三種の神器」図 − 神仏習合美術と１９世紀イギリスにおける日本的シンクレティズム理解 [The British Museum “Three Regalia Scrolls:” Shinbutsu Art and the Nineteenth-Century Representation of Japanese “Syncretism”]
Dolce, Lucia (2013). In: Dolce, Lucia, (eds.) and Mitsuhashi, Tadashi, (eds.), Shinbutsu shûgô saikô「神仏習合」を再考 [Rethinking Syncretism in Japanese Religion]. Tokyo: Bensei shuppan, pp 338-382
Taimitsu Rituals in Medieval Japan: Sectarian Competition and the Dynamics of Tantric Performance
Dolce, Lucia (2011). In: Keul, Istvan, (ed.), Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter Publishers, pp 329-364
Mapping the “Divine Country:” Sacred Geography and International Concerns in Mediaeval Japan
Dolce, Lucia (2007). In: Breuker, Remco E., (ed.), Korea in the middle : Korean studies and area studies : essays in honour of Boudewijn Walraven. Leiden: CNWS Publications, pp 288-312
Icons, Scriptures, and Their Ritual Use: Reflexions on the Nineteenth-Century European Understandings of Japanese Buddhism
Dolce, Lucia (2006). In: Murakami-Giroux, Sakae, (ed.), La Rencontre du Japon et de l'Europe. Images d'une découverte. Actes du troisième colloque d'études japonaises de l'université Marc Bloch.. Aurillac: Publications Orientalistes de France, pp 57-78
Dolce, Lucia (2004). In: Goethals, George R., (eds.), Sorensen, Georgia, (eds.) and Burns, James MacGregor, (eds.), Encyclopedia of Leadership, volume 3.. London: Sage, pp 1087-1091
Dolce, Lucia (2003). In: Teeuwen, M., (eds.) and Rambelli, Fabio, (eds.), Buddhas and Kami in Japan. Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm. London: Curzon Routledge, pp 222-54
The Worship of Stars in Japanese Religious Practice. Special issue of Culture and Cosmos: a journal of the history of astrology and cultural astronomy. v.10(1/2)
Dolce, Lucia, (ed.) (2006). Bristol: Sophia Centre Press. (Culture and Cosmos, vol. 10, no.1/2)
