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Dead Letters: Reuse, Recycling, and Emotions in Japanese Buddhist Manuscripts
Though little studied, letter sutras help us recover the stories of love, loss, and mourners turning to the things left behind in the wake of death to make something meaningful. This talk explores Japanese medieval makers who reused and recycled the epistles of their dead for the copying of sacred Buddhist text to create potent palimpsests known as letter sutras – objects that have lurked beneath the surface of Japanese material culture and punctuated the personal histories of famous figures since the ninth century. These manuscripts reveal the efficacy and intimacy of Buddhist ritual and how paper resonated with embodied presence and yet devastating grief. This talk analyses the creative methods deployed by mourners in coping with death and loss, the ephemerality and afterlives of letters, and the haptic engagement with layered manuscripts.
Date:
4 December 2025, 17:00
Venue:
St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details:
Pavilion Room, 4th Floor Gateway Building
Speaker:
Dr Halle O’Neal (University of Edinburgh)
Organising department:
Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies
Organiser:
Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies
Organiser contact email address:
administrator@nissan.ox.ac.uk
Hosts:
Professor Kristi Govella (University of Oxford),
Professor Hugh Whittaker (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Nissan Institute Seminar in Japanese Studies
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Andrew Melling
