Associate Professor
kgcarr@umich.eduOffice Information:
150D Tappan Hall
phone: 734.764.6223
Education/Degree:
PhD, Princeton University, 2005MA, Princeton University, 1999
AB, Amherst College, 1996
Highlighted Work and Publications
Plotting the Prince: Shotoku Cults and the Mapping of Medieval Japanese Buddhism
Kevin Carr
Plotting the Prince traces the development of conceptual maps of the world created through the telling of stories about Prince Shōtoku (573?–622?), an eminent statesman who is credited with founding Buddhism in Japan. It analyzes his place in the sacred landscape and the material relics of the cult of personality dedicated to him, focusing on the art created from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. The book asks not only who Shōtoku was, but also how images of his life served the needs of devotees in early medieval Japan. Even today Shōtoku evokes images of a half-real, half-mythical figure who ... See More