Across the Anglophone world and beyond it, the year 2020 saw the widespread removal of public monuments, which fell to actions both authorized and extralegal. The imbroglio over monuments reminds us that it is still valuable to reflect on the lasting power of the figural image to make meaning, to manifest presence, and to arouse emotion. Examined in the context of nearly a millennium and a half of Buddhism in Japan, these topics receive a masterful treatment in James C. Dobbins's welcome Behold the Buddha: Religious Meanings of Japanese Buddhist Icons. This book distills decades of Dobbins's close contemplation of Japanese Buddhist images into a compact manual, easily consulted and sumptuously illustrated. It will adorn the shelves of serious scholars of Buddhism in Japan, and it will be carried to Japan by grateful exchange students.
Three main parts make up the body of this manual. The introduction and first...
