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Report of American Academy of Religion,
Annual Meeting 1999. Nov.20 - 23.

The 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) was held in Boston from November 20 to November 23. I arrived in Boston late on Friday night (Nov. 19) and registered around noon the following day. Since this is the largest professional meeting for scholars of religion in the US, even the spacious hallways of the Hynes Convention Center, where the registration and information desks were located, were crowded and lines were long.
The primary sessions for the International Shinto Foundation (ISF) attention are those organized by the Japanese Religions Group. They held three sessions (their own, plus one each with the Confucianism and Buddhist Sections) and one reception.
The Buddhist Section and Japanese Religion Group met on the morning of November 21st (9-11:30) on the theme of "Probing the Traces: Re-evaluating the Relationship between Buddhism and 'Shinto' in Premodern Japan." Chaired by Prof. James H. Sanford (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), the panel offered five papers: "Heavenly Tempter and the Precepts" by Prof. Ryuichi Abe (Columbia University), "Hunting for the Buddha: The Shinto-Buddhist Negotiation of Hunting Practices at Suwa Shrine" by Prof. Lisa Grumbach (Stanford University), "The Labor of Traces: Miwa Rituals for Professionals" by Prof. Fabio Rambelli (Williams College), "Pearl in the Shrine: A Geneology of the Buddhist Jewel of the Japanese Sovereign" by Prof. Brian Ruppert (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), and "Esoteric Honji Suijaku Practices around Amaterasu" by Prof. Mark Teeuwen (University of Oslo). Prof. Jacqueline Stone (Princeton University) responded. The session was well attended by about 40-50 professors and a number of questions were raised by both the respondent and the audience.
The Japanese Religious Group had their own meeting on the afternoon of November 22nd (3:45-6-15) on the theme of: Intellectual and Pedagogic Reflections on The Collected Works of Shinran." The meeting was chaired by Prof. Richard K. Payne (Institute of Buddhist Studies). There were four panelists: Prof. Thomas Kasulis (Ohio State University), Prof. Charles Hallisey (Harvard University), Prof. Eisho Nasu (Institute of Buddhist Studies), and Prof. John P. Keenan (Middlebury College). The respondents were Prof. Mark Unno (Carleton College) and Prof. Dennis Hirota (Harvard University). The remarks of the panelists, some of whom had been directly involved in the Shinran translation project, produced quite spirited discussion with the audience regarding precision in translation of texts from Japanese to English. Attendance was good (about 25-30 scholars) and a short business meeting was held afterwards. A reception was held shortly after this session which many scholars of Japanese Religion attended. The earlier sessions provided opportunities both to greet scholars I was familiar with as well as to meet many professors for the first time. The reception gave me a chance to speak at length with most of the attendees. I said hello to Jackie Stone (Princeton), Fabio Rambelli (Williams), Paul Watt (De Pauw University), Pam Winfield (Temple University), Mark Teeuwen (Oslo), Ryuichi Abe (Columbia), Karen Smyers (Wesleyan University), Diana Eck (Harvard), and Ian Reader (Lancaster University), all of whom I had met on earlier occasions. New scholars included Prof. Richard Pilgrim (Syracuse University), Prof. James Santucci (California State University, Fullerton), Prof. Robert Sharf (Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan), Prof. Brian Ruppert (University of Illinois), Prof. Thomas Kasulis (Ohio State), Prof. Charles Hallisey (Harvard University), Prof. John Keenan (Middlebury College), Prof. Richard K. Payne (Institute of Buddhist Studies), Prof. Janine Sawada (University of Iowa), Prof. Mark Unno (Carleton College), Prof. Claude Stulting (Furman University), Prof. Leslie Alldritt (Northland College), and Prof. Leslie Kawamura (University of Calgary). Shinto Essay Competition flyers and information were given to all of the above (and numerous others), and well as general information regarding ISF.
Of additional interest was the session of the Religion and Ecology Group which met to honor the work of Prof. Thomas Berry. A panel of discussants was chaired by Prof. Mary Evelyn Tucker (Bucknell University).
There were numerous Breakfasts, Luncheons, Dinners, and Receptions (over 100 are listed in the program) held over the four days of the conference. Every major university sponsors a reception for their alumni and scholars, and many of the individual area groups (such as the Japanese Religions Group) hold their own functions.
In addition to the Japanese Religions Group Reception, I attended the General Reception for all AAR members; the Syracuse University Reception (with my colleague who is an alumnus); the Harvard Divinity School Reception; and the Buddhism Session Reception, sponsored by Wisdom Publications of Boston. This last reception was attended by many scholars doing Japanese Studies and provided an excellent opportunity to meet and chat in a casual atmosphere with colleagues.
Attached to the AAR conference was a large exhibit space in which a few hundred publishers showed their books. Editors were on hand to speak with authors, etc. I was fortunate to meet with Mr. Roger Thorp, Chief Commissioning Editor for Routledge, a well-known British publishing house. He found the manuscripts of Profs. Sonoda and Sakurai interesting, and I left a copy of these manuscripts with him to take back to London. He also expressed a desire to attend our ISF conference at SOAS and to meet with Profs. Umeda and Sonoda in London at that time, as well as with myself to talk about publishing opportunities for Shintoism.
As I stayed at the Center for the Study of World Religions (Harvard University) during the conference, I was able to deliver our ISF printed materials to a group of researchers working there on behalf of the new Museum of World Religions being created in Taiwan. Our assistance with Shinto information for the project was appreciated by Center Director Dr. Larry Sullivan. (Paul H. Sherbow, ISF NY Center)

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