Romance language and Buddhism : Ihara Saikaku and The Great Mirror of Voluptuousness

Doctor of State, director of studies at the EPHE, member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Jean-Noël Robert first studied the history of Buddhist thought in Japan. His work has focused on the doctrines of the Tendai school, founded on the Lotus Sutra, the Chinese version of which he translated, doctrinal debates and the history of the assimilation of Buddhist thought in Japan through classical poetry and linguistic evolution. As an extension of this Sino-Japanese linguistic investigation, this year he studies one of the as yet untranslated works of the great novelist Ihara Saikaku (^17th century) in the cross-light of the Roman du Genji and Buddhist influence, particularly evident in this book.