Episode Six : Dr. Sujung Kim

This episode features an interview with Dr. Sujung Kim, author of Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2020). In our talk, we discuss how the oceanic deity Shinra Myōjin ties together medieval Japan, China, and the Korean kingdoms into a network that challenges traditional narratives of Buddhism’s movement across East Asia. We discuss the reconceptualization of space that Kim identifies as the East Asian Mediterranean—an transnational space of sea and land that allows us to rethink historical agency.