John LoBreglio

Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies

School of English and Modern Languages

Role

John LoBreglio has taught courses on various aspects of Japanese religious history at Dōshisha University in Kyoto, the Antioch College Buddhist Studies Program, Kyoto, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and the British Museum's Postgraduate Diploma Course in Asian Arts. He has also taught Japanese language (Unseen Translation and Reading Japanese Texts) at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University. John has an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and has completed doctoral coursework both there and at Kyoto University.

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Japanese Studies (BA (Hons))

Modules taught

Advanced Japanese Reading and Translation
Japan: Myth and Reality
Introduction to Japanese Society
Japanese Religions
Making of Modern Japan
Essential Japanology

Research

John LoBreglio's doctoral research examines the doctrinal, ritual and institutional modernisation of Sōtō Zen Buddhism during the Meiji period (1868-1911) and considers the implications that these changes have for the Buddhist institutions in contemporary Japan.

He is also interested in the study of Japanese religions from pre-history to the present, East Asian Buddhism generally, and methodological issues in the study of religion.

Centres and institutes

Europe Japan Research Centre

Projects

Eastern Buddhist Editorship

Publications

Journal articles

LoBreglio J, 'Orthodox, Heterodox, Heretical: Defining Doctrinal Boundaries in Meiji-period * Zen'
Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 33 (2009) pp.77-102

ISSN: 0170-0006
LoBreglio John, 'Uniting Buddhism: The Varieties of Tsūbukkyō in Meiji-Taishō Japan and the Case of Takada Dōken'
Eastern Buddhist 37 (1 & 2) (2005) pp.39-76

ISSN: 0012-8708
Lo Breglio J, 'The revisions to the religious corporations law: an introduction and annotated translation'
Japanese Religions 22 (1) (1997)

ISSN: 0448-8954
Abstract

Book chapters

LoBreglio J, 'Dashed hopes: Japanese Buddhist perspectives on the Paris Peace Conference' in Asia after Versailles: Asian perspectives on the Paris Peace Conference and the Post-War World, 1919-1933, Edinburgh University Press (2017)

ISBN: 9781474417167 eISBN: 9781474417181
Published here
LoBreglio, J.S., 'Watanabe Kaigyoku: The Hopes of Buddhists for the Peace Conference (Japan 1918)' in Hans Martin Kraemer (ed.), Religious Dynamics in the Age of Imperialism and Colonialism, Leiden: Brill Publishers. (2016)

ISBN: 978-9004325111
LoBreglio, J.S., '“Genron no jiyū to sono aimai na genkai – Igirisu kara no hannō” (“Freedom of Expression and its Ambiguous Limits: The British Reaction,” in The Mohammed Cartoons”)' in Mori Koichi (ed.), EU to isuraamu no shūkyō dentō wa kyōzon dekiru ka: “Muhanmado no fūshiga” jiken no honshitsu EUとイスラームの宗教伝統は共存できるか: ｢ムハンマドの風刺画｣事件の本質., Tokyo: Meiseki shoten (2007)

Other publications

LoBreglio, J.S., 'Review of Purifying Zen: Watsuji Tetsuro’s Shamon Dogen, by Steve Bein', (2013)
LoBreglio, J.S., 'Review of Yasukuni: the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past, by John Breen, ed.', (2009)
LoBreglio, J.S., 'Review of Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism, by Richard Jaffe.', (2003)
LoBreglio, J.S., '“Japan Buddhist Federation”', (2001)
LoBreglio, J.S., '“Nipponzan Myohoji”', (2001)

Professional information

Conferences

Key public talks include:

February 2016, 'Early 20th c. Japanese Buddhist Perceptions of Western Imperialism and Why they Matter’, Europe Japan Research Centre (EJRC), Oxford Brookes University.
September 2015, 'Japanese Buddhist Perceptions of Western Imperialism', British Association of Japanese Studies (BAJS) Annual Conference, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
July 2015, ‘Japanese Buddhist Perspectives on the Paris Peace Conference and Early Twentieth-Century Imperialism’, Ōtani University, Kyoto, Japan, Department of Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Letters, ‘Public Talks’ Series. October 2013 'Japanese Buddhists and Twentieth-Century Imperialism,' Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies.