Department of History

Varner Hall, Room 415
371 Varner Dr.
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
(location map)
(248) 370-3510
fax: (248) 370-3528

William Londo

Title: Special Lecturer
Office: TBA
Phone: (248) 370-3510
Fax: (248) 370-3528
Email: [email protected]

Personal Website

Education:
Ph.D., University of Michigan

Major Fields:
East Asia, Japan, Religion and Society

Biography:
William Londo’s research interests lie in the area of premodern Japanese social history, especially the intersection between religion and commoner society. He has done research on the history of the Buddhist temple complex on Mt. Koya in central Japan and the mendicant alms collectors that seem to have supported its eleventh century revival by preaching the efficacy of faith in the patriarch of the complex. He also has investigated the prevalence of millenarian thinking in Japan from the tenth century onward associated with belief in the decline of the efficacy of the teachings of the Buddha. He has taught premodern and modern Japanese history at Oakland as well as Introduction to Japan.

Publications and Presentations:

"Samurai in Fiction and Fact," History Comes Alive Lecture Series, Oakland University, October 23, 2012.

Review of Lori Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2010) in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 37 (2010): 377-80.

Review of documentary film "Shugendo Now" in Education About Asia 15:3 (Winter 2010): 75-76.

"The Morning Repasts of a Meditating Saint," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2008.

"The Idea of Mappo in Japanese Religion and History," Journal of the National Association of Humanities Educators (Fall 2007).

"The Morning Repasts of a Meditating Saint," Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Washington University, St. Louis, October 2007.

Organized panel "Reconsidering Mappo in Medieval Japan" and presented paper "The Place of Mappo in Tenth and Eleventh Century Japan," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco, April 2006.

The Other Mountain: Mount Koya and Popular Religion in Eleventh-Century Japan (Ph.D. Diss., University of Michigan, 2004).

Organized panel "Reverence and Representation: Three Cases of Apotheosis in Premodern Japan" and presented paper "Genesis of Apotheosis: The Case of Kobo Daishi," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, New York, March 2003.

"On the 'Ancient' Section of the Atarashii rekishi kyokasho," Asian Studies Conference, Tokyo, Japan, June 2002.

"The 11th Century Revival of Mount Koya: Its Genesis as a Popular Religious Site," Japanese Religions 27 (2002): 19-40.