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Michael Como
Toshu Fukami Associate Professor of Shinto Studies, Department of Religion, Columbia University
PhD, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University
Graduation Year
2000
Dissertation Title
"Silla Immigrants and the Early Shōtoku Cult: Ritual and the Poetics of Power in Early Yamato"
Michael's research focuses on the religious history of Japan, from the Asuka through the early Heian periods. He is the author Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Formation of Japanese Buddhism (Oxford, 2008) and Weaving and Binding: Female Shamans and Immigrant Gods in Nara Japan (Hawaii, 2009). His publications include several articles on the ritual and political consequences of the introduction of literacy, sericulture, and horse culture from the continent to Japan. He is currently working a manuscript entitled "Resonant Bodies: Disease and Astrology in the Heian Cultic Revolution."
Featured Publications
Rethinking Medieval Shintō. Special issue of Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie (16) on 2009
2009
"Weaving and Binding: Immigrant Gods and Female Immortals in Ancient Japan" on 2009
2009
"Shotoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition" on 2008
2008