Responsibilities
His dissertation is titled:
"The reception of Jizang's Commentary to the Twelve Gates Treatise (T1825) in medieval Japan. A Comparative Study of Buddhist manuscripts."
Michael Kinadeter received his M.A. in Japanese Studies at LMU Munich. His master thesis comprised the analysis of the Chujia Gongde Jing 出家功徳經 (Jpn. Shukke Kudoku Kyō, T 707) from the fourth century, with a critical translation and interpretation of the Sutra by means of a linguistic-hermeneutical approach and a philosophical analysis of the underlining concept of merit.
His dissertation project dealt with the transmission and commentary tradition of Sanron scriptures in Japan especially between the eleventh and fifteenth century. The thesis is primarily interested in the reception of the central Sanlun scripture Shiermenlun 十二門論 (Jpn. Jūnimonron, T 1568) and Jizang's commentary to this work, the Shiermenlunshu 十二門論疏 (Jpn.Jūnimonronsho, T 1825) in Japan. On a broader scale, the research sheds light on the institutional development of Sanron between the eleventh and fourteenth century, especially the still largely unknown revival of Sanron in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In addition to seven individual commentaries and sub-commentaries to the Twelve Gates Treatise and Jizang's commentary, the inclusion of a variety of other sources such as monastic biographies, temple histories, letters and intertextual references allowed for a broader perspective, not only of the reception of the Twelve Gates Treatise in Japan, but also the development of the Sanron school in medieval Japan and its institutional nature over time.
Mr. Kinadeter has been working for the Japan Center since 2010 and for the Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies since 2015. He is now a research associate for the DFG project "Zen Buddhist Genealogies" in the AAI at the University of Hamburg (UHH). His research focus is on premodern Japanese Buddhism and Japanese history.