Commemorating the 30th anniversary of its founding in 1968, the Institute held a three day program at Columbia University on "The Culture of Convents in Japanese History". A direct outgrowth of the Institute's Imperial Buddhist Convent Survey Project, the International Symposium enabled the Institute's team of scholars to report to a broader audience on heretofore unexamined materials that have been emerging in the survey since its inception in 1993, some of which date back to the thirteenth century.

Approximately 100 scholars, students and Buddhist nuns and monks from across the world gathered for three days at the International Symposium which was the central academic core of the broader commemoration.

Participants discussed the culture of Japanese convents within the larger contexts of the history of Japan and the institution of Buddhism. Guests from Japan, Australia, Europe, Canada and the United States presented papers on topics such as the founding, development and history of various convents; women's salvation; the role of women in Medieval Soto Zen; portrait paintings, screen paintings, poetry and other writing created by the nuns themselves; the relationship between the early Japanese court and convents; and curriculum development in colleges and universities. Simultaneous interpretation allowed scholars to present their papers in either Japanese or English.

New strategies for research and ideas for curriculum development were set forth, including the importance of integrating into academic courses throughout the world the study of female religious traditions in Japan. The delicate link between researchers and convent-residing nuns was strengthened through direct contact, and young scholars and established researchers alike were encouraged to focus their curriculum, funding, publications and discourses on the wholly ignored female side of Buddhist institutional history.
 
 

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