Daniel Borengasser, Ph.D. 2024

Daniel Borengasser is a scholar of Japanese art and architectural history, specializing primarily in Buddhist art of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries.

His current research interests include the history of Buddhist sculpture, materiality and material agency in East Asian Buddhist art, the influence of architectural modes of production on sculptural practice, and temple spaces as sites of display in early modern Japan. He is currently preparing two articles for publication. The first incorporates an ecocritical approach to the study of Japanese Buddhist sculpture by exploring major changes in the nature of sculptural practice over the course of the Heian period (794–1185) that were brought about by the widespread adoption of hinoki cypress as the primary material for religious sculpture. The second is a study of the immersive visual techniques employed by the samurai Kōriki Enkōan (1756–1831) in his illustrated manuscripts that document traveling exhibitions of famous Buddhist icons in the city of Nagoya.

Prior to completing his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2024, Daniel worked as a research fellow at the Kyoto National Museum (2021–2023) and was a visiting researcher at Osaka University (2019–2021). He received his B.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and M.A. in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oregon.