BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Seattle Art Museum//Events Calendar//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:whats-on/events/saturday-university-paper-reliquaries-may-10@sam.org DTSTAMP:20260509T163304Z DTSTART:20250510T170000Z DTEND:20250510T183000Z SUMMARY:Saturday University: Paper Reliquaries DESCRIPTION:Welcome to Saturday University\, a monthly lecture series featuring experts from around the world. Gain new insights on Asia throughout time as our vi siting scholars\, authors\, artists\, and thought leaders delve into new th emes each season.\nPaper Reliquaries: Calligraphy and Mourning in Japanese Buddhist Death Rituals\nHalle O’Neal\nWhile a fading practice today\, handw ritten letters in medieval Japan were the primary form of communication bet ween long-separated lovers\, parents unlikely to reunite with their childre n\, and distant friends\, artists\, and poets. In this rich epistolary cult ure\, letters – reused\, recycled\, and reframed – figured prominently in B uddhist memorial rituals. With the death of a loved one\, family members ga thered the dead’s letters and transcribed sacred scripture on their surface \, transforming the original missive into a letter sutra (shosokukyo). Ador ning these scrolls with gold\, silver\, and indigo dyes\, women were the fi rst to make memorial palimpsests. Indeed\, they invented a wider cultural p ractice in which mourners tempered grief by transforming the everyday trace s of loved ones into potent objects. This talk explores the creative method s deployed by women in coping with death and loss\, the ephemerality and af terlives of letters\, paper fragmentation via reuse and recycling\, and the haptic engagement with layered manuscripts.\nHalle O’Neal is a Reader in J apanese Buddhist art in the History of Art department and Co-Director of Ed inburgh Buddhist Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She serves as chai r of The Art Bulletin and sits on the editorial board of Art in Translation . She is the author of Word Embodied: The Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas in Japane se Buddhist Art (Harvard Asia Center Press 2018)\, editor of Reuse and Recy cling in Japanese Visual and Material Cultures (Ars Orientalis 2023)\, and recent recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and an ACLS Ho F amily Foundation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies\, during which time she res earched her current monograph project\, “Dead Letters: Reuse\, Recycling\, and Mourning in Japanese Buddhist Manuscripts.” \nTickets\n$15\n$10 SAM mem bers &\; students with ID\nTickets include gallery access LOCATION:Seattle Asian Art Museum\, 1400 E Prospect St\, Seattle\, WA 98112 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR