Morrell, R.
| English Phonetics | Robert E. Morrell |
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| Sort Name | Morrell, Robert |
| Birth: | 1930 |
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| Death: | 2016 |
Tibetan calendar dates
| Website: | https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Morrell.html |
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| Primary Language: | English |
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| Translates from: | Japanese |
| Translates to: | English |
Biographical Information
Robert E. Morrell, taught Japanese literature and Buddhism at Washington University in St. Louis for 34 years . . .
Born Jan. 19, 1930, in Johnstown, Pa., Morrell earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1952. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and, for a time, considered the priesthood. But in 1954 he traveled to Japan, married Sachiko, and soon thereafter entered the University of Chicago philosophy program, earning a master’s degree in 1959.
Morrell continued his studies at Stanford, completing a doctorate in Japanese language and literature in 1968. At Washington University, he joined the faculty of Arts & Sciences in 1965; was appointed associate professor in 1972; and full professor in 1987. He was named emeritus professor in 1999.
An authority on Buddhist thought in classical Japanese literature, Morrell was author of “Early Kamakura Buddhism: A Minority Report” (1987), which focused on smaller and frequently overlooked Buddhist sects of the Kamakura period; and “Sand and Pebbles: The Tales of Muju Ichien, A Voice for Pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism” (1985), the first complete English rendering of Muju’s “Shasekishu” parables.
In 2006, he and Sachiko Morrell — who worked in the university’s East Asian Library for 30 years — co-authored Zen Sanctuary of Purple Robes: Japan’s Tōkeiji Convent Since 1285. The book traces the history of Tōkeiji, the famous Rinzai Zen convent, from its founding, through the Edo and Meiji periods, to the present day.
Robert Morrell also co-authored, with Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri, The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature (1985); and, with J. Thomas Rimer, the Guide to Japanese Poetry (1975/84). He wrote numerous journal articles and book chapters, contributing to the classroom staple Sources of Japanese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600 (2001), as well as Religions of Japan in Practice(1999) and Great thinkers of the Eastern World (1995), among others. (Adapted from Source Aug 9, 2023)
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