NEW PUBLICATION> Passing of Dr. Toshiya Unebe and his last article in new issue of Manuscript Studies

Justin McDaniel Discussion

As many of the readers on H-Buddhism know, Dr. Toshiya Unebe (Professor of Indian Studies at Nagoya University) passed away from cancer in November (2016) at the age of 48, leaving behind a wonderful wife and two children. He was a father, Jodo Shinshu priest, scholar, teacher, mentor, and husband. Since he passed a few months ago, three projects of mine that were directly influenced by him or to which he contributed were published, the last arrived in the mail today. Toshiya's last article appears in a volume on Thai Manuscripts (“Manuscripts from the Kingdom of Siam in Japan,” in Collectors and Collections in the History of Thai Manuscripts, a Special Issue of Manuscript Studies, edited by Justin McDaniel, vol.2.1 (2017). He was too ill to edit it in the last few months of his life and I hope that I did his thoughts and research justice. He also was a major influence on Architects of Buddhist Leisure (University of Hawaii Press, 2017). Before he became ill, I wrote a profile about him and his life as a scholar and Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Priest in Figures of Buddhist Modernity (University of Hawaii Press, 2016): pp. 23-26, edited by Jeffrey Samuels, Mark Rowe, and myself. I miss him and hope these last writings show to his family, friends, students, and colleagues what a wonderful scholar and person he was. Thank you Toshiya.

Justin McDaniel