George Tanabe

George Tanabe was born and raised in Waialua, Hawaii and is a specialist on the religions of Japan, especially Buddhism, and his books have been published by university presses at Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Hawaii. He studied at Willamette University (B.A. in History), Union Theological Seminary (M. Div.in Biblical Studies), and Columbia University (M.A. and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures). From 1977 to 2006, he taught in the University of Hawaii Department of Religion and is currently Professor Emeritus. He was one of the founding editors of Buddhist-Christian Studies, a scholarly journal still being published today. In 2007, he received the Foreign Minister’s Award from the Japanese government, and in 2012 he was honored with the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun for his work on promoting better relations between America and Japan. George and his wife Willa (Professor Emerita of Japanese Art History) published Japanese Buddhist Temples of Hawai’i: An Illustrated Guide (UH Press). Currently, he is President of BDK Hawaii and Chairman of BDK America (Berkeley, CA), which are Buddhist nonprofit educational foundations. He still lives in Waialua and is happily writing novels. George Tanabe will also offer remarks during an Obon Celebration on Sunday August 30th at 3pm in Bestor Plaza.