Research Interests: 

Keller Kimbrough’s research interests include the literature and art of late-Heian, medieval, and early Edo-period Japan. Kimbrough has been particularly interested in medieval poetry and poetics, illustrated Buddhist fiction (otogizōshi), illustrated temple and shrine histories (jisha engi), eighteenth-century children’s literature, and, more recently, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century kōwakamai samurai tales, seventeenth-century kanazōshi prose fiction, and the early seventeenth-century puppet theater.

Publications: 

  • Preachers, Poets, Women, and the Way: Izumi Shikibu and the Buddhist Literature of Medieval Japan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, 2008).
  • Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).
  • Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), co-edited with Haruo Shirane.

Full Publication List

 Hachiman no go-honji 02Hachiman no go-honji 01Hachiman no go-honji 03Tengu no dairi 01Tengu no dairi 02Tengu no dairi 03Hachiman no go-honji 05Hachiman no go-honji 06Hachiman no go-honji 07