Peter Romaskiewicz, PhD

peterromaskiewicz.bsky.social

22 October 2026 02:23

Amida Buddha, Higashi-Hongan-ji visitor center, Kyoto. Summer 2026.

Molly Warsh

mwarsh.bsky.social

21 October 2026 17:37

Looking forward to having Dr. Angela Schottenhammer (KU Leuven) visit Pitt next week! Check out all the events during her visit and join us if you can. #earlymodern #skystorians @whcpitt.bsky.social

Buddhas in the West Material Archive

buddhasinthewest.bsky.social

21 October 2026 16:24

Even ordinary household objects helped manufacture ideas about distant places. For more on how ceramics shaped early Western perceptions of China, see John R. Haddad’s “Imagined Journeys to Distant Cathay: Constructing China with Ceramics, 1780–1920” (2007). #Buddhasinthewest

Buddhas in the West Material Archive

buddhasinthewest.bsky.social

21 October 2026 16:24

When travelers finally reached Canton, they sometimes measured the real China against scenes they already knew from ceramics. Commodore Matthew Perry, who arrived in China in 1853, was reportedly disappointed that the “picturesque bridges” he remembered from childhood meals did not exist.

Buddhas in the West Material Archive

buddhasinthewest.bsky.social

21 October 2026 16:24

The anchorage lay beneath the Ming-era Pazhou Pagoda. But the plate transforms the landscape, populating the hazy distance with numerous additional pagodas. “Our first ideas of China-dom,” one observer noted in 1845, “were formed at meal times, and illustrated with plates.”