Hiroko Matsuoka

Kontakt:

E-Mail: hiroko.matsuoka@univie.ac.at
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6721-6215
Academia: https://univie.academia.edu/HirokoMatsuoka

Short Biography

Hiroko Matsuoka studied Indian Philosophy and Buddhist Studies at Hiroshima University, where she also honed her skills in Sanskrit and Tibetan, and in 2005 received her MA for a thesis on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśīkā with the commentaries of Sthiramati and Vinītadeva. Her doctoral preliminary research, conducted from 2007 to 2009 at the L.D. Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad under a Japanese government program for international education, marked a shift in her interest towards the later stages of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Buddhist logical–epistemological tradition. During this period, she benefited from personal instruction by the renowned Jaina scholar Muniśrī Jambūvijayajī; his support enabled her to photograph precious manuscripts in the Jaina Jñāna-Bhaṇḍāras, notably the Tattvasaṅgraha/-Pañjikā.

Matsuoka expanded her studies to include Buddhist sources in Chinese while a research fellow of JSPS at the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, where she worked closely with Prof. Toru Funayama. In 2016, she moved to Leipzig University with a Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai Fellowship and completed her PhD in Buddhist Philosophy in 2019 with a thesis titled “Introducing Introductions: A Study, a Critical Edition & an Annotated Translation of Kamalaśīla’s Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā on the Initial Statment (ādivākya) of Śāntarakṣita’s Tattvasaṅgraha.”

Before completing her PhD, Matsuoka joined a DFG-funded project in 2018 “Yamāri's Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāraṭīkā Supariśuddhā” (PI: Prof. Eli Franco). This collaboration furthered her research into the soteriological and religious dimensions of the Buddhist epistemological–logical tradition, as represented by Prajñākaragupta and Yamāri.

Concurrently with this project, she conducted her postdoctoral research from 2021 to 2023 at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, focusing on Kamalaśīla's Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāṭīkā, within an FWF-funded project “Rationality, meditation and liberation In Indian Buddhism” (PI: Prof. Birgit Kellner).

In 2024, Matsuoka joined the Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde to launch an FWF-funded project “Religious Dimensions of Buddhist Logic and Epistemology” (PI: Franco) seamlessly extending her research in this field. 

Research Interest

  • Buddhist Logical–Epistemological Tradition/Late Yogacara Buddhism (with a special focus on the works by Dharmakīrti, Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla, Prajñākaragupta, Jayanta, and Yamāri)
  • Mahayana Buddhist Exegetics (with an emphasis on commentaries by Vasubandhu, Kamalaśīla, and Haribhadra on the Prajñāpāramitā scriptures)
  • Brahmanical Philosophical Traditions (hilighting the Mīmāṃsā in debates against Buddhism)
  • Madhyamaka and Yogacara Buddhism
  • Tibetan bStan-’gyur Litarature
  • Chinese Yinmin Literature
  • Sanskrit Codicology and Palaeography

All Activities

Publications

PDF download

 

Talks (Invited Lectures)

February 23–27, 2024

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Vasubandhu and Kamalaśīla on the Title of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā,” at the workshop "The Impact of the Thunderbolt I: Reading in and around Kamalaśīla’s Commentary on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā." The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford.

September 16, 18 and 19, 2023

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Yamāri on the Closing Statement of the Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra,” at the 2nd International Workshop on the Religious Philosophy of Prajñākaragupta and Yamāri, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

17 March 2021

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Biographical Data of Yamāri: Introductory Notes to the Pramāṇavārttikā-laṅkāranibandha,” within the flamework of the lecture series “Studies on Buddhist Monastic Cultures, German-Japanese Collaboration,” Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg - Social Sciences and Historical Cultural Studies (online)

9 December 2020

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “On the Structure of the Tattvasaṅgraha,” at University of Hamburg (online)

29 September 2020

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Which Treatise Is Not Worth Reading? Kamalśīla on Pramāṇavārttika I 214,” at 3rd Tsukuba-Hamburg Young Scholars' Workshop of Buddhist Studies in Tsukuba Global Science Week “Rediscovery of Indian Classical Literature and Thought,” University of Tsukuba (online)

8 January 2020

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Bibliographical Data of the Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāranibandha,” at the Workshop on Sanskrit Manuscripts Studies, a Pre-Panel Session of the 7th Beijing International Seminar on Tibetan Studies, China Tibetology Research Center, Beijing

28 March 2019

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Is There ‘Causal’ Relation between pratītyasamutpāda (縁起) and pratītyasamutpanna (縁已性)?,” at the Symposium “Pratyaya/yuan/en 縁 (,Bedingtheit’) und sein Unterschied zur abendländischen Kausalitätsidee,” EKŌ Haus, Düsseldorf

13 May 2017

Matsuoka, H. (Speaker) “Kamalaśīla on Doubt as the Cause of the Activity of Reading,” at the Workshop “Chance and Contingency in Indian Philosophy,” Yale University

 

Projects