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Acknowledgments Over the years that it took me to complete this manuscript, many people and institutions assisted me and I am profoundly grateful to all of them. I would like to thank Judith Snodgrass and Mandy Thomas for their encouragement and inspiration and for continually challenging me to reflect on the entanglements of theory and the phenomena I was investigating. Without their support and intellectual stimulation, this project would most surely have been lost in blind alleys. My colleagues at the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) were helpful sounding boards, critical readers, and good friends. I would particularly like to thank Francis Maravillas , who frequently engaged in theoretical discussions of my material, giving up precious time he needed for his own research. I am grateful to George Morgan for giving me insights on how to improve the manuscript and for his emotional support. I am thankful to Michelle Spuler, who first showed me that my research was not a lone endeavor, but was part of the new field of Buddhism in the West. Many thanks to Martin Baumann, who gave valuable insights and worked meticulously with me to make my first paper on Zen in Brazil meaningful to an English-speaking audience. He continued over the years to assist me with comments and suggestions that helped greatly improve the manuscript. I am deeply indebted to Steven Heine and Ronan Pereira, whose generous invitations to speak at Florida International University and the University of California, Berkeley, gave me the opportunity to discuss my research with a larger audience. Steven has been with this project from the start and has given me much support throughout this journey. I am grateful to Harumi Befu for his encouragement and friendliness from the moment we met in Japan. He read my papers with interest and offered important suggestions for the research. In Japan, Nakamaki Hirochika at the National Museum of Ethnology of Osaka provided the necessary support and means for the research. I am indebted to the Sōtōshū Shumuchō for allowing me to conduct interviews with its officer for Brazil, and to Matsunaga rōshi at Eiheiji, who shared his thoughts and memories of this time as a kaikyōshi in Brazil. Special thanks to Kuroda rōshi of Kirigayaji in Tokyo for his generosity in allowing me to stay at his temple and for the patience to answer my questions on temple life. In Brazil, the director of the Museu Histórico da Imigração Japonesa no xii • Acknowledgments Brasil, Célia Oi, and her staff were most helpful with the research. I am grateful to Moriyama rōshi, Coen sensei, Tokuda sensei, Myoshi rōshi, Eduardo Basto de Albuquerque, and Nelson Coelho for their time and interest in the project. Many thanks to the staff of Busshinji who graciously allowed me to research its archives and old photo albums. Several institutions generously funded this project. In Brazil, my work was funded by a CNPq Doctoral Fellowship through the Department of Anthropology at the University of São Paulo. In Australia, the CCR at the University of Western Sydney supported my research through an International Postgraduate Research Award. My fieldwork in Japan was made possible by a Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship. A special mention to Jo Takahashi at the Japan Foundation in São Paulo who was always helpful throughout this project. This research, however, would not have been possible without the support of people who were interviewed for the study; although they must remain anonymous , I would like to thank them all for their generous contribution. This manuscript has benefited from comments and suggestions made by two anonymous readers who gave me important feedback on how to improve the manuscript . Many thanks to David Kelly, who offered to proofread the manuscript in a very short time, carrying it even through Christmas. I am grateful to Sarah Walls, who edited an early draft of this manuscript. The maps were generously drafted by Jemma Cummings. My friends in Australia, Japan, and Brazil gave me the emotional support and encouragement to keep threading this long path of academia. Finally, I am profoundly grateful to my parents, Hélio and Anna Maria Rocha, and sisters, Rosana and Ligia Rocha, for supporting me in my crazy endeavor to live in a distant land, too far away from their hugs and kisses. ...

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