Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions provides new insight into how the body's generative processes are harnessed as powerful metaphors for spiritual attainment in the religious traditions of China and Japan.

Anna Andreeva, Ph.D. (2007), is a Research Fellow in Japanese Religions and Cultural History at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context," at University of Heidelberg. She has published articles on Japanese esoteric Buddhism and Shinto and women's health. Her monograph on medieval Shinto is forthcoming from Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program.
Dominic Steavu, Ph.D. (2010), is Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions and Chinese Buddhism at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published articles on Taoism and Esoteric Buddhism and is the editor of a special issue of the Medieval History Journal on "The Literary Subversive: Writings of Resistance in East Asia" (2015).