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Paper short abstract

An android preacher, Mindar, delivers Buddhist teachings in a Kyoto Rinzai temple as Kannon. I analyze how robotics, ritual performance, and material form converge to make Mindar a distinctive medium for religious instruction and doctrine.

Paper long abstract

This paper presents a chapter from ongoing research on technological and performative innovations in Japanese Buddhism. I discuss a novel pedagogical experiment: the use of the android Mindar to deliver sermons and embody the Dharma. Usually housed in a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto, Mindar functions as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteśvara), tasked with conveying Buddhist teachings to a lay public. I examine how the android’s materiality, sensory affordances, and performative orchestration, together with historical and semiotic contexts, make it a distinctive tool for religious instruction. By performing as a robotic entity “without a heart,” Mindar embodies the very essence of the scriptures it recites, offering a tangible demonstration of selflessness. I argue that Mindar is more than a passive representation: it is a dynamic teaching vessel and a new iteration in a long line of statues and images. Entangled with Buddhist doctrine and material culture, as well as the history of Japanese robotics, it ultimately exceeds the instrumental boundaries of its pedagogical role.