List of contributors; Preface; Abbreviations; introduction Alan Sponberg; Part I. Mitreya and the History of Religions: 1. The many faces of Maitreta: a historian of religions' reflections Joseph M. Kitagawa; 2. The meanings of the Maitreya myth: a typological analysis Jan Nattier; Part II. The Core Tradition and its Subsequent Variation; Section 1. Maitreya in South Asia: Introduction Alan Sponberg: 3. Stages in the Bodhisattva career of the Tath¿gata Maitreya Padmanabh S. Jaini; Section 2. Maitreya in China , Korea, and Vietnam: Introduction Alan Sponberg: 4. W¿nhyo on Maitreya visualisation Alan Sponberg; 5. Messenger, savior and revolutionary: Maitreya in Chinese popular religious literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Daniel L. Overmyer; 6. Maitreya in Korea Lewis Lancaster; 7. Perfect world and perfect time: Maitreya in Vietnam Hue-Tame Ho Tai; Section 3. Maitreya in Japan: Introduction Helen Hardacre: 8. Types of Maitreya belief in Japan Miyata Noboru; 9. The pensive prince of Ch¿g¿ju: Maitreya cult and image in seventh-century Japan Christine M. E. Guth; 10. Awaiting Maitreya at kasagi Karen L. Brock; 11. Mt Fuji as the realm of Miroku: the transformation of Maitrya in the cult of Mt Fuju in early modern Japan Martin Colcutt; 12. Maitreya in modern Japan Helen Hardacre; Epilogue: a prospectus for the study of Maitreya Alan Sponberg; Index.