Monika Schrimpf is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests are in the field of modern and contemporary Buddhism in Japan, with a particular interest in gendered Buddhism and the entanglement of medicine and religion in contemporary Japan.

Emily B. Simpson is currently Assistant Professor in the Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest University, USA. Her areas of interest include the conceptualization of Shinto and Buddhist deities as well as the construction of womanhood and gender in religious narratives, especially origin stories.