Many biographies of the Buddha have been published in the last 150 years, and all claim to describe the authentic life of the historical Buddha. This book, written by one of the leading scholars of Buddhism and Japanese religion, starts from theopposite assumption and argues that we do not yet possess the archival and archeological materials required to compose such a biography: All we have are narratives, not facts. Faure shifts his focus to East Asia and, more particularly, to Japan. Finally, he examines recent developments of the Buddha's life in not only Asia but also the modern West and neglected literary genres such as science fiction.