H. Byron Earhart studied under Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa at the University of Chicago, where he received a doctorate in History of Religions. He has conducted research in Japan for his dissertation on the "mountain religion" of Shugendo, and for work on folk religion and new religions. He is professor emeritus in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University, which awarded him a Distinguished Faculty Scholar award for his numerous publications. A number of his works have been translated into Japanese. His most recent book is MOUNT FUJI: ICON OF JAPAN (University of South Carolina, 2011). His next book is a comparative study of amulets.