EANASE, the East Asian Network for the Academic Study of Esotericism, celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. Founded at the end of 2020 by Professor Yoshinaga Shin’ichi (1957-2022), the network has slowly expanded, mostly through its Facebook page. We have organized two international conferences (one in 2021 and one in 2024) and (co)organised a significant number of workshops that we usually announce through our dedicated website. With the imminent publication of a volume of research papers inspired by our first conference (Therapy, Spirituality, and East Asian Imaginaries) and at least two further volumes coming up soon this and next year (Esotericism in East Asia, edited by Julian Strube, Chienhui Chuang and Sangyun Han; and The Occult in Japan: A Modern History, edited by Ioannis Gaitanidis and Orion Klautau), we are holding a one-day workshop on 28 March 2025 to showcase some of the chapters that will be published in these upcoming publications. The workshop will be entirely held in English and on site, at Chiba University (nishi-Chiba campus). The workshop will neither be recorded nor available online. Those who would like to participate, please register by clicking here. The details of the venue will be sent out by March 27, from the following address: eanase.office[at]gmail.com.
Timetable
09:30 Opening Remarks (Julian Strube, University of Göttingen)
09:45 The Reception of Tantra in Postwar Japan: Utagawa Taiga (1917-1990) and His Work (Sangyun Han, Tohoku University)
10:15 How Itako Became the Occult in Modern Japan (Haruka Ohmichi, Kokugakuin University)
10:45 Local Culture and Alternative Histories: The Legends of Christ in Aomori (Yua Satō, Tohoku University)
11:15 Towards a Comprehensive (Meta)history of the Takeuchi Documents (Orion Klautau, Tohoku University)
11:45 Discussion
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Japan’s Occult “Monsters”: Esotericism and the New Left in Post-1960s Japan (Hidehiko Kurita, Bukkyo University)
14:30 Deguchi Onisaburo’s Tama no Ishizue: Adaptation or Plagiarism from Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell? (Eiko Namiki, International Christian University)
15:00 Theosophical Movements and Asian Unity: Insights from Pre-war China and Japan (Chienhui Chuang, Kobe Women’s University)
15:30 Darkness, Strangeness, and Monstrosity: The Affectiveness of Kaii in Japanese Studies of the “Occult” (Ioannis Gaitanidis, Chiba University)
16:00 Comments by Julian Strube and Discussion (end of workshop at 17:15)
This event is supported by the following JSPS grants-in-aid for scientific research:
「近代仏教と民間精神療法：プラクティスの近代化とグローバル化」（栗田 英彦）
「ポピュラーカルチャーを中心とした天皇・皇族・皇室表象の研究」（茂木 謙之介）