The East Asian Network for the Academic Study of Esotericism (EANASE) is a group of scholarly researchers founded in 2020.

It is an expansion of the Japanese Network for the Academic Study of Esotericism (JNASE) which was active from 2016 to 2020. This development reflects the growing number of research that has recently been conducted in the fields of occultism and esotericism in China, Taiwan and South Korea.

As for the previous network, there are no restrictions as to the nationality or the discipline of the members. We welcome researchers from other countries of the world. “Academic” in the title does not necessarily presuppose an affiliation to an academic institution or the possession of an academic title, but it refers to the unbiased and non-sectarian stance of this network.

We are open not only to so-called academicians but also to independent researchers or practitioners, who respect various approaches other than theirs and follow a fact-based methodology. “Esotericism” is concerned with different areas, reflecting the broad scope of this word.

First, it includes the research of pre-modern esotericism in the West like hermeticism, alchemy or astrology.

Second, modern esotericism in the West and its influences on contemporary spirituality.

Third, modern Western Esotericism and its related spiritual movements in Japan and Asia, which would cover everything, from pre-WWII techniques like Reiki to the New Religious Movements.

Fourth, pre-modern esoteric religious thoughts in Asia, such as Shintoism, Buddhism or Daoism. The main object of our group is to clarify how far the term “esotericism” could be applied to the Asian history of religions.

Coordinators:

Chienhui Chuang 莊千慧 (Associate Professor, Kobe Women’s University, Japan)

Yuna Cui 崔瑜娜 (MA Student, Tohoku University, Japan)

Ioannis Gaitanidis (Associate Professor, Chiba University, Japan)

Sangyun Han 韓相允 (PhD Candidate, Tohoku University, Japan)

Luis Fernando Bernardi Junqueira 林友樂 (Research Associate, Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, University of Strathclyde, UK)

Orion Klautau (Associate Professor, Tohoku University, Japan)

Avery Morrow (PhD Candidate, Brown University, US)

Yu-chuan Wu 巫毓荃 (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)