This workshop starts from a fundamental question: How does religion interconnect with reality? If we recognize that religion is embedded in reality via bodies, then it is worth taking into account the modalities through which this embodiment actually takes place. Focusing on four different types of bodies in premodern Japanese religious discourse, the speakers provide a tracking shot of logics and practices associated with different types of physicality. The aim of these presentations is to let emerge the ontological ambiguity of the body for identifying it as a site of complexity and crisis, which permanently questions and, at the same time, expands the meaning of reality on the ground. In this workshop, human as well as non-human bodies are not analyzed as mere signifiers but as powerful actants that make reality by fostering hybridizations between apparently unrelated taxonomical sectors such as gods, politics, animality, asceticism, physical contests, and religious institutions.

SCHEDULE
☆10:00 - 10:10 Greetings and introduction (Andrea Castiglioni, NCU)
☆10:10 - 10:25 Emily Simpson (Dartmouth College), Unsightly Sea-Dweller or Beautiful Boy? The Many Faces (and Bodies) of Azumi no Isora
☆10:25 - 10:40 Andrea Castiglioni (NCU), Animal Politics in Medieval Japan
10:40 - 10:55 Caleb Carter (Kyushu University), Instituting Bodies: From the Uncanny Yamabushi to the Professionalized Shugenja
☆10:55 - 11:10 Christoph Reichenbaecher (University of California, Santa Barbara and Prefectural University Aichi), Grappling with the Uncanny: Religion Policy and Sumo Wrestling
☆11:10 - 12:00 Q&A and final discussion

ZOOM INFO
Topic: The Plural Body in Japanese Premodern Religions Time: Oct 30, 2021 10:00 AM Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82562445784
Meeting ID: 825 6244 5784
Passcode: 885424