Prof. Haruo Shirane Open Seminar

The Eco-Social Imaginary: A New Approach to Ghosts and the Supernatural in Japan

Date: June 24 (Wednesday), 2026, 5-7PM
Format: In-person only
Location: Building 36 /Room#382, Toyama-Campus, Waseda University
Language: English and Japanese

The eco-social imaginary creates a way of living and seeing that conceives of the human community as part of the larger community of beings, including animals, plants, mountains, waters, and spirits. I show how the emergence of ghosts and other strange beings marks tensions and fractures in the eco-social relations and how multiple eco-social imaginaries evolve across time. Different media and performance genres transmit and transform these eco-social imaginaries, resulting in an evolving cultural memory.

Program

5:00 PM  Opening Remarks – Kimiko Kono (Waseda University, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)
5:10–6:10 PM  Open Seminar “The Eco-Social Imaginary: A New Approach to Ghosts and the Supernatural in Japan”  Haruo Shirane (Columbia University)
6:15–6:40 PM  Comment – Keisuke Unno (Waseda University, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and  Sciences) , Satomi Yamamoto (Waseda University, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)
6:40–7:00 PM  Q&A Session

Organizer

Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences
Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture
SGU Global Japanese Studies

This seminar is supported by JSPS Grant Numbers 26K00129 and 24K00045.