This seminar was co-sponsored by the “Humanities in the Anthropocene” seminar series of the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study and the “Environmental Humanities” seminar series of the Waseda Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences.
We invited Professor Sirane Haruo of Columbia University, a leading expert in environmental humanities, as a speaker, and attempted to reconsider the relationship between humans and the environment from the perspective of mountains. Shirane discussed the relationship between human beings and their surrounding environment from various perspectives. He presented the viewpoint: by giving personhood to nature (mountains, rivers, animals, etc.) and non-humans (tools, etc.), a sense of awe arises and the same respect and compassion for them as for humans becomes possible; and that leads to their deification and sanctification.
In addition, Shirane raised a wide range of large scale issues: the indispensable principle on satoyama as a commons “humans also give up a part of themselves to be shared,” the viewpoint to explore the mountain as a place of conflict and large-scale disasters between nature and humans, the treatment of human and non-human souls and after-life, the difference between satoyama (close to human society) and okuyama(relatively far away), and the relationship between the purifying effects of mountains and Shugendo (mountain asceticism).
In the Q&A session, about 100 participants, including undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers from inside and outside of the university, joined the lively discussion, which lasted nearly an hour.
Overview
This seminar series is part of the Humanities in the Anthropocene project begun by the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) in October 2021. This project aims to be a place for cross-disciplinary dialogue based on the shared Anthropocene concept, an experiment in exploring new potential in the humanities by linking previously siloed specialized knowledge.
- Speaker: Haruo Shirane（Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, Columbia University, Honorary Member of The Japan Academy)
- Commentator：Takeo Onishi (Gifu University）
- Opening Address/Moderator：Kimiko Kono (Waseda University), Satomi Yamamoto (Waseda University)
- Date/Time: May 23, 2023 (Tue.), 17:00~19:15 (JST)
- Venue: Waseda University Ono Auditorium
- Lanugage: English, *Lecture is in English (with PPT in Japanese)/Q&A session in English/Japanese
- Prospected Audiences: Faculty members, Researchers, Graduate students, Under-graduate students, General Participants
- Organized by: Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS), Waseda Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences (RILAS)
- Co-Organized by: Global Japanese Studies Model Unit, Waseda University Top Global University Project, Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture, Waseda Society of Art History
