Prof. Helen Hardacre on " Understanding Contemporary Shintoism"
Harvard’s Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society Helen Hardacre will address HCJ members at the NHK Seizanso in Minami-Aoyama
Please join the Harvard community in Japan for a talk with buffet dinner by Harvard's Reischauer Professor of Japanese Religions and Society Helen Hardacre on the topic "Understanding Contemporary Shinotism". Shinto is a fundamental element of Japan, entwined with the spiritual, political and social dimensions of the nation and its people. Professor Hardacre is one of the leading experts on this topic and we are delighted to have the opportunity for our club to hear her speak during her spring visit to Japan.
The talk will be followed by a standing buffet dinner. Admission of 5,000 yen includes the talk and the dinner, with beverages available at the cash bar.
DATE: Tuesday May 20, 2014 6:30-9:00pm (doors and cash bar open 6:30pm, talk begins at 6:50pm)
LOCATION: NHK Aoyama-so (Seizanso)
MAP: http://gmap.jp/shop-3448.html
REGISTRATION: Please register using the form on the right side of this web page.
Please note that no-shows and cancellations after May 17 will be invoiced. Your understanding of and compliance with this policy is appreciated.
For cancellations or reservation problems please e-mail kaycarl@gmail.com
SPEAKER BIO:
Professor Helen Hardacre began the study of Japanese religions as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, and she earned her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1980, studying with Professor Joseph Kitagawa. Her research on religion focuses on the manner in which traditional doctrines and rituals are transformed and adapted in contemporary life. Concentrating on Japanese religious history of the modern period, she has done extended field study of contemporary Shinto, Buddhist religious organizations and the religious life of Japan's Korean minority. She has also researched State Shinto and contemporary ritualizations of abortion. From 1980 until 1989, Professor Hardacre taught at Princeton University's Department of Religion, and from 1990 she taught two years in the School of Modern Asian Studies, Griffith University (Australia). She came to Harvard in 1992. Her publications include The Religion of Japan's Korean Minority (1984), Lay Buddhism in Contemporary Japan: Reiyukai Kyodan (1984), Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan (1986), Shinto and the State, 1868-1988(1989), Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan (1997), which won the Arisawa Hiromichi Prize, and Religion and Society in Nineteenth-Century Japan: A Study of the Southern Kanto Region, Using Late Edo and Early Meiji Gazetteers (2002). Her current research centers on the issue of constitutional revision and its effect on religious groups.