| e-mail: | shukyo(at)l.u-tokyo.ac.jp *Replace (at) with @. |
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| Tel: | 03(5841)3765 |
Religious Studies covers a wide range of topics, including not only the history and status of various religions in Japan and worldwide, but also myths and legends, traditional practices, contemporary spirituality, and even the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. In addition to striving for a deep understanding of the ideational aspects of religion, we focus on the actual religious life of people and further analyze its relationship with society and politics. The department also takes part in the “Death & Life Studies and Practical Ethics Program.”
Teaching staff
Satoko FUJIWARA (Professor)
| Research fields: | Theory in religious studies, Comparative studies of religions, Contemporary religion |
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| Courses taught: | Lectures and seminars link key questions with actual issues surrounding religions. Notably, those examine and elaborate on various theories to understand contemporary religious phenomena through case studies. |
Akira NISHIMURA (Professor)
| Research fields: | History of Japanese religions, Religious folklore, Sociology of religion |
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| Courses taught: | Lectures explore institutions, social practices, and ideas surrounding religion in modern Japan. Seminars focus on the relationship between war and religion, on the theories and the case studies to understand everyday religious practices, and on the processing and analyzing of field data and literary materials. |
Kana TOMIZAWA (Associate Professor)
| Research fields: | Religiosity in and around modern India, Orientalism issues, History of commemorative expressions for the dead. |
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| Courses taught: | Based on her interest in Orientalism theory, her lectures and seminars examine the past and present of people and society, focusing on religion, the Orient (India), and death, which have been marginalized in the modern world. |
Yu WATANABE (Associate Professor)
| Research fields: | Early modern Western mysticism, History of Western Christian spirituality, Modern and contemporary religious thought |
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| Courses taught: | Exploring the possibility of a new understanding of religion with mysticism as a key word, his lectures give an overview of the evolution of ideas and practices surrounding “mysteries” from Western antiquity to the present, and his seminars involve a close reading of basic literature on religious studies and religious thought. |
Masahiro SHIDA (Lecturer)
| Research fields: | Medieval Judaism, Modern Judaism, Abrahamic Religions |
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| Courses taught: | Courses cover diverse cultures and movements in the history of Judaism. Lectures examine various aspects of medieval and contemporary Judaism. Seminars involve reading texts of medieval Jewish thought. |
Seiko SATO (Assistant Professor)
| Research fields: | Religions in the United States |
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| Courses taught: | Lectures focus on the relationship between religion and society and the coexistence of various religions based on contemporary and historical cases in the United States. |
