Although qigong is widely regarded as a traditional Chinese body practice, scholars have argued that it was “invented” as a therapeutic practice in the 1950s. Yet, despite its relatively recent origins, qigong continues to be practiced and “reinvented” through bodily techniques and embodied experiences across diverse cultural settings. Drawing on ethnographic research, this lecture explores how practitioners engage with the sensory and affective dimensions of qigong, revealing its transformation from an “invented tradition” into an “embodied tradition”.

Huang Xinzhe is a senior researcher at the Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. His research explores qigong and spiritual practices in China and Japan. He recently published a book in Japanese (The Anthropology of Qi: Embodied experience in Qigong Practices, Sekai Shisōsha 2025) based on his PhD dissertation.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84974847315

Meeting ID: 849 7484 7315

Burmese mural painting is best known from the Pagan period of the 11th-13th centuries, whose corpus of over 300 monuments is the largest in Southeast Asia. This lecture shows that the Nyaungyan mural tradition is not a continuation of this first pictorial tradition, but represents a foundational change, heralding the modern era. Not subject to any major foreign influence, its fundamentals reflect a simplified program and graphism, a new iconography, and a new structuration of the mural space. These developments ultimately led to a new way to teach Buddhist moral precepts through entertaining scenes highlighting Portuguese and Indian gatekeepers.

Cristophe Munier-Gaillard is an associate member of the Centre de Recherche sur l’Extrême-Orient de Paris-Sorbonne. His research focuses on the narrative technique and styles of early modern Burmese Buddhist murals. He edited Mural Art: Studies on Paintings in Asia (River Books, 2017).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86587681543

Meeting ID: 865 8768 1543

The ritual history of Japanese Tantric Buddhism, even during its purported medieval golden age, remains inadequately understood. Advanced consecration rituals, in particular, have been little studied, despite their crucial role in establishing the identity and legitimacy of Tantric practitioners. This talk examines one such ritual, known in contemporary documents as yugi kanjō, through an analysis of Taimitsu (Tendai Tantric Buddhist) sources. This consecration encapsulates the Tantric approach to ultimate realization through distinctive practices of body marking and self-consecration. While the ritual has frequently been characterized as heterodox, an expansive reading of Taimitsu sources suggest continuity with established continental practices, underscoring the necessity of reconceptualizing Japanese Tantric Buddhist history within a broader trans-regional framework.

Lucia Dolce is Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhism at SOAS, University of London, and Chair of the Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions. Her research explores discursive and ritual practices of religion in Japan combining archival survey, philosophical analysis and fieldwork. She currently is a visiting research fellow at Nichibunken to complete a project that maps out the medieval Tantric discourse on ritual body.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85467084761

Meeting ID: 854 6708 4761

Lafcadio Hearn (1854–1904) was a remarkable figure who introduced Japanese culture to the West during the Meiji era. Beginning his literary journey with explorations of voodoo traditions in New Orleans and the Caribbean, he later turned his attention to Japan, where he translated and retold ghost stories, folktales, legends, and proverbs, bringing these traditions to the Anglophone world. Despite his significant contributions, his work has often been dismissed, particularly in English-speaking academic circles, for its perceived fascination with the strange and the exotic, and critiqued as a product of “Orientalism.”

After a year of commemorations marking the 120th anniversary of his death, and before a national broadcast reflecting on his life and work, this lecture offers a timely reexamination of Hearn’s writings. It highlights their role in preserving and sharing Japanese folklore and supernatural tales, while also connecting them to the modern concept of folk horror, a genre that delves into the darker aspects of rural beliefs and traditions.

This lecture celebrates Hearn’s enduring legacy, showcasing his ability to bridge diverse cultural worlds and reminding us of the profound impact his storytelling continues to have on our understanding of culture, history, and the supernatural.

François Lachaud  is a professor of Japanese studies at the École française d’Extrême-Orient. His research focuses on the religious and cultural history of early modern Japan. He is the coediter of Mastering Languages, Taming the World: The Production and Circulation of European Dictionaries and Lexicons of Asian Languages (16th–19th Centuries) (EFEO, 2023).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87636340538

Meeting ID: 876 3634 0538

In December 1879, the Foreign Missions of Paris opened a missionary post in Kyoto.  Dwarfed between the main Buddhist headquarters and the American Board, a Protestant missionary organization, Aimé Villion, the first French priest living in the city between 1879 and 1889, and a handful of Japanese lay catechists strove to increase the fame of the “Old Doctrine” (kyūkyō), a term often used in “modernizing Japan” to label Catholicism. This lecture, based on a vast array of primary sources—local newspapers, Catholic booklets and periodicals, and letters sent by Villion to Paris—, will provide a tentative understanding of how the Church pictured itself in 1880s Kyoto and what kind of people were attracted to its message.

Martin Nogueira Ramos is an associate professor in Japanese studies at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient. His research focuses on the history of Christianity in early modern and modern Japan. Recently, he has coedited D’un empire, l’autre: premières rencontres entre la France et le Japon au xixe siècle (EFEO, 2021) and Aspects of Lived Religion in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan (Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 32, 2023).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86894570779

Meeting ID: 868 9457 0779