Why Ghosts Matter: An Underground History of Japan

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00pm on May 4 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.

Speaker: Haruo Shirane, Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, EALAC, Columbia University

Respondent: Robert Hymes, Carpentier Professor of Chinese History, EALAC, Columbia University

Moderator: Takuya Tsunoda, Assistant Professor of Japanese Film and Media, EALAC, Columbia University

Ghosts are a key to understanding anxieties about family, social injustice, and political violence in Japan. Unpacking four types of ghosts in Japan--political ghosts, homeless ghosts, ancestral ghosts, and vengeful spirits--the talk shows how these ghost lineages interlink, how they transform over time, and what they tell us about notions of personhood, community, power, and the non-human in Japanese history.

This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

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Host or Publisher Weatherhead East Asian Institute