The Sounds and Colours of Japanese Rites

6th annual conference on pre-modern Japanese religions: ‘The Sounds and Colours of Japanese Rites’

The School of Religious Studies, McGill University, October 23-24 2025
With the generous support of The Japan Foundation, BDK Canada and The School of Religious Studies, McGill

Day 1 October 23

8.45 Welcome (Mikaël Bauer, Director of the School of Religious Studies, McGill)

9.00-9.30 Michiko Urita (Kogakkan)
Soundless Devotion: Kagura Hikyoku at Ise Jingū and Kashikodokoro in Comparative Dialogue with Indian Sonic Philosophy
音なき祈りの深奥――伊勢神宮と賢所における神楽秘曲とインド音響思想との対話

9.30-10.00 Róisín Lacey-McCormac (University of Michigan)
Choreographing Diving Presence: Towards a Practice-based Interpretation of Ritual Processions in Medieval Japan
神々しい存在の演出：中世祭礼行列の実地的考察に向けて

Coffee Break

10.30 - 11.00 Giolai Andrea (Leiden)
The Role of Gagaku in Shrines. Between Auditory Surveillance and the Soundscape of Shinto
神社における雅楽の役割をめぐってー神道の⾳⾵景と聴覚的監視の狭間で

11.30-12.00 Marina Pandolfino ( Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE) – PSL )
Purification Wands, Numbers and Paper Streamers: Yoshida Kanetomo on the Haraigushi
祓の具、数字、紙垂―吉田兼倶の「祓串」論をめぐって

LUNCH at Senior Common Room 12-13.15

13.15-13.45 Tianran Hang (Columbia University)
Expelling Oni: Ritual and Entertainment in Medieval Shushō-e and Shuni-e
鬼を追うーー中世修正会・修二会の儀礼と芸能をめぐって

13.45-14.15 Tetsuro Shiokawa (Kogakkan)
Emperor Ritual and Ise Jingū Ritual: Focusing on the Rituals of Ancient Shikinen Sengū (the Vicennial Renewal of the Ise Jingū)
天皇祭祀と神宮祭祀―古代における神宮式年遷宮の祭りを題材に―

14.15-14.45 Coffee Break

14.45-15.15 Maria Salvador (Harvard University)
When the Night Breathes: Nocturnal Processions and the Sensory Ecology of Ritual in Japan and Spain
夜が息づくとき―日本とスペインにおける夜間行列と儀礼の感覚的生態学

15.15-15. 45 Christina Laffin (UBC)
Rites, Colour, and Human Sacrifice: Threads of Premodern, Present, and Future in a Post 3.11 Nō Play
古代と現代をつなぐ新作能沖宮における色、信仰、人柱

Day 2 October 24

8.45 Welcome

9.00-9.30 Chihiro Saka ( Nichibunken)

Dressing Sculptures in Fabric Clothing: Kōryūji’s Prince Shōtoku and Imperial Symbolism
広隆寺の裸形着装聖徳太子像と王権の象徴

9.30-10.00 Abigail MacBain (University of Edinburgh)
Musical Performance in Premodern Japanese Buddhist Ritual
日本仏教儀礼における雅楽と舞楽

10.00-10.30 Coffee

10.30-11.00 Julia Cross (Mount Allison University)
Contextualizing Kisshōten: An Embodiment of Female Sovereignty
吉祥天をめぐって：女性主権の体現として

11.00-11.30 Monika Kiss (ELTE University Budapest)
Enmei and Fugen Enmei in Japanese Written and Visual Sources
平安鎌倉時代の史料やビジュアル資料における延命と普賢延命

11.30-12.00 Bryan Lowe (Princeton University)
A Whole New Sensory World: Buddhism’s Spread to the Japanese Provinces, 650–850 CE
新しい感覚世界：古代における仏教の地方への普及

Lunch 12.00- 13.15

13.15-13.45 Pamela Winfield (Elon University)
From the Misai-e to the Mishuhō: ‘Making Sense’ of the Ritual Structures in Heian Japan
御斎会から御修法へ：平安時代における儀礼構造の「意味」

13. 45- 14.15 Yagi Morris (McGill)
The Biwa’s Mandalic Miniverse: A Sonic Space of Imperial Legitimation as Constructed in a Medieval Japanese Esoteric Buddhist Text
琵琶の曼荼羅的ミニヴァース―: 中世日本の密教文献における帝権正当化の音の空間

Coffee 14.15-14.45

14.45- 15.15 Haruka Saito (SOAS London)
Tendai Lotus Repentance in the Tōdaiji Nigatsudō Shunie: Chanting and Structure
東大寺二月堂修二会における法華懺法: 声明と構成

15. 15- 15.45 Alexander Dieplam (McGill University)
Performing memory: an examination of Jōkei’s Kannon kōshiki (1201)
貞慶の『観音講式』（1201）についてーメモリー研究の視点からー

15.45- 16.00 Concluding Remarks

17.00 Faculty Club McGill: Dinner for presenters