The Department for the Study of Religion is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2025–2026! As part of the launch weekend for these festivities, Prof. Fabio Rambelli will give a public lecture. Maestro Ono Sensei will present the musical and dance traditions of the ensemble.
Prof. Rambelli is the Distinguished Professor of Japanese Religions and Cultural History and International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His many publications include: Buddhas and Kami in Japan (with Mark Teeuwen, 2000), Buddhist Materiality (2007), The Sea and the Sacred in Japan (2018), Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan (2019), and Gagaku: The Cultural Impact of Japanese Ceremonial Music (2025). His research interests span several cultural dimensions of religious discourses in Japan, such as theories and practices of representation, materiality and the cultural meanings of objects, political thought, economics, and geopolitical constructs. He is currently working on an intellectual history of Gagaku.
Maestro Shinryu Ono is director of the Tennōji Gakuso Garyōkai Ensemble is based at Shitennoji Buddhist Temple in Osaka. It is one of the three major Gagaku troupes to have carried the tradition of Japanese court music since the Heian period. Maestro Ono Shinryu began training at Shitennoji Buddhist Temple as a child and became a member of the Tennōji Gakuso Garyōkai in 1993 before assuming the role of director. Maestro Ono received his doctorate in literature from Kyoto University and is currently a visiting professor at Kansai University.
This event is co-sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies, the Department for the Study of Religion, and the Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs. Registration not required.
For details on other events planned for the anniversary year, please visit the DSR’s Anniversary page.
