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Position

Former Visiting Professor

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Field

Anthropology

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Tell me about your research briefly.

There are two projects I am pursuing at the moment. One is an ethnographic study of memorial services for dolls (����B), which happen almost every weekend at both shrines and temples all over Japan in this season. This is an extension of earlier work I carried out on hoarding and disposal in Tokyo. I am particularly interested in the paradoxical ways in which the disposal of unwanted things is made possible by giving ritual form to feelings of loss, separation and anxiety.
The second topic I only just started investigating is an anthropological approach to dreams and dreaming. Dreams are usually considered to be a radically subjective and private experience and thus 'belong' to the realm of psychology. But what we dream about in invariably a reflection of the fears, wishes and hopes that the dreaming subject has as a member of a community. My aim is to develop a method of sharing dream narratives that puts the interpersonal meaning of dreams in the foreground.

In TUFS what is your lecture?