13
February 2025

Sacred Places: Shinto Shrines of Japan

Welcome to The Arts Society Cambridge
Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 10:45
Churchill College, Cambridge
Storey's Way Cambridge CB3 0DS
Online Event
<p>This lecture examines ancient Japanese traditions and why so many Shinto shrines are located in areas of outstanding natural beauty.</p>

Shinto, literally “The Way of Gods”, is the ancient animistic tradition of Japan. Prior to the adoption of Buddhism in the 6th century by the ruling class, Japanese religiosity was centred around the worship of indigenous gods “kami”, the deities primarily associated with nature and the spirits of ancestors. The kami were perceived as possessing superhuman energy, and wherever the presence of kami was experienced, shrines were built to mark these locations as sacred. They are often in places of extraordinary natural beauty. Shinto and Buddhism coexisted in Japan for centuries, and both shrines and temples are visited by Japanese to this day.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Meri Arichi

Dr Meri Arichi studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s in Kings Street, London, from 1989 to 1993. She completed Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art (1994), MA (1996) in History of East Asian Art, and PhD in Japanese Art (2003) at SOAS. She taught History of Japanese Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS as a Senior Teaching Fellow from 2007 to 2016. She worked as a tutor for the Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art course at the British Museum from 2001 to 2007, and at SOAS from 2008 to 2016. She contributes to the Diploma course at SOAS as a guest speaker now. She has run course at the V&A, Birkbeck College, the British Museum and the Coutauld Institute Summer School. She is Trustee of the Japanese Women’s Association in Great Britain and the Chair of the Circle of Japanese Art London.