CIEE Kyoto Seminar Series - Wednesday May 27, Rajyashree Pandey

[Conor Aherne]

Dear colleagues,

I’m delighted to announce the first talk in our CIEE Kyoto Seminar Series this summer, on Wednesday, May 27 by Professor Emeritus Rajyashree Pandey (Goldsmiths, University of London): 

The Excremental Imagination: Disgust, Compassion, and Laughter in Medieval Japan

Abstract:

This lecture addresses a subject which, for the most part, has been excised from public and intellectual life because it is seen as too disgusting or infantile to merit serious academic attention. The body and excrement, it argues, were neither maligned nor celebrated in medieval Japan, as was usually the case in medieval Christian writings, but instead carried significations that are likely to strike us as surprising and unexpected. Excrement was used as a metaphor for the foul and evanescent nature of the body, while at the same time made to work as a positive force, as an instrument of compassion, that ensured the salvation of humans, animals, and hungry ghosts who were associated with it. The humorous tales about shit and farts in medieval Japan, it suggests, were not about transgressing social norms and are better understood as playful literary games. The lecture invites us to better understand and appreciate a world very different from our own.

Please note this talk begins at 18:00 and will be run in hybrid format from CIEE Kyoto (6th Floor, Gion Classroom) with Zoom access available.

Format & Venue

• Time: 18:00–19:30 (JST), unless stated differently
• Location: CIEE Kyoto, 6th Floor, Gion Classroom and Zoom (hybrid)

Registration

Please register in advance for either in-person or online participation:

In-person (CIEE Kyoto): [On-Site Registration] CIEE Kyoto Seminar Series - Rajyashree Pandey – Fill in form

Zoom (online): https://ciee.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3kOObWjsSlurVLRkYdSCww

Schedule

I’m also delighted to announce the summer 2026 schedule, which I attach to this announcement. 

Best wishes,

Conor

CIEE Kyoto, Center Director