Kurz Traditional and Modern Japan

The course discusses two main topics: changes in the ritual calendar during the last two centuries in Japan and the link between ritual and consumption in contemporary Japanese society.
The course will address the most important celebrations of the family and the individual in nowadays Japan. The history of the traditional celebrations together with the newly adopted ones will be introduced with a special focus on the family celebration.
At the end of the course students will have knowledge about the traditional and modern ritual culture of the Japanese and about some of the characteristics of the Japanese consumer culture. The course will offer a multidisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary social phenomena and will give instruments to conduct interdisciplinary analyses of selected phenomena.