KYOTO LECTURES 2025
Images of Fate:
Picturing Good and Bad Fortune in Edo Japan
Speaker: Matthias Hayek
Tuesday, July 22nd, 18:00 JST
From day selection to weather forecasting, divination was widely used in Edo-period society, as evidenced by the variety of printed books and manuscripts produced on the subject. Many of these works include diagrams as well as images depicting the possible fates awaiting clients and readers. This lecture will sketch the history of such images, explore their distinctive features, and consider the role they may have played in shaping and disseminating social norms.
Matthias Hayek is Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études–PSL. His research focuses on the reception, adaptation, and uses of Chinese correlative cosmology in Japan. He is the author of Les Mutations du Yin et du Yang : divination, société et représentations au Japon, du vie au xixe siècle (Collège de France, 2021).
This hybrid lecture will be held on site (Registration required) and via Zoom.
Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84157148024
Meeting ID: 841 5714 8024
Venue: EFEO Kyoto, 29 Kitashirakawa Bettō-chō, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto 606-8276
You can find the place on Google Maps with the words 'EFEO Kyoto'
Registration required in advance from
https://forms.gle/G7MdDhiNrCGGpey36
Poster download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U9NWk2zCLGUvceS9AyLFRJNWEP9t8opA/view?usp=sharing
Image caption: Yijing divination explained with pictures (易占画解), National Diet Library Shinjo collection
École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO)
Italian School of East Asian Studies (ISEAS)
Co-hosted by Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
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