Stranded Gods: Comparing Human-Whale Relations and Ritual Lifeworlds in Japan and Vietnam

This lecture compares human-whale relations, environmental change, and ritual practices in coastal regions of Japan and Vietnam, which share a similar logic and are undergoing similar transformations today.

In various parts of the Asia-Pacific region, whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals are associated with divine power and have become objects of ritual veneration. In some Japanese coastal areas, the spirits of whales are venerated through ritual practices such as kuyō, ceremonies for the spirits of deceased animals. Along the south and central coast of Vietnam, whales and other cetaceans are worshipped as life-saving sea deities, referred to as Cá Ông (Lord Fish), and offered elaborate funeral rituals. In both countries, whales take centre stage in coastal festivals (matsuri or lễ hội), which are taking on new significance today as expressions of a reimagined national maritime cultural heritage.

Despite some noteworthy differences—e.g., the contested practice of whaling, which continues in Japan but is frowned upon in Vietnam—whale-related rituals and festivals in both countries share a similar logic and are undergoing similar transformations. Analysing these practices from a transnational comparative perspective will shed light on larger regional trends and issues, including the heritagisation of popular religion, the transformation of coastal livelihoods and seascapes, and the ongoing importance of ritual techniques for relating to non-human actors residing in the natural environment.

In this lecture, Aike Rots introduces his current book project, Stranded Gods. Stranded Gods is a comparative study of human-whale relations, ritual practices, and social and environmental change in maritime East Asia. It is based on multi-sited ethnographic research in coastal regions of Vietnam and Japan, conducted between 2017 and 2023. This research was conducted as part of the project Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia, funded by the European Research Council (Starting Grant, Horizon 2020)

About the speaker

Aike P. Rots is Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests (Bloomsbury 2017) and the co-editor of Festivals in Asia (special issue of Religion, 2023), Sacred Heritage in Japan (Routledge 2020), and Formations of the Secular in Japan (special issue of Japan Review, 2017).

He has written numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in the fields of religious studies, Asian studies, critical heritage studies, and environmental humanities, and he is currently PI of the ERC-funded project Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia (2019-2025). He has an MA degree in Japanese religions from SOAS (2008). 

Registration

This event free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. If you would like to attend, please register using one of the links above.

• Organiser: SOAS Japan Research Centre
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk