Fabio Rambelli is Professor of Japanese Religions and International Shinto Foundation Endowed Chair in Shinto Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He is series editor of Bloomsbury Shinto Studies, and his publications include The Sea and the Sacred in Japan (Bloomsbury, 2018) and A Buddhist Theory of Semiotics (2013).

• List of Figures List of Contributors Introduction: The Invisible Empire: Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)1. The Dead Who Remain: Spirits and Changing Views of the Afterlife,Sato Hiroo (Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan) translation by Emily B. Simpson (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)2. The Mystical “Occident” or the Vibrations of “Modernity” in the Mirror of Japanese Thought, Jason A. Josephson-Storm (Williams College, USA)3. A Metaphysics of the Invisible Realm: Minakata Kumagusu on Spirits, Molds, and the Cosmic Mandala, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)4. New Religious Movements, the Media, and “Japanese Animism”, Ioannis Gaitanidis (Chiba University, Japan)5. Animated City: Life Force, Guardians, and Contemporary Architecture in Kyoto, Ellen Van Goethem (Kyushu University, Japan)6. Essays in Vagueness: Aspects of Diffused Religiosity in Japan, Carina Roth (University of Geneva, Switzerland)7. Came Back Hounded: A Spectrum of Experiences with Spirits and Inugami Possession in Contemporary Japan, Andrea De Antoni (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)8. The Spirit(s) of Modern Japanese Fiction, Rebecca Suter (University of Sydney, Australia)9. Techno-Animism: Japanese Media Artists and their Buddhist and Shinto Legacy, Mauro Arrighi (Independent Scholar, Japan)10. Spirit/Medium Critically Examining the Relationship between Animism and Animation, Jolyon Baraka Thomas (University of Pennsylvania, USA)11. From Your Name to Shin-Gojira: Spiritual Crisscrossing, Spatial Soteriology, and Catastrophic Identity in Contemporary Japanese Visual Culture,Andrea Castiglioni (University of California, Berkeley, USA)Notes Bibliography Index

[The] diversity of approaches and subjects in Spirits and Animism render “visible” the complexities of an invisible realmin ways that will excite scholars and students of Japanese religions and entice those working in comparative fields.