Major: Theology and Christian Leadership
What are you researching?
My research looks at the Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari in America, one of two remaining Shinto shrines in the us. Specifically it looks at the ways in which it is positioned relative to Japanese sort of systems of political ideology and cultural legitimacy.
What is the name of your fellowship?
The Louis W. and Gladyce Foster Family Foundation Summer Fellowship in Religion
Who is your faculty mentor?
Julia Fogg, PhD.
How did you come to this area of research in your question in particular?
I’m an international student and am originally from Japan, so I grew up in a sort of Shinto oriented household. When I found out that there was Shinto presence here in the US I was very curious about it naturally. This research is sort of a way for me to gain more insight into my own sort of cultural upbringing and background at the same time as I learn more about what that looks like here.
What has your research process been like and what’s your methodology?
I have sort of three distinct methodologies that I’m using. One is just a review of the literature, just a lot of reading mostly. Two is, well I volunteer at the shrine mostly doing in-person work, sort of helping set up ceremonies and the like. I observe the ways in which the shrine performs its ceremonies. At the same time, I also am a moderator in the Discord server of the shrine’s members. I observe the members of the shrine from that angle as well. Finally my third method is I intend to directly go and interview some willing members of the community and hopefully gain some insights that I can’t through the other methods.
What’s something interesting that you’ve discovered?
I’ve been doing a lot of research on what overseas Shinto looks like historically. For example, one thing that I was quite interested to find out was that there were many Shinto shrines in the US in the past. A lot of them were destroyed or taken down, especially as a result of Japanese internment and Japanese American internment in the 1940s. I wasn’t aware that had happened so it was quite interesting to find out.
How has your research changed?
I sort of came into this with a pretty vague idea of what I wanted to do: here’s an interesting community area of study perhaps, and I didn’t really have much more beyond that. So I kind of didn’t really have a strong direction in which I wanted to take it other than I want to do research on this specific thing. My research question kind of formed during the process of my research, which isn’t really how you’re supposed to do it. I think originally I wanted to look at the community quite closely, but in the end it kind of ballooned into this larger project that spans history and politics and sociology and lots of other areas that I wasn’t intending to go into.
How have you worked with Dr. Fogg to identify the question that you can do within the scope of this project?
I am a very disorganized person in general, and that extends to the way I do research. I tend to sort of start by just looking at one thing that interests me in the area. Then that kind of turns into this, I mean, Dr. Fogg and I call it chasing squirrels, where I sort of end up chasing these little leads all around to wherever they may go. It balloons into this big mess of content that I don’t really have a good way of sifting through. Dr. Fogg is really good at taking those pages and pages of information and consolidating it into something that sort of can make sense to an outside audience maybe. She’s been an invaluable resource in sort of keeping me on the right track, if you will.
What brought you to choosing your majors?
As a first-year during orientation, I ran into another student who was the DA of the religion department at the time. She kind of roped me into it almost. As I got to know the faculty and how the department works and thought about how I interacted with my own spirituality, I sort of came to feel like it was the right fit for me.
Reflecting on your time at Cal Lutheran, your academics inside the classroom out, is there anything that particularly stands out to you as most exciting or impactful for you in your time?
I think it’s pretty unique to Cal Lutheran the close relationship that I have with a lot of the faculty and faculty members that I’ve had classes with, and even those that I haven’t had classes with. There’s something sort of very bouying about walking down the spine and then saying hi to 14 different professors while you’re just walking down the street. There’s something about that that makes me feel seen in a way that I really enjoy being here.
What are your future plans?
I don’t really have any concrete plans at all. I mean, hopefully I continue to take interesting classes and graduate in two years with at least one degree, maybe two. And then after that we’ll see. I mean, I have some vague ideas. I want to do something related to the environment, maybe environmental conservation, something in that general vein, but beyond that, we’ll see how it pans out.
Is academia and research a direction you want to go?
I mean, I enjoy the process of learning. I will say that this has been a really interesting experience with regards to how I approach this kind of work. It’s taught me a lot about myself, not just about the subject, but at the same time, it’s also made me very confident that I don’t want to go into academia. I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to go to grad school, at least not immediately afterwards, but this kind of really cemented it for me.
Ken is a Louis W. and Gladyce Foster Family Foundation Summer Fellow. You can learn more about their research project on our YouTube channel.