Academic Associate
Kikuko Hirafuji is Professor of Shinto Studies at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and a Visiting Scholar at SOAS, University of London. She received her PhD in Japanese literature from Gakushuin University, where her doctoral research focused on comparative Japanese mythology.
Her research explores Japanese mythology and religious culture, with particular attention to how myths have been interpreted, visualised, and reimagined across history, art, and contemporary popular culture. She is also actively engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations involving visual culture, architecture, and media, and contributes to public scholarship through books, exhibitions, and documentary projects.
Selected Publications
- Kikuko Hirafuji (2025) Ningen ni totte shinwa to wa nani ka 『人間にとって神話とはなにか』NHK Shuppan
- Kikuko Hirafuji (2024) Monogatari o tsukuru shinwa kaibō zukan 『物語をつくる神話 解剖図鑑』X-Knowledge
- Chihiro Minato & Kikuko Hirafuji (eds.) (2023) Seinaru mono wo toru 『〈聖なるもの〉を撮る』Yamakawa Shuppan
- Kikuko Hirafuji (2022) Shinwa no arukikata 『神話の歩き方』Shueisha
- Yoshihide Sakurai & Kikuko Hirafuji (eds.) (2022) Gendaishakai wo shūkyō bunka de yomitoku – Hikaku to rekishi kara no sekkin 『現代社会を宗教文化で読み解く―比較と歴史からの接近』Minerva Shobo
- Kikuko Hirafuji (2021) Shinwa de tadoru Nihon no kamigami 『神話でたどる日本の神々』Chikuma Shobo
- Kikuko Hirafuji (ed.) (2020) Fascism to seinarumono / kodai teki narumono 『ファシズムと聖なるもの／古代的なるもの』Hokkaido University Press