Japan
The Council is pleased to present the 13th Annual John W. Hall Lecture in Japanese Studies. Dining utensils not only mirror what the diner feels about him or herself, but also can reveal the image that he or she wishes to project to the community at large. These utensils leave tantalizing traces in archaeological, documentary, art historical and trade records. Recently in Japan unprecedented amounts of Chinese porcelain has been excavated in numerous medieval and early modern sites allowing for a reappraisal of the meaning and role of Chinese porcelain. In the first half of the 17th century,...
先代萩 御殿の場 義大夫出語[英語字幕付][No.1] 1915SendaihagiOne of the few films from this era that exists, this provides a rare glimpse of the “kabuki cinema” of the time and features one of the earliest stars of Japanese cinema, Nakamura Kasen. Remarkably, unlike kabuki and other early films which usually featured female impersonators for female roles, this film actually has a female cast!長恨[部分][英語字幕付] 1926 Ito DaisukeAn Unforgettable Grudge忠次旅日記[トータル・イマーション版][英語字幕付] 1927 Ito DaisukeA Diary of Chuji’s TravelsThe director of nearly a total of 100 jidaigeki films, Itō Daisuke (1898-1981), often revered as “...
河内山宗俊[英語字幕付] 1936 Yamanaka SadaoKochiyama SoshunThe title of this film refers to a heroic character from popular stories and the kabuki stage , re-imagined here as a human being with a nuanced personality. Kochiyama is a monk who has broken his vows and runs a tavern in Edo who becomes involved in local intrigue when he tries to protect a pair of orphans from a group of gangsters. The film is notable for realistic performances by actors from the Zenshinza theater troupe at a time when more stylized acting was the norm. The sober atmosphere of the film matches its legacy as one of the only...
This talk will discuss how Japan has responded to the “Triple Disaster” on March 11, 2010. It will focus on governmental responses at the national and local levels, civil society responses, and also those from business. It will also discuss the potential long-term effects of the disaster on Japan’s politics, economy, and society. Mary Alice Haddad is an Associate Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. Her publications include Politics and Volunteering in Japan: A Global Perspective (Cambridge 2007), Building Democracy in Japan (Cambridge 2012), and articles in journals such as...
When Japan’s Women’s National soccer team—or “Nadeshiko Japan”—bested the greatly favored United States team in the World Cup Final in Frankfurt, Germany, it was just one of many “firsts” achieved by the skillful and inspiring team. It was the first time Japan had ever beaten the Americans in a total of twenty-six meetings stretching over two decades. It was also the first World Cup Championship for an Asian soccer team, women’s or men’s. Yet, despite this sense of novelty, much of the National Team’s success was thanks to Japanese corporations’ long-standing sponsorship of a semi-...
Contention over the character of shrines cropped up repeatedly in prewar Japan, from the early Meiji period until the 1940s. Were shrines religious or not? The government’s position as it evolved by the early twentieth century was that jurisdictional arrangements made clear that shrines differed from religious institutions; consequently, to require schoolchildren to offer reverence at shrines did not conflict with the Meiji Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom. For various reasons, however, the responsible ministries refrained from pronouncing officially on the content of what took...
Before and After Superflat narrates the story of the Japanese contemporary art world since 1990. After 1995 and again after March 2011, art in Japan can be seen to reflect and refract the difficult issues faced by a formerly fast developing society now have to face sharp economic and political decline, demographic crisis, and social polarization. Considering the Echigo-Tsumari and Setouchi festivals, as well as local art in the city initiatives in Yokohama and North East Tokyo, we will look at how artists, squeezed out of the flattened time and restricted space of life and work in the global...
During the Tenmei Famine (1783-1788), the lord of Ōno, a small territory in central Japan, provided rice gruel and relief loans to his starving subjects, and well-to-do townspeople donated grain to hundreds of hungry people in the castle town. These handouts appear like spontaneous acts of charity in the face of an unforeseen disaster. But they were shaped by long-standing precedents regarding the respective roles of lord and subjects in poor relief and in local government more generally.This talk draws on the journals of town officials to discuss the complex interactions between the domain...
From March 26 to 28, the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale will host a special three day symposium featuring presentations by a group of ten Japanese historians led by Professor TSUKADA Takashi of Osaka City University. The overarching theme of the symposium will be “City and Region in Japanese History”. Presentations on the first day will focus specifically on various aspects of the social history of villages in Izumi province during the Edo period. On day two the focus will shift to the city of Osaka in the Edo and Meiji periods. Day three will feature a series of “state of the...
Tsuneno, daughter of the Shin temple Rinsenji in Echigo province, had an exciting life. Over the course of the 1830’s and ‘40’s, she married twice, divorced twice, ran away from home, worked as a waitress in an Edo teahouse, took up with a gangster who extorted her family, and married a down-and-out samurai who later entered the service of a famous Edo city magistrate. Her story, which foregrounds conflict and features a surprising degree of physical and social mobility, differs from the accounts of more sedate commoner women’s lives that dominate scholarship on this era. But was Tsuneno...
RESPONDING TO 3.11:Preserving History in the Wake of Disaster Hiroshi Okumura(Overview of Documents and Japanese Disasters and case of Kobe Disaster, Community Outreach Center, the Kobe Univ.)Helen Hardacre(History and Overview,The Digital Archive of Japan’s 2011 Disasters Project, Harvard Univ.)Konrad Lawson(The Digital Archive of Japan’s 2011 Disasters Project, Harvard Univ.)The symposium approaches the study and practice of archiving in a temporal framework, treating with the conservation of historical archives affected by the disasters and their aftermath, and the preservation of archives...
Program 10:00-10:10 Opening Remarks 10:10-11:50 Panel 1: Politics and Society Presenters: Hiroko ICHIKAWA (The University of Tokyo) Kota MATSUI (The University of Tokyo) Nobuhiko TAMAKI (The University of Tokyo) Ryan SAYRE (Yale University) Chair and Discussant: Frances ROSENBLUTH (Yale University) 11:50-12:50 Lunch Break 12:50-14:30 Panel 2: History Presenters: Hara TAKAHASHI (The University of Tokyo) Chikara UCHIDA (The University of Tokyo) Naoto NAKAJIMA (Keio University) Kathi MATSUURA (Yale University) Chair and Discussant: Daniel BOTSMAN (Yale University) 14:40...
12:45-1:00 Opening Remarks Daniel Botsman, Department of History, Yale University 1:00-1:50 Shin KAWASHIMA (Grad School of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo University), “Historical Dialogue and Disputes in Japan-China Relations” 1:50-2:00 Comments: Peter Perdue, Department of History, Yale University Coffee break 2:10-3:00 Yasuhiro MATSUDA (Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, Tokyo University), “Sino-Japanese Security Relations: Concerns, Competition and Communication” 3:00-3:10 Comments: Frances Rosenbluth, Department of Political Science, Yale University Coffee Break...
Friday Schedule8:30 Registration Entry level, Loria Center9:00 Welcome Edward Kamens, Ann Sherif9:15-10:45 Panel #1 Individual PapersChair: Edward KamensScott Lineberger (Beloit College), Regan Murphy (UC Berkeley), Stephen M. Forrest (UMass Amherst), Dylan McGee (SUNY New Paltz)11:00-12:30 Panel #2 Individual PapersChair: John TreatKirsten Cather (UT Austin), Rachel DiNitto (William and Mary), Bruce Baird (UMass Amherst), Franz Prichard (UCLA)12:30-1:30 Lunch1:30-3:00 Panel #3 Individual PapersChair: Reginald JacksonBrian Dowdle (Michigan), Reginald Jackson (Chicago), Hansun Hsiung (Harvard...
6:00 PM Panel Discussion: “Navigating Troubled Waters: U.S.-China Relations and Security in East Asia” Roy Kamphausen - Senior Associate for Political and Security Affairs, National Bureau of Asian Research Pierre Landry - Associate Professor of Political Science, Yale University Yasuhiro Matsuda - Visiting Fellow, Todai-Yale Initiative Jun Saito - Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University Moderated by Jessica Weiss - Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University 8:00 PM National Speaker Webcast: “Issues in U.S.-China Relations” Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. - U.S....
The Council is pleased to present the Twelfth Annual John W. Hall Lecture in Japanese Studies. The demographic and socio-economic environment for young people in Japan has changed significantly in the past two decades. The dominant images in public talk and academic discourse highlight a dramatic shift from a stable, prosperous, and homogeneous middle-class society to a society suffering from a loss of job security, anxiety over future employment, increased gaps between “winners” and “losers,” and the erosion of hope and dreams among the disadvantaged. It is, however, an open question...
Samurai Saga (Aru kengo no shogai)Directed by Inagaki Hiroshi, 1959 (35mm, 111 min., color) Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.Synopsis: A samurai with a long nose and the heart of a poet falls in love in this version of Cyrano de Bergerac (played by Mifune Toshiro) transported to medieval Japan. Directed by Inagaki Hiroshi (Samurai Trilogy). SINGULAR SAMURAIA series of samurai films slightly off the beaten track, featuring singing samurai, a samurai Cyrano de Bergerac, and even the samurai who inspired Star Wars, directed by such masters as Kurosawa Akira, Inagaki Hiroshi, and Kato Tai....
PRESENTERS: Kazuo Seiyama (Department of Sociology, University of Tokyo) “Is it still meaningful to study the Japanese society?” Shin Arita (Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo) “What Determines People’s Income and Subjective Social Status? - A Comparative Study of Social Stratification in Japan, Korea and Taiwan” Karen Nakamura (Department of Anthropology, Yale University) “Japan Anthropology in the 21st Century and Beyond - New Frontiers in the Social Science of Japan?” DISCUSSANTS: William Kelly (Department of Anthropology, Yale University) Hiroshi Ishida (Institute of Social...
Workshop for Young Scholars For More Information Poster http://todai-yale.jp/activities/news-events/2010-11-conference.html
This talk begins with a radical claim: that nations, particularly nations such as Japan that are imagined along ethnic lines, are incapable of solving ecological problems. This relates to the manner in which the Japanese state imagines itself and its past. To illustrate this provocative claim, I explore “ethno-environmentalism,” or the belief advocated by Japanese thinkers that had the Japanese made historical decisions in the arena of industrialization that deployed distinctly Japanese practices rather than western ones, whether indigenous technologies or natural philosophies, the horror of...
Pages
