CEAS Visiting Scholars Lecture Series
After the arrival of the “Black Ships” in 1853/54, the Tokugawa shogunate lifted its longstanding ban on the construction of ocean-going vessels and encouraged the domestic construction of western-style sailing and steam ships. Modern ships were needed not just for defense and the assertion of prestige, but also to improve trade and communications. This talk looks at the implications of Ezochi colonization for Japanese shipbuilding and navigation through the lens of the domain-operated schooner Ōnomaru and other similar ships. It discusses how the Ōnomaru became a “flagship” of reform, a...
Fiefs on the Northern Frontier: Japanese Domains and the Colonization of Ezochi in the Bakumatsu Era
In 1855, after Perry’s and Putyatin’s visits, the Tokugawa shogunate confiscated almost all of Ezochi (Hokkaido and surrounding islands) from Matsumae domain’s oversight and began to govern the territory directly. Yet, domain rulers became deeply involved with northern colonization and defense during that era. Some were mobilized by the shogunate for coastal defense, while others volunteered to govern and develop land and fisheries. This talk outlines shifts in shogunal policy regarding domain rule in Ezochi, and then introduces the examples of Ōno, Awa Katsuyama, and Saga domains to...
In this lecture, Marran offers an analysis of island chains in the work of famed writer-activist Michiko Ishimure. Marran shows how Ishimure’s approach to island-chains offers an ecopolitical perspective that rejects geopolitical and ethnic identities as primary modes of belonging. Foregrounded will be a new materialist analysis that uses Marran’s concept of the biotrope to analyze the intersection of biological and cultural formations. Questions to be answered include: how does Ishimure address local island-sea chains in relation to the main archipelago of Japan?; what do the two...
Beginning in 2017, the Chinese government launched a program of mass detainment of Uyghur scholars, writers, artists, religious leaders, musicians, intellectuals, and even ordinary people. These policies not only led to the detainment of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps, but also the destruction of material and cultural heritage. Government officials, police, and military have directed a campaign of Uyghur book burning, the demolishing of thousands of mosques, shrines, and holy pilgrimage sites (called Mazar), and the destruction of ancient buildings and old city centers. Even...
Death, in the eyes of the samurai, was often too important a moment to leave its records to the inconvenient domain of truth. For that reason, death among the samurai was frequently covered with a heavy layer of make-believe. In this lecture, we will blow the lid off the grave of the second shogun to get a glimpse of the mindset it has been hiding for almost four hundred years. Professor Reinier H. Hesselink teaches the history and culture of the Japanese islands from ancient to modern times at the University of Northern Iowa. His specialty is the cross-fertilization of Japanese sources with...
