Centre for Japanese Studies Newsletter Summer 2018 Welcome to the UEA Centre for Japanese Studies summer e-newsletter. Please forward this on to anyone you think might be interested, and let us know about any events or news you think would be of interest to the Japanese studies community in Norwich. Contact Us
To stay connected with Japan-related teaching, research and events, please visit www.uea.ac.uk/cjs for full details. The CJS office is located in the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (the mezzanine floor). Our phone number is 591819. You can also reach us via email (cjs@uea.ac.uk). To keep up with goings-on at CJS, be sure to check out our social media pages: @CJS_Uea CJS Youtube Channel The Year So Far
2018 has been a busy year for CJS so far. January saw us hold the inaugural CJS Research Seminar, featuring guest speaker Dr Lola Martinez. We had the pleasure of hosting an exciting variety of academics, who helped us deliver a truly interdisciplinary series of talks. The wintry conditions that we endured when the ‘Beast from the East’ descended on the UK meant that we had to sadly cancel Professor Kojiro Hirose’s talk ‘The Tactile Culture of Visually-imparied People in Modern Japan.’ We hope to be get a chance to welcome Prof Hirose to Norwich on another occasion.
The summer looks to be just as busy – preparation is well under way for both the Japan Orientation and Ishibashi Foundation Summer Schools. We had an overwhelming number of applications, and the quality of applicants was outstanding, meaning the selection process was all the more difficult. We look forward to welcoming both cohorts of students to Norwich from the beginning of July. CJS continues to work closely with the Japan Dialogue Group. The latest meeting (the 11th), which took place on Monday 14th May, was a chance to touch base with our university colleagues involved in ensuring Japan remains key to the UEA’s international agenda. Laura Potts (ARM Media Communications Manager) will visit Japan from June 3rd to June 15th in order to promote the UEA as a research partner and destination for international students. Laura will also coordinate media coverage of a number of UEA research initiatives, including Dr Naoko Kishita’s work on dementia care, which she will present at a symposium in Osaka on June 5th. Dr Kishita will also give a keynote lecture at Doshisha University, Kyoto on June 8th. Other colleagues heading to Japan include Dr Ra Mason (PPL) who will be meeting up with Dr Kishita and other colleagues from HSC and Laura Potts at Tohoku University, where we are developing further new research partnerships, stimulated in part by Professor Phil Gilmartin’s (PVC Science and International) research links there. As part of developing links in science, Dr Mark Searcey (BIO) will be at the 2nd International Symposium on Chemical Communication at Tohoku University in June. In addition, Dr Liliana Harding (ECO) will be heading to a conference in Kyoto. CJS is always pleased to hear about colleagues’ engagement with Japan and would like to include short reports on such visits in future e-newsletters. Inaugural Centre for Japanese Studies Research Seminar Series 24 January: Dr Lola Martinez, Emeritus Reader, SOAS University of London, Research Associate, University of Oxford
Mad, bad and dangerous: revisiting Kurosawa’s women It was a great pleasure to welcome Dr Martinez to Norwich for the very first Centre for Japanese Studies Research Seminar on 24 January. Dr Martinez is an eminent anthropologist and film scholar, who has written on topics including fandom, pilgrimage as well as various aspects of Japanese popular culture. Her published works include Identity and Ritual in a Japanese Diving Village. The Making and Becoming of Person and Place. (University of
Hawaii Press) and Remaking Kurosawa: translations and permutations in global cinema. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). Lola presented a fascinating talk which reassesses the traditional view of Akira Kurosawa, renowned Japanese film director of the twentieth century, as being largely uninterested in representing women in their all their complexity. She argues that in the post-war period, Kurosawa was increasingly interested in portraying the issues faced by women in a patriarchal society. Explored in detail are the various class positions generational differences of Kurosawa’s women, as well as the structural violence inherent in Japanese patriarchy. Drawing examples from a number of Kurosawa’s films, including Ichiban Utsukushiku, The Most Beautiful, 1944, and Waga Seishun ni Kuinashi, No Regrets for our Youth, 1946, we see the strong, independent female characters that Kurosawa was arguably concerned with depicting. 14 February: Dr Ian Rapley, Lecturer in East Asian History, Cardiff University
Beyond the nation: the local and the global in interwar Japan’s deep north The second CJS Research Seminar was held in conjunction with the School of History at UEA, for which we hosted Dr Ian Rapley of Cardiff University to deliver a talk that builds upon research into the history of Japanese popular internationalism, focusing in particular upon the role that Esperanto played. We saw how an international network linked figures such as Akita Ujaku, a leftwing playwright from Aomori, to figures like Vassily Yaroshenko, a young, internationally-minded Russian, in addition to the importance role of social hubs like the Nakamuraya in Shinjuku, Tokyo, played in fostering these relationships. Contemporaries in Japan at the time saw a whole range of potential uses for Esperanto – from a new language of ‘citizens diplomacy’ to the means of forging personal relationships across the globe. It will be exciting to see how Dr Rapley further explores this intriguing aspect of interwar history in Japan. Ian’s interests as a researcher lie in local and transnational studies, and exploring the intersections of cultural, social, and intellectual history of modern Japan. Ian’s publications include A language for Asia? Transnational encounters in the Japanese Esperanto movement, 1906-1928. In: Iacobelli, P., Leary, D. and Shinnosuke, T. eds. Transnational Japan as History: Empire, Migration, and Social Movements. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) and Talking to the world: Esperanto and popular internationalism in Prewar Japan. (Japan Society Proceedings 152). 8 March: Professor Eric Rath, History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Kansas
Eating contests in early modern Japanese entertainment media We were relieved that the week Professor Rath was due in Norwich was one in which we finally saw an end to the terrible wintry conditions brought on by the
‘Beast from the East’. Eric joined us at 64 The Close for a thoroughly enjoyable tour through Japanese culinary history – looking in particular at the ways in which food was represented culturally and artistically. Eating contests, popular to this day in Japan, were the source of great popular entertainment and we gained an insight into the ever-shifting popularity of different dishes and establishments. Eric argues that food, confectionary, and tobacco were not just everyday commodities, but had lives of their own, laden with metaphors for the society they were part of, imbued with all the more drama during times of famine and upheaval. Professor Rath is a cultural historian of premodern Japan and has a particular interest in traditional dietary cultures. Eric’s publications include Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan, (University of California Press) and Japan's Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity, (London: Reaktion Books). 18 April: Dr Mark Pendleton, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield
Surfacing postwar tensions: politics and performance on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line It was perhaps fitting that Dr Pendleton would be held up by train delays on his way to deliver a seminar on the very same topic. Fortunately, Mark made it to UEA in one piece to present a wonderful talk that builds on a paper from a special edition of Japan Forum exploring the ways in which the famous line provides useful reflections for a number of societal and everyday issues in Japan’s metropolis. We saw the various ways artists and organisers have sought to explore the significance of the Yamanote Line as a liminal space through ad-hoc performance art displays staged on board the trains, to word-ofmouth Halloween parties taking place within the carriages, continuing until the police intervened –prompting us to consider the ways in which Tokyo is experienced in the context of mobility. While the main focus of Dr Pendleton’s research is the history of twentieth century Japan, he also interested in the histories of gender and sexuality, transnational social movement histories, the politics of violence, and the relationship between memory and history. Publications include The Tokyo /chikatetsu/', in Global Undergrounds: Exploring Cities Within (London: Reaktion Books) and After Homosexual: The Legacies of Gay Liberation, edited by Carolyn D'Cruz and Mark Pendleton, (Perth: UWA Publishing).
2 May: Professor Timon Screech, History of Art, School of Arts, SOAS, University of London
The political use of landscape in Edo painting For the last of the semester’s research seminars, we had the great pleasure of welcoming Professor Timon Screech to Norwich. Professor Screech’s numerous research interests include art history, social history, history of East-West relations, Japanese visual culture, Edo period painting and prints and much more. Currently, his research is focused on the history of the English East India Company in Japan, and in particular its dealings in works of art, and will culminate in a forthcoming book: The Cargo of the New Year’s Gift: Paintings from London for Asian Rulers, 1615. Past works include Obtaining Images: Art, Production and Display in Edo Japan. (London & Honolulu: Reaktion Books & Hawaii University Press), and Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Imagery in Japan, 1720-1810. 2nd ed. (London: Reaktion Books). Professor Screech’s talk had us retreading a path through the painterly landscapes of the Edo Period on the search for the Yatsuhashi – a fictitious place at the confluence of eight rivers referred to in the Tale of Ise, often depicted in artworks of the period, and a significant site of cultural memory. We saw how important the themes of the tale were in landscape painting, and how their portrayal shifted stylistically over the years in response to various political and cultural changes in Japan. April 27th: Nikkei Telecom Japanese Speech Contest
Once again, Dr Kaoru Umezawa and her colleagues in PPL helped to deliver this wonderful event showcasing the hard work and dedication of UEA’s fourth year Japanese language students. Each year, contestants are invited to write a speech using materials from the Nikkei Telecom Database. Congratulations to this year’s winner, Bethan Forsdyke, and to runner-up, Dayna Andreous.
Grand Opening: Japan House London
Japan House, hailed as the new London home for Japanese creativity and innovation, will open to the public on June 22. It will facilitate encounters with a range of art, design, cuisine, and technology, with the aim of promoting a deeper appreciation of Japanese culture. Japan House is will occupy a renovated art deco building on Kensington High Street and will feature a temporary exhibition gallery, events space, library, retail outlets, and a Japanese restaurant across its three floors. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the Future – a collaboration with Tokyo’s Toto Gallery, will see the work of the renowned contemporary architect, Sou Fujimoto on display in the UK for the first time. In addition, diners will be able to sample the authentic Japanese cuisine offered up by chef, Akira Shimizu. May 15th: Visit to the UEA from Tanami Tatsuya (Nippon Foundation) and Brendan Griggs (Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation)
It was a great pleasure to welcome Tanami Tatsuya of the Nippon Foundation and Brendan Griggs of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation to Norwich. Both organisations are wonderful supporters of Japanese Studies at UEA and the Sainsbury Institute. Tanami-san and Mr Griggs spent the morning at the Sainsbury Institute before joining colleagues from across the university for lunch in the Modern Life Café. It was very pleasing to see so many of our Japan studies colleagues gathered together and to catch up on all the exciting things they are working on. Following lunch and a swift tour of the campus in the glorious sunshine, Tanami-san and Mr Griggs saw the Vice Chancellor, Prof David Richardson, before heading back into Norwich for a visit to Dragon Hall and the Writer’s Centre. We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Tanami-san and Mr Griggs for taking the time to visit, and to thank all our colleagues who made the day such a success.
May 24th: Japan Information Day 2018: Education and Research Opportunities
This year’s Japan Information Day was held on May 24th at the Embassy of Japan in London. As ever, the event was an excellent showcase of the numerous opportunities available for graduates in teaching, studying, and researching in Japan. After informative overviews of the internationalisation of Japanese education and science and technology policies in Japan, presentations were given by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan Foundation, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation London, and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Presentations detailing the MEXT Scholarship and the JET Programme rounded off the afternoon. May 24th: Media Journeys 2018: Animation in Transnational Contexts
The symposium, held at the UEA explored the international and global journeys taken by animated texts. The transnational production, legal and clandestine distribution, and the transcultural lives of animation across national and linguistic consumption contexts was explored. Speakers discussed some of the world’s most popular animation, from Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese animation, to Disney. Renowned critic Helen McCarthy offered a keynote speech and explored her role as a foundational figure within UK anime fandom. The event was closed with a screening of Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke at Cinema City in Norwich, with an introduction from Rayna Denison. June 22nd: 1st CJS Research Workshop, ‘Seas of Japan’
The 1st UEA Centre for Japanese Studies Interdisciplinary Research Workshop will take place at 64 The Close on June 22nd. The workshop takes as its theme ‘Seas of Japan’. Japan is defined by its relationship with the seas that surround the archipelago in a multitude of ways, but it is often a contested relationship. This workshop brings together researchers associated with the University of East Anglia working on topics relating to this theme, with the intention of exploring synergies and potential interdisciplinary research collaborations. The workshop is being funded by the Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities (IIH) as well as the faculty as a whole.