2000.02

pmjs logs for February, 2000. Total number of messages for month: 35

DIJ talk by David Lurie on "The Birth of Written Japanese"

Heike biwa concerts in Europe (Michael Watson)

ALJS call for papers (Nov. 2000) (Elizabeth Oyler)

Extreme kakekotoba [continued, see archive] (Noel Pinnington, Lewis Cook, Janine Beichman, Lawrence Marceau)

mokkan (Wayne Farris, Richard Bowring, Royall Tyler, Paul S. Atkins, David Pollack, David Olson) --> Zhong Kui/Shouki; "Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryo" invocation [archived]

Reading and Writing Japanese Women's Texts (conference) (Janice Brown)

Hiragino fonts for Mac OS X

new members / new profiles: new members / new profiles: David Cannell, William Wayne Farris, David Lee Fish, Bjarke Frellesvig, Harald Fuess,
Daniel Gallimore, Thomas Hare, Barrett J. Heusch, Komoda Haruko, Wayne Lammers, Shannon Lyle Parker, Cris Reyns-Chikuma, Wayne Shimoguch, Henry D. Smith, II, David Spafford, Robert Tierney, Ulf Undmark, Johannes H. Wilhelm

new profiles

Japanese Library Resource Sharing... (Stephen Miller, Janine Beichman, Robert Borgen, Hank Glassman, William Bodiford, Laurel Rodd, Maureen Donovan) [archived]

Lightly edited (see "principles"). Editorial comments in italics.

From: "Nicola Liscutin" <.........@...tokyo.org>
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 15:23:10 +0900
Subject: DIJ Humanities Study Group February Meeting

Please post the following announcement on the pmjs-list. Thank you!

The next meeting of the DIJ Humanities Study Group will take place on Thursday, 10 February, 6:30pm at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ). For our address and a map please refer to our homepage http://www.dijtokyo.org

This month's speaker will be

David Lurie (Columbia University)

who will give a presentation on the topic of

"The Birth of Written Japanese: 7th Century Grave Markers, Stelae, and Inscribed Statues"

Abstract:

It was during the 7th century that Korean scribes and their descendants and proteges completed the initial work of adapting the Chinese writing system to the Japanese language. The presence in the Japanese archipelago of Chinese written material, in the form of inscribed coins, mirrors, swords, and other artifacts, can be confirmed from the mid-Yayoi period onward, and domestically produced Chinese texts (in particular, several famous inscribed swords) are known in the 5th and 6th centuries, but the earliest archaeological evidence of widespread use of writing for communication and administration is provided by the increasing numbers of wooden tablets (mokkan) datable from the first half of the 7th century on. In this presentation, I will examine the emergence of written Japanese by correlating information gained from these mokkan with a group of famous early epigraphs (inscriptions on grave markers, stelae, and Buddhist images).

Although the familiar hiragana and katakana scripts did not develop until the 9th century, the man'yogana (characters used for their sounds to spell out words syllable by syllable) on which they were based had long been used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese texts to write proper names and certain nouns; there are also 7th century examples of poems written with these phonographic characters. I believe, however, that the emergence of characters used to write Japanese words (kunji or seikun) was a development of equal or greater significance: such characters are the primary medium of the Kojiki's prose and of many of the poems in the Man'yoshu, and they are also the source of the kun'yomi used in modern Japanese orthography.

After summarizing the 7th century development of this logographic use of Chinese characters, emphasizing in particular its Korean precedents and its intimate relationship with the nascent kanbun kundoku system of reading, I will examine some of the most renowned inscriptions of the period. Recent criticism of the dating of many of these texts--much of it centering on the problematic origins of the term "tenno"--has made it increasingly difficult to conceive of early writing as simply evolving toward more precise recording of the Japanese language. Rather, the emerging picture of 7th century inscription is one of complex interaction among various written registers which were in use simultaneously.

----------------
The DIJ Humanities Study Group is intended as a forum for young scholars and Ph.D. candidates in the fields of Literature Studies, Intellectual History, Cultural Studies, and Art History. Meetings are scheduled at the DIJ on the second Thursday of a month (unless specified otherwise) at 6:30 PM. In every session, one researcher presents her or his work in progress in a 45 min. talk, which is then discussed by the participants. English and Japanese are accepted as language of presentation. The schedule on our homepage and our e-mail information will provide information about a speaker's chosen language of presentation. All are invited to attend. Those interested in attending or in giving a paper are asked to contact Nicola Liscutin at the DIJ (liscu...@...tokyo.org).
-------------
Dr. Nicola Liscutin
German Institute for Japanese Studies
Nissei Kojimachi Bldg.
3-3-6 Kudan-Minami, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102-0074
Tel.: 03-3222-5077

As a rule, announcements of talks like this have been omitted from the the logs, but exceptions are made for those of clear "premodern" interest.

From: Michael Watson <........@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 21:05:16 +0900

Subject: Heike biwa concerts in Europe

The heikyoku specialist Komoda Haruko has sent me information about four biwa concerts to be given in France and Germany in February. The Heike biwa performer will be Imai Tsutomu, and the Chikuzen biwa performer Tanaka Kyokusen.

A number of us on this list were lucky enough to hear Imai Tsutomu perform "Suzuki" in August, 1996, as part of the Cornell Summer Symposium on "Presenting Tales of the Heike in Medieval Japan." This is another rare chance to hear him perform outside of Japan. It is not certain whether there will be another such opportunity.

The program in all cases will be as follows:

(1) Chikuzen biwa "Gion shoja"
(2) Heike biwa "Gion shoja"
(3) Chikuzen biwa "Nasu no Yoichi"
(4) Heike biwa "Suzuki"
(5) Chikuzen biwa "Dan no ura hikyoku"*
Performers:
Heike biwa: Imai Tsutomu
Chikuzen biwa: Tanaka Kyokusen

1. February 22nd, 8:30 p.m. Paris, Maison de la culture du Japon
tel. + 33-01 44 37 95 66
http://www.mcjp.asso.fr/

2. February 24th, 8:30 p.m. Paris, Maison de la culture du Japon
tel. + 33-01 44 37 95 66
http://www.mcjp.asso.fr/
Same program as above

3. February 26th, 7 p.m. Duesseldorf: EKO-Haus fuer Japanische Kultur
tel. +49-02 11 57 79 18-0

4. February 28 7:00 p.m. Koeln (Cologne): Japanische Kulturinsitut
tel. +49 01 21 9 40 55 80
http://www.jki.de/

In conjuction with the Paris concerts, NHK International has organized an exhibition "The World of Heike Monogatari" to show the Japanese paper dolls of the sculptor Utsumi Harumi.

Further information on the web sites given above.
For those with Japanese display, I quote below from Komoda-sensei's letter.

Japanese text

Michael Watson

> KOMODA Haruko
> kom...@...e.ocn.ne.jp

From: Karel Fiala <.........@....ac.jp>
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 11:00:12 +0900
Subject: Re: Heike biwa concerts in Europe

A great pity he does not play also in Prague. A number of cultural events, including Japanese, are to be held in this city, which has one of the oldest departments Japanese studies on the Eve of "Forum 2000", to be held in the Prague Castle.

Karel Fiala fukud...@....ac.jp

From: Elizabeth Oyler <.........@...sci.wustl.edu>
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 14:57:11 -0800
To: p...@...tbot.com
Subject: AJLS Call for Papers

Dear PMJS subscribers:

Below please find the Call for Papers for the AJLS 2000 conference, "Acts of Writing: Language and the Construction of Identities in Japanese Literature." Visit the conference website (currently under construction)
at:

http://artsci.wustl.edu/~ajls/index.html

We look forward to your proposals!

The Association of Japanese Literature Studies and Washington University
present

Acts of Writing
Language and the Construction of Identities in Japanese Literature

To be held November 11-13, 2000
Washington University, St. Louis, Missour

The AJLS welcomes paper and panel proposals that explore the issue of writing in Japan. From the early choice to overlay the indigenous spoken language with a linguistically unrelated script through Japan's more recent interactions with western languages and new attitudes toward writing and self expression, Japanese writers have been forced time and again to confront the shifting cipher of "Japanese-ness." This is true for gender and political identity, as well as for class, style, and dialect. How does the writer, and how should we as interpreters, define " Japanese writing"? This conference aims at addressing these issues in works ranging from early records to contemporary texts by investigating the way language choice contributes to the creation of historical worlds and national identities. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals on related topics, including:

* How early writers defined themselves in relation to their native culture in choosing to compose in Chinese or Japanese

* The use of language in the construction of official and unofficial histories
* The extent to which the polarization of Chinese and Japanese writing and the styles associated with them represent valid categories of writing in the Heian and medieval periods
* The relationship between a chosen mode of discourse and its object
* The interplay of gender and language choice
* How traditional boundaries are contested in modern works
* How the introduction of technology and alternative means of publication push the borders of "writing"
* How language defines and is defined by modernity
* The significance of writing in a foreign language for both the apanese writer and the nation of Japan
* The significance of non-Japanese who write in Japanese
* The role of translations both into and out of Japanese in redefining the boundaries of cultural property

By exploring these and other related topics, this conference will draw attention to the essential role that language plays in history and memory both within conventional discourses of the past and as challenges to them.

Given our interest in the relationship between language and national identities, the organizers of this conference particularly encourage participation from scholars around the world.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts of no more than 250 words is May 1, 2000. Submissions and inquiries should be made to:

AJLS 2000
c/o East Asian Studies
Washington University
Campus Box 1123
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: 314-935-4448
Fax: 314-935-7462
e-mail: a...@...sci.wustl.edu

Elizabeth A. Oyler
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130

From: "Noel John Pinnington" <.......@...rizona.EDU>
Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2000 15:40:52 -0700
Subject: Re:extreme kotoba

The -te -de possibility must have been one to which KKS poets were sensitive. An interesting case of a different kind of play on te and de occurs in 833:

nete mo miyu, nede mo miekeri, ookata wa, utsusemi no yo zo, yume ni wa ari sleeping

I see him, awake and still I see that vision before me, ah truly do they say this locust shell world is a dream (using Laurel Rodd's translation).

I remember when I first saw it wondering how 'nete' and 'nede' were distinguished. The announcement that we can never know authorial intent always seems a bit extreme to me. At least we can ask whether what we observe as a possible poetic device contributes or is tangential to other aspects of our reading of a poem. In that sense the first two phrases can be read as deliberate play on -te and -de. The general sense of the poem, that waking and sleeping, whilst apparently quite antithetical are actually in another sense not different, is paralleled in -te and -de (in meaning opposed, but orthographically similar / the same).

Noel Pinnington

From: "Lewis Cook" <.......@...ldnet.att.net>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 23:37:42 -0500
Subject: extreme kotoba [sic]

Noel Pinnington writes,

The -te -de possibility must have been one to which KKS poets were sensitive. An interesting case of a different kind of play on te and de occurs in 833:

nete mo miyu, nede mo miekeri, ookata wa, utsusemi no yo zo, yume ni wa ari

sleeping I see him, awake and still I see that vision before me, ah truly do they say this locust shell world is a dream (using Laurel Rodd's translation). [...]

This poem, and Noel's comments, raise several very interesting questions. I wish I could take the time to reply with care; instead a few very hasty remarks --

I quite agree that the play on -te / -de here seems calculated to work against the common-sensical antithesis of waking and sleeping, (This in itself is familiar enough, and seems to have been a conventional trope of classical waka from at least early Heian times; calls to mind the formulaic "yume-utsutsu" and cliches such as "okite-mo nete-mo," "nete-mo samete-mo," etc., which occur frequently in Heian and medieval waka, and more generally phrases in the form of "whether X or not X" -- typically, I suppose, with hyperbolic or ironic force.) But in this case the effect is, as Noel remarks, intensified by the fortuitous graphic similarity of 'nete' and 'nede' (especially without diacritics), and leads me to wonder whether the kakekotoba reading of 'miete / miede' isn't a logical extension, a further degree of compression, of this orthographic potential for combining opposite meanings in the 'same' word. (In an off-list message, Kendon Stubbs -- I hope he doesn't mind my citing him here -- remarked the relevance of Empson's discussion, in Seven Types of Ambiguity, of the 7th [or 'extreme'] cases in which the 'same' word carries antithetical meanings.)

One aside: I mentioned before (in passing) that Teika (and Kenchu) were silent on Komachi's (KKS 797) poem, meaning that neither of them seems to have left comments on the miete/de crux. I'd forgotten that Teika did compose at least one poem taking Komachi's as a honka, and in this case clearly prefers the miede reading. (Shuuigusou 305: "iro miede haru ni utsurohu kokoro kana / yami wa ayanaki ume no niohi ni"). Not decisive evidence that he didn't accept the alternative or even the kakekotoba reading, though.

A further aside: Noel writes, quoting again, "the announcement that we can never know authorial intent always seems a bit extreme..." (I'm tempted to respond "yes and no," miete / miede). Rein Raud's most recent post also raises this spectre, as have several earlier messages. I don't think even Brooks & Warren (so frequently cited without having been read) can be credited with this extremity. The argument, at least as far as poetry goes, is not that we cannot fathom authorial intent, but that everything we need to know about intentions is just there in the words of the poem, or should be. (Though kotobagaki or headnotes to poems, and other contexts, certainly complicate the issue, especialy since they were often ignored or altered by editors of chokusenshuu, for example.) If there are ambiguities, they are there because the author put them there or because the language (or script) affords (or perhaps imposes) them. I don't think it's reasonable to imagine that Komachi wasn't aware of the manifest ambiguity of iro miete, Better suppose she left it to the reader to decide.

The notion that there is something like a singular authorial intention underlying or preceding the words of a poem (which would be the verbal excresence thereof) seems to me closely analogous to the phlogiston theory of combustion.

Lewis Cook

From: "Lewis Cook" <.......@...ldnet.att.net>

Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 00:54:24 -0500

Subject: correction (re: extreme kotoba)

> One aside: I mentioned before (in passing) that Teika (and Kenchu)

-- that should be "Kenshou" not "Kenchu" -- (sorry if this seems hyperfastidious.)

L Cook

From: Janine Beichman <.........@....vc-net.ne.jp>

Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 20:18:34 +0900

Subject: Re: Re:extreme kotoba

That comparison of the notion of a single authorial intent to the phlogiston theory of combustion is interesting. I looked up 'phlogiston' but can't make the jump to the theory of combustion based on it --could you explain?

Also, the idea that ambiguities are there because the author put them there--what about the poem written in a white heat? Surely there are times when things get in without the author having time or space to think about them? And maybe that's how it was for Komachi when she wrote this poem. I just don't see how we can know what she meant unless we have evidence from outside the poem, which we don't. Which leaves the evidence for the ambiguity as coming from what the language/script affords/imposes, to borrow your words.

From: Lawrence Marceau <.........@...l.Edu>
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 19:58:46 -0500
Subject: Kakekotoba

I believe it was noted earlier on this list, but the early modern philologists (wagakusha), including Keichu, Kamo no Mabuchi, and Motoori Norinaga, seem to be unanimous in reading KKS 797 (Komachi) "miete" as "miede."

Keichu, in Kokin yozai sho ( ) is most specific, and even advances the "de" reading, only to reject it: "While blossoms, as blossoms, have colors that change visibly, only the blossom of the hearts of people in this world change without being visible--this is how it is read. While the poem says the greater world, it refers to people. There is a theory that takes the "te" in the first line as being clear (=unvoiced), meaning, who can see the color of the blossom of the heart? The poem could be read in this way, but it is more honest (=sunao) to read it as voiced (=nigoru)."

Mabuchi, in Kokin wakashu uchigiki ( ) follows Keichu, it seems. He says in the headnote: "It is wrong (=waroshi) to read 'Iro miete' in the clear/unvoiced pronunciation."

Norinaga, in Kokin wakashu tookagami ( ) translates into funky contemporary Japanese prose: "Kusa ya konohana wa / Iro ga aru yue ni utsurou ja ga / Iro wa aru to mo miezu ni / Utsurikawaru mono wa / Yo no naka no hito no hanabanashii kokoro no hana de (sa) gozarimasu wai!"

He goes on to say that "iro miede" means the absence of color, and that Keichu's comment on the first two lines is no good (chuu waroshi). Norinaga's observation comes from his particular understanding of the nature of the human heart as something beyond physical appearance, and sensual comprehension. (I like his modern translations more than his interpretations in many cases, nonetheless.)

It seems that, by the late 17th century, the philological approach dictated against incorporating multiple readings into a poem, but rather, working through linguistic and historical methodology, to "pin down" a single, authoritative reading.

Lawrence Marceau

The next thread has been archived.

From: Wayne Farris <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 22:19:31 -0500
Subject: Mokkan from 737

Dear all,
I am currently struggling with a wooden tablet unearthed from Nara in the Nijo oji batch, usually attributed to the household of Fujiwara no Maro, one of the famous "Fujiwara four" who died in the smallpox epidemic of 735-737. The mokkan reads:

"Under the southern mountain (NANSAN), there is water that does not flow. In it there is a great snake with nine heads and one tail. It does not eat left-overs (AMARU MONO). But it consumes Chinese (T'ang) demons (oni). In the morning it eats 3,000 and in the evening it eats 800. KYUU KYUU RITSURYOO NO GOTOSHI."

Now there is no doubt that this mokkan is what is called a majinai mokkan, in other words, a charm, to ward off the disease. The KYUU KYUU RITSURYOO NO GOTOSHI is a dead (excuse the pun) giveaway, as this phrase appears on other mokkan to ward off sickness.
My questions are;
1) Does anyone know about the reference to NANSAN? Upon peremptory examination, the term seems to be associated with longevity.
2) How about a nine-headed, one-tailed snake?
3) Finally, anyone know anything about "T'ang demons"? (TOOKI)
Any ideas welcome.
Best wishes,
Wayne Farris

From: rb...@...mes.cam.ac.uk (Richard Bowring)

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 08:50:13 +0000

Subject: Re: Mokkan from 737

An initial comment on the mokkan. This whole thing sounds terribly Korean, with the reference to Tang demons etc. Nansan doesn't refer to the sacred mountain just outside the Silla capital of Kyongju, does it?

Richard Bowring

From: Royall.Ty...@....edu.au (Royall Tyler)

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 09:57:13 +1000

Subject: Re: Mokkan from 737

NANSAN could be the Omine mountains. There was once a terrible nine-headed serpent in Omine that stopped all water flowing, I think; and a monk whose biography I once read destroyed it. Who was the monk, though? (It was a long time ago, in another life.) Maybe Rigen Daishi, the chuukoo ("reviver") of Omine shugendo after En no Gyoja, often shown sitting beside En no Gyoja in Omine iconography.

Royall Tyler

From: "Paul S. Atkins" <.........@...tana.edu>

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 10:24:01 -0700

Subject: Mokkan from 737: Zhong Kui?

Dear Prof. Farris,

The snake is a complete stumper, but how does this sound? The
demon-eating, coupled with the reference to Tang reminds me a great deal of the Chinese legendary figure Zhong Kui (J. Shouki, ). He was a scholar from Zhong Nan Shan who failed one of the imperial exams and subsequently killed himself. Later he appeared in (Tang) Emperor Xuan-zong's dream and promised to defend the realm. His main activities are stopping epidemics and killing demons. I think he prefers to eat them. There is a noh play called _Shouki_, which is believed to be by Komparu Zenchiku. Zhong Kui is also a favorite topic for painters.

On looking up "Nanzan" in my electronic _Koujien_, I foundthat it is
another name for Zhong Nan Shan, the place Zhong Kui hails from. Another definition is "to celebrate long life," and is based on the phrase "Nanzan no ju". (read kotobuki for ju) That is a phrase from the _Shi jing_, which describes a person's achievements as being as eternal as Zhong Nan Shan, which will never crumble. It then came to serve as a phrase celebrating long life.

I'm not quite sure if I have got all the Pinyin right, nor do I know if this information fits, but if you would like titles of sources, etc., please contact me.

Paul S. Atkins
Assistant Professor of Japanese

Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
Montana State University

From: David Pollack <.........@...i.cc.rochester.edu>

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 13:19:42 -0500 (EST)

Subject: Re: Mokkan from 737: Zhong Kui?

re mokkan 737:

Paul Atkin's response certainly appears to hit the mark, and all the Chinese imagery would seem to point to a Chinese serpent -- but it also sounds a bit like the mythical Yama no orochi of Japanese myth (though as I recall that particular snake had eight heads?). I also have a vague recollection of some such serpent in the Shanhaijing (W-G: Shan-hai Ching). Sorry about not investigating, and my Japanese fonts evaporated recently...

David Pollack

From: wwf1 <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 18:31:26 -0500
Subject: RE: Mokkan from 737: Zhong Kui?

Dear Royall, Richard, Alexander, and Paul,
I'm a bit of a novice, since I have never been a member of a list or
discussion group such as this one.

I'm grateful to all four of you for your suggestions.
Royall's tying in Mt. Oomine and En no gyooja is interesting, but would the timing work? And isn't En no gyooja kind of a shadowy figure? But worth following up. I doubt that NANSAN refers to the famous mountain overlooking Kyongju, although that was my first thought, too. I was just in Kyongju last October, and the view of the checkerboard plan from Nansan is remarkable. But I think that Paul is right, and given that this is a reference to the smallpox epidemic, Nansan probably refers to longevity.

I thought of the nine-headed snake in the Mutsu Waki, too. But how to tie it to disease?

Paul seems to have the basis of the story, referring to Zhong Kui, etc. I'll check this out further soon.

Meanwhile, I should tell you that I have asked (via fax--I couldn't get his e-mail to go through) Tateno Kazumi at Nara kokuritsu bunka zai kenkyuujo for his opinion. He first brought the relic to my attention last fall, but I was so busy looking into medieval population that I forgot what he said. I'll pass along Tateno-san's view as soon as I have it.

I don't know how many of you do mokkan or are interested, but
Tateno-san is a really handy fellow to know. He can get you guided tours of the Palace site at Nara and is dying to have more foreign members of MOKKAN GAKKAI, the organization devoted to study these "critters," as Michael Cooper once called them.
Any way thanks for the hints. Further observations are welcome. I
hope I have responded appropriately.
Best wishes,
Wayne

From: wwf1 <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 19:27:08 -0500
Subject: RE: Mokkan from 737: Zhong Kui?

Dear Paul,
Would you mind terribly describing or otherwise telling me what the characters are for Zhong Kui? My computer does not have Japanese-language software. If you don't mind, I'd also like to have any information you have on sources. Your ideas have been a real help!
Regards,
Wayne

From: "Lewis Cook" <.......@...ldnet.att.net>
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 03:05:50 -0500
Subject: Re: Re:extreme kotoba

Janine Beichman writes:

Thanks very much, Janine, for your comments.

I had in mind here (intended) only to suggest that the notion that there is some mysterious hypothetical mental element ("singular [not single] authorial intention") to which the meaning or reading of a given poem should be held accountable, despite its (intention's) unfathomability, strikes me as about as useless as the notion that we (medieval alchemists) must postulate the existence of some mysterious element called phlogiston to account for the occurrence of fire.

I certainly don't mean to deny that poets must have various things in mind before and while composing poems, and it is quite possible that Komachi unambiguously meant (intended) her poem to be read iro miede.... But I think it is undeniable that Komachi's intentions are strictly irrelevant, in this case (a case, that is, in which we have no further context, e.g. a Komachi diary, an epigraph, etc., against which to weigh our judgements --- though even in cases where we do have further context, these are not revelations of ultimate intentions [hidden mental processes] but simply more marks on a page to be interpreted), because we know that the rule is that a poem (a 9th c. waka, anyway) is more or less required to mean as much as it seems to say, and I think we can also assume that Komachi knew the rules (and, to repeat, was aware of the ambiguities) when she published this poem. (Things could have been otherwise -- if it had been submitted in an utaawase, she might have been expected [not likely in the 9th c. but certainly later, as long as we're just speculating] to supply an account of her intentions, or rather of how she meant her words to be read.) There are exceptions to this rule, in which poets were interrogated on the spot about their intentions, and not only in utaawase. One example: IseMg 101, Narihira's poem (saku hana no shita ni kakuru hito wa...). The poem (especially if you accept the pun arishi = the Ari[hara] clan as opposed to the Fujiwara) is pretty clearly a cynical comment on the political hegemony of the Fujiwara. But are we expected to believe Nairhira's account of his intentions when he explains this poem away? (A cheap shot, granted, but I don't think any author's account of intentions is quite worth a poem.)

Yes, exactly, and all the more reason not to get hung up on abstractions about intentions. Examples, please. For white heat, how about Saikaku's final 'Ooyakazu'? Wasn't that 23,000 or so haikai verses in 24 hours? (Chris Drake, give us the facts, please?) Even if the scribes had been able to record this feat, what could we have expected to infer about Saikaku's intentions? I think we'd have to allow at least a little room for the unconscious, here (and once we admit that, most of our talk about intentions is compromised, no?)

Lewis Cook

From: Michael Watson <........@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 20:46:58 +0900

Subject: Reading and Writing Japanese Women's Texts

I have been asked by Janice Brown to send out information about a conference entitled "Across Time and Genre: Reading and Writing Japanese Women's Texts" to be held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada from 16-20 August 2001.
Michael Watson, pmjs editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CONFERENCE
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

"ACROSS TIME AND GENRE:
READING AND WRITING JAPANESE WOMEN'S TEXTS"

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
EDMONTON, ALBERTA
CANADA

AUGUST 16-20, 2001

Focusing on Japanese Women and their Contributions to Poetry, Fiction, Essay, Memoir, Historiography, Criticism, Theatre, Film, Painting, and Calligraphy, from the Pre-Modern to the Post-Modern.

In order that we may apply for funding for participants, we are asking for one-page abstracts (250 words) by 15 April 2000. Proposals for individual papers, panels, and round table discussions welcome. Conference co-chairs: Sonja Arntzen and Janice Brown.

For further information, contact: Janice Brown, Department of East Asian Studies, Room 400 Arts Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2F6
[...details omitted...]

Also view our Website for forms and updates:
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~jbrown/

From: Ivo Smits <.........@...let.LeidenUniv.nl>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 00 12:12:10 +0200
Subject: Address John Carpenter

Query:

does anyone know the e-mail (or other) adress of John Carpenter?
He did research on Fujiwara no Teika and calligraphy.

Many thanks,
Ivo Smits

***************************************************************
Dr Ivo Smits
Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies
Leiden University
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands

From: Morgan Pitelka <.........@...nceton.edu>

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 13:34:31 +0000

Subject: Re: Address John Carpenter

Hi Ivo,

John teaches at SOAS, not so far from Leiden, here in London. He still works on calligraphy too, by the way.

Cheers,

Morgan

********************************
Morgan Pitelka
Ph.D. Candidate
East Asian Studies Department
Princeton University

Ph.D. dissertation:
"Raku Ceramics and the Development
of Tea Culture in Japan"

From: "Paul S. Atkins" <.........@...tana.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 11:39:01 -0700
Subject: Sources for Zhong Kui/Shouki

Dear Wayne,

Here are some of the sources I used for Zhong Kui/Shouki in my dissertation, which was on the Zenchiku's noh plays:

Fong, Mary H. "A Probable Second 'Chung K'uei" by Emperor Shun-chih of the Ch'ing Dynasty." _Oriental Art_ 23: 4 (Winter, 1977) 423-37.

Lee, Sherman E. "Yen Hui: The Lantern Night Excursion of Chung K'uei."
_The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art_ 49: 2 (Feb. 1962) 36-42.

Werner, E.T.C. _A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology_. New York: Julian
Press, 1961.

I also found material in:
_Japanese ghosts & demons : art of the supernatural_ / edited by Stephen Addiss ; essays by Stephen Addiss ... [et al.]. New York : G. Braziller in Association with the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1985.

Also, here is a museum exhibit in Taiwan:

http://www.arte.gov.tw/museum/exhibit/kuei.html

Zhong is written with the metal radical and the left and "omoi" (as in heavy) on the right. Kui is written with a "kyuu" (nine) having the tail extended and "kubi" written on top of the tail. My edition of _Koujien_ has Zhong Kui as the 22nd, or last entry, under "Shouki."

Hope this is of some use to you and of interest to other members on the list.

Paul

From: wwf1 <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 16:51:34 -0500
Subject: RE: Sources for Zhong Kui/Shouki

Dear Paul,
Many thanks for your help. I'll follow up your leads asap.
I should also add, in case members of the list are interested in this problem, that Tateno-san has notified me by e-mail that he will responding soon with his interpretation. Poor guy, being the point man for Japan's mokkan finds keeps him busier than I can imagine.
When I hear from Tateno-san, I'll pass along his interpretation.
Regards,
Wayne

From: wwf1 <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 17:53:46 -0500

Subject: RE: Sources for Zhong Kui/Shouki

Dear folks,

I have received a fax from Tateno-san, my friend at Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute. He says there is a fair amount of debate over this mokkan among Japanese scholars, but the following points appear to be clear:

The locus classicus for this quotation was probably a Tang medical text called the QIAN JIN HUAN FANG ("thousand gold wheel treatise"), written by Sun Si-miao, ?-682. According to most interpretations, a snake was begged to consume the Tang demons. On Tang demons, there is apparently a lot of speculation that the character should be GYAKU, also read OKORI, meaning malaria or fever. So the author of the tablet was invoking the power of a nine-headed single-tailed snake to gobble up "fever demons." Of course, since a high fever is a symptom of smallpox, and the tablet is dated as no later than 738 or 739, then it's a pretty good guess that it was a part of the epidemic of 735-37.

A reference to a nine-headed single-tailed snake can be found in the CHU TZU, from a region located in southern China where malaria and other fevers were common. Tang sources say that the snake had a red head and a yellow tail.

As for Nansan, there are some who believe that it refers to Mt. Yoshino, but it was associated in Chinese folklore with the southern extremity of the world.

I'll give you an example of a Chinese invocation:

"At the southern mountain there is a land. In the land, there is a viper with a red head and yellow tail. It does not consume the five grains. It simply consumes 'fever demons.' In the morning it eats 3,000 and in the evening it eats 800. KYUU KYUU RITSURYOO NO GOTOSHI."

And now you know what to do the next time you or someone in your family has a fever! Let me know if you have further thoughts, particularly on how Paul's suggested interpretation might fit in. Since the KYUU KYUU RITSURYOO NO GOTOSHI dates back to Han times, this whole tradition might be older than the Tang. Perhaps Paul has a different piece of the puzzle.
Best,
Wayne

From: David Olson <.......@...rdculture.com>

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 18:03:07 -0700

Subject: RE: Sources for Zhong Kui/Shouki

A footnote on the Mokkan/Nanzan/Zhong Kui thread.

From the Schocken paperback edition of Fukuzawa Yukichi's _Autobiography_, p. 191 (translated by Kiyooka Eiichi):

At the time of the expedition against Choushuu [1864], many foreigners in the country showed much interest in the affair. One of them, an American or an Englishman, wrote a letter to the government, asking for the reasons of the expedition and the crimes the Choushuu clan had committed. The elder statesmen must have held a special session to frame a reply, for they returned a long letter. Anyone might have expected some reference to the Choushuu clan's antagonism to foreigners, or their firing on foreign vessels at a time when Japan was formally concluding treaties with the

peoples of the world. But the letter showed no such reasoning at all. It said that the Choushuu clan had "disturbed the peace in Kyouto, disregarded their Emperor's wish, disobeyed the orders of the Shougun, and that their crimes were more numerous than the bamboos on Nanzan..."

Kyuukyuu ritsuryou no goshiically yours,

David Olson
da...@...rdculture.com

From: David Olson <.......@...rdculture.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 22:35:50 -0700
To: p...@...tbot.com
Subject: bye bye GAIJI

Dear Premodernists,

It looks like the problem of working with gaiji will be significantly
reduced in the near future.

Speaking at MacWorld Expo in Tokyo, Steve Jobs announced that though a special arrangement with Dainippon Screen, OS X will come bundled with the"Hiragino" font family in six typefaces with 17,000 kanji per font. The OS will also support full Unicode.

This will be the largest character set that has ever been bundled with the operating system of a personal computer.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/feb/16fonts.html

"Font Wars" are now officially over. The Hiragino fonts will be in OpenType Format (supported by Adobe & Microsoft to unify PostScript and TrueTypefonts).

These fonts have no restriction in resolution (such as the previous Morisawa fonts) (apparently the Morisawa fonts will continue to be bundled with the OS).

Steve Jobs, said to be a Japanophile, made a big deal about the quality of these fonts, but I couldn't find any high-quality images on the web to see for myself.

The samples at Dainippon Screen site tiny tiny tiny:
http://www.screen.co.jp/ga_product/sento/prod/sample.html

OS X will go on sale as shrink-wrapped software this summer.

Although OS X will "support Unicode," the Dainippon Screen fonts do not cover all the Unicode kanji. Unicode 2.1 has 21,204 kanji and Unicode 3.0 has 27,786 kanji.

From: "Paul S. Atkins" <.........@...tana.edu>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 15:47:25 -0700
Subject: Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryo

Regarding the invocations, I'd certainly defer to Tateno-san; it sounds as if he has seen them before. It's fascinating. Zhong Kui was just my shot in the dark, but my hunch is that the invocations against illness (and the nine-headed snake, etc.) are linked with the Zhong Kui legend in some way--perhaps the legend drew on existing motifs from folklore on demon-quelling.

It's really quite amazing what one can do with a _Koujien_ and little else. I entered the phrase "kyuu kyuu" on a lark and came up with this entry:

kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryou

(meaning, "do it quickly, and as severely as the ritsuryou [legal system]") an invocation to expel demons.

It's really quite interesting that people would invoke the legal system as a metaphor for severity in performing exorcisms.

There is a book titled _Chuugoku no oni_, published in 1995, that I had a glance at in Tokyo. It is a translation of a book by a Chinese author. Might be worth a look.

Paul Atkins

From: wwf1 <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>

Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 21:18:19 -0500

Subject: RE: Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryo

Dear Paul,

Thanks for your note. The KYUU KYUU RITSURYOO NO GOTOSHI phrase
is still used in Japan today to keep away demons. There's a really good book, which you may know, entitled DOOKYOO TO HIGASHI AJIA, edited by Fukunaga Mitsuji. It includes an article on this phenonemon by a scholar named Maeda Ryooichi.

This invocation is really Daoist--it has little to do with the law codes per se, except in that they became a sort of magical symbol in later East Asian culture (also Korea, by the way). Thanks for your help again.
Wayne

From: Michael Watson <........@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 17:54:36 +0900
Subject: new members/revisions of profiles

Those of you who have recently visited the pmjs home page (above) may have noticed that names of new members are added to a list at the top, with links to their profiles on
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~watson/pmjs-db1.html

[now at: http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/pmjs-db.html]

Quite a few new members have joined since I last sent out a digest version of new profiles by mail. Here are their self-introductions, short and long. I have also included some profiles which have been newly written or revised.

E-mail addresses have been included below to facilitate communication among members off-list. Your e-mail addresses is included on the web page only if you have indicated that you would like it to be listed--let me know.

Revisions are welcome at any time to your online profile. Contact me off-list at <........@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

I'll try not to let two months pass before the next digest announcement of this sort!

David Cannell <.........@...oo.com>

Graduate student at UC Irvine. [Specialization?]

William Wayne Farris <......@...ux.utcc.utk.edu>

Institution: University of Tennessee at Knoxville Field of Research: Social and Economic history of premodern Japan, especially up to 1600.

Publications: Sacred texts and buried treasures : issues in the historical archaeology of ancient Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. // Ancient Japan's Korean connection. Duke University, 1995. // Heavenly warriors: the evolution of Japan's military, 500-1300. Harvard University, 1992. // Population, disease, and land in early Japan, 645-900. Harvard Yenching Institute,1985.

David Lee Fish <......@...tan.sapc.edu>

Associate professor of music and Asian studies at St. Andrews College in North Carolina and director of St. Andrews College Japanese Festival Ensemble. Research area: kagura (performing arts of Shinto). Member of Wakayama Shachu kagura guild (Tokyo).

Bjarke Frellesvig <.....rke.frelles...@...tford.oxford.ac.uk>

University Lecturer in Japanese Linguistics, University of Oxford Official Fellow in Oriental Studies, Hertford College Main research interests: Japanese historical linguistics

Harald Fuess <........@...tokyo.org>

German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo - DIJ Tokyo. My main research interest is in the history of Japanese society with special emphasis on family relations. I have completed a book manuscript on the history of divorce (1600-1940) and wrote several articles on fatherhood,i.e., "A GoldenAge of Fatherhood? Parent-Child Relations in Japanese Historiography," Monumenta Nipponica 52, 3 (Fall 1997). Also, I edited a book entitled The Japanese Empire in East Asia and Its Postwar Legacy (Iudicium 1998). At the DIJ I organize a monthly study group on Japanese History throughout the ages, and all those interested are welcome to attend. The current schedule of presentations until the summer is posted on http://www.dijtokyo.org

Daniel Gallimore <.........@....com>

[ADDED:] Web site on Shakespeare in Japan:
http://members.tripod.co.uk/sheikusupia/index.html

Thomas Hare <.......@...and.Stanford.edu>

Department of Asian Languages, Department of Comparative Literature, Stanford University *Hare, Thomas, Robert Borgen, and Sharalyn Orbaugh, eds. The Distant Isle : Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature in Honor of Robert H. Brower. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1996. // Zeami's Style: The Noh Plays of Zeami Motokiyo. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986. [pbk reissue 1996] // more biblio at Stanford: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/asianlang/faculty/faccv/Hare_cv.html http://www.stanford.edu/~thare

Barrett J. Heusch <.........@...ink4.berkeley.edu>

Graduate student at UC-Berkeley.

Komoda Haruko

*Heikyoku specialist [recent Japanese biblio. added by editor, omitted here]

Wayne Lammers <.........@....net>

[Revised profile]

Literary and cultural translator, Portland, OR, USA. After teaching undergraduate and graduate Japanese language and literature (mainly classical) for 8 years , I decided to become a freelance translator--initially working primarily as the translator for Mangajin magazine. Since the magazine suspended publication, I have worked broadly on literary, cultural, language education, general business, and manga materials. My dissertation was on Fujiwara Teika's experiement with fiction, Matsura no Miya Monogatari. Most of my other literary work has been in modern literature, but both in that work as well as in cultural and manga materials I encounter frequent need for my premodern expertise. Recently I've been contemplating contemplating working on something in Heian fiction
http://www.jps.net/wlammers/ *The Tale of Matsura: Fujiwara Teika's Experiment in Fiction (1992) // trans. of Ooka Shohei, Taken Captive : A Japanese Pow's Story (1996)// trans. of Shono Junzo, Still Life and Other Stories (1992); Evening Clouds (2000)

Shannon Lyle Parker <........@...mail.com>

Master's Student, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Massachusetts Interests are: Warrior philosophy and literature, Classical linguistics

Morgan Pitelka <.........@...nceton.edu>

[ADDED:] Publication: "Kinsei ni okeru Rakuyaki dentou no keisei (The Structure of Tradition in Early Modern Raku Ceramics). Nomura Bijutsukan Kenkyuu Kiyou Volume 9 (2000).

Cris Reyns-Chikuma <.......@...ub.colorado.edu>

Visiting Assistant Professor at Colorado College. I have a Ph.D. in French (but really in comparative literature, comparing the concept of holocaust in French, American and Japanese literatures); I am now finishing my Masters in Japanese. At the same time I am looking for a job in comparative literature. I am now teaching a course on "Japanese Literature" and another class on "Orientalism: Japan/France/America" at CU Boulder. I am primarily interested in Japanese cinema. And I am co-organizing a colloquium on "Japanese Women Filmmakers" to be held in October 2000 at CU Boulder and CC (Colorado).

Wayne Shimoguchi <........@...ba.ac.jp>

Foreign Section Librarian at Nagoya Shoka Daigaku. I hope to be able to tap into the collective wisdom of the members of this list in order to better serve the information needs of our library patrons.

Henry D. Smith, II <......@...umbia.edu>.

[PROFILE ADDED] Professor of Japanese history, Columbia University. My research interests are in the history of Japanese urban and material culture in the early modern and modern periods, in particular the long 19th century (ca. 1770s to 1910s). Currently working on edited volumes about Chushingura (both history and legend), and the history of modern Japanese architecture from Meiji to the 1940s. For publications and teaching materials, see home page at http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~hds2/.

David Spafford <.........@...rates.berkeley.edu>

I am a first year PhD student in Japanese history at UC Berkeley. I am interested in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, territorial definition of domains, borders and gray areas, kokujin and lesser bushi.

Robert Tierney <.........@....com>

Ph.D. candidate in Japanese literature at Stanford University. Although my primary research interest is in the field of modern literature, I am currently researching the writing of Kojiki and early Japanese nationalism.

Ulf Undmark <.........@....net>

Working for the moment as programmer for a company (IT)in Stockholm, Sweden. I've been studying and teaching Japanese swordsmanship for 17 years, but I also research Japanese history and culture, focusing on Kamakura jidai and Sengoku jidai. I am interested in Heian litterature and the Gunki.

Johannes H. Wilhelm <.....annes.wilh...@...-bonn.de>

Born 1970. Currently student of Japanese Studies, European Ethnology and Comparative History of Religions at the Univ. Bonn. Interests: Japan's maritime culture, history of European-Japanese relations, Japanese folklore

Apologies to anyone I have forgotten--remind me!--and to anyone I am introducing for the second time.

Revisions and additions to your profiles are most welcome at any time, particularly bibliography. If you have your own web pages and want to publicize them, I'll add a link. Likewise if your department has opened a page about you with a more detailed profile & biblio.

Michael Watson <........@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Editor, PMJS mailing list

The next thread has been archived.

From: "Stephen D. Miller" <.........@...t.colorado.edu>

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 09:42:19 -0700

Subject: looking for input

The North American Coordinating Council of Japanese Library Resources (NCC) is holding a two-day conference next week in San Diego to discuss its/their future. The title of the conference is "Japanese Library Resource Sharing in the Next Decade: Collection Building, Technological Innovation, and International Cooperation."
Part of the conference has been set aside for presentations from scholars to discuss their research needs and their expectations of libraries for meeting those needs. As a stand-in for someone else who couldn't make it, I will be talking about this issue in terms of pre-modern Japanese literature and, to a certain extent, Buddhist
studies. I am looking for input from the academic community at large to help me articulate our needs to the NCC. If you have any thoughts about this--random or otherwise--I would be very grateful for your help. Below I have quoted Kristina Troost of Duke University who is the current chair of the NCC about what it is they are looking for in these presentations:

The questions we have asked everyone to address focus on research needs now and in the future and the roles of libraries in meeting them. We are hoping that the panelists will address such questions as how their research needs will be met by the end of the decade and what sort of role the library will play; what sorts of resources do they think they will want, and we think that they will want to preface their remarks with what sorts of materials they use now, and how they obtain them.

I don't know whether this is the sort of thing that would make for an interesting list discussion or not, but if you feel that you'd rather not make it one, please send me an e-mail directly to
<.........@...t.colorado.edu>.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
Stephen Miller
University of Colorado

From: Janine Beichman <.........@....vc-net.ne.jp>

Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 08:16:28 +0900

Subject: Re: looking for input

Stephen, in answer to your wondering if you should post it: I at least think it makes for an interesting discussion and look forward to whatever people post. Janine

From: "Stephen D. Miller" <.........@...t.colorado.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 19:02:46 -0700
Subject: Re: looking for input

Janine and others,
Since Janine has requested I post some responses, here are a few that have come in so far. Perhaps if there are others who are interested in this and intend to respond to me in the next couple of days, you could respond to the list at large. In the meantime, I've taken the liberty to edit a little here since some had personal messages enclosed as well. This may too much to read at one sitting, but this will give everyone a good idea of some of the areas people have addressed. Thanks again for your help.
Stephen

From Bob Borgen at the U. of Hawaii: [corrected below]

Second, it seems to me that the real problem is journals, or to be more precise, obscure journals. As we all know, in Japan lots of quality scholarship gets published in the local rag. Inaka Tandai Kaseigakubu Kiyo can turn out to have a fine essay on say, Ono no Komachi, because all the students there are women, and women (as we all know) study literature, so even the Kaseigakubu has its professor of National Literature, who turns out to be a talented Todai graduate who couldn't get a better job, because she isn't a he, but at the Kaseigakubu that is at least acceptable, if not necessarily desirable, and once she's there they turn on the screws to get her to publish something to fill up their annual journal, which normally focuses on santitation tips for the kitchen, but will publish anything, even a study of Ono no Komachi, that the girls might find interesting, assuming they can read. Needless to say, not too many American universities get copies of Inaka Tandai Kaseigakubu Kiyo.

As I recall, not too long ago, someone published a book showing with US libraries hold with Japanese journals. Information like that should be on-line (or is it already), and perhaps libraries could divvy up the responsibility for collecting obscure journals. Obviously these are not the types of periods that all libraries need. Rather, if one library is assigned, say, Tohoku, it could try to keep up on Inaka Tandai's publications, post its holdings on the website, and make photocopies available.

There are probably other categories of publication that might benefit from this approach--pulp fiction and the like--but for me it's the journals that are the problem.

From Hank Glassman at Stanford:

It's a few issues, really, and these concern the use and storage of visual materials. On Friday, I got an email asking me where I found an image I sent an editor eight years ago for inclusion in my paper in a conference volume. She needs to get the permission form the publisher. Could I find the record? I know the date, the location, the deity, but what book was the photograph in? You get the picture. It would be wonderful if libraries could store large collections of images of paintings, sculptures, photographs, objects, etc. and scholars could use these 1) in classes and course-related websites and 2) at conferences and in published work. I realize that the copyright issues are different in these two cases and are complicated, but since neither context is, in the strict sense, a commercial one, the stakes should not be too high. If the library or
library service could retain the rights, then a consortium of universities could foot the bill and the rest of us could just use the images in our teaching and our scholarship. Also, each image would carry a tag with its name, provenance, artist, date, location, and possibly even the photographer's name. This could also protect the owner of the image by labelling it in every context. The web is the obvious place for the warehousing of a database like this, or it could be on CD. In Buddhist studies, there is the Huntington Site (http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/ ), but I don't really understand the copyright status of the images there and it would be great to have something thematically broader and more specific to Japan. Obviosly, not just images of art, but maps, historical photographs, artifacts, costumes, etc. should be included.

From Laura Kaufman at Manhattanville College:

1. Access to good bibliographies of current Japanese-language scholarly books and periodicals in my field

2. Assistance with using email and web resources for bibliographic search in Japanese language sources

3. Access to and assistance with any electronic sources for summaries or actual text copy of Japanese language periodicals

From William Bodiford at UCLA:

The main thing that I would like to tell librarians is that Buddhist scholars need access to a wide variety of journals published in Europe, India, China, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere in a wide variety of languages. We need to be able to search the table of contents of these journals and to down load the articles. We need everything to be in unicode and we need to be able to search for items across languages. For example, we want to be able to search for "confucian analects" whether the term is "lunyu" in Chinese, "rongo" in Japanese or Korean, or French, or English, or Spanish, etc. We want to be able to search for items regardless of whether they are written in traditional characters or simplified ones.

Right now librarians have developed tools that are useful only for people who work in just one area or just in one language. As a result, they are not useful for Buddhist Studies. We routinely deal with many different parts of the world and many different languages.

We also need to be able to search regardless of whether the original title uses diacritic marks or not. I believe libraries have standards that describe how they enter information into their own databases with standardized spellings that omit accents, but it is very difficult for scholars to find out information about those standards. Library websites should always include links to this kind of information. Links to Library of Congress Subject Headings and to Library of Congress rules for romanization and word division of Asian languages also would be useful.

From Laurel Rodd, University of Colorado:

Although electronic texts are becoming more available--and sometimes may be useful (I like the idea of them, but haven't managed to use them myself, but I have students who have done so), they don't provide one with 1) commentary, 2) a text one can take notes on, 3) a text one can carry around to work on, 4) the pleasures of a book. Still, if it's the only way you can view an original msc, I guess it can be better than nothing. I really can't see myself downloading an e-book and reading it on a little reader. I'm not a linear reader--I like to skim, to jump back and forth, to flip pages and preview or review. E-books are hardly a substitute for a book

The ability to get ILL from Japan (Bravo, Waseda!!) is the breakthrough of the century. Michael Staley, for ex, was able to get a copy of the Tanizaki text he's working on from Waseda in less than two weeks--for free--and he couldn't be doing his research at all otherwise.

I like the requirement that US libraries be encouraged to offer ILL for all materials in their collections, certainly for those they are able to purchase with NCC or other outside assistance. Libraries have to take the view that they support users (not just local users).

Even so, though, there's something about HAVING the books in a library where you can go and browse that's critical to encouraging students to fall in love with texts, to stimulating the asking of research questions, and to getting the research done. In an ideal world every library would have everything.

From: Robert Borgen <.........@...avis.edu>

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 21:00:11 -0800

Subject: Re: looking for input

To whom it may concern:

Stephen Miller, of UCLA, has quoted a certain "Bob Borgen," said to be at the University of Hawaii. I realize the Prof. Miller is a classicist, but even us classicists must attempt to be at least bit au courant in the field of Professional Gossip. According to reliable sources, said "Borgen" has been a University of California, Davis, for over ten years now. Although in moments of unaccustomed candor, he has been known express fond memories of former colleagues in the Mid-Pacific, those who seek him out today would have a better chance of finding him in Mid-California.

Robert Borgen

From: Janine Beichman <.........@....vc-net.ne.jp>

Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 14:19:37 +0900

Subject: Re: looking for input

Stephen, thank you so much for posting those answers --just as eyeopening as I thought it would be.(I'm deleting from my reply so as not to clog things up.)

From: "Stephen D. Miller" <.........@...t.colorado.edu>

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 22:49:10 -0700

Subject: Re: looking for input

My apologies to the University of Hawaii, the University of California, the citizenry of California and Hawaii, the membership of the AAS, the PMJS, men and women on the east coast, men and women on the west coast, and most of all, to Bobert Borgene of Inaka Tandai.

Your insight into the geographical location of classicists (living and dead) has been of assistance to us all. By the way, Bobert, do you know where "Bob" the Rob Borgen went after he left the University of Hawaii? We've all been trying to track him down.
Properly humbled and forever confused,

Stephen (duh, what decade is this?) Miller

From: "Maureen Donovan" <.........@....edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 12:20:43 -0500
Subject: RE: looking for input

Citation for the book mentioned is:
National Union List of Current Japanese Serials in East Asian Libraries of
North America, compiled by Yasuko Makino and Mihoko Miki with the assistance of Isamu Miura and Kenji Niki, Association for Asian Studies Committee on East Asian Libraries Subcommittee on Japanese Materials, 1992.

In 1997 a project to create an online version, The Union List of Japanese
Serials and Newspapers, was initiated as part of the Japan Journal Access
Project of the North American Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), the American Association of Universities (AAU) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL):

http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/ULJS/index.html

I am directing the project. In addition to funding from NCC, the early
phase of the project was funded by Honda R&D Americas, Inc. By early 1999 almost 6,000 titles held by 25 universities had been entered into the database. Just recently NCC decided to continue support of the project, by providing funding for completing the input (along with updates/revisions) of information from the 1992 printed union list. That work will begin in March.

At this point the future development of the online union list is still being
discussed. Input from users would be greatly appreciated. Mary Jackson
(ARL) and I wrote a position paper for discussion at the upcoming San Diego meeting which outlines how the union list fits in with larger issues, including the kind of cooperative/coordinated collection development that Robert Borgen advocates. That paper is online at:

http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/ncc/jpnserials.htm

I urge you to send comments.

In closing I want to mention how grateful I am for Professor Borgen's
comments, which show a sophisticated understanding of the situation facing libraries with regard to Japanese journals. One hope is that institutions of the Inaka Tandai type will increasingly publish their kiyo on the WWW. Some already have adopted that approach and we are including links to such web sites in the online union list. If anyone is aware of titles that we haven't linked to yet, please let me know.

Maureen H. Donovan
Associate Professor / Japanese Studies Librarian, Ohio State University,
328 Main Library, 1858 Neil Ave Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1286 USA
+1-614-292-3502 ** +1-614-292-1918 (fax)
** donova...@....edu
Ohio State's Japanese Collection: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/eaj/
East Asian Libraries Coop WWW homepage: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu

End of message log for 2000/02. Edited 2001/01/27