pmjs logs for November 2003. Total number of messages: 20
* infant mortality rates in Tokugawa era (Gina Cogan)
* Earliest non-canonical reference to the five obstructions in Japan (Monika Dix, Rose Bundy)
* reprinting of annotated Meigetsuki (Kanechiku Nobuyuki)
* Genji conference 11/8-9 Yokohama
* pmjs bonenkai (Tokyo) (Michael Watson)
* new members: David Aliaga, Hu Jie, Leo Alexander Imai, Shinko Kagaya, Kono Kimiko, Sarah Frederick, Barbara Seyock, Richard L. Wilson
* Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies announcement (Barbara Ruch)
* Symposium at ICU (Kenneth Robinson)
* blind kyogen plays (zato) (Stephen Miller, Michael Watson, Robert Khan)
* Kesa & Morito (Robert Khan)
* Chilly renga (Mark Peter Keane, Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, Dennis Hirota, Susan B. Klein)
* Tenure Track Position in J History, U of Delaware (Lawrence Marceau)
* Vacancy, University of Zurich (Judith Froehlich)
* Job opening - University of British Columbia (Joshua Mostow)
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 13:42:56 -0500 (EST)
From: Gina Cogan <g...@...umbia.edu>
Subject: [pmjs] infant mortality rates in Tokugawa era
Thanks to everyone on the list who provided references and information; it was a real help!
Gina Cogan
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 04:59:27 -0800
From: "Dix Monika" <monika...@...mail.com>
Subject: [pmjs] QUERY>Earliest non-canonical reference to the five obstructions in Japan
Dear List members,
Besides sutras and sutra commentaries, what is the earliest non-canonical reference to the five obstructions in Japan? And what was the occasion for its composition?
So far, the earliest reference I was able to locate is an 883 prayer in Sugawara no Michizane's SUGAWARA POEMS (KANKE BUNSHO), scroll 12, supposedly written on the occasion for a woman's votive gift giving to Zenrinji in Higashiyama.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Monika Dix
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 09:12:26 -0400
From: Rose Bundy <bu...@...o.edu>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: QUERY>Earliest non-canonical reference to the five obstructions in Japan
Status: RO
It certainly won't be the earliest, but there's mention in the _Genji_:
Kaoru speaking of his mother. This info., if my memory serves, comes to me
from _Engendering Faith_. Don't remember which article of that compilation.
Rose Bundy
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 23:26:19 +0900
From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] reprinting of annotated Meigetsuki
-- Translation of posting in Japanese to pmjs by Professor Kanechiku (Waseda) --
Mura Eiichi's "Kunchuu Megetsuki" 稲村榮一著『訓注明月記』
http://www.imaibooks.co.jp/books/jisha/matsue.html
is an annotated kundoku edition of Meigetsuki in eight volumes, including an index. Since it was published at the end of last year, the first printing of 100 sets and a second printing of 50 sets sold out completely.
Requests have been made for further printing, but the publishing company was cautious at first (it is a regional publisher). Michel Vieillard-Baron was unable to order a copy. He asked me in Warsaw to tell him immediately if there was any news of the work being republished.
I have now heard that some 30 sets will be produced in the third printing. I have already informed Michel Vieillard-Baron, and he immediately placed an order. As far as I know, the library of the University of Washington has also purchased a set.
This is a basic work of scholarship. I am sure that there must be other libraries or individual scholars who might be interested in it.
To place an order, please contact
田江泰彦（Tagou Yasuhiko) at Matsue Imai Shoten 松江今井書店
by email (yta...@...ibooks.co.jp). If possible, please write in Japanese.
Thank you,
KANECHIKU Nobuyuki 兼築信行
Professor of Japanese Literature, Waseda University
早稲田大学第一、第二文学部教授
http://www.littera.waseda.ac.jp/faculty/knck/
k...@...eda.jp
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 09:53:47 +0900
From: "Lorinda Kiyama" <lorindakiy...@...mail.com>
Subject: [pmjs] Genji conference 11/8-9 Yokohama
Ferris University is hosting an international conference titled "Body, Word, and Gender in The Tale of Genji" this Friday and Saturday at the Ryokuen campus in Yokohama. Speakers from outside Japan include Royall Tyler, Lewis Cook, Lili Selden, and Anne Bayard-Sakai. See the following website for details:
http://www.ferris.ac.jp/news/inter_confer/200311/200311.html
Lorinda Kiyama
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 21:40:07 +0900
From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] pmjs bonenkai (Tokyo)
Dear members-- a message especially for anyone who will be in the Tokyo area in early December,
In 1999 and 2000, the first two years of pmjs, we held bonenkai in Tokyo. It is a nice chance to talk to people you seldom have a chance to meet, or only know each other "electronically" or by name. I'd like to revive the tradition again this December. To simplify things, I've gone ahead and chosen a date
December 12 (Friday)
that happens to be convenient for a number of us who are meeting in Tokyo for a medieval literature workshop. It seemed safer to begin with a core of members who could definitely come. . When I have a better idea of numbers, I will go ahead and book a room. If you are interested in coming, please let me know, and sooner rather than later. Contact me *off-list* at <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>.
As at the last bonenkai, graduate students benefit from a (modest) deduction funded by the generous (if unknowing) contributions of pmjs subscribers and members of the public who have bought books on one of the Amazon sites after clicking a link on the pmjs site. In the past year, amazon.com (US) sent gift certificates worth $79.51 to the pmjs webmaster. From amazon.co.fr (France) came cheques-cadeaux for 29.57 euros. (Not quite enough books were bought from the British, German, or Japanese Amazons to qualify.) Before the gift certificates expire, I use them toward my own book purchases. The December bonenkai will be a chance for me to give something back. At today's rates, the commissions amount to 12,422 yen total. This will be subtracted from the combined bill of graduate students who attend the pmjs bonenkai.
I hope that many of you can make it on 12/12. It is a busy time of year, I know, but also a nice time to get together. Details of where/when/what cuisine later--to those who contact me off list. Apart from a few reminders in pmjs footers, I will not trouble the list as a whole with any more messages about the planned bonenkai.
Michael Watson
UPDATE (12/03)
The bonenkai will be held in an Indian restaurant in Shinagawa
"Devi Corner"（tel 03-5793-7595)
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g198201/
12/12 from 6:30
Details from wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 22:13:41 +0900
From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] new members
In the last month, pmjs has been joined by many new members, including a number to the Japanese-language digest of pmjs:
David Aliaga <noh_east_w...@...oo.com>
I am a graduate student in the school of Informatics of Kyoto University. Although my formal education is in the area of Science (robotics) I have great interest in japanese history and literature and have studied both by my own, focusing until now on pre-tokugawa times and the end of the Heian era and in the Heike Monogatari. I am currently a member of Kyoto University Kongohkai Club of Noh, and besides have perfomed a Maybayashi based on an English text (Robert Frost-dead of a hired man). I would like to learn more.
Hu Jie 胡潔 <hu2j...@....ne.jp>
Researcher at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University
Field: Heian literature. Marriage in ancient Japan. Research on families
Publication: _Heian kizoku no kon'in shukan to Genji monogatari_ (Kasama shobo, 2001) * http://webcat.nii.ac.jp/cgi-bin/shsproc?id=BA53153171
Leo Alexander Imai <leo.i...@...ens.ox.ac.uk>
Queen's College / University of Oxford
I began my D.Phil in October 2003. I am particularly interested in the limitations of comparative literature as a discipline, and am focusing on two texts in particular: Ki no Tsurayuki's [Kanajo] and Sir Philip Sidney's [An Apology for Poetry].
Shinko Kagaya <skag...@...liams.edu>
Assistant Professor of Japanese, Department of Asian Studies, WIlliams College
Kono Kimiko 河野貴美子 <ko...@...infoweb.ne.jp>
Waseda Graduate School
Field: reception of Chinese writings (kanseki) in late Nara and early Heian periods. "Nihon ryoiki" and other setsuwa collections. Recently I have been working on Buddhist commentaries written in Japan.
Sarah Frederick <sf...@...edu>
I am an assistant professor of Japanese literature and language at Boston University. My research is in the modern period, especially serialized fiction in women's magazines, but I teach all periods of Japanese literature.
Barbara Seyock <sey...@...nline.de>
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Boechen (Germany)
Focus of research: Archaeology and early history of Korea and Japan, archaeology of the middle ages and early modern Japan, Chinese sources on early Japan, early cartography.
M.A. thesis: The Residence of Queen Himiko. Historical News and Archaeological Findings (in German)
Ph.D.thesis: Tracing the Eastern Barbarians. On the Archaeology of Protohistoric Cultures in South Korea and Western Japan (in German)
I am currently working for a project on trade relationship accross the Eastern Chinese Sea during the 15th to 19th centuries. My approach combines archaeological and historical data with the geographical focus on the Korean Straits.
homepage:
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~Barbara.Seyock/
Richard L. Wilson <rich...@....ac.jp>
I teach Japanese art and archaeology at International Christian University; my present administrative duties include director of the Japan Studies Program and chair of the Graduate School Division of Comparative Culture. My research interests include the art, archaeology, and print culture of early modern Japan. Most of my published work deals with the Edo-period ceramic designer Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743). Presently I am participating in the excavations of two Kenzan-related workshop sites in Kyoto.
The following members have sent in notice of changes in affiliation and address. Congratulations to them on their appointments.
Michael Dylan Foster <michael.fos...@....edu>
University of California, Riverside
I am an Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of California, Riverside. My research interests include both premodern and modern literature with a particular focus on folklore studies (minzokugaku) and folkloric "texts." Presently I am working on several projects that explore attempts to define, classify and interpret supernatural creatures (youkai) and phenomena--in early encyclopedias, anthropological works, art, and literature.
Shigeki Moro <s-m...@...azono.ac.jp>
Lecturer, Hanazono University
Interests: (1) East Asian Buddhism, especially focusing on the intelectual history of the Japanese Yogacara school (Hosso-shu). (2) East Asian text processing.
Publication: see http://ya.sakura.ne.jp/~moro/profile/papers.html
Sudeshna Sen <s...@...guages.utah.edu>
Department of Languages and Literature, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Assistant Professor, Classical Japanese Literature, Department of Languages and Literature, University of Utah. Research interests include performativity, nikki bungaku, concepts of the sublime, visual culture in premodern and modern Japan. Prior to my appointment I spent a year at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Japanese Studies.
Michael Watson
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 18:04:00 -0500
From: Barbara Ruch <br...@...umbia.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of pmjs <p...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] [Fwd: Wednesday, November 12th 5:30 - 7:00pm]
The Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies welcomes you to attend an
illustrated lecture by Dr. Kenkichi Ono from the National Research
Institute for Cultural Properties in Nara, Japan:
Resurrecting Lost Gardens in East Asia: A Garden Archaeologist looks at
7th-to 8th-Century Remains
Please join us in the Kent Hall Lounge (Room 403) from 5:30pm.
For further information, contact 212-854-7403.
This event is free and open to the public.
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 22:49:31 +0900
From: "Kenneth R. Robinson" <robin...@....ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: Symposium at ICU
Dear Colleagues (with apologies for cross-listing),
The Institute of Asian Cultural Studies at International Christian University will host its 23rd symposium on Saturday, December 6, 2003. While not exactly a "pre-modern" symposium, this year's event, "Modernity Made Visual: From the Late 19th Century to the Mid-20th Century," will examine imperialism, warfare, and identities through visual images. Participants and the titles of their presentations are below. We invite all with an interest in such themes to attend.
The 23rd International Christian University Institute of Asian Cultural Studies Symposium
"Modernity Made Visual: From the Late 19th Century to the Mid-20th Century"
International Christian University
Diffendorfer Memorial Hall (West Wing)
Saturday, December 6, 2003
13:00 - 18:00
Modern Japanese Art in The Yi Royal Household Art Museum: Visual Images as Ruling Strategy (in Japanese)
Lee Sungsi (Professor, Waseda University, Korean History)
Visualizing the Nation: The Far East in the Consciousness of Russians (in English or Japanese)
Yulia Mikhailova (Professor, Hiroshima City University, Japanese History)
War Art in Modern Japan: Vocabulary, Usage and Context (in Japanese)
Kawata Akihisa (Lecturer, Waseda University, Art History)
The Dilemma of Bodily Beauty: Body and Race Visualized among Elites in Meiji and Taisho Period Japan (in Japanese)
Majima Ayu (Ph.D. Candidate, ICU, Japanese History)
Discussion
Chair: Kenneth R. Robinson (ICU, Director, Institute of Asian Cultural Studies, History)
Reception to follow
Admission Free／No reservation required
Everyone interested is welcome
--
_/_/_/ Institute of Asian Cultural Studies
_/_/_/ International Christian University
_/_/_/ 3-10-2 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8585
_/_/_/ Tel: 0422-33-3179 Fax: 0422-33-3633
_/_/_/ e-mail: as...@....ac.jp
_/_/_/ http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/iacs/
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:41:04 EST
From: Smillerja...@....com
Subject: [pmjs] blind kyogen plays (zato)
Greetings, PMJS-er's!
I have a student here at Brown who is interested in looking at some translated kyogen plays with blind characters (priests?) in them. Does anyone know of any translations of this category of plays? I'm including his "prospectus" below for a paper he's writing as an FYI, if it should be useful to anyone in answering this question.
Thanks so much in advance for your help!
Stephen Miller
Brown University
The episode in the Record of Ancient Matters in which Amaterasu disappears angrily into a cave, only to be subsequently coaxed out by the laughter/applause of the gods in response to a "divine striptease," is often cited as a kind of source or reference point for Japanese drama/performance. What I think is most interesting about the story is the disappearance and reappearance of light (since Amaterasu is the sun-goddess) first as a metaphor for blindness (deformity/physical weakness) and second, stemming from the idea of blindness, as a metaphor for understanding/misunderstanding. In a critical contemplation of this tale as a point of entry into the series of kyogen plays focused on blindness, I hope to draw together some observations on the importance of dance as somehow revealing (the striptease itself, the lure of performance which brings back the ligtht) and thus necessary; and perhaps to use the associations between natural behavior (the tale is generally taken to be a "naive" explanation for solar eclipse) and comedy, or artificial/performed behavior (the dance), to show to what degree kyogen manifests Shinto values, and to what degree it manifests Buddhist values (perhaps in its very satire of them). It might sound ridiculous, but I think there are possibilities, in particular with the blindness/sight as ignorance/understanding metaphor.
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:58:37 +0900
From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: blind kyogen plays (zato)
The pmjs translation database lists the main collections of kyogen translations.
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/trans/trans_jk.html#Kyogen
Japanese titles are listed in most cases. The plot summaries in Don Kenny's _A Guide to Kyogen_ will be a help in identifying which plays have blind characters. Kenny lists plays in alphabetical order of the Japanese titles.
Michael Watson
P.S. The translation database has been extensively revised for publication--we are just sending off the second proofs today. The printed version comes to some seventy pages and includes many items not yet incorporated in the online version. The web pages will be revised next. As ever, suggestions and comments are very welcome.
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 02:30:31 +0000
From: Robert Khan <...@...con.co.uk>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: blind kyogen plays (zato); also: Kesa & Morito
Two translated plays that appeared in Carolyn Haynes' list circulated to her students back in 1990 are:
'Saru-zato' in Sakanishi, 'Japanese Folk-Plays', 1938, (rpt.1960) as 'Sarugai Koto'; and in Sadler, 'Japanese Plays', 1934.
'Tsukimi-zato' in Kenny, 'The Kyogen Book', 1989; Laurence Bresler's Columbia MA Thesis (1970); and Sieffert's 'No et Kyogen', 1979 (into French).
I expect some others will have appeared by now.
PS Back in 2000 this list had an interesting thread regarding the sources of the 'Kesa & Morito' story found in the Akutagawa short story and the film 'Jigokumon', among other modern works. Does anyone know if a translation of the Genpei Josuiki episode has appeared anywhere since then? We have nearly finished reading the Genpei Josuiki episode in a bungo class of mine, and it does make an interesting comparison with the well-known Konjaku-Akutagawa-Kurosawa 'Rashomon' sequence.
Robert Khan
University of Durham
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 22:50:36 +0900
From: Marc Peter Keane <i...@...eane.com>
Subject: [pmjs] Chilly renga
A question from a new member.
I am looking for articles that address the aesthetics of "chill" (hie) and "withered" (kareru) in renga poetry with an eye to how those aesthetics were transferred to wabi-cha. Would anyone know of informative materials (in Japanese or English) that address this issue?
In particular, is there a good article that gives one a sense of what was considered to be chill and withered within the medieval poetry?
All for now.
Marc Keane
--
The Office of Marc Peter Keane
209 White Park Road
Ithaca NY 14850-2260
USA
i...@...eane.com
http://www.mpkeane.com
http://www.t-house.info/
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 5:55 +0900
From: Marceau Lawrence <lmarc...@...l.Edu>
Subject: [pmjs] One-year position in Japanese language & literature, U of Delaware
Please note the following announcement. Many apologies for cross-posting.
University of Delaware, Assistant Professor of Japanese, Foreign Languages & Literatures
One-year full-time replacement, non-renewable, beginning September 1, 2004. Required are completed Ph.D. by the time of appointment, and native or near-native fluency in both Japanese and English. Specialization Japanese literature, civilization/culture. Incumbent will be prepared to teach Japanese language courses at all levels as well as literature and civilization/culture/film courses in Japanese and in translation. Participation in the University's East Asian Studies Program is expected; record of excellence in language teaching desirable. Send letter of interest including telephone numbers and e-mail address, curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation by January 1, 2004 to Japanese Search Committee, Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, University of Delaware, Newark,DE 19716-2550. The curriculum vitae and letters of reference shall be shared with departmental faculty.
The University of Delaware is an Equal Opportunity Employer which encourages applications from Minority Group Members and Women.
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 09:26:52 EST
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 16:39:12 -0500
From: "Ramirez-Christensen, E" <...@...ch.edu>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: Chilly renga
Re "chilly" renga, if you look at my book, Heart's Flower: The Life and
Poetry of Shinkei (Stanford, 1994), there's an index entry under "cold"
that will point you to sections that discuss hie-yase, Shinkei's most
important contribution to medieval aesthetics and wabicha. I discuss
Shinkei's aesthetics directly in my Emptiness and Temporality ms., but
that's not out yet. Hope this helps. --Esperanza
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 17:50:30 +0900
From: "Dennis Hirota" <dhir...@...kushi-u.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: Chilly renga
You might find the following book of interest:
Dennis Hirota. Wind in the Pines: Classic Writings of the Way of Tea as a
Buddhist Path. Fremont: Asian Humanities Press, 1995. 384pp.
It attempts to take up precisely the question you raise, and considers the
practice elements of renga and chanoyu as well as the background of Buddhist
thought. It also includes translations of some Shinkei material that had
direct influence on chanoyu.
The book is listed on Amazon, but paperback copies (2500 yen) can be
mail-ordered from:
Butten Honyaku-bu
Ryukoku University
Shichijo Omiya
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8268
hony...@....ryukoku.ac.jp
An invoice and postal form will be included.
Dennis Hirota
dhir...@...kushi-u.ac.jp
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 21:09:21 -0500
From: Lawrence Marceau <lmarc...@...l.Edu>
Subject: [pmjs] Tenure Track Position in J History, U of Delaware
Apologies for cross-listings.
Lawrence Marceau
Assistant Professor, Japanese History, History
DEADLINE: January 16, 2004
Position will begin September 1, 2004.
The University of Delaware seeks to fill a tenure-track assistant professor in Japanese history. REQUIREMENTS: A Ph.D. in hand by the starting date is required. DUTIES: A strong candidate will demonstrate interests that are cross-cultural or comparative in nature as well as the ability to teach world history. CONTACT: Please send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference to Professor Howard Johnson, Chair, Japanese Search Committee, Department of History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-2547. The curriculum vitae and letters of reference shall be shared with departmental faculty.
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 15:19:16 +0100
From: judi...@...ssonline.ch
Subject: [pmjs] Vacancy, University of Zurich
Dear all,
I would like to make you aware of the following vacancy at the University of Zurich.
Judith Froehlich
University of Zurich
The Department of East-Asian Studies seeks to appoint a professor of Japanese studies. The position will commence October 1, 2005.
Requirements include teaching experience in the modern and classical Japanese language as well as text analytical (philological) research competencies. Moreover, candidates are expected to have a proved research agenda in one main disciplinary and research area as well as publications in a further field.
The deadline for applications is December 19, 2003.
Please send applications with the usual materials (only index of works) to:
Universitaet Zurich
Dekanat der Philosophischen Fakultaet
Raemistrasse 71
CH-8006 Zurich
Switzerland
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2003 13:45:18
From: mostow joshua <jmos...@...l.ac.jp>
Subject: [pmjs] Job opening
University of British Columbia
The Dept. of Asian Studies seeks to appoint an assistant professor (tenure
track) of Japanese literature. The position will commence January 1, 2005,
and is subject to final budgetary approval. Period and specialty are open,
but preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate strong
competence in a secondary skill such as film, visual culture, popular
culture, theory, gender studies, and so on. Requirements include an earned
doctorate, an outstanding research agenda, a commitment to excellence in
scholarship reflected in published or forthcoming works, and native or
near-native fluency in Japanese. A complete application will consist of a
letter of application describing one's research interests, one's resume or
cv, complete transcripts of one's university-level education, and three
letters of reference. The deadline for applications is February 1. Please
mail materials (or have them sent) to Chair, Japanese Literature Search
Committee, Dept. of Asian Studies, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z2. Electronic submissions may be made to
asia.ad...@...s.ubc.ca. UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to
employment equity. We welcome applications from all qualified persons;
however, Canadians and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.
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