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SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES RCAnnual JReview SOAS JAPAN RESEarCH CENTRE September 2009 - August 2010 Issue No 60 SOAS STUDYING AT SOAS The international environment and cosmopolitan character of the School make student life a challenging, rewarding and exciting experience. We welcome students from more than 100 countries, and more than 35% of them are from outside the UK. The SOAS Library has more than 1.2 million items and extensive electronic resources. It is the national library the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East and attracts scholars all over the world. SOAS offers a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees. Students can choose from more than 300 undergraduate degree combinations and from more than 80 postgraduate programmes (taught and distance learning) in the social sciences, humanities and languages with a distinctive regional focus and global relevance, taught by world-renowned teachers in specialist faculties. The School is consistently ranked among The School of Oriental and African Studies the top higher education institutions in the (SOAS) is a college of the University of London UK and the world. The School’s academic and the only Higher Education institution in excellence has also been recognised in the UK specialising in the study of Asia, Africa research assessment exercises (RAEs). and the Near and Middle East. SOAS offers a friendly, vibrant environment SOAS is a remarkable institution. Uniquely right in the buzzing heart of London with combining language scholarship, disciplinary the capital’s rich cultural and social life on its expertise and regional focus, it has the larg- doorstep . est concentration in Europe of academic staff www.soas.ac.uk concerned with Africa, Asia and the Middle East. School of Oriental and African Studies On the one hand, this means that SOAS remains University of London a guardian of specialised knowledge in lan- Thornhaugh Street guages and periods and regions not available Russell Square anywhere else in the UK. On the other hand, it London WC1H 0XG means that SOAS scholars grapple with press- ing issues - democracy, development, human Tel: +44 (0)20 7637 2388 rights, identity, legal systems, poverty, reli- Fax: +44 (0)20 7436 3844 gion, social change - confronting two-thirds of humankind. We welcome you to become part of the SOAS experience and invite you to learn This makes SOAS synonymous with intellectu- more about us by exploring our website. al excitement and achievement. It is a global academic base and a crucial resource for Lon- www.soas.ac.uk/admissions/ don. We live in a world of shrinking borders www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/ and of economic and technological simulta- neity. Yet it is also a world in which difference SOAS Library and regionalism present themselves acutely. Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4163 It is a world that SOAS is distinctively posi- Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 4159 tioned to analyse, understand and explain. Web: www.soas.ac.uk/library/ 2 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR CONTENTS It has been another busy year for the Japan Research Centre, not least in terms of com- ing and going. A number of colleagues have CONTENTS been on leave in Japan and elsewhere, but we were joined by Dr Chris Gerteis, as Lecturer 4 Centre Members in Contemporary Japanese History, and are 5 Members News happy to report that Dr Satoshi Miyamura has been appointed as the Japan Foundation 9 News Lecturer in the Economy of Japan. We are 10 Events 2009-10 also fortunate in having a substantial number 12 Reports of Research Associates and Visiting Scholars, who do much to enrich our programmes. 22 Honorary Appointments 27 SISJAC Fellows Our weekly seminars remain the core of our activities, which this year have ranged from 29 Research Students Buddhist ritual to J-horror and Japanese lac- 30 Awards & Grants quer to NYK. 34 Join the Centre The highlight, as ever, was our two annual lectures, made possible by the generosity of our donors. We were honoured to welcome Reverend Nakajima, the Chief Priest of Meiji Jingu, for the Meiji Jingu Autumn lecture at the beginning of the autumn term. Professor Sepp Linhart of the University of Vienna spoke about the mutual reception of popular music in Japan and the West, liberally illustrating his talk with striking musical examples. We were also delighted that Professor James McClain, of Brown University, agreed to give the Annual Tsuda Lecture in February, not least because he is an old friend of Mrs Tsuda and her husband. Professor Brown gave a wide-ranging talk on the significance of the middle-class in twentieth-century Japan, focusing on Tokyo, the changing lifestyles in the city over the course of the last century and how they might prompt us to reconsider our ideas about modern Japan. We are increasingly supplementing our weekly seminars with a range of other activities. This last year saw a number of workshops, on comparing London and Tokyo, on Minakata Kuma- gusu’s time in London, and on shunga in its social and cultural context. We have also hosted a number of performances of kabuki, noh and shinnai and a couple of film screenings, the first of a recent documentary on the problem of unemployment in Japan, the second on the life of Beate Sirota Gordon. We were delighted that Ms Sirota Gordon could join us for the latter event. This year promises to be as busy as ever. We will be hosting the triennial conference of the British Association for Japanese Studies this September, followed by a second workshop on shunga, organized by Professor Drew Gerstle as part of a long-term project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. In November, Dr Gerteis is organizing a workshop on postwar Japan, which will include a number of speakers from Japan and the United States. We look forward to seeing you in the coming year. Angus LOCKYER Chair, Japan Research Centre 3 JRC MEMBERS Professor Timothy H BARRETT Ms Misako KANEHISA Mr Satoshi MIYAMURA Professor of East Asian History Lector in Japanese Teaching Fellow in Economics Department of the Study of Religions Department of the Languages and Cultures Department of Economics [email protected] of Japan and Korea [email protected] [email protected] Dr John L BREEN Dr Barbara PIZZICONI Reader in Japanese Mrs Miwako KASHIWAGI Senior Lecturer in Applied Department of the Languages and Cultures Lector in Japanese Japanese Linguistics of Japan and Korea Department of the Languages and Cultures Department of the Languages and Cultures [email protected] of Japan and Korea of Japan and Korea [email protected] [email protected] Dr John CARPENTER Reader in the History of Japanese Art Dr Griseldis KIRSCH Dr Nicole ROUSMANIERE Head of London Office, Sainsbury Institute Lecturer in Contemporary Director, Sainsbury Institute for the study for the Study of Japanese Arts Japanese Culture of Japanese Arts and Cultures and Cultures Department of the Languages and Cultures (Honorary Lecturer) Department of the History of Art & Archaeology of Japan and Korea Department of the History of Art [email protected] [email protected] and Archaeology [email protected] Mr Alan CUMMINGS Dr Mika KIZU Teaching Fellow in Japanese Lecturer in Japanese Ms Sonja RUEHL Department of the Languages and Cultures Department of the Languages and Cultures Deputy Director (Distance Learning), of Japan and Korea of Japan and Korea Department of Financial and [email protected] [email protected] Management Studies Department of Financial and Management Dr Stephen H DODD Ms Fujiko KOBAYASHI Studies Senior Lecturer in Japanese Librarian (Japan and Korea) [email protected] Department of the Languages and Cultures Library and Information Services of Japan and Korea [email protected] Professor Timon SCREECH [email protected] Professor of the History of Art Dr Yuka KOBAYASHI Department of the History of Art Dr Lucia DOLCE Lecturer in China and International Politics and Archaeology Senior Lecturer in Japanese Religion Department of Politics and International Studies [email protected] and Japanese [email protected] Chair, Centre for the Study of Professor Peter SELLS Japanese Religions Professor Costas LAPAVITSAS Professor of Linguistics Department of the Study of Religions Professor of Economics Department of Linguistics [email protected] Department of Economics [email protected] [email protected] Professor Andrew GERSTLE Dr Isolde STANDISH Professor of Japanese Studies Dr Angus LOCKYER Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies Department of the Languages and Cultures Lecturer in the History of Japan Centre for Media and Film Studies of Japan and Korea Chair, Japan Research Centre [email protected] [email protected] Department of History [email protected] Mrs Kazumi TANAKA Dr Chris GERTEIS Senior Lector in Japanese Lecturer in History of Contemporary Japan Dr Helen MACNAUGHTON Department of the Languages and Cultures Department of History Lecturer in International Business of Japan and Korea [email protected] and Management (Japan) [email protected] Department of Financial and Management Dr Noriko IWASAKI Studies Ms Yoshiko YASUMURA Lecturer in Language Pedagogy [email protected] Librarian (Art and Music) Department of Linguistics Library and Information Services [email protected] Dr Dolores P MARTINEZ [email protected] Reader in Anthropology with reference to Japan Department of Anthropology and Sociology [email protected] 4 MEMBERS NEWS Travels, Talks & Publications John BREEN John T. CARPENTER Steve DODD Steve attended the 25-28 March 2010 John is coming to the end of his 2nd year at During the 2009-10 academic year John has AAS conference at Philadelphia. He was Nichibunken in Kyoto. It has been a good been based in Japan as a Visiting Professor in a discussant for a panel entitled, “Material year, not least because he got to see quite a the Department of Cultural Resource Stud- Objects in Postwar Japanese Literature.” few SOAS academics out in Kyoto as well as ies at the University of Tokyo.