Winter 2008 Winter 2008 Now Available from Center for Japanese Studies Publications
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Center for Japanese Studies DENSHO Center for Japanese Studies University of Michigan University of Michigan Winter 2008 Winter 2008 Now Available from Center for Japanese Studies Publications From the Director From the Executive Editor CONTENTS CJS’s mission for promoting research on Japan for the One of our new publications, The From the has three elements: next generation of scholars – including the Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Librarian 2 the Center “pro- groups of high-schoolers studying Japanese Essays and Fiction from Seitô, 1911-16, by motes and dissemi- who attend each year. Jan Bardsley [Michigan Monograph Series nates research on Three of our most public events in in Japanese Studies No. 60, 2007, xii + 308 Japan, fosters com- recent years have been initiated by Markus pp., 7 illustrations, ISBN 9781929280445 munication among Nornes (Screen Arts & Cultures and Asian (cloth), $70.00; ISBN 9781929280452 diverse disciplines, Languages & Cultures): a series of events (paper), $26.00], introduces English-lan- End of the Long Hot Summer – and encourages new associated with the visit of director Kiju guage readers to a formative chapter in the Remembering approaches in the understanding of Japan Yoshida and actress Mariko Okada, a The Bluestockings of Japan: Mishima on Stage: The Black history of Japanese feminism by presenting Edward and its place in the world.” Lately I have Public Conversation with Kazuo Hara and for the first time in English translation a Seidensticker, New Woman Essays and Fiction Lizard & Other Plays 1921-2007 2 been especially gratified by the Center’s Michael Moore, and, most recently, a series from Seitô, 1911-16 Edited and with an introduction collection of writings from Seitô by Jan Bardsley by Laurence Kominz efforts in fulfilling the first prong – promot- of events involving actress Kaori Momoi. (Bluestockings), the famed New Women’s Foreword by Donald Keene ing and disseminating research on Japan. Each of these events has brought the study journal of the 1910s. Launched in 1911 as We promote and disseminate research of Japanese film to broad audiences that a venue for women’s literary expression in three primary ways. First, our included faculty, students, and researchers and replete with poetry, essays, plays, and Publications Program, headed by Executive as well as non-academics who were inter- stories, Seitô soon earned the disapproval Editor Bruce Willoughby and directed by ested, or at least curious, in Japan, culture, of civic leaders, educators, and even promi- Past CJS Events 4 Hitomi Tonomura (History), is committed to and film. I’m proud that our Center can nent women’s rights advocates. Journalists DENSHO producing important work by Japan schol- use events like these to dismantle the joined these leaders in ridiculing the Upcoming ars around the world. The recent catalog potential stuffiness of Ivory-Tower acade- Bluestockings as self-indulgent, literature- CJS Events 6 includes electronic publications and books mia while at the same time “actively pro- loving, saké-drinking, cigarette-smoking Faculty and on women’s Heian-Era memoirs, noh, ani- moting and disseminating research on tarts who toyed with men. Yet many young Associate News 7 mals in Japanese history and culture, and Japan.” Thanks to all of you – staff, stu- women and men delighted in the Student & one of my personal favorites, Tom Conlan’s dents, faculty, and a horde of volunteers – Bluestockings’ rebellious stance and paid Center for Japanese Studies Alumni News 7 University of Michigan fascinating State of War: The Violent Order for making these events happen. serious attention to their exploration of the Suite 3640, 1080 S. University of Fourteenth-Century Japan. Finally, the Center recently said good- “Woman Question,” their calls for women’s Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 Second, our faculty write and lecture bye to our administrator, Yuri Fukazawa. I independence, and their debates on on a diverse range of cutting-edge topics, was unable to convince Yuri, who moved women’s work, sexuality, and identity. such as Jennifer Robertson’s (Anthropology) away from Ann Arbor, that a daily 160- Hundreds read the journal and many study of robots, Maki Fukuoka’s (Asian mile one-way commute is perfectly accept- women felt inspired to contribute their own Announcements 8 Languages & Cultures) research on the use able. (Several of us actually tried to make essays and stories. of images in the Nineteenth and Twentieth that argument with a straight face.) Yuri is The seventeen Seitô pieces collected in Calendar 10 Century, and Michael Fetters’s (Family an amazing, dedicated, and thoughtful this book represent some of the journal’s Medicine) work on medical issues such as administrator – and on top of all of that an most controversial writing; four of these doctor-patient communication – all with a absolutely wonderful person. I rarely publications provoked either a strong repri- focus on Japan. attempt to speak for all of CJS, but I am mand or an outright ban on an entire issue Third, the Center actively promotes fairly confident that I am doing so when I by government censors. All consider topics and disseminates research through a vari- say that we will all miss Yuri. important in debates on feminism to this ety of free events aimed at both the aca- day such as sexual harassment, abortion, demic community and the public at large. Mark D. West, Director romantic love and sexuality, motherhood, One of our larger – and yes, free – events and the meaning of gender equality. aimed at a broad audience is our annual continued on page 9 Mochitsuki, which now attracts nearly 600 visitors. The Mochitsuki is a wonderful tool From the Librarian Center for Japanese Studies University of Michigan In this issue, I would like to discuss two main topics. Winter 2008 The first involves the changes that the Asia Library has experienced as a result of the “Google Project.” This project has gained substantial notice both here and abroad and has prompted invitations to speak at various venues. Last spring, I was invited to be a panelist on the Japanese Language Materials sub-committee of the Council of East End of the Long Hot Summer — Remembering Edward Seidensticker, 1921-2007 Asian Libraries (CEAL) at the AAS meeting in Boston. In Anyone associated with CJS published widely in English and Japanese. addition, I was also invited to join the panel of the Japanese in the decade or so from the People knew when he was in his office Academic Resources of the Japanese Studies Association of late 1960s to the late by the clatter of his manual typewriter, sig- Australia (JSAA) at the Australian National University in 1970s would probably naling that he was at work on yet another Canberra back in late June and early July. have known, without essay or translation. In eleven years at It is evident by these invitations that not only the U.S., being told, what the Michigan, Seidensticker published ten but also the rest of the world is interested in the project and title of the first noon translations of modern Japanese short what U-M’s Asia Library, as a forerunner of the project, has lecture of the fall term stories and about twenty-five articles in to say about it. Recent updates to the project include digiti- was going to be and English on subjects ranging from the who was going to give Japanese concept of “pure” literature to zation of: 18,123 Chinese language materials; 16,217 it. The title was invari- U.S.-Japan relations. He also published Japanese language materials; and 1,000 Korean language ably “The Long Hot five book-length translations during this materials. At present, all of the BUHR library holdings (2.5 Summer” and the speaker was time: The Tale of Genji (1976), Mishima’s million volumes) are completed and the project is moving to the University of Michigan’s own The Decay of the Angel (1974), and three other libraries on campus. People with questions about how Edward Seidensticker, professor of Japanese literature, who had just works by Kawabata, House of the Sleeping to access or use these digitized resources from their person- returned from a summer (if not longer) in Japan. Beauties (1969), The Sound of the al computers should contact me ([email protected]) or Perry Each year’s “Long Hot Summer” lecture, delivered without Mountain (1970), and The Master of Go Willett ([email protected]). For more information on the notes to a standing-room-only crowd in the basement seminar room (1973). His research brought visibility to Google Project, visit http://www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/. This is of Lane Hall, began as a weather report before moving on to a high- the University as well. There was much Edward Seidensticker’s typewriter and a part of his frog collection. an ongoing project with new developments each day, so I ly personal summary of the latest political, cultural, and sports news rejoicing in Ann Arbor in 1968 when encourage you to take advantage of it. from Japan. Seidensticker, who had lived at least part of every year Seidensticker went to Stockholm with for that part of Tokyo called Shitamachi surrounded by banks of chrysanthemums, The second topic of interest in this issue is related to in Tokyo since 1948, was one of the few non-Japanese who knew Kawabata for the Nobel Prize awards, (Low City), an area beautifully evoked in the organizers had arranged an alcove with Japan intimately. Since he was also a man of strong opinions and and again in 1970 when his Sound of the his history of early Tokyo, Low City, High a low hillock of greenery interspersed with The Gordon W.