June 10th-June 22nd 2013
The University of Chicago’s Committee on Japanese Studies sponsored the 2013 Summer Workshop: Reading Kuzushiji. Led by Professor Suzuki Jun of the National Institute of Japanese Literature (Kokubungaku Kenkyū Shiryōkan), the workshop was devoted to reading Japanese block-printed texts that take the form of reproduced handwriting.
There were three hours of instruction (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) by Professor Suzuki on weekdays from June 10th to June 21st at the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. Participants also visited the collection of Edo-period illustrated books at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History. The workshop concluded with an informal symposium on June 22nd in which Prof. Suzuki and other invited guests presented on their research.
Texts for this workshop included Eiri Gengi Kokagami (An Illustrated Small Mirror of Genji, late 17th century), Keisei Ehon (Album of Courtesans, c. 1700), and Sanjuni-so Sugata Kurabe: Jōchū Kyōkun Shina Sadame (Competition of the Thirty-Two Characteristics in [Women’s] Figures: Instructive Comments for Women, 1717), among others.
