The 2014 Reading Kuzushiji Workshop will take place June 16-20. It is open to students and faculty with a working knowledge of classical Japanese and hentaigana. Our instructor will be Professor Aratake Kenichiro of Tohoku University’s Center for Northeast Asian Studies. Professor Aratake, who received his Ph.D from Kansai University in 2004, is a social historian whose research focuses on urban history and the development of trade routes and market economies. This year, we will be reading both print and manuscript materials. The workshop will culminate with an informal symposium on June 21st (see below for details) at which Prof. Aratake will present on his own research. We invite participants, as well, to present their work.
The workshop is funded by the Committee on Japanese Studies at the University of Chicago and is offered free of charge. For those accepted into the workshop, a $100 program fee (payable by check to The University of Chicago) will be assessed to cover the cost of workshop materials and a box lunch each day. Participants are expected to make their own arrangements for travel to and from Chicago, and are responsible for lodging, meals and ancillary expenses for the duration of their stay. Students and faculty coming from institutions unable to fund their participation may apply for modest financial support.
Kuzushiji Symposium
Date: June 21 (Saturday), 2014, 9:00am-12:30pm
Location: John Hope Franklin Room (Room 224, 1126 E.59th street, Chicago, IL)
- Keynote Speech: Aratake Ken’ichirō (Associate Professor, Tohoku University, History): “Reading Society through Merchant’s Diary: Local History and Japanese History (商人の日記から社会を読む―地域史と「日本史」をつなぐ―.)”
Supernatural Edo: Deities, Monsters, and Miracles (Chair: Susan Burns)
- Nobuko Toyosawa (Post-Doctoral Scholar, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago,) “Creating the Past: Fusō meishozu (Illustrated Scenic Japan, 1713-28) and the Country of the Deities.”
- Michael Toole (PhD Student, Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison) “Exterminating the Monstrous Body: Illegibility and Embodiment in Momotarō mukashigatari.”
- Susan Burns (Associate Professor, History, University of Chicago) “The 8 Year-Old Mother and the Politics of a Miraculous Birth in Late Tokugawa Japan.”
Reporting Japan: Media, Newspapers, Prints, and Geography (Chair: Nobuko Toyosawa)
- Michelle Damian (PhD Candidate, History, University of Southern California) “A Geographic Analysis of Medieval Maritime Trade on the Seto Inland Sea.”
- Maria March (Independent Scholar) “Newspapers and Sumo: Tracing the Invisible Forces that Shaped Japan’s National Sport.”
- Chelsea Foxwell (Assistant Professor, Art History, University of Chicago) “To Hell with the Restoration: Mantei Oga’s Odontaku shinbun kidan (大鈍託新聞鬼談, 1872年) and News Images in the Early Meiji.”
- Anna Pushakova (Museum Curator of Chinese and Japanese Papers, The State Museum of Oriental Art, Russia) “Japanese Woodblock Print Collection from The State Museum of Oriental Art (Russia, Moscow): a Brief Overview.”
