This website is under development. Please be patient. /PY
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Informasia #10, October 14, 2024 ~John Tofflemire
“Nakasendo Road: Getting in Touch with Japanese History”
Vimeo link to John Tofflemire's talk + Q&A: posted by Tuesday morning
Yabe Residence, Okegawa Juku
• Constructed in 1905 by Yabe Gosaburo
• Building is a mixed warehouse/residence
• Yabe Gosaburo was the 6th generationfamily head. Family was a grain and safflower wholesaler.
Details soon. Tofflemire will be describing his long walks, especially during the Covid Tokyo lockdown, of the shitomachi areas in Tokyo and nearby. Dig out your walking shoes and stay tuned!
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Informasia #9, September 16, 2024 ~David Burleigh
"Bernard Leach, Japan and Myself
− A book and a recollection−"Vimeo link to David Burleigh's talk + Q&A:
https://vimeo.com/1010023636
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Informasia #8, August 18, 2024 ~Patrick W. Galbraith
“Ethnographic Observationsof Otaku Sociality,
2004-2024"Vimeo link to Patrick w. Galbraith's talk + Q&A: post meeting!
https://vimeo.com/1000360075
Galbraith has conducted ethnographic research of the easy-to-dismiss otaku/geek fictional world for twenty years. Let's dig in! Grab your favourite "moe" pillow and join Informasia on Zoom. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613
Informasia #7, July 15, 2024 ~Robert Morton
“Josiah Conder (1852-1920): Father of Modern Japanese Architecture ”
Vimeo link to Robert Morton's talk + Q&A
https://vimeo.com/984717680?share=copy
Another phenomenal biography by Morton about an Englishman in the Meiji Reformation times in Japan. Conder left his mark, even if only in memory of the Asakusa Rokumeikan.
An overview of Conder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Conder_(architect)
Informasia #6, June 17, 2024 ~Alex Byrne
“The World of Japanese Crêpe Paper Books ”
Vimeo link to Alex Byrne's talk + Q&A:
https://vimeo.com/960304858
Informasia #5, May 20, 2024 ~Thomas Larkin
“The China Firm: American Elites and the Making ofBritish Colonial Society ”
Vimeo link to Alex Byrne's talk + Q&A:
https://vimeo.com/948469901?share=copy
Informasia #4, April 15, 2024 ~ Joel Littler
“Miyazaki Tōten: Beyond the Chinese Revolution”
Vimeo link to Joel Littler's talk. It is 1-hour 37-minutes long.
Please give it a like and a comment if you are so inclined.
https://vimeo.com/935138363?share=copy
Joel Littler discussed both the journal article on naniwabushiand his chapter in the edited volume ‘Re-Opening the Opening of Japan’ (October
2023), in which he discusses Miyazaki Tōten’s attempts to form a farming
community in Siam in the 1890s.Informasia #3, March 18, 2024 ~ Darren Swanson
“Scottish Sojourners inMeiji Japan: A. C. Sim and
James Murdoch”Vimeo link to Darren Swanson's talk. It is 1-hour 49-minutes long.
Please give it a like and a comment if you are so inclined.
https://vimeo.com/924597424?share=copyWe had 31 participants from around the planet.
Darren Swanson will focus on two influential Scots who made their mark on Japan.
The first, Alexander Cameron Sim (1840), a druggist andpart-time athlete was instrumental in nurturing modern sporting activities in the port of Kobe through his stewardship of the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club. Sim was also active as a humanitarian volunteer during times of natural disaster, whose efforts earned him the respect of the Japanese people, including the then Emperor.
The second, James Murdoch, was a Scottish journalistand Orientalist scholar considered to be the first to attempt to write a complete history of Japan in English.Dr. Swanson's research focuses on the foreignexperience in Japan, particularly in the treaty port of Kobe during the Meiji era (1868-1912). More recently, his attention has shifted to Scottish sojourners and long-term residents of Japan, and their impact on the development of modern Japan. In recognition of his efforts in celebrating the longstanding connection between Scotland and Japan, he received the Scottish Samurai award in 2019.
Murdoch worked for many years in Japan before becomingthe University of Sydney, and Australia’s, first Chair of Japanese Studies in 1917.
Darren Swanson's profile at Central Queensland University in Sydney, Australia:https://staff-profiles.cqu.edu.au/home/view/23056
Informasia is a congenial platform for academic research presentations concerning Japan in particular and Asia more broadly.
Informasia meets on Zoom every third Monday of the month. The Zoom session opens at 6:30 pm. and the presentation/lecture begins 7:00 p.m. JST, with questions and commentary from our international audience.
Informasia is tracking the footsteps of Peter Orosz (July 2023 Informasia speaker), who is approaching the end of his longest and final long walk through Japan.
Follow his daily photographic observations on: https://glass.photo/ilovewastingink
Current location: Somewhere in Kyushu.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
Temporarily stuck with the empty spaces below. Will repair this tomorrow. /py
Informasia #2, February 19, 2024
Lance Gatling
“Meiji Japan 101: What I wish I'd known before - a brief introduction”
Vimeo video link: https://vimeo.com/914576599?share=copy
How did the Meiji government develop modern Japan?
Topics to explore: Opening Japan, New government, Education, Military, Imperial Army and Navy, Hokkaido, Social engineering.
Industrialization: targeted technologies, company challenges, factory girls, Bunmei kaika, Warfare Diplomacy. Scorecard: how'd we do?
Lance Gatling's website: https://kanochronicles.com/Informasia #1, January 15, 2024
Charles De Wolf
"Genji Monogatari and La Divina Commedia: A Tale of Two Monuments, Compared and Contrasted"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/903242812?share=copy
Abstract
Great literary works come both to embody the specific cultures in which they appear and, in varying degrees, to have a broad impact beyond their immediate temporal, geographic, and linguistic boundaries. One thinks of the Bhagavad Gita, the four classic Chinese novels, including Xīyóujì (Journey to the West), of Molière, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Tolstoy...The list goes on...In this talk, I shall discuss both the impact, national and international, of the works of Murasaki Shikubu and Dante Alighiera, and contrast their perhaps surprising similarities with their not so surprising differences.
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Informasia #12, December 18, 2023 ~ Sven Saaler (Professor of Modern Japanese History at Sophia University in Tokyo)
"Public Statuary and Nationalism in Modern and Contemporary Japan”
Vimeo video: available post-lecture
Abstract
In recent years we have seen a worldwide increase in debates surrounding memorials that celebrate historical personalities. In the United States, statues of generals who commanded the troops of the Confederacy in the Civil War (1861-65) have been demolished or strongly criticized as inappropriate . . .
Informasia #11, November 20, 2023 ~ Caitlin Coker (Hokkaido University)
"Privileged/Othered Bodies in Japan- what can our bodies do?”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/886427803
Abstract
I have researched physical performance- mainly Ankoku Butoh and poledance- in Japan since 2006. As an anthropologist, firsthand experience of dancingand performing together with people is one way I attempt to understand different movement practices. As I researched and attended graduate school with Kyoto as my base, my research had always been encouraged by others, and my presence- an English-speaking white female foreigner- had been, for the most part, embraced warmly.
It was not until I received a tenured position at a national universityin Japan that I became the target of sexual and racial harassment. This harassment reveals my vulnerable position in this society, and most of all, suggests that my own female body’s presence in my research is taboo.
Starting with my own experience, I want to think more deeply about how the intersection of gender, race, physicality, and sensuality shape our lives in Japanese society. I also want to approach this positionality as a source of possibilities for what our bodies can do; in my case, I am experimenting withthe integration of dance as a way of thinking, a movement praxis, in the university classroom.
After my talk, I would love to hear abouteveryone’s experiences of living and working in Japan and how you all understand these experiences.Informasia #10, October 20, 2023 ~ Robert Hellyer
"Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Tea Cups"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/874938388?share=copy
Abstract
As a historian of early modern and modern Japan, Robert Hellyer's talk will no doubt be based on his explorations of "not only a social and commodity history of tea in the United States and Japan, but also new insights into how national customs have profound if often hidden international dimensions."
The book link: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/green-with-milk-and-sugar/9780231199100
Robert Hellyer is a Professor of History at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He is in Kyoto at the moment, on sabbatical. More details forthcoming.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 18, 2023~ Jeri Foley
“Art, Architecture, Film & Fashion: How Japan and the West captivated each other’s imagination through design”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/865719391?share=copy
Abstract
Japan and the west influenced each other's arts, from their earliestencounters, including Monet, Hokusai, Van Gogh, Hiroshige, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mizoguchi, Louis Vuitton,and even Betty Boop. How were some of the most famous names and characters of the art anddesign world either influential or influenced (some subtlety, othersdramatically) by the introduction?
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 21, 2023~ Mark Rosa
“The Native Writing of Okinawa’s Further Isles”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/856587683?share=copy
Abstract
Consider this question: Long before the Ryukyu Kingdom was absorbed into Japan, how did the far-flung islanders communicate? For instance, what was Yonaguni's native
language, and the native "kaida" writing system?- What do these languages sound like?
- History behind the development of partial writing.
- Coming of Japanese school system in 1885.
- 1910s-1930s writers start commenting that only older people can still write these characters
Also, decifering a short, one-page document discovered in the National Ethnology Museum in Osaka.Publications
Newly-Discovered Paper Records in Kaida Writing (2010)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27573Paper Records Containing Okinawan Kaida Characters (2016)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27425https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
A congenial academic space for learning and sharing about Japan and Asia.PLEASE NOTE INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613
Informasia #7, July 17, 2023 ~ Peter Orosz
"Take a Hike!: Walking from Wakkanai to Rambling the Ryukyus"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/845901347?share=copy
E-mail: peter@ilovewasting.ink
Website: https://ilovewasting.ink
Abstract
In progress: It is now almost certain that I will be going back to Japan in late summer to pick up the line of my grand walk around the country
on September 15, in Wakkanai, with the goal of making it full circle to Kagoshima then going on to the end of the Ryukyus.This journey is what I wish to talk about in July.
I will be putting together my talk next week and will most likely have a lot of questions by the end of the week. / Peter Orosz
Zoom provides international access.https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613 (no password). THIS IS INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 19, 2023 ~ Rob Barnard
"A Search for Relevance: Why traditional crafts are important in modern culture”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/837559464?share=copy
E-mail: barnard0311@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rob.barnard.7355
Instagram: rob_barnard_pottery
Website: www.rob-barnard.comAbstract
Rob Barnard’s book, A Search for Relevance, collects previously published essays that chronicle the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that helped
confirm his perception that pottery is capable of expressing the same kind of serious thoughts and feelings found in all other forms of art.
These articles act as a public diary of his personal search for relevance as a potter in contemporary Western society.Rob will be talking about what led him to Japan, his studies with Yagi Kazuo, the importance of Japanese pottery and its impact on the Western
pottery and how he positions his work between both Japanese and Western culture’s view of beauty.https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613 (no password). THIS IS INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK. This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 17, 2023 ~ Charles De Wolf
"Tales of Times Now Past
Konjaku Monogatari in Cross-Cultural Perspective"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/789855109
Abstract
Rather than risk testing my listeners’ patience by telling them what they already know or can easily learn for themselves simply by Googling Konjaku Monogatari, I intend to begin with a general discussion of what we have come to call folklore and of the cultural frameworks in which we perceive it. I shall then turn to the massive collection, consisting of over one-thousand tales, compiled in medieval Japan, and suggest with various examples how it is both similar to and distinct from the stories with which most of us, both East and West, have long been familiar.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, January 16, 2023 ~ Andrew Fitzsimons
"'Glory’s aftermath’: Translating Bashō"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/801012722
Abstract
In this talk I want to look at the figure of Bashō: Bashō the wandering Zen master, the philosopherof nature, the refiner and definer of a quintessential Japanese sensibility, articulatedthrough the brevity of haiku, and show how that figure is complicated by a reading of the variousness of the poems he actually produced. I want to show how translating Bashō revealed him to be a far more interesting and multi-faceted character, a poetconcerned with what poetry is always concerned with, language itself, and with not only the natural world but the peopled world of Edo-period Japan.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 20, 2023 ~ Pierre-Emmanuel Bachelet
"Castaways, Japan-SEA connections"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/809940955
Abstract
During the Edo period, one of the most common events in Japan’s interactions with the outside world was the arrival of castaways on Japanese shores, particularly from Korea and China. It was also common for Japanese people to be shipwrecked abroad – their return to Japan was the subject of extensive investigations and enquiries, particularly from the late 18th century onwards, when these castaways came into contact with Russia and the Western powers and their return was seen as a threat.
While these aspects have been the subject of an abundant scholarship, this is less the case for the connections between Japan and Southeast Asia, which constitute the core of our research. The study of Japanese castaways in Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asian castaways in Japan, is thus a new way of analysing these connections, while contributing to the rich discussion on the extent of Japan’s openness to the world in the Edo period.
More specifically, this presentation will show that the issue of castaways elicited a variety of responses from the Japanese authorities, ranging from routine and almost indifferent treatment to genuine concern about the potential for unrest caused by returning Japanese. The Southeast Asian authorities, for their part, took advantage of these interactions to try to revive diplomatic relations with Japan. In any case, the movements of castaways produced a deep interest in the geographical knowledge of the outside world in Japan, as evidenced by the production of maps in the aftermath of these incidents.
Based on his January 2023 lecture:
https://iao.cnrs.fr/actualite/transpacific-lecture-series-pierre-emmanuel-bachelet/https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 17, 2023 ~ Robert Morton
‘Abandon all hope, you who enter’ - Sir Rutherford Alcock and Japan (1859 – 1865)
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/818678017?share=copy
Abstract
Very few scaled the heights to reach the level of Minister to Japan or especially Minister to China – the most important British official east of India. This means that Alcock’s story would inevitably have been out-of-the-ordinary, but there were things about him that made it more than that.
In that he was a middle-class boy who rose so far, he was remarkable for his time, but not unique. Where he was really different was in the way he did it, resisting almost every position he gained, and the higher the position, the more he resisted taking it. So his was a very haphazard progress, in which he moved forward by zig-zag movements instead of in a straightline.
He started his professional life as a medical man, working as a battlefield surgeon to British battalions fighting in civil wars in Portugal and Spain in the 1830s. Problems with his hands led to his giving up that career and he entered the consular service, being among the first batch of consuls to take up positions in China following the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing. His promotion to Japan as first British Minister was deeply unwelcome to him and his time there was undeniably frustrating, although there were significant achievements: establishing a Legation in Edo (Tokyo), defeating the leading anti-foreign domain, getting a decent trade started and introducing Japan’s arts and crafts to the west, all against the background of violence and widespreadanti-foreign hostility.
His career in Japan ended with a recall – the preliminary to being dismissed – but he turned things around and was promoted to Beijing, after which he had a long and highly productive retirement.
This talk will tell the story of this contrary, lucky, talented man, focusing on his time in Japan while giving an overview of the rest of his life and career.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 15, 2023 ~ Paul Hoff
"Izuvia: A History"
Vimeo video link: https://vimeo.com/827037612?share=copyAbstract
Izuvia, situation within the Izu Peninsula and archipelago area of Shizuoka prefecture (formerly composed of the ancient provinces of Totomi, Suruga, and Izu), stragetically positioned along coast south of Tokyo, has intertwined numerous historical, agricultural, and artistic traditions over the centuries. Aristocrats, warriors, merchants, pilgrims, and all manner of travellers traversed (mainly on foot) along the Tokaido and other byways, often on their way to and from Kyoto. However, the area also attracted seekers of leisure with its access to hot springs, mountain hiking, beachside resorts, and fishing.
Paul Hoff, a longtime resident of the coastal resort town of Ito, has investigated the Izuvia area, which lies upon the Philippine plate. Please join us for an enlightening peek into the rich historical threads that created this wonderfully civilized area of Japan.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 17, 2022 ~ Charles De Wolf
“Jaunting through Korean: the Language Next Door”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705534318?share=copy
Abstract
Multilinguist Charles De Wolf initiates Informasia 2022 with an exploration of the sociolinguistics of the Korean language in what promises to be an engaging, deeply informative approach to the language of our neighbour to the west.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, February 21, 2022 ~ David Shapiro
“Sumo in Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705541924?share=copy
Abstract
The following section headers will be added to the Zoom Chat as the lecture progresses:
Sumo: What is So Interesting About Two Fat Guys Banging Heads
Sumo: Its Origins
Sumo as Religious Ceremony
The Samurai and Sumo
Sumo as Popular Entertainment - The Pax Japonica and the Rise of the Merchant Class
An Aside: Why Did Osaka Sumo Lose Out?
Ozumo and the Militarists
Ozumo and the Road Back
Sumo and Japan's Rebirth
Hard Men Doing a Hard Job
Modern Ozumo Management Today: From the Philosophy of, "No" to a COVID Response Showing the World How to Do It Right
What is Sumo to Japan Today?
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 21, 2022 ~Alice Wanderer
“Translating Sugita Hisajo”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/691203818?share=copy
Abstract
Alice Wanderer completed a PhD in Japanese Studies at Monash University, also in Melbourne, in 2015.
Lips Licked Clean, a selective collection of the haiku of Sugita Hisajo, draws from her thesis.
The book was on the shortlist for a Touchstone Award (an annual award given by the Haiku Foundation for the best haiku-related book published in the previous year worldwide). After her presentation, we were thrilled to learn that she had won! Such is the power of Informasia :-)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 18, 2022 ~ Curtis Gayle
“Early Post-war Japan in the World Federalist Movement”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/701093041?share=copy
Abstract
Intellectuals and political figures of different stripes came together in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to propose a new vision for a world federation. They participated in the general World Federalist Movement that was simultaneously growing from 1945.
This presentation will examine the logic behind Japanese participation in the WFM and it will suggest ways in which members sought to utilise Article 9 of the Japanese constitution within their vision for Japan in a potential world federation. This presentation is part of an ongoing research project into Japan's overall contribution to the WFM during the first decade or so after The Second World War.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 16, 2022 ~ Lance Gatling
“Kano Jigoro, beyond his judo life”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710952954?share=copy
Abstract
NHK’s 2020 Taiga Drama, the annual year-long historic drama entitled
Idaten, focused on the nearly forgotten canceled 1940 Tokyo Olympics. The drama included a disappointingly shallow depiction of Kanō Jigorō (1860-1938), even though he was a key figure in Olympic planning as Asia’s first International Olympic Committee member.
In reality, Kanō Jigorō was a complex, influential individual, polymath linguist, architect of Japan’s pre-World War II education system, and founder of Japanese amateur athletics. Primarily remembered today for inventing jūdō, the world’s most popular full contact sport, he is known to jūdōka (jūdō practitioners) as Kanō shihan, Master Kanō. The untold story is how his personal and professional life helped form many aspects of modern Japan culture.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 20, 2022 ~ Stephen Nagy,
“The Frenemy Next Store: Chinese Scholars’ Perceptions of Japanese Foreign Policy under PM Abe”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/722075964?share=copy
Abstract
This paper investigates Chinese international relations scholars’ perceptions of Japan’s foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. Included in this paper are the drivers behind these perceptions. Understanding Chinese perceptions and the drivers of these perceptions of Japanese foreign policy in the post-Cold War era can be employed to shape more mutually beneficial relations, prevent an escalation in poor relations by the advent of a security dilemma. They can help Japanese foreign policy makers shape foreign policy that lessens or removes behavior that are perceived as threatening for Chinese counterparts. Findings suggest that at least five school of thought have emerged among scholars.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, July 18, 2022 ~ Stephen Roddy
“The Life of Urban(e) Waters: Kyoto, ca. 1830”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/731959247
Abstract
“Is a truly cosmopolitan sensibility possible where foreign travel is nearly impossible? In spite of the ease of maintaining virtual connectedness in today’s world, this question once again seems worth asking.
This talk examines some examples of cultural omnivorousness across East Asia as manifested in the genre of bamboo branch lyrics (chikushiji/zhuzhici/jukjisa), with a focus on Oto shiji zashi (Miscellaneous Poems of the Four Seasons East of the Kamogawa, 1826), a sequence of 120 heptasyllabic quatrains set in Kyoto’s Gion District.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 15, 2022 ~ Ian Ruxton
“Self-Publishing in Academia”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/739833186
Abstract
“Is self-publishing worth it? It may depend on the kind of project. Of course, some are more suited than others. Ian will introduce his publications and talk about the process which is simpler than many may imagine.” Ian Ruxton has published with an international publisher and a Japanese one, but most of his publishing has been via internet platforms.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 19, 2022 ~ John Darwin Van Fleet
“An Expat's Shanghai Lockdown and Aftermath”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/755289009
Abstract
Informasia welcomed John Van Fleet (John Darwin Van Fleet), who came to us through February's speaker on “Sumo, the Sport of Emperors” David Shapiro A prolific observer in written word and imagery, John will give us insight into his experience with the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This is something all of us have shared to one degree or another, no matter where we live. It will be good to hear his and share ours. He will frame it with the benefit of 22 years in China now (just notched 21 in Shanghai, after a year in Taipei), after being in Tokyo (my favorite city on the planet) for all of the 1990s –. The historical and cultural Shanghai perspective will surely challenge our own points of view, and we are fortunate to have this first-hand account from a country that is hardly transparent, and is certainly controversial. Please join us for this most contemporary of subjects.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #10, October 17, 2022 ~ Naoko Abe
“Collingwood 'Cherry' Ingram (1880-1981), the Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/761672318
Abstract
Naoko Abe talked about Collingwood 'Cherry' Ingram (1880-1981), the Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms. Ingram, an eccentric Edwardian gentleman, had fallen in love with Japanese cherry blossoms at the beginning of the 20th century and went to Japan three times to bring back cuttings of many different cherry trees. However, on his third visit to Japan, in 1926, he became deeply disappointed with the state of the cherries in Japan. Because of industrialization, some varieties had gone extinct, whilst others were dying out. Consequently, he decided to preserve them himself. By the 1940s, he had created the world’s largest cherry tree collection in his garden in Benenden, Kent, which is adjacent to eastern London.
. . .
Naoko will also talk about the symbolism of cherry blossoms in Japan, including the Japanese military’s ideological distortion of cherries during the Second World War.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #11, November 21, 2022 ~ Ann Tashi Slater
“A Tibetan Family History, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Bardo”
Audio link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E88UowRNmn87E8LVSR-cooQtsJZlyJrs/view?usp=share_link
Abstract
Ann Tashi Slater discussed her Tibetan roots, with a special focus on bardo. Her great-grandfather, S.W. Laden La, was a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama and helped bring the 8th-century Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) to the West. Published in 1927 by Oxford University Press, the book is a guide to navigating bardo “between states,” which include the journey from death to rebirth and from birth to death, as well as times when our ordinary reality is suspended, such as during illness or an accident. Slater talked about her bardo research, writing, and experiences, as well as the relevance of the bardo teachings to our lives today.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #12, December 19, 2022 ~ Ben Grafstrom
‘Rhythms, Movement & the Translation of Poetry & Prose’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/783769278
Abstract
Ann Tashi Slater discussed her Tibetan roots, with a special focus on bardo. Her great-grandfather, S.W. Laden La, was a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama and helped bring the 8th-century Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) to the West. Published in 1927 by Oxford University Press, the book is a guide to navigating bardo “between states,” which include the journey from death to rebirth and from birth to death, as well as times when our ordinary reality is suspended, such as during illness or an accident. Slater talked about her bardo research, writing, and experiences, as well as the relevance of the bardo teachings to our lives today.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 18, 2021 ~ Tim Harris
‘Rhythms, Movement & the Translation of Poetry & Prose’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705546292?share=copy
Abstract
Timothy Harris, a diction coach at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and the Suntory Hall, critic of contemporary poetry, actor, lecturer, and occasional translator, gives his thoughts on translating Japanese poetry, classical and modern, and Japanese prose.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, February 15, 2021 ~ Felicity Greenland
‘Songs of Edo Period Japanese Whaling’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705549228?share=copy
Abstract
What can Japanese folk songs (民謡 min'yō) tell us about whaling in the Edo period? We will listen to some of the songs and allow their lyrics to illuminate the communities of the time, their working methods, and attitudes to nature in general and whales in particular.
Felicity Greenland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Regional Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 21, 2021 ~ Penny West
“Letters of an American Tea Merchant & his wife: A Connecticut silk manufacturing family in the early Meiji”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705553522?share=copy
Abstract
Penny West gives an overview of the lives of her great grandparents Gustavus Farley Jr (1844-99) and Katharine Cheney (1854-1933) through their collected family letters. Gus was in the Tea business and Kitty came from a silk manufacturing family. Tea and silk were two early staple exports from Japan. Though neither Gus nor Kitty are particularly remarkable in themselves, their lives might be of interest as they were there and writing prolifically.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 19, 2021 ~ Giulio Bertelli
“A Western Woman Travelling into the Interior of Japan in 1869 - The Travel Journals of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour, Spouse of the First Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy
Abstract
My talk will be centered on the figure and the writings of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour (née Ruinart de Brimont - 1838-1911), who, as the spouse of the first Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan Count Vittorio Sallier de La Tour, followed her husband to Japan, and lived in Yokohama from June 1867 to April 1870. Mathilde was a talented, sensitive and fascinating French noblewoman, and, while observing and trying to unravel the mysteries of Japan and its culture, wrote several private records such as letters, notes and travel journals. Mathilde’s full set of manuscripts (entirely written in French, but recently published with an English translation by Eureka Press / Routledge) consists of five elements.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 17, 2021 ~ Patricia Yarrow
“Blown Away: Adrift, Rescue, and Return in 1609 and 1813”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/693793738?share=copy
Abstract
Two castaways left records of great loss on the sea: one a young Japanese coastal commercial boat captain of the early 1800s, the other a nobleman of Spain returning home as the 1600s dawned. Both thought they would soon be home. Instead, their ships met disaster, but they survived. What preparations saw them through? How did they pass their days? What was their reception to their home countries?
This talk, based upon the captain’s diary and the nobleman’s book, will show the similarities and differences in their adventures. What education, world-view, and sense of themselves did they bring to their predicament? Once they initially survived, how did they endure? Thrown into cultures unknown to them, how did they understand people unlike their own? What expectations did they have of their eventual reception from their own sovereigns? What elements of their religious framework did they honour and find helpful? What home reception awaited them?Patricia Yarrow is an instructor of English, including academic research reading and writing, with Tsuda University, Meiji University, and Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. She is from San Francisco and has lived in Ryogoku, Tokyo, since 2008.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 21, 2021 ~ Peter Kornicki
“Translating in the jungle, translating on the beaches, translating at sea: wartime Japanese learners at work"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710994925?share=copy
Abstract
Prof. Kornicki will give us a talk “relating to my new book, Eavesdropping on the Emperor, which is to bepublished in April. Itconcerns the emergency Japanese programmes which were launched in the USA, UK, Australia, Mauritius and Canada in 1941 and 1942 and how the graduates were used during the war." Information about the book:
https://books.mailshop.co.uk/eavesdropping-on-the-emperor-9781787384729.htmlPeter Kornicki is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at the University of Cambridgeand a fellow of the British Academy. The son of a Polish WWII fighter pilot, he was educated at Oxford and has taught at the University of Tasmania and Kyoto
University. He is the author of many books.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, July 19, 2021 ~ James Farrer
“Sustaining Tokyo’s Grimy Drinking Streets"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710999899?share=copy
Abstract
Tokyo is known for its human scale and historic drinking streets, which take many forms, the most iconic of which of are the yokochō, dense warrens of small bars and eateries, redolent of humanity and a bit grimy. These are “urban third spaces”
between work and home, and urban contact zones for people from all walks of life. Once seen as a largely male preserve, they are increasingly popular with women. Though regarded as quintessentially Japanese, foreign business owners and foreign customers are increasingly visible. Despite their appeal, these spaces are under threat from COVID-19, urban renewal schemes, the aging society and the rise of mass tourism. This paper looks at drinking streets in Nishi-Ogikubo in Western Tokyo for signs of how these spaces can be sustained.Related publications
Susanne Wessendorf and JamesFarrer. 2021. “Commonplace and out-of-place diversities in London and Tokyo:
migrant-run eateries as intercultural third places” Comparative Migration Studies. Volume 9, Issue 28, p. 1-7. https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-021-00235-3JamesFarrer
James Farrer is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research focuses on the contact zones of global cities, including ethnographic studies of sexuality, nightlife, expatriate communities, and urban food cultures. Current projects investigate community foodways in Tokyo (www.nishiogiology.org) and the spread of Japanese restaurant cuisine across diverse world regions (www.global-japanese-cuisine.org). He is originally from Tennessee in the United States but moved to Japan in 1998.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 16, 2021 ~ Rosemary Chiba
“Kagura Dance in Iwate”
Vimeo video (First half accidently not recorded): https://vimeo.com/711004968?share=copy
Abstract
Why have people performed Kagura dances in Japan for over 1,000 years? I would like to share my experiences of dancing and drumming for 24 years in an Iwate Kagura group, giving an insight into the culture, group dynamics, the raw physical challenges and perhaps the elusive spiritual reward.
Rosemary Chiba, was born in 1949 in Leicester, England, and graduated in Fine Arts (Leeds). She worked in a museum
in Nigeria, taught English in Taipei, then from 1980, in Tokyo and Kobe. She is married with two sons, and moved to Hiraizumi, Iwate in 1991 to take over the family rice farm. She danced Kagura until 2015.Her other accomplishments include assisting with Hiraizumi's UNESCO World Heritage application, and
introducing visitors to the area as a local guide.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 20, 2021 ~ John Bray
‘Ladakh: a global perspective on a Himalayan kingdom’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711007790?share=copy
Abstract
For some 900 years, Ladakh subsisted as an independent kingdom ruled by a Buddhist monarchy in the Western Himalayas. Politically, it is now part of India, but adjoins disputed boundaries with both Pakistan and the People’s Republic of
China. Lying between the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges, it has been both a byword for remoteness and now a popular tourist destination.This lecture will present a selective overview of Ladakhi history since the 17th century. Rather than highlighting Ladakh’s isolation, it will emphasize the region’s connectedness with Mughal and British India as well as Tibet and what is now Xinjiang. Neither a Shangri-la nor a Sakoku, Ladakh was always influenced by wider economic and religious currents, including Muslim ideas and trading networks as well as Buddhist ones. The discussion will be supported by images of buildings, coins, paintings and – from the 19th century onwards – photographs.
Ladakhis bordered by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan.
John Bray first visited Ladakh in 1979, and has retained a close connection with the region ever since. He is a former president of the International Association for Ladakh Studies (IALS), and has published extensively on Ladakh’s history, with
a specialist interest in Western missionary contacts and trading relations. He lived in Japan from 2002 to 2015, and is now based in Singapore.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #10, October 18, 2021 ~ David Burleigh
‘Lives of the Poets: Three Journeys to Kyoto’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/700374007?share=copy
Abstract
David Burleigh came to Japan in 1978, and taughtat Ferris University in Yokohama for twenty-seven years, retiring in 2016, but then continued to teach part-time in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, near which he still lives, until the spring of 2021. He edited and introduced Helen Waddell’s Writings from Japan (2005), after writing a thesis on her work, and has also collaborated on translations of Japanese poetry and haiku.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #11, November 15, 2021 ~ Reg Clark
“What We Can Learn From the History of Rugby in Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy
Abstract
Today‘s lecture was first delivered in 2019, two days before the Rugby World Cup Final. It focuses on the history of sport and specifically rugby in Japan and what that may tell us about Japanese culture, and the commonly accepted account of the origins of rugby as an example of the role of mythology in history.
Reg Clark graduated in Modern History from Christ Church Oxford in 1979 and in 1980 joined Kobe Steel where he worked for three years and played rugby for the company team. He has a lifelong interest in the history of sport, and at that time wrote 12 articles for Rugby Magazine of Japan on the history of rugby. After a varied career, including a further decade
with Kobe Steel in London, he is now a consultant/investor in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. He took over Rhino, the sportsbrand specialising in rugby in 2006. https://rhino.direct/In 2016 he received the Foreign Ministers Commendation Award from the Japanese government for services to UK-Japan relations and in 2017, he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Sports Sciences faculty at Nihon University.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #12, December 20, 2021 ~ Nadine Willems
“Sarashina' life and poems”, with colleague Paul Rossiter
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711021127?share=copy
Abstract
Informasia #12 for 2021,our first full year of meetings, featured, Nadine Willems, on the occasion of revisiting the 2017 publication, “Kotan Chronicles: SelectedPoems 1928–1943”, featuring her translation of the insights into the Ainu, circa 1920s and 1930s, of Genzō Sarashina. Nadine lived in Japan for manyyears, and now teaches Japanese history. She joins us from the University of East Anglia.
Her colleague and collaborator, Paul Rossiter, lent his voice to the poems themselves. With our woolly hats and snowshoes at the ready, we settled in for the conclusion of our first year, suitably in freezing cold Hokkaido for “Sarashina's life and poems, and welcomed Nadine Willems and Paul Rossiter
Publications
Isobar Press https://isobarpress.com/
Paul Rossiter founded Isobar Press in 2013 afterretiring from teaching at the University of Tokyo. The press publishes
poetry in English by Japanese and non-Japanese authors who have lived in Japan, or who write on Japan-related themes. See the Chat for availability in Japan, London, and through Amazon.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, June 15, 2020 ~ Charles De Wolf
“Classical Japanese in Linguistic and Cross-cultural Perspective”
Vimeo video: none
Abstract
There was a gap between the written and spoken language and what that meant, as it meant very few people could read and write things, so there was a literate caste for awhile.
In the preface to his famous A Dictionary of theEnglish Language (1755), Samuel Johnson notes:
“When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century
to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand
years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able
to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases
from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and
secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change
sublunary nature, or clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.”
I cite this not only to show that,though no modern linguist, Johnson was quite aware that “mutability” applies to
human language as well as all else that is “sublunary,” but also to note that, as learned as he was, Johnson knew far less about the history of the English language than anyone with curiosity and access to Wikipedia can learn, in a
matter of minutes or at least hours. . .https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, July 20, 2020 ~ Janine Beichman
“Poems by Yosano, probably from her 8th collection, Princess Saho (1909)”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/598430701?share=copy
Abstract
Janine Beichman will be our speaker –via Zoom – on Monday 20 July at 7pm. This will be an opportunity to pose
questions to the eminent translator and poet. Her current book project is a collection of the poetry of Yosano Akiko (the working title is The Portable Yosano Akiko), and she will read some poems by Yosano,probably from her 8th collection, Princess Saho (1909).Dr Beichman, Professor Emerita of Daito Bunka University, studied Japanese literature at Columbia University, where Donald Keene was her dissertation adviser, and poetry writing at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Unterberg Poetry Center, and The New School. In Tokyo, she was a member of the Uchufu Tanka Society and practiced writing tanka in
Japanese.She is the author of the literary biographies Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works and Embracing the Firebird, Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, and also of the original Noh play Drifting Fires, which has been performed in Japan and the United States.
Her Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems of Makoto Ooka was awarded the 2019-2020 Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her translation of Ōoka Makoto’s Poems for All Seasons: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Earliest Times to the Present contains numerous translations of medieval and pre-modern classical waka and haiku. She has also translated fiction by Setouchi Jakucho and Nagai Kafū.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, August 17, 2020 ~ Mike Galbraith
“Adventures Researching Japan’s Early History of Western Sports: Basic Facts and Issues Regarding Their Interpretation Inside Japan and Overseas"
Vimeo video: none, my apologies
Abstract
Japan’s first athletes overcame size issues by hard training and challenged the world’s best in many sports! Their skills won admiration and they were often victorious.
1. How I became involved and some early discoveries
2. Examples of Japan’s amazing early international sporting forays
3. How Japanese sports bodies and historians present their history
4. Reflections on academic approaches to sports history
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, September 21, 2020 ~ Michael Plastow
“Journey to the West”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705583761?share=copy
Abstract
100 photos of hikes through the greater Tokyo area with many birds.
Michael Plastow moved toJapan in 1980 after graduating from Cambridge University in History and Natural Sciences. He taught university in Gumnaand others until 1996. Since 1983, he has worked for NHK in International Radio and other projects. His two walking guidebooks, unfortunately long out ofprint, include Exploring Kiryu Ashio, and Nikko: Mountain walks in the land of Shodo Shonin 1992, and also Exploring Kanto, Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo 1996 by Weatherhill.
To view his trove of photos, visit his Facebook page (Michael Plastow). If new to Facebook, send a “Friends” request to him on that page.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, October 19, 2020 ~ Ian Ruxton
“Making Sir Ernest Satow’s Legacy Accessible to the World”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705601350?share=copy
Abstract
1. How I became interested in Sir Ernest Satow
2. Who was Sir Ernest Satow?
3. My publications and work-in-progress
4. How to make Ernest Satow's name better known in the world?
5. Concluding remarks
6. Q and A
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, November 16, 2020 ~ Brian Burke-Gaffney
“A Brief History of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705610123?share=copy
Abstract
The talk will include an overview of events from the opening of Japan's doors in 1859 until the treaty revisions of 1899, an introduction to some of the key players in Nagasaki, and a few comments on sources and related issues.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, December 21, 2020 ~ Robert Morton
‘Singleness of purpose’: Sir Harry Parkes, Interpreter and Consul in China, 1843-1865; British Minister to Japan, Korea and China, 1865-1885”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710985656?share=copy
Abstract
How did an orphan, who went on his own to China at 13, rise all the way up to Minister (equivalent to today’s Ambassador)?
His story was unlike that of any of his peers, but then everything about Parkes was exceptional. He was indomitable, fearless, incorruptible, often insufferable, always larger than life. This talk will attempt to bring him back to life for ninety minutes.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia is a congenial platform for academic research presentations concerning Japan in particular and Asia more broadly. The international audience has questions and commentary.
Peter Orosz (July 2023 Informasia speaker) has begun his longest and final long walk through Japan. Follow his postings on: https://ilovewasting.ink/walks/aroundjapan
Current location: Yuzawa, Niigata (northern Honshu) as of 5 November 2023, and on his way to "hiking the high mountains of central Honshu, over a number of high passes".
Regular Leica photographic updates: https://glass.photo/ilovewastingink
Sporatic written updates: https://ilovewasting.ink/walks/aroundjapan
Informasia meets on Zoom every third Monday of the month. Zoom opens at 6:30 pm. and the presentation/lecture begins 7:00 p.m. JST.
Informasia #10, October 20, 2023 ~ Robert Hellyer
"Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Tea Cups"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/874938388?share=copy
Abstract
As a historian of early modern and modern Japan, Robert Hellyer's talk will no doubt be based on his explorations of "not only a social and commodity history of tea in the United States and Japan, but also new insights into how national customs have profound if often hidden international dimensions."
The book link: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/green-with-milk-and-sugar/9780231199100
Robert Hellyer is a Professor of History at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He is in Kyoto at the moment, on sabbatical. More details forthcoming.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 18, 2023~ Jeri Foley
“Art, Architecture, Film & Fashion: How Japan and the West captivatedeach other’s imagination through design”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/865719391?share=copy
Abstract
Japan and the west influenced each other's arts, from their earliestencounters, including Monet, Hokusai, Van Gogh, Hiroshige, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mizoguchi, Louis Vuitton,and even Betty Boop. How were some of the most famous names and characters of the art anddesign world either influential or influenced (some subtlety, othersdramatically) by the introduction?
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 21, 2023~ Mark Rosa
“The Native Writing of Okinawa’s Further Isles”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/856587683?share=copy
Abstract
Consider this question: Long before the Ryukyu Kingdom was absorbed into Japan, how did the far-flung islanders communicate? For instance, what was Yonaguni's native
language, and the native "kaida" writing system?- What do these languages sound like?
- History behind the development of partial writing.
- Coming of Japanese school system in 1885.
- 1910s-1930s writers start commenting that only older people can still write these characters
Also, decifering a short, one-page document discovered in the National Ethnology Museum in Osaka.Publications
Newly-Discovered Paper Records in Kaida Writing (2010)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27573Paper Records Containing Okinawan Kaida Characters (2016)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27425https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
A congenial academic space for learning and sharing about Japan and Asia.PLEASE NOTE INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613
Informasia #7, July 17, 2023 ~ Peter Orosz
"Take a Hike!: Walking from Wakkanai to Rambling the Ryukyus"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/845901347?share=copy
E-mail: peter@ilovewasting.ink
Website: https://ilovewasting.ink
Abstract
In progress: It is now almost certain that I will be going back to Japan in late summer to pick up the line of my grand walk around the country
on September 15, in Wakkanai, with the goal of making it full circle to Kagoshima then going on to the end of the Ryukyus.This journey is what I wish to talk about in July.
I will be putting together my talk next week and will most likely have a lot of questions by the end of the week. / Peter Orosz
Zoom provides international access.https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613 (no password). THIS IS INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 19, 2023 ~ Rob Barnard
"A Search for Relevance: Why traditional crafts are important in modern culture”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/837559464?share=copy
E-mail: barnard0311@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rob.barnard.7355
Instagram: rob_barnard_pottery
Website: www.rob-barnard.comAbstract
Rob Barnard’s book, A Search for Relevance, collects previously published essays that chronicle the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that helped
confirm his perception that pottery is capable of expressing the same kind of serious thoughts and feelings found in all other forms of art.
These articles act as a public diary of his personal search for relevance as a potter in contemporary Western society.Rob will be talking about what led him to Japan, his studies with Yagi Kazuo, the importance of Japanese pottery and its impact on the Western
pottery and how he positions his work between both Japanese and Western culture’s view of beauty.https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613 (no password). THIS IS INFORMASIA'S NEW ZOOM LINK. This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 17, 2023 ~ Charles De Wolf
"Tales of Times Now Past
Konjaku Monogatari in Cross-Cultural Perspective"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/789855109
Abstract
Rather than risk testing my listeners’ patience by telling them what they already know or can easily learn for themselves simply by Googling Konjaku Monogatari, I intend to begin with a general discussion of what we have come to call folklore and of the cultural frameworks in which we perceive it. I shall then turn to the massive collection, consisting of over one-thousand tales, compiled in medieval Japan, and suggest with various examples how it is both similar to and distinct from the stories with which most of us, both East and West, have long been familiar.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, January 16, 2023 ~ Andrew Fitzsimons
"'Glory’s aftermath’: Translating Bashō"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/801012722
Abstract
In this talk I want to look at the figure of Bashō: Bashō the wandering Zen master, the philosopherof nature, the refiner and definer of a quintessential Japanese sensibility, articulatedthrough the brevity of haiku, and show how that figure is complicated by a reading of the variousness of the poems he actually produced. I want to show how translating Bashō revealed him to be a far more interesting and multi-faceted character, a poetconcerned with what poetry is always concerned with, language itself, and with not only the natural world but the peopled world of Edo-period Japan.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 20, 2023 ~ Pierre-Emmanuel Bachelet
"Castaways, Japan-SEA connections"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/809940955
Abstract
During the Edo period, one of the most common events in Japan’s interactions with the outside world was the arrival of castaways on Japanese shores, particularly from Korea and China. It was also common for Japanese people to be shipwrecked abroad – their return to Japan was the subject of extensive investigations and enquiries, particularly from the late 18th century onwards, when these castaways came into contact with Russia and the Western powers and their return was seen as a threat.
While these aspects have been the subject of an abundant scholarship, this is less the case for the connections between Japan and Southeast Asia, which constitute the core of our research. The study of Japanese castaways in Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asian castaways in Japan, is thus a new way of analysing these connections, while contributing to the rich discussion on the extent of Japan’s openness to the world in the Edo period.
More specifically, this presentation will show that the issue of castaways elicited a variety of responses from the Japanese authorities, ranging from routine and almost indifferent treatment to genuine concern about the potential for unrest caused by returning Japanese. The Southeast Asian authorities, for their part, took advantage of these interactions to try to revive diplomatic relations with Japan. In any case, the movements of castaways produced a deep interest in the geographical knowledge of the outside world in Japan, as evidenced by the production of maps in the aftermath of these incidents.
Based on his January 2023 lecture:
https://iao.cnrs.fr/actualite/transpacific-lecture-series-pierre-emmanuel-bachelet/https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 17, 2023 ~ Robert Morton
‘Abandon all hope, you who enter’ - Sir Rutherford Alcock and Japan (1859 – 1865)
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/818678017?share=copy
Abstract
Very few scaled the heights to reach the level of Minister to Japan or especially Minister to China – the most important British official east of India. This means that Alcock’s story would inevitably have been out-of-the-ordinary, but there were things about him that made it more than that.
In that he was a middle-class boy who rose so far, he was remarkable for his time, but not unique. Where he was really different was in the way he did it, resisting almost every position he gained, and the higher the position, the more he resisted taking it. So his was a very haphazard progress, in which he moved forward by zig-zag movements instead of in a straightline.
He started his professional life as a medical man, working as a battlefield surgeon to British battalions fighting in civil wars in Portugal and Spain in the 1830s. Problems with his hands led to his giving up that career and he entered the consular service, being among the first batch of consuls to take up positions in China following the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing. His promotion to Japan as first British Minister was deeply unwelcome to him and his time there was undeniably frustrating, although there were significant achievements: establishing a Legation in Edo (Tokyo), defeating the leading anti-foreign domain, getting a decent trade started and introducing Japan’s arts and crafts to the west, all against the background of violence and widespreadanti-foreign hostility.
His career in Japan ended with a recall – the preliminary to being dismissed – but he turned things around and was promoted to Beijing, after which he had a long and highly productive retirement.
This talk will tell the story of this contrary, lucky, talented man, focusing on his time in Japan while giving an overview of the rest of his life and career.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 15, 2023 ~ Paul Hoff
"Izuvia: A History"
Vimeo video link: https://vimeo.com/827037612?share=copyAbstract
Izuvia, situation within the Izu Peninsula and archipelago area of Shizuoka prefecture (formerly composed of the ancient provinces of Totomi, Suruga, and Izu), stragetically positioned along coast south of Tokyo, has intertwined numerous historical, agricultural, and artistic traditions over the centuries. Aristocrats, warriors, merchants, pilgrims, and all manner of travellers traversed (mainly on foot) along the Tokaido and other byways, often on their way to and from Kyoto. However, the area also attracted seekers of leisure with its access to hot springs, mountain hiking, beachside resorts, and fishing.
Paul Hoff, a longtime resident of the coastal resort town of Ito, has investigated the Izuvia area, which lies upon the Philippine plate. Please join us for an enlightening peek into the rich historical threads that created this wonderfully civilized area of Japan.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 17, 2022 ~ Charles De Wolf
“Jaunting through Korean: the Language Next Door”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705534318?share=copy
Abstract
Multilinguist Charles De Wolf initiates Informasia 2022 with an exploration of the sociolinguistics of the Korean language in what promises to be an engaging, deeply informative approach to the language of our neighbour to the west.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, February 21, 2022 ~ David Shapiro
“Sumo in Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705541924?share=copy
Abstract
The following section headers will be added to the Zoom Chat as the lecture progresses:
Sumo: What is So Interesting About Two Fat Guys Banging Heads
Sumo: Its Origins
Sumo as Religious Ceremony
The Samurai and Sumo
Sumo as Popular Entertainment - The Pax Japonica and the Rise of the Merchant Class
An Aside: Why Did Osaka Sumo Lose Out?
Ozumo and the Militarists
Ozumo and the Road Back
Sumo and Japan's Rebirth
Hard Men Doing a Hard Job
Modern Ozumo Management Today: From the Philosophy of, "No" to a COVID Response Showing the World How to Do It Right
What is Sumo to Japan Today?
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 21, 2022 ~Alice Wanderer
“Translating Sugita Hisajo”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/691203818?share=copy
Abstract
Alice Wanderer completed a PhD in Japanese Studies at Monash University, also in Melbourne, in 2015.
Lips Licked Clean, a selective collection of the haiku of Sugita Hisajo, draws from her thesis.
The book was on the shortlist for a Touchstone Award (an annual award given by the Haiku Foundation for the best haiku-related book published in the previous year worldwide). After her presentation, we were thrilled to learn that she had won! Such is the power of Informasia :-)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 18, 2022 ~ Curtis Gayle
“Early Post-war Japan in the World Federalist Movement”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/701093041?share=copy
Abstract
Intellectuals and political figures of different stripes came together in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to propose a new vision for a world federation. They participated in the general World Federalist Movement that was simultaneously growing from 1945.
This presentation will examine the logic behind Japanese participation in the WFM and it will suggest ways in which members sought to utilise Article 9 of the Japanese constitution within their vision for Japan in a potential world federation. This presentation is part of an ongoing research project into Japan's overall contribution to the WFM during the first decade or so after The Second World War.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 16, 2022 ~ Lance Gatling
“Kano Jigoro, beyond his judo life”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710952954?share=copy
Abstract
NHK’s 2020 Taiga Drama, the annual year-long historic drama entitled
Idaten, focused on the nearly forgotten canceled 1940 Tokyo Olympics. The drama included a disappointingly shallow depiction of Kanō Jigorō (1860-1938), even though he was a key figure in Olympic planning as Asia’s first International Olympic Committee member.
In reality, Kanō Jigorō was a complex, influential individual, polymath linguist, architect of Japan’s pre-World War II education system, and founder of Japanese amateur athletics. Primarily remembered today for inventing jūdō, the world’s most popular full contact sport, he is known to jūdōka (jūdō practitioners) as Kanō shihan, Master Kanō. The untold story is how his personal and professional life helped form many aspects of modern Japan culture.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 20, 2022 ~ Stephen Nagy,
“The Frenemy Next Store: Chinese Scholars’ Perceptions of Japanese Foreign Policy under PM Abe”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/722075964?share=copy
Abstract
This paper investigates Chinese international relations scholars’ perceptions of Japan’s foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. Included in this paper are the drivers behind these perceptions. Understanding Chinese perceptions and the drivers of these perceptions of Japanese foreign policy in the post-Cold War era can be employed to shape more mutually beneficial relations, prevent an escalation in poor relations by the advent of a security dilemma. They can help Japanese foreign policy makers shape foreign policy that lessens or removes behavior that are perceived as threatening for Chinese counterparts. Findings suggest that at least five school of thought have emerged among scholars.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, July 18, 2022 ~ Stephen Roddy
“The Life of Urban(e) Waters: Kyoto, ca. 1830”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/731959247
Abstract
“Is a truly cosmopolitan sensibility possible where foreign travel is nearly impossible? In spite of the ease of maintaining virtual connectedness in today’s world, this question once again seems worth asking.
This talk examines some examples of cultural omnivorousness across East Asia as manifested in the genre of bamboo branch lyrics (chikushiji/zhuzhici/jukjisa), with a focus on Oto shiji zashi (Miscellaneous Poems of the Four Seasons East of the Kamogawa, 1826), a sequence of 120 heptasyllabic quatrains set in Kyoto’s Gion District.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 15, 2022 ~ Ian Ruxton
“Self-Publishing in Academia”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/739833186
Abstract
“Is self-publishing worth it? It may depend on the kind of project. Of course, some are more suited than others. Ian will introduce his publications and talk about the process which is simpler than many may imagine.” Ian Ruxton has published with an international publisher and a Japanese one, but most of his publishing has been via internet platforms.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 19, 2022 ~ John Darwin Van Fleet
“An Expat's Shanghai Lockdown and Aftermath”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/755289009
Abstract
Informasia welcomed John Van Fleet (John Darwin Van Fleet), who came to us through February's speaker on “Sumo, the Sport of Emperors” David Shapiro A prolific observer in written word and imagery, John will give us insight into his experience with the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This is something all of us have shared to one degree or another, no matter where we live. It will be good to hear his and share ours. He will frame it with the benefit of 22 years in China now (just notched 21 in Shanghai, after a year in Taipei), after being in Tokyo (my favorite city on the planet) for all of the 1990s –. The historical and cultural Shanghai perspective will surely challenge our own points of view, and we are fortunate to have this first-hand account from a country that is hardly transparent, and is certainly controversial. Please join us for this most contemporary of subjects.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #10, October 17, 2022 ~ Naoko Abe
“Collingwood 'Cherry' Ingram (1880-1981), the Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/761672318
Abstract
Naoko Abe talked about Collingwood 'Cherry' Ingram (1880-1981), the Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms. Ingram, an eccentric Edwardian gentleman, had fallen in love with Japanese cherry blossoms at the beginning of the 20th century and went to Japan three times to bring back cuttings of many different cherry trees. However, on his third visit to Japan, in 1926, he became deeply disappointed with the state of the cherries in Japan. Because of industrialization, some varieties had gone extinct, whilst others were dying out. Consequently, he decided to preserve them himself. By the 1940s, he had created the world’s largest cherry tree collection in his garden in Benenden, Kent, which is adjacent to eastern London.
. . .
Naoko will also talk about the symbolism of cherry blossoms in Japan, including the Japanese military’s ideological distortion of cherries during the Second World War.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #11, November 21, 2022 ~ Ann Tashi Slater
“A Tibetan Family History, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Bardo”
Audio link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E88UowRNmn87E8LVSR-cooQtsJZlyJrs/view?usp=share_link
Abstract
Ann Tashi Slater discussed her Tibetan roots, with a special focus on bardo. Her great-grandfather, S.W. Laden La, was a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama and helped bring the 8th-century Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) to the West. Published in 1927 by Oxford University Press, the book is a guide to navigating bardo “between states,” which include the journey from death to rebirth and from birth to death, as well as times when our ordinary reality is suspended, such as during illness or an accident. Slater talked about her bardo research, writing, and experiences, as well as the relevance of the bardo teachings to our lives today.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #12, December 19, 2022 ~ Ben Grafstrom
‘Rhythms, Movement & the Translation of Poetry & Prose’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/783769278
Abstract
Ann Tashi Slater discussed her Tibetan roots, with a special focus on bardo. Her great-grandfather, S.W. Laden La, was a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama and helped bring the 8th-century Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) to the West. Published in 1927 by Oxford University Press, the book is a guide to navigating bardo “between states,” which include the journey from death to rebirth and from birth to death, as well as times when our ordinary reality is suspended, such as during illness or an accident. Slater talked about her bardo research, writing, and experiences, as well as the relevance of the bardo teachings to our lives today.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, January 18, 2021 ~ Tim Harris
‘Rhythms, Movement & the Translation of Poetry & Prose’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705546292?share=copy
Abstract
Timothy Harris, a diction coach at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and the Suntory Hall, critic of contemporary poetry, actor, lecturer, and occasional translator, gives his thoughts on translating Japanese poetry, classical and modern, and Japanese prose.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, February 15, 2021 ~ Felicity Greenland
‘Songs of Edo Period Japanese Whaling’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705549228?share=copy
Abstract
What can Japanese folk songs (民謡 min'yō) tell us about whaling in the Edo period? We will listen to some of the songs and allow their lyrics to illuminate the communities of the time, their working methods, and attitudes to nature in general and whales in particular.
Felicity Greenland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Regional Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, March 21, 2021 ~ Penny West
“Letters of an American Tea Merchant & his wife: A Connecticut silk manufacturing family in the early Meiji”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705553522?share=copy
Abstract
Penny West gives an overview of the lives of her great grandparents Gustavus Farley Jr (1844-99) and Katharine Cheney (1854-1933) through their collected family letters. Gus was in the Tea business and Kitty came from a silk manufacturing family. Tea and silk were two early staple exports from Japan. Though neither Gus nor Kitty are particularly remarkable in themselves, their lives might be of interest as they were there and writing prolifically.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, April 19, 2021 ~ Giulio Bertelli
“A Western Woman Travelling into the Interior of Japan in 1869 - The Travel Journals of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour, Spouse of the First Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy
Abstract
My talk will be centered on the figure and the writings of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour (née Ruinart de Brimont - 1838-1911), who, as the spouse of the first Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan Count Vittorio Sallier de La Tour, followed her husband to Japan, and lived in Yokohama from June 1867 to April 1870. Mathilde was a talented, sensitive and fascinating French noblewoman, and, while observing and trying to unravel the mysteries of Japan and its culture, wrote several private records such as letters, notes and travel journals. Mathilde’s full set of manuscripts (entirely written in French, but recently published with an English translation by Eureka Press / Routledge) consists of five elements.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, May 17, 2021 ~ Patricia Yarrow
“Blown Away: Adrift, Rescue, and Return in 1609 and 1813”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/693793738?share=copy
Abstract
Two castaways left records of great loss on the sea: one a young Japanese coastal commercial boat captain of the early 1800s, the other a nobleman of Spain returning home as the 1600s dawned. Both thought they would soon be home. Instead, their ships met disaster, but they survived. What preparations saw them through? How did they pass their days? What was their reception to their home countries?
This talk, based upon the captain’s diary and the nobleman’s book, will show the similarities and differences in their adventures. What education, world-view, and sense of themselves did they bring to their predicament? Once they initially survived, how did they endure? Thrown into cultures unknown to them, how did they understand people unlike their own? What expectations did they have of their eventual reception from their own sovereigns? What elements of their religious framework did they honour and find helpful? What home reception awaited them?Patricia Yarrow is an instructor of English, including academic research reading and writing, with Tsuda University, Meiji University, and Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. She is from San Francisco and has lived in Ryogoku, Tokyo, since 2008.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, June 21, 2021 ~ Peter Kornicki
“Translating in the jungle, translating on the beaches, translating at sea: wartime Japanese learners at work"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710994925?share=copy
Abstract
Prof. Kornicki will give us a talk “relating to my new book, Eavesdropping on the Emperor, which is to bepublished in April. Itconcerns the emergency Japanese programmes which were launched in the USA, UK, Australia, Mauritius and Canada in 1941 and 1942 and how the graduates were used during the war." Information about the book:
https://books.mailshop.co.uk/eavesdropping-on-the-emperor-9781787384729.htmlPeter Kornicki is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at the University of Cambridgeand a fellow of the British Academy. The son of a Polish WWII fighter pilot, he was educated at Oxford and has taught at the University of Tasmania and Kyoto
University. He is the author of many books.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, July 19, 2021 ~ James Farrer
“Sustaining Tokyo’s Grimy Drinking Streets"
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710999899?share=copy
Abstract
Tokyo is known for its human scale and historic drinking streets, which take many forms, the most iconic of which of are the yokochō, dense warrens of small bars and eateries, redolent of humanity and a bit grimy. These are “urban third spaces”
between work and home, and urban contact zones for people from all walks of life. Once seen as a largely male preserve, they are increasingly popular with women. Though regarded as quintessentially Japanese, foreign business owners and foreign customers are increasingly visible. Despite their appeal, these spaces are under threat from COVID-19, urban renewal schemes, the aging society and the rise of mass tourism. This paper looks at drinking streets in Nishi-Ogikubo in Western Tokyo for signs of how these spaces can be sustained.Related publications
Susanne Wessendorf and JamesFarrer. 2021. “Commonplace and out-of-place diversities in London and Tokyo:
migrant-run eateries as intercultural third places” Comparative Migration Studies. Volume 9, Issue 28, p. 1-7. https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-021-00235-3JamesFarrer
James Farrer is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research focuses on the contact zones of global cities, including ethnographic studies of sexuality, nightlife, expatriate communities, and urban food cultures. Current projects investigate community foodways in Tokyo (www.nishiogiology.org) and the spread of Japanese restaurant cuisine across diverse world regions (www.global-japanese-cuisine.org). He is originally from Tennessee in the United States but moved to Japan in 1998.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #8, August 16, 2021 ~ Rosemary Chiba
“Kagura Dance in Iwate”
Vimeo video (First half accidently not recorded): https://vimeo.com/711004968?share=copy
Abstract
Why have people performed Kagura dances in Japan for over 1,000 years? I would like to share my experiences of dancing and drumming for 24 years in an Iwate Kagura group, giving an insight into the culture, group dynamics, the raw physical challenges and perhaps the elusive spiritual reward.
Rosemary Chiba, was born in 1949 in Leicester, England, and graduated in Fine Arts (Leeds). She worked in a museum
in Nigeria, taught English in Taipei, then from 1980, in Tokyo and Kobe. She is married with two sons, and moved to Hiraizumi, Iwate in 1991 to take over the family rice farm. She danced Kagura until 2015.Her other accomplishments include assisting with Hiraizumi's UNESCO World Heritage application, and
introducing visitors to the area as a local guide.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #9, September 20, 2021 ~ John Bray
‘Ladakh: a global perspective on a Himalayan kingdom’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711007790?share=copy
Abstract
For some 900 years, Ladakh subsisted as an independent kingdom ruled by a Buddhist monarchy in the Western Himalayas. Politically, it is now part of India, but adjoins disputed boundaries with both Pakistan and the People’s Republic of
China. Lying between the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges, it has been both a byword for remoteness and now a popular tourist destination.This lecture will present a selective overview of Ladakhi history since the 17th century. Rather than highlighting Ladakh’s isolation, it will emphasize the region’s connectedness with Mughal and British India as well as Tibet and what is now Xinjiang. Neither a Shangri-la nor a Sakoku, Ladakh was always influenced by wider economic and religious currents, including Muslim ideas and trading networks as well as Buddhist ones. The discussion will be supported by images of buildings, coins, paintings and – from the 19th century onwards – photographs.
Ladakhis bordered by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan.
John Bray first visited Ladakh in 1979, and has retained a close connection with the region ever since. He is a former president of the International Association for Ladakh Studies (IALS), and has published extensively on Ladakh’s history, with
a specialist interest in Western missionary contacts and trading relations. He lived in Japan from 2002 to 2015, and is now based in Singapore.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #10, October 18, 2021 ~ David Burleigh
‘Lives of the Poets: Three Journeys to Kyoto’
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/700374007?share=copy
Abstract
David Burleigh came to Japan in 1978, and taughtat Ferris University in Yokohama for twenty-seven years, retiring in 2016, but then continued to teach part-time in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, near which he still lives, until the spring of 2021. He edited and introduced Helen Waddell’s Writings from Japan (2005), after writing a thesis on her work, and has also collaborated on translations of Japanese poetry and haiku.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #11, November 15, 2021 ~ Reg Clark
“What We Can Learn From the History of Rugby in Japan”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy
Abstract
Today‘s lecture was first delivered in 2019, two days before the Rugby World Cup Final. It focuses on the history of sport and specifically rugby in Japan and what that may tell us about Japanese culture, and the commonly accepted account of the origins of rugby as an example of the role of mythology in history.
Reg Clark graduated in Modern History from Christ Church Oxford in 1979 and in 1980 joined Kobe Steel where he worked for three years and played rugby for the company team. He has a lifelong interest in the history of sport, and at that time wrote 12 articles for Rugby Magazine of Japan on the history of rugby. After a varied career, including a further decade
with Kobe Steel in London, he is now a consultant/investor in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. He took over Rhino, the sportsbrand specialising in rugby in 2006. https://rhino.direct/In 2016 he received the Foreign Ministers Commendation Award from the Japanese government for services to UK-Japan relations and in 2017, he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Sports Sciences faculty at Nihon University.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #12, December 20, 2021 ~ Nadine Willems
“Sarashina' life and poems”, with colleague Paul Rossiter
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711021127?share=copy
Abstract
Informasia #12 for 2021,our first full year of meetings, featured, Nadine Willems, on the occasion of revisiting the 2017 publication, “Kotan Chronicles: SelectedPoems 1928–1943”, featuring her translation of the insights into the Ainu, circa 1920s and 1930s, of Genzō Sarashina. Nadine lived in Japan for manyyears, and now teaches Japanese history. She joins us from the University of East Anglia.
Her colleague and collaborator, Paul Rossiter, lent his voice to the poems themselves. With our woolly hats and snowshoes at the ready, we settled in for the conclusion of our first year, suitably in freezing cold Hokkaido for “Sarashina's life and poems, and welcomed Nadine Willems and Paul Rossiter
Publications
Isobar Press https://isobarpress.com/
Paul Rossiter founded Isobar Press in 2013 afterretiring from teaching at the University of Tokyo. The press publishes
poetry in English by Japanese and non-Japanese authors who have lived in Japan, or who write on Japan-related themes. See the Chat for availability in Japan, London, and through Amazon.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #1, June 15, 2020 ~ Charles De Wolf
“Classical Japanese in Linguistic and Cross-cultural Perspective”
Vimeo video: none
Abstract
There was a gap between the written and spoken language and what that meant, as it meant very few people could read and write things, so there was a literate caste for awhile.
In the preface to his famous A Dictionary of theEnglish Language (1755), Samuel Johnson notes:
“When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century
to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand
years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able
to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases
from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and
secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change
sublunary nature, or clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.”
I cite this not only to show that,though no modern linguist, Johnson was quite aware that “mutability” applies to
human language as well as all else that is “sublunary,” but also to note that, as learned as he was, Johnson knew far less about the history of the English language than anyone with curiosity and access to Wikipedia can learn, in a
matter of minutes or at least hours. . .https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #2, July 20, 2020 ~ Janine Beichman
“Poems by Yosano, probably from her 8th collection, Princess Saho (1909)”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/598430701?share=copy
Abstract
Janine Beichman will be our speaker –via Zoom – on Monday 20 July at 7pm. This will be an opportunity to pose
questions to the eminent translator and poet. Her current book project is a collection of the poetry of Yosano Akiko (the working title is The Portable Yosano Akiko), and she will read some poems by Yosano,probably from her 8th collection, Princess Saho (1909).Dr Beichman, Professor Emerita of Daito Bunka University, studied Japanese literature at Columbia University, where Donald Keene was her dissertation adviser, and poetry writing at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Unterberg Poetry Center, and The New School. In Tokyo, she was a member of the Uchufu Tanka Society and practiced writing tanka in
Japanese.She is the author of the literary biographies Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works and Embracing the Firebird, Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, and also of the original Noh play Drifting Fires, which has been performed in Japan and the United States.
Her Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems of Makoto Ooka was awarded the 2019-2020 Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her translation of Ōoka Makoto’s Poems for All Seasons: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Earliest Times to the Present contains numerous translations of medieval and pre-modern classical waka and haiku. She has also translated fiction by Setouchi Jakucho and Nagai Kafū.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #3, August 17, 2020 ~ Mike Galbraith
“Adventures Researching Japan’s Early History of Western Sports: Basic Facts and Issues Regarding Their Interpretation Inside Japan and Overseas"
Vimeo video: none, my apologies
Abstract
Japan’s first athletes overcame size issues by hard training and challenged the world’s best in many sports! Their skills won admiration and they were often victorious.
1. How I became involved and some early discoveries
2. Examples of Japan’s amazing early international sporting forays
3. How Japanese sports bodies and historians present their history
4. Reflections on academic approaches to sports history
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #4, September 21, 2020 ~ Michael Plastow
“Journey to the West”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705583761?share=copy
Abstract
100 photos of hikes through the greater Tokyo area with many birds.
Michael Plastow moved toJapan in 1980 after graduating from Cambridge University in History and Natural Sciences. He taught university in Gumnaand others until 1996. Since 1983, he has worked for NHK in International Radio and other projects. His two walking guidebooks, unfortunately long out ofprint, include Exploring Kiryu Ashio, and Nikko: Mountain walks in the land of Shodo Shonin 1992, and also Exploring Kanto, Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo 1996 by Weatherhill.
To view his trove of photos, visit his Facebook page (Michael Plastow). If new to Facebook, send a “Friends” request to him on that page.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #5, October 19, 2020 ~ Ian Ruxton
“Making Sir Ernest Satow’s Legacy Accessible to the World”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705601350?share=copy
Abstract
1. How I became interested in Sir Ernest Satow
2. Who was Sir Ernest Satow?
3. My publications and work-in-progress
4. How to make Ernest Satow's name better known in the world?
5. Concluding remarks
6. Q and A
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #6, November 16, 2020 ~ Brian Burke-Gaffney
“A Brief History of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705610123?share=copy
Abstract
The talk will include an overview of events from the opening of Japan's doors in 1859 until the treaty revisions of 1899, an introduction to some of the key players in Nagasaki, and a few comments on sources and related issues.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #7, December 21, 2020 ~ Robert Morton
‘Singleness of purpose’: Sir Harry Parkes, Interpreter and Consul in China, 1843-1865; British Minister to Japan, Korea and China, 1865-1885”
Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710985656?share=copy
Abstract
How did an orphan, who went on his own to China at 13, rise all the way up to Minister (equivalent to today’s Ambassador)?
His story was unlike that of any of his peers, but then everything about Parkes was exceptional. He was indomitable, fearless, incorruptible, often insufferable, always larger than life. This talk will attempt to bring him back to life for ninety minutes.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2860057805 (no password). This is the Zoom link. The informal session opens at 6:30.
The lecture and recording is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. JST.
Informasia #11, November 20, 2023 ~ Caitlin Coker (Hokkaido University)
"Privileged/Othered Bodies in Japan- what can ourbodies do?”
Vimeo video: available post lecture
Abstract
I have researched physical performance- mainly Ankoku Butoh and poledance- in Japan since 2006. As an anthropologist, firsthand experience of dancingand performing together with people is one way I attempt to understand different movement practices. As I researched and attended graduate school with Kyoto as my base, my research had always been encouraged by others, and my presence- an English-speaking white female foreigner- had been, for the most part, embraced warmly.
It was not until I received a tenured position at a national universityin Japan that I became the target of sexual and racial harassment. This harassment reveals my vulnerable position in this society, and most of all, suggests that my own female body’s presence in my research is taboo.
Starting with my own experience, I want to think more deeply about how the intersection of gender, race, physicality, and sensuality shape our lives in Japanese society. I also want to approach this positionality as a source of possibilities for what our bodies can do; in my case, I am experimenting with
the integration of dance as a way of thinking, a movement praxis, in the university classroom.
After my talk, I would love to hear abouteveryone’s experiences of living and working in Japan and how you all understand these experiences.There are no published blog posts yet.News
Current events, publications, and announcements from our community
Ann Tashi Slater (November 2022 Informasia speaker), writes for the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Catapult, Guernica, and the Huffington Post, among others, and is a Tricycle contributing editor. She recently finished a memoir and is working on a book about bardo and the art of living
https://tricycle.org/article/melissa-febos/
Turning Toward a MoreAuthentic Life, Ann Tashi Slater (November 2022 Informasia speaker) in conversation withMelissa Febos. Apr 10, 2023- Galleries & Exhibitions ~In progress~
Here's where you can find past works of our colleagues
~In progress~Add details here.~In progress~
Add details here. Messages, suggestions, ideas
Would love to hear from you. Patricia Yarrow will reply.Informasia has a few expenses. ~In progress~
Your Financial Support is Appreciated ~In progress~
Make a Donation ~In progress~
Informasia volunteers (currently Patricia Yarrow) do not accept salaries or any sort of material compensation. However, a bit of funding would be order. Bake sales, anyone?
Expenses and donation platform is: ~In progress~This link to donate. <PayPal?> <to what bank account?> Your donations will be very much appreciated once I have it sorted out in January 2023.
Current expenses (in progress)
Finances are now being untangled.
Total for 2020:
ZoomPro license
Total for 2021:
Strikingly website
Domain name
ZoomPro license
Total for 2022:
Strikingly website
$24.95 Dec 27, 2022
$32.00 Dec 27, 2022
Domain name
$79.25 GoDaddy for "informasia.jp"
ZoomPro license
Total for 2023:
Strikingly website$445.45 Jan 10, 2023 (Five-year web provider license)
Domain name (?)
$79.25 GoDaddy for "informasia.jp"
ZoomPro license
Informasia launch
May 2020
Chaos ruled and all compass points were lost in the onslaught of the newly arrived worldwide pandemic. In April, as all university classes moved to Zoom, Patricia Yarrow was gazing blankly from her Ryogoku (Tokyo) veranda. Bereft of meeting companions, academically informative monthly lectures, and friendly discussions, inspiration struck on that spring day. “We could do this on Zoom!”
A flurry of messaging later, a core group of eight castaways met (safely on Zoom) on 25 May 2020 to toss ideas around. Alex Byrne dreamed up the name “Informasia”, and the vision began coming into focus. Our Informasia ship cast off with an stalwart crew for unknown shores. Since then, our mailing list has grown from 10 to nearly 300. Our Facebook page counts some 200 friends.
Informasia community
Thanks to all the friends and colleagues of Informasia in Japan, Asia, Australia, throughout the UK and Europe, and the USA, our Zoom community, launched June 2020, and has grown steadily ever since. Presentations in 2022 ranged from deeply academic translations of Korea, Japan, China, to research in progress, alarming lockdowns in Shanghai, to tranquil musings on cherry blossoms and ethereal meditations on life between death, with a helping of the foreign politics between China and Japan. If lectures were flowers, our Informasia bouquet would create quite the splashy ikebana display.
The Informasia logo comes to us from designer Ritsuko Lynch, upon the recommendation of Alex Byrne. She is based in Santa Monica, California. She can be reached at: https://en.99designs.jp/profiles/2313262
Join the Informasia mail list
Every month's lecture includes three brief pre-meeting reminders.
New addition: The Vimeo link to the lecture presentation and discussion will be sent the day after the lecture.
A newsy follow-up Report completes the set a few days after the presentation.
The Vimeo link and Report will find a home on this website soon.
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