Donald Keene Center

Events 2001

February 1

Gilt bronze reliquary of secret-visualizaton jewel Booktalk: Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early Medieval Japan
Professor Brian Ruppert (Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultures and Religious Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Discussion with Professor D. Max Moerman (Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

This study addresses the relationship between the veneration of Buddha relics and the appropriation of power in early medieval Japan. Focusing on the ninth to fourteenth centuries, it analyzes the ways in which relics functioned as material media for the interactions of Buddhist clerics, the imperial family, lay aristocrats, and warrior society and explores the multivocality of relics by dealing with specific historical examples. Brian Ruppert argues that relics offered means for reinforcing or subverting hierarchical relations. The author's critical literary and anthropological analyses attest to the prominence of relic veneration in government, in lay practice associated with the maintenance of the imperial line and warrior houses, and in the promotion of specific Buddhist sects in Japan.
Co-sponsored by the University Seminar on Buddhist Studies

February 6

Booktalk: Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600 - 1950
 

Professor Gregory Pflugfelder (Assistant Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University) Discussion with Professor Randolph Trumbach (Department of History, Baruch College) 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 6:00 PM In this sweeping study of the mapping and remapping of male-male sexuality over four centuries of Japanese history, Gregory Pflugfelder explores the languages of medicine, law, and popular culture from the seventeenth century through the American Occupation. Pflugfelder's book has been hailed as "a remarkable and sorely needed synthesis of the best of traditional historiographical documentation and critically astute analysis and contextualization."

Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute

February 8 Lecture: Beyond the Genbun Icchi Movement: Natsume Soseki's Writing in Kokoro Professor Yoshihiro Ohsawa (Professor of English and Comparative Literature & Culture, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Tokyo) 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 6:00 PM The creation of new literary language was a central issue in modern Japanese literature of the Meiji period. The Genbun Icchi movement of the early Meiji period insisted that the wide discrepancy between written and spoken Japanese be removed, or at the least, diminished. Writing is, however, essentially different from speaking and literary language is fundamentally separated from ordinary spoken language. Since Natsume Soseki was a formalist in character, he envisaged literariness from a different perspective. The examination of his literature from Botchan to Light and Darkness clearly exemplifies his idiosyncratic attempts to create new literary language in his way. Professor Ohsawa will analyze his endeavors by examining his revisions of the text of Kokoro in his manuscripts. Natsume Soseki

February 13- April 10 & April 11 Film Series: Countries and Cities in East Asian Film Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway) 7:00 PM These eight films move through many "countries" and "cities" throughout East Asia. They share, not a Chinese, or a Korean, or a Japanese, but an East Asian identity inherited but also fragile, subject to both recall and breakdown. Some probe specific zones of dislocation and disaster in the twentieth century. Others register deliberate flight, the embrace of new possibilities. All contribute to our sense of the great range and power of East Asian cinema in our time. They invite us to enter cities and countries that are distant but hardly strange. And from these places, rooted in East Asian traditions and modernities, emerge stories of loss and of love strong enough to cross borders, between nations, or between East and west.

Series runs Tuesday evenings from February 13 through April 10, 2001

Note: there will be no film screened on March 13

East Asian Film Symposium
April 11, 2001
• All screenings begin at 7:00PM
• Films are free and open to the public
• Seating is limited

• All films are in their original languages with English subtitiles

All films will be shown at the Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University
(115th St. and Broadway)

Subway: 1/9 to 116th St - Columbia University
Program subject to change
call 212-854-6916 for details

This program is sponsored by the following Columbia institutions:
the Richard W. Weatherhead Fund of the East Asian Institute, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Film Division of the School of the Arts, and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History

Schedule of Films
February 13 (Tue) 7:00 PM	Maboroshi (Maboroshi no hikari) Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu (Japan, 1995)
February 20 (Tue) 7:00 PM	City of Sadness (Beiqing Chengshi) Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan, 1989)
February 27 (Tue) 7:00 PM	The Power of Kangwon Province (Kangweondoeui Him) Dir: Hong Sang-Soo (Korea, 1998)
March 6 (Tue) 7:00 PM	Fallen Angels (Duoluo tinashi) Dir: Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong, 1995)
March 20 (Tue) 7:00 PM	Muddy River (Doro no kawa) Dir: Oguri Kohei (Japan, 1981)
March 27 (Tue) 7:00 PM	Sopyonje Dir: Im Kwon-taek (Korea, 1993)
April 3 (Tue) 7:00 PM	After Life (Wandafuru raifu) Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu (Japan, 1998)
April 10 (Tue) 7:00 PM 9:00 PM	Dust in the Wind (Lien Lien Fung Chen ) Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan, 1987) Panel Discussion including featured directors Hou Hsiao-Hsien (City of Sadness and Dust in the Wind) and Kore-eda Hirokazu (Maboroshi and After Life) to be held immediately following the screening of Dust in the Wind
April 11 (Wed) 2:00 PM 3:30 PM	East Asian Film Symposium Panel One: New Asian Cinema: Cross-Cultural Influences Panel Two: New Asian Cinema: U.S. Critical Response

February 13

Note: This film was originally scheduled for February 20
Film: Maboroshi (Maboroshi no hikari)
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu (Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
 

A visually lush, poetic tale of love and loss with a touch of mystery, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s film features a stunning performance by Esumi Makiko as Yumiko, a young woman fearful that she somehow brings death to the ones she loves. Moving between the city and the country, the young widow’s intense quest to understand her husband’s death is conveyed in exquisitely photographed extended scenes. Harking back to the golden age of Japanese cinema, Kore-eda’s remarkable use of light, space and stillness perceptively conveys the lives and emotions of his characters. The result is a film of great cinematic beauty and narrative elegance. - Film Society of Lincoln Center

Mr. Kore-eda is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.

Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts
 

February 19

Lecture: Beyond Paper and Curtain: Works and Humanitarian Activities
Shigeru Ban (Architect; Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
The New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology
5:30 PM
For further information about this lecture, please call 973-596-3080.

One of Japan’s leading younger architects, Mr. Ban gained international attention for his low-cost quickly built relief structures, using durable cardboard tubing, built in Kobe immediately following the earthquake of January 1995.  He has since constructed similar buildings for victims of earthquakes and other natural disasters in Turkey and Rwanda.

 Born in 1957, Mr. Ban received his architecture degree from Cooper Union Univ. (NY), following study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.  He worked in the architecture firm of Arata Isozaki (1982-83).  In 1995, Mr. Ban established an NGO called Voluntary Architects Network (VAN) and soon afterward was made special consultant of the UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR).  He is also active as a designer of private homes, apartment houses and public-housing developments, galleries, museums, railway stations for JR, and furniture and industrial designs.

Mr. Ban’s awards include:  SD Architect of the Year (1985); Tokyo Society of Architects House Award  (1993); Mainichi Design Prize (1995); Tokyo Journal Innovative Arts Award (1996); Shinkenchiku Magazine Yoshioka Award (1996); Intl. Architects Academy Ecopolis Award (1996); Japan Institute of Architects Best Young Architect of the Year Award (1997); JIA Tohoku Award (1998).
Mr. Ban is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the NJIT Japanese Student Association

February 20

Lecture: Is the Japanese Education System in Trouble?
Dr. Leo Esaki (Nobel Prize Winner in Physics; Former President of Tsukuba University; Head of the National Commission on Educational Reform in Japan)Introduction by Professor Carol Gluck (George Sansom Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University) & Professor Koji Nakanishi (Centennial Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University)
Dag Hammarskjold Lounge, 6th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Followed by a reception
RSVP required
Seating is limited. Call 212-854-1742 or e-mail klb52@columbia.edu
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute

February 20

Lecture: Architects Forum: Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban (Architect; Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY, 10017
6:30 PM
Tickets: $10, Japan Society members $8, students $5.
To order tickets, please call Japan Society box office, Mon-Fri, 10 AM to 4:45 PM, 212-752-3015, or visit their Website. A $2 service charge is added to all orders.

For further information about this lecture, please call the Japan Society at 212-832-1155.

Noted architect Shigeru Ban creates designs for residential and public buildings, museum exhibitions and temporary structures for refugees and survivors of natural disasters. His work relies upon the fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics and an innovative use of recycled paper tubes is at its core. Mr. Ban began experimenting with paper tubes in the mid-1980s and used them in his architecture for the first time in 1989. His recent projects include the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany, and a 30-foot-high lattice truss structure made out of recycled paper tubes above the outdoor sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art, his first U.S. project. Highly acclaimed for his humanitarian work, Mr. Ban has designed shelters of plastic sheeting and cardboard for Rwandan refugees, and minimalist dwellings of plastic beer crates and cardboard tubes for displaced survivors of the Kobe earthquake.
Mr. Ban is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by Japan Society

February 20

Film: City of Sadness (Beiqing Chengshi)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts<

February 27

Film: The Power of Kangwon Province (Kangwondoui him)
Directed by Hong Sang-Soo
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

March 6 (Tuesday)
Film: Fallen Angels (Duoluo tinashi)
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

March 8

Booktalk: Hiraizumi: Buddhist Art and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan
Professor Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan (History of Art Department, Yale University)
Discussion with Professor Melissa McCormick (Atsumi Assistant Professor, Art History, Columbia University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

In the twelfth century, along what were then the borders of the Japanese state in northern Honshu, three generations of local rulers built a capital city at Hiraizumi that became a major military and commercial center. Known as the Hiraizumi Fujiwara, these local powerholders were descendents of the ancient Emishi, for centuries rivals to the central Japanese state and only recently reluctant participants in the growing Japanese polity. At Hiraizumi, these rules created a city filled with art, from splendid temples and shrines to landscaped gardens and palatial residences that rivaled in scale and extravagance those found in Kyoto. This building program was at least in part an attempt to use the power of art and architecture to claim a religious and political mandate. At the same time, it was an encounter with a set of concerns that arose from the situation of the Hiraizumi Fujiwara as outsiders in an emergent cultural homogeneity defined by the center in Kyoto. In this, the first book-length study of Hiraizumi in English, Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan studies the history of the region and the rise of the Hiraizumi Fujiwara and analyzes their remarkable program of construction.

March 20

Film: Muddy River (Doro no kawa)
Directed by Oguri Kohei
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

March 27

Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series: The Current Cultural Crisis Facing Japan
Alex Kerr (Permanent Director, International Shinto Foundation)
918 International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
A talk on his new book Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute

March 27

Film: Sopyonje
Directed by IM Kwon-taek
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

March 28

Note: This program was originally scheduled for March 29
Lecture: Classical Literary Motifs in Surimono by Kubo Shunman
Professor John Carpenter (Donald Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art, SOAS, University of London & Sainsbury Institute)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM
 

A lacquer picnic box, violets, and dandelions by Kubo Shunman

While introducing rare surimono (privately published Japanese prints) from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this lecture will explore the interaction of scholars of the kokugaku (National Learning) movement, kyôka poets, and ukiyo-e artists during the late Edo period. Within a literary and artistic context dominated by kokugaku sensibilities, the surimono designer Kubo Shunman (1757-1820) still remains exceptional and seems to have had a firmer grounding in classical studies than his fellow surimono designers. Shunman's erudition and kokugaku inspired artistic tendencies are evident in his surimono production of the Bunka era (1804-1818), especially in his extended series inspired by works of classical literature such as Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise), Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), and Torikaebaya monogatari (If I Could Only Change Them).
John T. Carpenter received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1997. His research interests range from the history of East Asian calligraphy to early modern Japanese painting and prints. He was co-author of The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono (1995), and Jewels of Japanese Printmaking, Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804-1830 (2000), and helped edit and translate Hokusai Paintings, Selected Essays (1994). He has just been reappointed as Donald Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art at the SOAS, University of London.
Co-sponsored by the Ukiyo-e Society of America

March 30

Mishima Symposium
East Gallery, Buell Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
11:00 AM-1:00 PM (Panel 1)
3:00 PM-5:00 PM (Panel 2)
Followed by a reception
As novelist, critic, and dramatist, and as a cultural actor on many fronts, Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) was a powerful and provocational presence in post-war Japan. This symposium will revisit and reexplore Mishima's work and his life, his literature and his politics, and his significance for the culture of our time.
 

Panel 1 (Fiction and Criticism) 11:00 AM-1:00 PM · Paul Anderer - Discussant (Professor of Japanese Literature, Columbia University) · Nina Cornyetz (Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Gallatin School of Individualized Studies, New York University) · Keith Vincent (Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, New York University) · Dennis Washburn (Associate Professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College) Panel 2 (Drama and Performance) 3:00 PM-5:00 PM · Thomas Rimer - Discussant (Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh) · David Goodman (Professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) · Donald Keene (University and Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature Emeritus, Columbia University) · Laurence Kominz (Professor of Japanese, Portland State University)

April 3

Film: After Life (Wandafuru raifu)
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu (Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
 

Newly dead people assemble in a kind of limbo (it looks like an old school) and are asked to choose, after a polite interview, a single memory of happiness. A celestial film crew then makes a movie of that moment, and the shade is allowed to live with the memory for all eternity. In this sombre, delicate Japanese fantasy, written and directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu (a former documentary-maker), the light is gray and even, the emotions tranquil, the politeness exquisite. Kore-eda has no interest in orgiasts or roller-coaster riders: the cherished moment, it turns out, may be nothing more than a passing mood of pleasure—a breeze felt at a window—or a pleasure given rather than one received. The picture raises a marvelous, fanciful question: Are all movies simply the favorite dreams of the dead? With Naito Taketoshi as a fastidious elderly man whose life was too uneventful to yield an easy choice.

- The New Yorker

Mr. Kore-eda is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.

Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

April 4

Lecture: Space and Subjectivity in Japanese Modernism
Professor Seiji Lippit (Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

April 10

Film: Dust in the Wind (Lian Lian Fung Chen)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Roone Arledge Cinema, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
7:00 PM
Director's Panel Discussion
9:00 PM - IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE SCREENING OF DUST IN THE WIND
 

•  Hou Hsiao-hsien (Director, City of Sadness and Dust in the Wind) •  Kore-eda Hirokazu (Director, Maboroshi and After Life) •  Linda Hoagland (Subtitler of numerous Japanese films and Interpreter for Mr. Kore-eda) •  Chu T'ien-wen (Screenwriter) •  Peggy Chiao (Taiwan Film Center) •  Paul Anderer (Japanese Literature and Film, Columbia University) •  David D. W. Wang (Chinese Literature and Film, Columbia University) Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series

Kore-eda and Hou

Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

April 11

Symposium: East Asian Film
Dag Hammarskjold Lounge, 6th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
2:00 PM-5:30 PM
Followed by a reception

Panel One: New Asian Cinema: Cross-Cultural Influences
2:00 PM-3:30 PM
• Paul Anderer- Panel Chair (EALAC, Columbia University)
• Zhang Zhen (Cinema Studies, New York University)
• Gina Marchetti (Cinema and Photography, Ithaca College)
• Peggy Chiao (Taiwan Film Center)
• David D. Wang (EALAC, Columbia University)
• Charles Armstrong (History, Columbia University)

Panel Two: New Asian Cinema: U.S. Critical Response
4:00 PM-5:30 PM
• Stuart Klawans - Panel Chair (Film School, Columbia University)
• John Anderson (Newsday)
• Dave Kehr (The New York Times, "The Street")
• Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly)
• Amy Taubin (Village Voice)
Part of "Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School of the Arts

April 16

Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: Popular Uses of History in Japanese Life
Professor Masako Notoji (Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center; Professor of Area Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo)
918 International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
Professor Notoji is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute

April 18

Illustrated Talk: Secrets of the Geisha
Lesley Downer (Journalist)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM
In the summer of 1999 Ms. Downer spent several months living among the geisha, researching her book, Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha (April 2001). She befriended many geisha, shared their lives and discovered why modern young Japanese women still choose to become geisha. The author met women who were geisha in the 1920s, the geisha heyday, and heard tales of the pre-war years, when women were sold into geishadom and endured compulsory defloration at the age of 13. This is the first time that anyone has lived among the geisha since the anthropologist Liza Dalby 25 years ago. It may also be the last: the geisha are rapidly declining in numbers and the women who can remember their glory days are in their 90s. Ms. Downer will discuss how she gained access to this closed and secretive world and what she found there: the geisha she met, their way of life, their romantic history and their extraordinary, sometimes shocking, customs. The talk will be illustrated with slides and geisha paraphernalia (e.g. geisha shoes, lipstick, etc.)
Lesley Downer is a British journalist and a regular contributor to the Arts and Leisure section of the Wall Street Journal. She also writes feature articles for the London Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent and has written for the New York Times Magazine and Fortune. Her specialty areas include travel, food, fashion, arts and interviews/profiles. Downer divides her time between London, New York, and Japan.

April 21

Symposium: Animals / History / Japan
Coordinated by Professor Gregory Pflugfelder (Assistant Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
9:15 AM-5:15 PM
All are welcome to attend.
In order for us to provide adequate seating and refreshments, please let us know of your plans to attend by e-mailing the Donald Keene Center at donald-keene-center@columbia.edu

» Click here to see the symposium schedule, participants, and paper titles

 

from the 18th century encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue

The interrelation of human and (other) animal communities has become an object of growing historical interest. Changes and continuities in human-animal relations within the context of Japanese history and culture will be the focus of this one-day symposium. Morning and afternoon panels will provide an opportunity for scholars to present their current research and exchange ideas with other participants, including specialists from outside the Japan field. Research presentations will cover such topics as the institution of the zoo in the Meiji period, changing images and significances of the "Japanese dog" (Nihon-ken) under fascism, and the geopolitics of whaling during the past two centuries. There will also be more informal opportunities throughout the day to discuss the prospects, promises, and problems of studying human-animal interactions historically.
Please contact Professor Gregory Pflugfelder at gmp12@columbia.edu for further information.
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute Weatherhead Program Development Fund

April 26

Lecture: Dazzlement, Consumption, and the Hyperreal: American Theme Parks in Japan
Professor Masako Notoji (Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center; Professor of Area Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
4:00 PM
Followed by a reception
While most of Japan's domestic (not imported) theme parks are in deep financial trouble, two newly imported theme parks are expected to rescue the regional economy from the long-time recession. Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka in late March and the new Disney Sea will open adjacent to the 18-year-old Tokyo Disneyland this fall. Professor Notoji will discuss Japan's reception of American popular culture and the globalization of America's Hollywood media culture in the context of otherwise tension-ridden Japan-US relations.
Professor Notoji is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the Department of History

 

May 1

Soshitsu Sen XV Distinguished Lecture on Japanese Culture: The Pleasures of Translating
Burton Watson (Columbia Professor Emeritus and Renowned Translator of Japanese and Chinese works)
Low Rotunda, Low Memorial Library, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
5:30 PM

5:30 PM Sen Lecture The Pleasures of Translating by Burton Watson 6:30 PM Reception and Awards Ceremony for the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature 7:30 PM Cancelled The Panel Discussion has been cancelled due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts Panel Discussion: The Art of Translation · Burton Watson - Professor Emeritus of Chinese, Columbia University · Donald Keene - University professor and Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature Emeritus, Columbia University · Jennifer Crewe - publisher for the humanities, Columbia University Press · Hortense Calisher - former president of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, author of more than 20 volumes of fiction and essays, including The Novellas of Hortense Calisher · Amy V. Heinrich (Moderator)- Faculty Director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, Director of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University

May 18

Lecture: Japanese Language, Literature, and Pedagogy: Inflections as Discourse in Classical Japanese
Professor Charles Quinn (Associate Professor of Japanese, Director of the Japanese Language Program, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

September 24

Lecture: The Making of Nationalism in Modern Japan
Professor Shinji Sudo (Professor of Political Science, Kyoto Sangyo University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM

September 26

Lecture: How the Japanese Think of 'Peace' in History
Please note this lecture will be presented in JAPANESE
Professor Shinji Sudo (Professor of Political Science, Kyoto Sangyo University)
918 International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
7:30 PM-9:30 PM
Presented by the Nihon Benkyo Kai of the School of International and Public Affairs, with the support of the Donald Keene Center

9/18/01: Due to recent events, the Shinto Symposium has been postponed. As of this date we are unsure whether or not this event will be rescheduled. We will post any new details on this page as soon as they become available. October 5 (Friday) Symposium: New Perspectives in the Study of Shinto Coordinated by Professor Ryuichi Abe (Kao Associated Professor of Religion & Department Chair, Columbia University) 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 10:00 AM-6:00 PM International symposium with scholars from Japan, Europe and the U.S. · Panel 1: Shinto and Methods of Modern Academic Studies · Panel 2: Shinto and Its Interaction with Other Religions · Panel 3: Shinto and Japanese Studies · Panel 4: Shinto Art as an Academic Field · Panel 5: Shinto and Contemporary Issues

Co-sponsored by the International Shinto Foundation, and the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies

October 18

Note: This program was originally scheduled for 1:00 PM ~ 4:00 PM
Workshop: Setsuwa (Folk Literature) and Media
Professor Kazuaki Komine (Professor in the Department of Literature, Rikkyo University; Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
10:30 AM-1:30 PM
Please note that parts of this workshop will be conducted in Japanese. If you have any questions or would like more information, please call the Donald Keene Center at 212-854-5036 or email us at donald-keene-center@columbia.edu
 

Chôjû giga

This workshop will take a fresh look, from a setsuwa-oriented perspective, at emaki (picture scrolls) as a medium. Beginning with gajushi, the words written in emaki, we will analyze the negotiations and interrelationships between emaki and setsuwa. We will examine such emaki texts as Choju giga (Scrolls of Frolicking Animals) and Junirui emaki (Scrolls of the Twelve Animals) from a variety of perspectives.
Co-sponsored by the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Professor Komine is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation
November 14 (Wednesday)
Booktalk: The Tale of Genji

Translator Royall Tyler (Visiting Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University) Discussion with Professor Haruo Shirane (Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature, Columbia University) 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 6:00 PM Widely acknowledged as the world's first novel, and considered by many to be one of the finest, The Tale of Genji was written by Murasaki Shikibu in the first decade of the eleventh century. In this booktalk, Royall Tyler, recently retired from Australian National University and currently a Visiting Professor at Harvard University, will discuss his recently published translation of Lady Murasaki's exquisite portrait of court life in medieval Japan, only the third English translation of the novel in its entirety. Professor Tyler's eagerly anticipated translation, detailed and poetic, remains scrupulously true to the Japanese original while appealing immediately to the modern reader as well. Tyler considers his version "a new, more detailed and more fully engaging Genji than has yet been seen in a language outside Japanese."

December 12

Lecture: Contemporary Japanese Views of Death and Life (Gendai Nihonjin no Shiseikan)
Professor Masao Fujii (Professor in the Department of Literature, Taisho University; Visiting Scholar, Edwin Reischauer Institute, Harvard University )
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
5:00 PM
Please note that this lecture will be given in Japanese

 

December 13 Lecture: 'Men at Work': What Does Professional Baseball Demonstrate In Contemporary Japan? Professor William Kelly (Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, Department of Anthropology, Yale University) 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 6:00 PM One of the sillier contrasts of professional baseball in the US and in Japan is the claim that the Japanese athletes are grim “men at work” whereas we Americans are spirited “boys at play.” Like most national characterizations, it has a kernel of insight wrapped in layers of self-serving stereotypes. Japanese have more clearly recognized that professional baseball teams are workplaces, that they are constructed socially of work relations and ideologically of authority claims. In particular, since the mid-1960s, an effort has been made to construct them as corporate workplaces. Professor Kelly asks why this came about and why it has not been particularly successful, and considers what audiences have made of this thoroughly compromised organizational form. He proposes that a central fascination of baseball fans is savoring the gaps between the corporate image mongering and a more complex, occasionally sordid reality of team life and player careers.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology