Announcement of the Seventh Annual Meeting of theSociety for Cultural Interaction in East Asia
As of 2014, Japan boasts eighteen World Heritage Sites. In June, 2013, Mt. Fuji wasregistered not as a natural World Heritage Site, but as a cultural heritage site out of thethree possible categories of culture, nature, and mixed heritages. It has been given thestatus of “sacred place and source of artistic inspiration.” It is a “heritage asset” thatcomprises 25 points including the summit, sacred historical sites, and Fuji Five Lakes.
The temple dedicated to Yu the Great (now Fukuzawa Shrine) and the related Bunmeimonument (Bunmei is an alternate name for Yu the Great), were built in 1726 in theAshigara region of Kanagawa Prefecture, which is located at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The regionis characterized by a series of cultural events devoted to Yu the Great, including the Bunmei
Festival. Of course, formation of the Yu culture is thought to have been greatly influenced bya “sacred and artistic” Mt. Fuji. East Asian culture interacted with, penetrated, collided,transformed, and merged with it. As it spread in all directions, trial and error was repeatedmidst the continuing cultural interaction, thereby creating an original historical andcultural landscape. Research on the historic sites related to Yu and modern society are agood example of what can be contributed to the new academic field of East Asian culturalinteraction studies. Yu itself can be understood as a symbol of Sinographic languages, anintellectual construct that is common to all East Asia. A citizen’s research group in theAshigara region has been at the heart of continuing fieldwork on Yu culture. They havediscovered the existence of over 100 related historical sites from Hokkaido to Kyushu andOkinawa since 2007.
Human and material interaction throughout history is behind the distribution of Yu
culture in each of these regions. This interaction can be interpreted and understooddynamically. Through elucidation using an integrated and multiple perspective and diverse
methodologies in many fields, such as anthropology and sociology, the nature of this culturalinteraction is made more real and familiar. Not only does such research productively
facilitate East Asian cultural interaction studies, but cooperative research conductedregionally by local people is also of benefit. We expect such research activities to continue by
drawing on the directionality of scholarship and by inquiry into social contributions.
The reason the site chosen for the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society for Cultural
Interaction in East Asia was Kaiseimachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, is that the Great Yu isenshrined there within view of Mt. Fuji. We wish to associate future research withpresentations by the Society’s scholars with the backdrop of the double symbols of Mt. Fujiand Yu the Great. Further, we hope that this will be a mutually-enhancing opportunity forSociety members, specialists, private sector researchers, foreign participants, and Japanesecitizens to interact in many ways, thus re-initiating a great journey of intellectual pursuit.
We are looking forward to your participation, observations, and instruction.
Theme this Year
Responsibility for a Cooperative “East Asian Era”: A Cultural Interaction Approach
Panel Themes
1. A New Cultural History in East Asia: Texts and Personalities
2. Modern Society and Folk Beliefs in East Asia
3. Regional Cultural Interaction and Research on Yu the Great
4. Various Issues in Research on East Asian Intellectual History from the Perspective ofCultural Interaction Studies
5. Construct of Modern Academic Systems in East Asia
6. Formation and Development of a Modern Historical View in East Asia
7. Research on Modern Intellectual History and New Cultural History in East Asia
8. Other Themes related to Cultural Interaction Studies in East Asia
Meeting Schedule
Arrival: May 8, 2015 (Friday)
Annual Meeting: May 9-10, 2015 (Saturday and Sunday)
Departure: May 11, 2015 (Monday)
Application Schedule and Announcement of Selections
The meeting will take the form of keynote addresses, individual panel sessions,individual presentations, and papers by PhD candidates. We encourage Society members torefer to the separate list of panel sessions to decide which one to join. Each panel will beallotted one hour and forty minutes, and will have one moderator and one to twocommentators. Presenters may also serve as moderators or commentators. Please submit
the application form and an abstract (not more than 400 characters) if you wish toparticipate.
Deadline for application submission is January 13, 2015. We will send out formal
invitations at a later date.
Expenses
All participants who are not invited guests are responsible for their own roundtrip
transportation and lodging expenses. Conference participation is ¥6,000 for full membersand ¥3,000 for student members. Please pay in cash (Japanese yen) on site.
For applications for participation and presentation, contact:
The Organizing Committee for the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Cultural
Interaction in East Asia (sciea2015@hotmail.com)
Head Organizer:
Wang Min, Vice-President(Professor, Hōsei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies)
Auxiliary Organizers:
Zhang Qing, President (Professor in the Department of History, Fudan University)
Uchida Keiichi, Vice-President (Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, KansaiUniversity)
Sakuma Toshiharu (Chairman, Ashigara History Rediscovery Club)Ōwaki Yoshio (Chairman, Chisuigami and Yu the Great Research Society)
Secretaries:
Tsuyuki Junichi (Former Mayor, Kaiseimachi, Kanagawa Prefecture)
Shen Guowei, Secretary General (Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies,Kansai University)