European Association for Japanese Studies
ヨーロッパ日本研究協会

Bulletin No. 88 |  December 2017

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

eajs Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017
ISSN 0308-5139

Editor and Layout:
Office of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)
Lorenz Denninger
c/o Freie Universität Berlin
Hittorfstr. 18
14195 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 30 838 50929
Fax: +49 30 838 4 50931
e-mail: office@eajs.eu
website: http://www.eajs.eu

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Members of the Council 2017-2020
President

Treasurer

Prof Emer Dr Andrej BEKEŠ
University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Arts
Department of Asian Studies
Aškerčeva 2
SI 1000 Ljubljana
E-mail: bekes@eajs.eu

Prof Dr Verena
BLECHINGER-TALCOTT
Freie Universität Berlin
Institute of East Asian Studies
Japanese Studies
Hittorfstr. 18
14195 Berlin (Germany)
Phone: +49 30 838 53599
Fax: +49 30 838 57114
E-mail: blechinger-talcott@eajs.eu

Secretary
Dr Laura MORETTI
University of Cambridge
Faculty of Asian andMiddle Eastern Studies
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9DA(United Kingdom)
Phone: +44 1223 335106
Fax: +44 1223 335110
Email: moretti@eajs.eu

Immediate Past President
Prof Dr Bjarke FRELLESVIG
University of Oxford
Oriental Institute
Pusey Lane
Oxford OX1 2LE (United Kingdom)
Phone: +44 1865 278 200
Fax: +44 1865 278 190
E-mail: frellesvig@eajs.eu

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Extended Council Members
Prof Dr Jaqueline BERNDTStockholm University
Department of Asian, Middle
Eastern and Turkish Studies“
Roslagsvägen 101,
Kräftriket hus 4 B
Stockholm (Sweden)
E-mail: berndt@eajs.eu

Dr Till WEINGÄRTNER
University College Cork
School of Asian Studies
O’Rahilly Building
College Road
Cork (Ireland)
Phone: +353 21 4902410
E-mail: weingaertner@eajs.eu

Dr Andrea DE ANTONI
Ritsumeikan University, College ofInternational Relations
56-1 Tojiin Kitamachi, Kita, Kyoto,
Kyoto Prefecture603-8577, Japan
E-mail: deantoni@eajs.eu

Prof Dr Urs Matthias ZACHMANN
Freie Universität Berlin
Institute of East Asian Studies
Japanese Studies
Hittorfstr. 18
14195 Berlin (Germany)
Phone: +49 30 838 61720
Fax: +49 30 838 461720
E-mail: zachmann@eajs.eu

Prof Dr Andrea GERMER
Duesseldorf University
Department of Modern
Japanese Studies
Universitaetsstr. 1
40225 Duesseldorf (Germany)
Phone: +49 211 81-15159
Fax: +49 211 81-14714
E-mail: germer@eajs.eu
Prof Dr Gabriele VOGT
Hamburg University
Institute for Asian and African
Studies, Department for Japanese
Language and Culture
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1,
20146 Hamburg (Germany)
Phone: +49 40 42838-4825
Fax: +49 40 42838-6200
E-mail: vogt@eajs.eu
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EAJS International Conference2020 Local Organizer
Prof Dr Andreas NIEHAUS
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Department of Languages andCultures
Blandijnberg 2 (6de verdieping)
9000 Gent (Belgium)
Tel. +32 (0)9 264 41 56
Fax. + 32 (0)9 264 41 94
E-mail: niehaus@eajs.eu

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Honorary Members
Augustin Berque, France
Adriana Boscaro, Italy
Joy Hendry, UK
Eduard Klopfenstein, Switzerland
Josef Kreiner, Germany
Olof Lidin, Denmark
Mikolaj Melanowicz, Poland
Ian Nish, UK
Jacqueline Pigeot, France
Brian Powell, UK
Arthur Stockwin, UK

Louis Allen, 				UK, 1922–1991
Frank J. Daniels, 			
UK, 1900–1983
Charles Dunn, 				UK, 1915–1995
Charles Haguenauer, 		France, 1896–1976
Wieslaw Kotanski, 			
Poland, 1915–2005
Bruno Lewin, 			
Germany, 1924–2012
Fosco Maraini, 			
Italy, 1912–2004
Martin Ramming, 		Germany, 1899–1988
Alexander Slawik, 		Austria, 1900–1997
Frits Vos, 			
The Netherlands, 1918–2000

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

6EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Contents
Members of the Council 2017-2020��������������������������������������3
Farewell Message fromthe Outgoing EAJS President�����������������������������������������������9
Message from the New EAJS President����������������������������� 11
EAJS Council Elections 2017-2020�������������������������������������13
New Council Members’ CVs������������������������������������������������16
News from the EAJS Office�������������������������������������������������34
15th EAJS International Conference,
Lisbon, Portugal, August/September 2017������������������������38
Conference Report by the Local Organisers

38

Section Reports

45

Travel Grant Programme

67

Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2017�����������������������85
16th EAJS International Conference in 2020:
Time and Venue��������������������������������������������������������������������92

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 201713th EAJS PhD Workshop, Arrábida, Portugal
27-30 August 2017............................................................... 93
Report by the Academic Organizer

93

Reports by the Participants

95

Toshiba International Foundation Fellowships ..............112
Reports by the 2016/17 TIFO Fellows112

2017/18 TIFO Fellows

126News from our Members���������������������������������������������������127
Items Received ...................................................................128
Change of Address Form ..................................................129

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Farewell Message fromthe Outgoing EAJS President

Dear colleagues,
My term as EAJS President has come to an end with our conference in
Lisbon, and I would like to take this opportunity to give you a short overview
of upcoming activities and to say my farewells.
2017 has been an exciting year for our association. Most importantly, from
30 August to 2 September, the 15th EAJS International Conference took
place in Lisbon. The local team in Lisbon, the section convenors and the
EAJS Office in Berlin have been busy preparing this important event. As
expected, we had yet another successful conference, and it was really
nice meeting so many of you in Portugal. I appreciated it very much tomeet up and engage with colleagues from all over the world. In addition
to the academic programme, the conference has also been an important
opportunity to talk informally about the future direction of our association
and about our activities, and the General Meeting at the end of theconference is constitutionally an important event for our association.
During the General Meeting, one important topic has been the transition
from the old to the new EAJS Council. As you are probably aware, theelection by postal ballot for the next EAJS Council took place this summer.
Ballots were sent by the EAJS office by mail to all our members and had tobe returned by 21 July 2017. Profiles and statements of all candidates havebeen published at the EAJS homepage and can also be found in this issueof the EAJS Bulletin.
In the run-up to the EAJS Conference in Lisbon, the 13th EAJS Workshop
for doctoral candidates took place. The reclusive convent Arrábida, locatedin the mountains facing the Atlantic Ocean, south of Lisbon, has served asvenue for the workshop. We were delighted that former EAJS President
Rein Raud took on the important role of workshop director.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

The EAJS council were happy to be able to launch a new EAJS initiative inthis year, the Travel Grant Programme, which aims to enable colleagues who
are at the beginning of their careers to attend the conference in Lisbon andpresent their papers there. Thanks to the generous support and co-sponsoringof the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO), we were able to provide 20
such travel grants. We hope to be able to continue this programme for future
conferences. Conference reports by the Travel Grant Recipients can be foundin this issue.
TIFO also continued to provide funding for several important EAJS activities in
2017, such as the PhD Workshop in the run-up to the conference, as well as
the fellowship programme for three student members to conduct field work for
the PhD projects in Japan. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the
Toshiba International Foundation for their continued support.
I must also express our immense gratitude to the Japan Foundation who
continues to be the most significant supporter of the EAJS. Without the
support of the Japan Foundation we would not be able to maintain our office,do our daily business, or hold our triennial European conferences.
It has been a privilege, and a great pleasure, to be able to contribute to the
EAJS as Council member, Secretary, and over the past three years as
President. Among the events and experiences of the past three years, the onethat stands out the most to me is the second Japan Conference of the EAJS
which took place in September 2016 at Kobe University. The conference inKobe was a very good opportunity for our Japanese members and members
in Japan to meet, and I believe that we should, and will, continue to have an
EAJS conference in Japan in the year before our main European conference.
I would like thank to everyone in the EAJS Council, my colleagues and friends,
and the staff at the Berlin office of the EAJS, who have all supported me during
my time as EAJS President, and also to convey my best wishes to the next
EAJS Council. I am confident that our association will continue to grow and toincrease its importance for the development of Japanese Studies in Europe
and beyond.
Yours sincerely,
Bjarke Frellesvig

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Message from the New EAJS President
Dear Colleagues,
It is a great honour for me to have been elected the new President of the EAJS.
I am grateful for the trust put in me, and I am looking forward to doing my best toserve the association in this role. At this point, I would like to express my gratitude to the outgoing members of the EAJS Council and to outgoing President
Bjarke Frellesvig for their outstanding contributions. Thanks to their efforts, the
EAJS has developed into an ever more vibrant association. My thanks go also
to the new Council members and to all EAJS members who participated in theelection of the new Council. Finally, I would like to thank the hardworking staff at
the EAJS Office in Berlin. I am looking forward to us all working together during
this Council’s term, which will last until 2020.
During the last decade, the EAJS has evolved into the largest dedicated Japanese Studies association in the world, with 51% of more than its 1.300 members
stemming from Europe, 28% from Japan, and 12% from the United States andCanada. For the future, a strengthening of our cooperation with researchers inother parts of Asia is desirable. This will require additional efforts from our side,which we will gladly invest.
The 15th EAJS International Conference that took place this summer in Lisbon,
Portugal, has impressively demonstrated our association’s vigour. With 1.200
attendants and 726 presentations, the association’s strong growth, which was
already evident in Tallinn and Ljubljana continued, proving the growing liveliness of the EAJS and Japanese Studies in Europe and the world. Detailed
reports on the conference as a whole and on the conference sections appear
in this Bulletin. I would like to thank again the conference organisers, Professor
Alexandra Curvelo and Dr Ana Fernandes Pinto (CHAM) and their colleagues,
for the superb job they did to turn the conference into such a great success. I
would furthermore like to thank NomadIT for their great work in providing theprofessional support needed for hosting such a large event. Finally, I would liketo express my gratitude to all section convenors for taking on this importantwork, without which an EAJS Conference could never be so successful.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

With conferences held in Kyoto in 2013 and in Kobe in 2016, the EAJS has
established a new tradition of also having a regular conference in Japan. Dueto the great success of those conferences, the EAJS Council has decided tocontinue to hold EAJS Japan Conferences in the year before the triennial EAJSInternational Conference in Europe. Currently the council is negotiating withseveral candidates for the venue of the next EAJS Japan Conference, which will
be held in 2019. More information on this will follow soon.
In 2018, the EAJS will continue its regular work. The 14th instalment of the prolific and popular annual EAJS PhD Workshop will take place in October at the
University of Belgrade. Additionally, the EAJS has applied for funding to holda second EAJS Publication Workshop in 2018. The EAJS Office will release
more detailed information on these two workshops soon. Furthermore, the TIFO
Fellowship Programme will also be offered once more in 2018. Reports by the
TIFO Fellows from 2016/17 as well as from participants of the 13th EAJS PhD
Workshop 2017, which took place in Lisbon, can be found in this issue of the
EAJS Bulletin.
The EAJS remains immensely grateful for the continued support of the JapanFoundation and the Toshiba International Foundation, without which the association’s recurrent and new programmes as well as the regular work of the
EAJS Office would not be possible.
Finally, I would like to announce the venue of the next EAJS International Conference. The 16th EAJS International Conference will be held from 26 to 29
August 2020 in Ghent. I am greatly looking forward to meeting as many of you
as possible in 2020, this time in Belgium.
Yours sincerely,
Andrej Bekeš

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

EAJS Council Election 2017-2020

Procedure
As required by the EAJS constitution, the new EAJS Council was elected
to serve during the period 2017–2020. EAJS members could vote for the
Officers (President, Treasurer, and Secretary) and the Members of Council
by postal vote.
The constitution allows each member one vote for President, one for Treasurer and one for Secretary. For the Members of the Extended Council, eachEAJS member could cast up to three votes. Eligible voters (personal, institutional and student members, paid-up at least until 2017) have received aballot sheet by postal mail.
Those members whose names appeared on the ballot sheet – and in thelist below – had confirmed that they were willing to accept the nomination. Candidates could be nominated until March 2, 2017. The deadline forreceiving mail-in-ballots was July 21, 2017. A total of 191 mail-in-ballots
were received by the EAJS Office by then.
The candidates were as follows:
President
Prof Dr Andrej BEKEŠ
Treasurer
Prof Dr Verena BLECHINGER-TACOTTSecretary
Dr Laura MORETTI

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Extended Council
Prof Dr Jaqueline BERNDTDr Andrea DE ANTONIProf Dr Andrea GERMERDr Chiara GHIDINIDr Gitte Marianne HANSEN
Dr Riikka LÄNSISALMI
Prof Dr Andreas NIEHAUS
Dr Daniel F. SCHLEY
Dr Jan SÝKORADr Nataša VISOČNIK
Prof Dr Gabriele VOGTDr Till WEINGÄRTNER
Prof Dr Urs Matthias ZACHMANN

Results of the Election 2017
President
Prof Dr Andrej BEKEŠ				

159 votes

Prof Dr Andrej BEKEŠ is elected.
Treasurer
Prof Dr Verena BLECHINGER-TALCOTT

160 votes

Prof Dr Verena BLECHINGER-TALCOTT is elected.
Secretary
Dr Laura MORETTI				Dr Laura MORETTI is elected.

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143 votes

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Candidates for the Extended Council
Prof Dr Jaqueline BERNDT				
Dr Andrea DE ANTONI				Prof Dr Andrea GERMER				Dr Chiara GHIDINI				Dr Gitte Marianne HANSEN				Dr Riikka LÄNSISALMI				Prof Dr Andreas NIEHAUS				Dr Daniel F. SCHLEY				
Dr Jan SÝKORA				Dr Nataša VISOČNIK				
Prof Dr Gabriele VOGT				
Dr Till WEINGÄRTNER				
Prof Dr Urs Matthias ZACHMANN			

49 Votes
42 Votes
56 Votes
38 Votes
32 Votes
35 Votes
23 Votes
17 Votes
34 Votes
40 Votes
48 Votes
50 Votes
42 VotesThus, Prof Dr Jaqueline BERNDT, Dr Andrea DE ANTONI, Prof Dr Andrea
GERMER, Prof Dr Gabriele VOGT, Dr Till WEINGÄRTNER, and Prof Dr
Urs Matthias ZACHMANN are elected.
Number of invalid ballot sheets: 4
All those elected have accepted their election.
Profiles of the new council members can be found on the following pages
and on the EAJS homepage at http://www.eajs.eu/index.php?id=280.

15EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

New Council Members’ CVs
EAJS President

Prof Dr Andrej BEKEŠ
University of Ljubljana(Japanese Studies)
Curriculum Vitae
Education
February 1971: BS in mathematics,
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of
Sciences and Technology.
March 1975: MS in mathematics,
Osaka University, Graduate School.
March 1981: MA in Japanese
Linguistics, Osaka University ofForeign Studies, Graduate School.
March 1986: Ph.D. (Bungaku
Hakushi) in Linguistics, University ofTsukuba, Graduate School, Thesis
title: “Tekusuto to shintakusu” (Textand Syntax).
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Major Teaching Positions
Sep. 1988 - Mar. 1990: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social
Sciences, University of Ljubljana.
Apr. 1990 - Sep. 1995: Gaikokujin
kyoshi (Foreign professor), University of Tsukuba.
Oc. 1995 - Oct. 2002: Associate
Professor of Japanese Studies,
Faculty of Arts, University of
Ljubljana.
Nov. 2002 - 2011: Full Professor ofJapanese Studies, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ljubljana.
Sep. 2010 - Mar. 2013: Fullprofessor, University of Tsukuba,
Graduate School of Humanities andSocial Sciences;
April 2013 - present: Full Professorof Japanese Studies, Faculty ofArts, University of Ljubljana.
Major Research Positions
Jan. 2004 - Dec. 2008: leader,Research Project “Languages andCultures of Asia and Africa”, ARRS,
Slovenia.
Dec. 2005 - Mar. 2006: visiting
researcher,
NagoyaUniversity,
GSID (Invited JSPS fellow).
Feb. 2010 - Aug. 2010: visiting
researcher, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan Foundation Fellow).

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Jan. 2015 - present: member,Research Project “Languages andCultures of Asia”, ARRS, Slovenia.
Supervisor, doctoral dissertations
Supervisor: 5 completed dissertations.
Co-supervisor: 4 completed dissertations.
Management
Oct. 1995 - Sep. 1999: Head of the
Department of Asian and African
Studies, Faculty of Arts, Universityof Ljubljana.
Oct. 1999 - Dec. 2001: Vice-Deanof the Faculty of Arts, University of
Ljubljana.
Oct. 2007 - Sep. 2009: Head of the
Department of Asian and African
Studies, Faculty of Arts, Universityof Ljubljana.
Oct. 2013 - 2015: Head of the
Department of Asian and African
Studies, Faculty of Arts, Universityof Ljubljana.
Aug. 2014: Chair, local organisingcommittee of the 14th International
Conference of EAJS, Ljubljana, Aug.
27-30, 2014.
Decorations
Nov. 3, 2008 ‘The Order of the
Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette(旭日小綬章)’(GovernmentofJapan)

List of Selected Publications
1. Bekeš, Andrej (2015) Bunmyaku
kara mita bunmatsu hyôgen to
shudai no jizoku. In ABE, Jirô etal. (eds.) Bunpô danwa kenkyû tonihongo kyôiku no setten, 243-264.
Tôkyô: Kuroshio shuppan.
2. Bekeš, Andrej (2012) Possibilityof content shifts as predictors of
the wa-topic in Japanese narrative. In Nishina K. (ed.) Nihongo
gakushuusha shien no kouchiku
gengo kyouiku koopasu shisutemu
kaihatsu.
157-174.
Tokyo:
Bonjinsha.
3. Bekeš, Andrej (2011) Imagesof pre-WW II: national language
policies as reflected in the field of“national language studies” itself.
Acta linguistica asiatica, Volume 1,
No. 1: 39-51.
4. Bekeš, Andrej (2008) Text andBoundary: A Sideways Glance at
Textual Phenomena in Japanese.
Ljubljana: ZIFF.
5. SRDANOVIĆ, Irena, BEKEŠ,
Andrej, NISHINA, Kikuko (2008)
Distant
collocations
betweensuppositional adverbs and clausefinal modality forms in Japanese
language
corpora.
Large-Scale
Knowledge Resources. Construction
and Application. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science Volume 4938, pp
252-266.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

EAJS Treasurer

Prof Dr Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Freie Universität Berlin(Political Science)
Curriculum Vitae
Verena Blechinger-Talcott (*1966),
is Professor of Japanese politics
and political economy and Directorof the Graduate School of East
Asian Studies at Freie Universität
Berlin, Germany.
Previous appointments include:
Visiting Professor, Institute ofSocial Science, University of Tokyo(2008), Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Hamilton
College, Clinton, NY (2003-2004),
Advanced
Research
Fellow,
Program on US-Japan Relations,
Harvard University (2002-2003)
and Research Fellow (1997-2002)
and Deputy Director (2001-2002),

18

German Institute for JapaneseStudies (DIJ), Tokyo.
At FU Berlin, she was Associate
Dean (2007-2009) and Dean of the
Department of History and Cultural
Studies (2009-2011). Since 2009,
she has been Head of the FUB’s
Center for Area Studies. She isa member of FUB’s (extended)
Academic Senate (since 2013).
She is a member of the International Editorial Advisory Board ofSocial Science Japan Journal (since2013) and of the International Advisory Board of the Institute of Social
Science (ISS), University of Tokyo(since 2014) and the Advisory Boardof the German Institute for JapaneseStudies (DIJ) (since 2017). She also
is a member of the German-Japanese Forum (since 2014).
Her research interests include
Japanese politics in comparative
perspective, institutional change
in Japanese politics, and government-business relations in both
domestic politics and international
relations. Her most recent research
has focused on issues of corporatesocial responsibility and the relationship between business and society
as well as on Japan’s international
trade and global commodity chains.
List of Selected Publications• Vosse, Wilhelm, BlechingerTalcott, Verena, Drifte, Reinhard(eds.) (2014): Governing Insecurity

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

in Japan. The Domestic Discourse
and Policy Response. London:
Routledge.
•
Blechinger-Talcott,Verena,Chiavacci, David and Christoph
Brumann (eds.)(2013): Ein neues
Japan? Politischer und sozialer
Wandel seit den 1990er Jahren [A
New Japan? Political and Social
Change since the 1990s], Special
Issue, Asiatische Studien/Études
Asiatiques LXVII, 2/2013•
Blechinger-Talcott,Verena,Krauss, Ellis and Christopher
Hughes (eds.) (2007): Managing
the MedUSA: comparing the political
economy of US-Japan, US-German,
and US-UK relations.” Special issue
Pacific Review, Vol 20, No. 3• Blechinger-Talcott, Verena, Frantz,
Christiane and Mark Thomposon(eds.) (2006): Governing Japan.
Political System, Reform Processes
and International Relations in International Comparison [“Politik in
Japan. System, Reformprozesse
und Außenpolitik im internationalen Vergleich]”,Frankfurt/Main:
Campus• Political Corruption in Japan:
Causes,Consequences,andReform [“Politische Korruption in
Japan. Ursachen, Hintergründe und
Reformversuche”], Hamburg: Institute of Asian Affairs 1998.

EAJS Secretary

Dr Laura Moretti
Cambridge University(Literary Studies)
Curriculum Vitae
I am currently in my fifth year as
Lecturer in Pre-modern Japanese Studies at the University ofCambridge (Faculty of Asian andMiddle Eastern Studies), where I
teach classical Japanese and premodern literature at both undergraduate and graduate level. I am
also an Official Fellow at Emmanuel College, where I serve as
Director of Studies for Asian andMiddle Eastern Studies as well as amember of the Research Fellowship
Committee and of the Committee for
Scholarships to Harvard University.
I studied Japanese Language andCulture at Università Ca’ Foscari
Venezia (BA and MA) and got my
PhD in Japanese literature there in
19

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 20172003. While doing my PhD, I wasa MEXT research fellow at Tokyo
University from 1999 to 2001.
Before moving to the Universityof Cambridge in 2012, I taught atUniversità Ca’ Foscari Venezia(2003-2010; from 2005 as Lecturer),
Università degli Studi di Bergamo(2006-2010 as Adjunct Professor)
and Newcastle University (20102012 as Lecturer in JapaneseStudies). In addition, I have been
Visiting Assistant Professor at
the University of British Columbia(2008-09) and Visiting Scholar atLeiden University (February 2009),
Keio University (November 2009),
Leuven University (March 2010)
and the Art Research Centre of
Ritsumeikan University (2010 and2011).
My field of research is Japanese
early-modern literature. I haverecently published the monograph
Recasting the Past: An Early
Modern Tales of Ise for Children.
Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016. It
recreates in image and text theunresearched 1766 picture-book
Ise fūryū: Utagaruta no hajimari(The Fashionable Ise: The Origins
of Utagaruta). The introduction analyses Utagaruta through a discussionof the textual scholarship relating tochapbooks and kusazōshi. It also
contextualizes this work to shed
new light on the reception historyof the canonical Tales of Ise andto position Utagaruta within the20

realm of children’s literature. Thisis followed by the full transcription
and translation of Utagaruta, withannotations to each image. In thelast three years I have presented
my research project on nineteenthcentury ephemera (kobanzuke) atmajor international conferences
and I have been selected to give apaper on Shioya Kihei’s collectionof mitate banzuke at the prestigious
Kinsei bungaku kai in June 2017.
In the meanwhile I am finalizing
the manuscript draft of my work onseventeenth-century popular literature.
In my free time I have consolidated
the work initiated in 2014 in thearea of early-modern palaeography.
This year I will be running the fourth
Graduate Summer School in Japanese Early-modern Palaeography.
This is a unique programme thatteaches what we call ‘holistic wahon
literacy’, meaning all the skills(both linguistic and palaeographic)that one needs in order to access,decode and interpret Edo-period
printed and handwritten materials.
Every year we attract more than 30
applicants from all over the world
and offer 72 hours of tuition generously supported by grants from avariety of funding bodies. We also
ensure novelty in the programme
form year to year and we are envisaging the creation of a series ofteaching and research materials
connected to the contents of theEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Summer School. For details pleaserefer to: www.wakancambridge.
com. I have also continued to teachhentaigana and kuzushiji at the
University of Pennsylvania for one
week during the summer.
List of Selected Publications
2016 Recasting the Past: An
Early Modern Tales of Ise for Children. Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016.
2016 ‘A Forest of Books: Seventeenth-Century Kamigata Commercial Prose’. In Haruo Shirane andTomi Suzuki, with David Lurie (eds.),
Cambridge History of Japanese
literature. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2016, pp. 573-582.
2013 ‘Intertextual Divertissement,
Sexual Education and Entertaining
Humor: The World of Onna enshi
kyōkun kagami’. Japan Review 26(2013), pp. 195-212.
2012 ‘The
Japanese
EarlyModern Publishing Market Unveiled:
A Survey of Edo-Period Booksellers’
Catalogues’. East Asian Publishingand Society 2 (2012), pp. 199-308.
2011 ‘Kanazōshi revisited: reconsidering the beginnings of Japanese
popular literature in print’. Monumenta Nipponica, 65/2 (2011), pp.
297-356.
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Members of the Extended Council
1991 Ph.D. (Dr. phil.) in Aesthetics,
Humboldt University Berlin
1987 MA (DDR-Hochschuldiplom)in Japanese Studies, Humboldt
University Berlin
Member of European Association forJapanese Studies (EAJS, intermittently since 1991)

Prof Dr Jaqueline Berndt
Stockholm University(Japanese Language and Culture)
Curriculum Vitae
Employment History (tenured positions only):
Since 2015 Professor in Japanese
Language and Culture, Stockholm
University
2009–16 Professor in Manga/
Comics Theory, Kyoto Seika University (KSU), Graduate School ofManga Studies
2001–09 Associate Professor in
Art and Media Studies, Yokohama
National University
1995–2001 Associate Professor in
Art Sociology, Ritsumeikan University Kyoto
1994–95 Associate Professor in
German, Ritsumeikan University,
Kyoto
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Education:

Ongoing Research Project:
FY2015-2018“MangaStyle”:
Spread Abroad and Change (JSPS
KAKENHI Grant, B), project headed
by Fujimoto Yukari (Meiji University)
Outreach (selection):2016 Concept and direction ofworld-travelling exhibition Manga
Hokusai Manga:
Approaching the Master’s Compendium from the Perspective ofContemporary Comics, The JapanFoundation (2016–2020).
2011-13 member of advisorycommittee on overseas projects
promoting the Media Arts
Awards of the Agency for Cultural
Affairs, run by NHK International.
2011-16 member of advisorycommittee for The Japan Foundation Award for Arts and Culture.
2000-2002, 2011-2015 jury member,
Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (Asahi
Shinbun).

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

List of Selected Publications
2016_“Chapter 8 “Manga, which
Manga?
Publication
Formats,
Genres, Users,” in Japanese Civilization in the 21st Century, New
York: Nova Science Publishers, ed.
Andrew Targowski, Juri Abe & Hisanori Katō, pp. 121-133.
2016_“‘Comfort Women’ Comics,
Multi-faceted: Revisiting the 2014
Manhwa Exhibit in Angoulême fromthe Perspective of Manga Studies,”
Proceedings from the 2016 NAJAKS
Conference at Stockholm University:
Japanese Studies Volume, ed. by
Jaqueline Berndt & Gunnar Jinmei
Linder, ORIENTALISKA STUDIER,
Nr 147, December, pp. 143-169.
2015_Manga: Media, Art, and Material, Leipzig UP.
2014_“SKIM as GIRL: Reading a
Japanese American Graphic Novelthrough Manga Lenses,” in: Monica
Chiu, ed. Drawing New Color Lines:
Transnational
Asian
AmericanGraphic Narratives, Hong Kong UP,
pp. 257-278.
2013_Manga’s Cultural Crossroads,
co-ed. with Bettina KümmerlingMeibauer, New
York/London: Routledge.

Dr Andrea de Antoni
Ritsumeikan University(Language and Religion)
Curriculum Vitae
I am an Associate Professor at
Ritsumeikan University (College
and Graduate School of International Relations), where I teachcourses (in English and Japanese)and supervise Undergraduate andPostgraduate Students on topics
related to anthropology and religious
studies, as well as on Contemporary Japanese society, Religionsin Japan and the Anthropologyof Japan. I was also an AdjunctLecturer (2013-2016) at the University of Vienna (Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology), where
I taught Anthropology of Religion,and in Venice (2010), where I taught
courses on Japanese Religions.
My doctoral research (Ca’ Foscari
University of Venice, 2007-2010)
focused on places connected to23

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017hell and the afterlife in contemporary Japan (Osorezan, Rokuhara in Kyoto, Tateyama, Hakone
and Hirano Ward in Osaka). This
led me to consider perceptionsof places and spaces related
to death, touristization, social
memory and identity, in particular
linked to discrimination against
outcastes(burakumin)
andKoreans.
After obtaining my Ph.D., I spent
two years as a Postdoc (Japanese Society for the Promotion of
Science) at Kyoto University, doing
fieldwork on a tour of haunted
places in Kyoto, starting focusing
on experiences with ghosts andlooking into the field of “darktourism”. In the following years, I
started teaching in Ritsumeikan
and Doshisha Universities.
I am presently carrying out acomparative research on spirit/demonic possession and exorcism in contemporary Japan, Italy
and Austria (JSPS Grant-in-Aid forYoung Scientists, 2015-2018). I am
also the coordinator of the project“The Skills of Feeling with theWorld: Anthropological Researchon the Senses, Affect and Materiality”, based in Ritsumeikan
University.

24

List of Selected Publications
Death and Desire in Modern andContemporary Japan. Venice: Ca’Foscari University Press (co-editedwith Massimo Raveri, 2017 inpress).
The Practices of Feeling with
the World: An Anthropology of
Affect, the Senses and Materiality.
Special Issue of the Japanese
Review of Cultural Anthropology(co-edited with Paul Dumouchel,expected 2017)“Lust for Death: Dark Tourism,
Creation and Consumption of
Haunted Places in Contemporary
Kyoto.” In De Antoni, A., and M.
Raveri (eds.). Death and Desire inContemporary Japan. Pp. 63-81.
Venice: Ca’ Foscari University
Press. 2017 (In Press).
“The Politics of Spirits and theLegacy of the Exorcist: The Historical Construction of Discourses of
Spirit Possession in Contemporary Japan and Italy.” 立命館大学
人文科学研究所紀要 (Journal of
Ritsumeikan Social Sciences andHumanities) 106. 2015: 27- 69.
「死者へ接続するツアー――現代
京都におけるダークツーリズムの再考」(“The Tour that Links to the
Dead: Rethinking Dark Tourism inContemporary
Kyoto”)『観光学
評論』(Tourism Studies Review)
1(1). 2013: 81-93 (in Japanese).
“Ghost in Translation: Non-Human
Actors, Relationality and Haunted

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Places in Contemporary Kyoto.”
Japanese Review of Cultural
Anthropology 12. 2011: 27-49.
and I am presently working on
rewriting my Ph.D. Dissertation.

Prof Dr Andrea Germer
Düsseldorf University(Gender Studies & Visual History)
Curriculum Vitae
Since 2017: Chair in Modern Japanese Studies, Duesseldorf University
2014-2015: Visiting Professor,
Heidelberg University
2011-2017: Associate Professor at
Kyushu University
2010-2011: Japan Foundation
Research Fellow, Hiroshima City
University
2007–2010: Lecturer in Japanese Studies, School of Modern
Languages, Newcastle University(UK)
2001–2007: Research Fellow,
German Institute for JapaneseStudies (DIJ), Tokyo
2001: PhD in East Asian Studies(Japanese Studies), Ruhr-University Bochum

25

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

1994 Magistra Artium in Japanese Studies, Political Sciences
and German Literature, Heidelberg
University
List of Selected Publications(2017) Shared Origins, Shared
Outcomes? Transcultural Trajectories of Germany and Japan During
the Asia-Pacific War. In: Stolte,
Carolien and Yoshi Kikuchi (eds):
Eurasian Encounters: Intellectualand Cultural Exchanges, 19001950. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press, pp. 231-256.
(2016) [Gerumā, Andorea] アジアとの関係を中心におくこと[Ajia to
no kankei o chūshin ni oku koto;
Placing relations to Asia at thecentre]. In: Takao, Kikue (ed.):Hibaku 70nen jendā fōramu in
Hiroshima (Zenkiroku): Hiroshima
to iu shiza no kanōsei wo hiraku.
Hiroshima: Hiroshima Joseigaku
Kenkyūjo, pp. 343-366.
(2015):
Adapting
RussianConstructivism
andSocialist
Realism: The Japanese Overseas
Propaganda
Photo
Magazine
FRONT (1942-1945). In: Zeithistorische Forschung/Studies inContemporary History 12, 2, pp.
236-263.
<http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2015/
id=5224>(2014) [with Vera Mackie and
Ulrike Wöhr] Gender, Nation, and26

State in Modern Japan. London;
New York: Routledge Curzon.
(2014) ‘Sometimes You Have toCreate Your Own History’: The
Watermelon Woman and Historiographical Theory. In: Bulletin of
the Graduate School of Social andCultural Studies, Kyushu University 21, 1-2, pp. 47-56.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Prof Dr Gabriele Vogt
Hamburg University(Social Sciences)
Curriculum Vitae
Gabriele Vogt is Professor of Japanese Politics and Society at the
University of Hamburg. In recent
years, she held visiting professorships at Waseda University and
Chūō University in Tokyo and at
Kyūshū University in Fukuoka. She
is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the Berlin Institutefor Population and Development(BI) and the German Association
for Asian Studies (DGA). She also
serves as a liaison officer to theGerman Academic Merit Foundation. In addition, she is an editorial board member and “Regional
Champion Europe” to the Social
Science Japan Journal (SSJJ).
From 2005 to 2009, she was asenior research fellow and deputy
director (2007-08) at the German

Institute for Japanese Studies(DIJ) in Tokyo, and a lecturer
for political science (2006-09)
at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Previous appointments include
postdoctoral positions at Cornell
University in Ithaca, NY and at
the University of the Ryūkyūs in
Okinawa.
She obtained her PhD (2002) inJapanese Studies from the University of Hamburg with a thesis on
the effects of Okinawa’s local
protest movement onto Japan’s
domestic politics and international relations in the late 1990s.
The thesis was published as Die
Renaissance der Friedensbewegung in Okinawa (2003, Iudicium). In 1998, she earned her MA
degree in Japanese studies, political science and sociology from the
University of Munich.
Her research interest lies withdemographic change and international labor migration to Japan,
trends of diversification within
Japan’s domestic labor market,
environmental and peace activism
in Kyūshū and Okinawa, andJapan-US security relations. Her
research is based in concepts ofmultilevel governance, policy analysis, oral history, and social movement studies.

27

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

List of Selected Publications
Population Aging and International
Health-Caregiver
Migration
toJapan (2017, forthcoming); Japanin der Ära Abe – eine politikwissenschaftliche Analyse (co-ed. w/
Steffen Heinrich, 2017, Iudicium);
Multiculturalism and trust in Japan:
educational policies and schoolingpractices. In: Japan Forum, 2017,
29/1:77-99; Foreign workers inJapan. In: Babb, James (ed.):The SAGE Handbook of Modern
Japanese Studies. SAGE, 2015,567-582; Setting out to imagine a
new community: Okinawa’s reversion to Japan. In: Hein, Ina andIsabelle Prochaska-Meyer (eds.):
40 Years Since Reversion. Negotiating the Okinawa Difference inJapan Today. University of Vienna
Press, 2015, 44-70.

28

Dr Till Weingärtner
University College Cork
(Language and Humor Studies)
Curriculum Vitae
I am a lecturer within the young
and small Department of AsianStudies at University College
Cork (UCC) in Ireland, where I
represent Japanese Studies andserve as director of the Irish Institute of Japanese Studies. Since I
began teaching at UCC two years
ago, I have doubled the number
of weekly Japanese language
classes offered to students andextended the choices of Japanrelated content modules forstudents within our Asian Studies
programmes. I studied JapaneseStudies and German Literature atFreie Universität in Berlin, where
I received my MA in 2006 andmy PhD in Japanese Studies in2012. Between 2006 and 2008, I

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

worked as a research student at
Kansai University, during whichtime I focused on researchingcontemporary Japanese comedy
and became part of the Japanese comedy myself by playing
the stooge in the manzai duo
Altbayern. These experiences
greatly influenced and informed
my research and my thesis. I
began teaching at Freie Universität Berlin in 2008. I then spent
three semesters teaching as acontemporary lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University ofManchester. I commenced mypermanent lecturer position at
UCC in 2015.
I have received several awards for
my research, including the 2010
International Society for Humour
Studies award for my graduate
research, Freie Universität Berlin’s
2013 Ernst Reuter Prize foroutstanding PhD dissertations andthe JaDe Foundation’s JaDe Prize
for my contribution to GermanJapanese cultural and academic
collaboration. My research interest
continues to focus on Japanese
popular culture, particularly in thearea of comedy, media and performance, as well as cinema andliterature. Currently, I am working
on an English-language monograph on contemporary Japanese
comedy that re-evaluates the findings of an earlier German publication. Contributing to cultural eventsis important to me in both myprofessional and personal lives.
I regularly organise professionalrakugo-storytelling performancesin Europe and actively perform
as an amateur storyteller myself,
performing in German, Japaneseand English, most recently at
the Experience Japan Festival in
Dublin. As an Irish Association for
Asian Studies committee member,
I maintain the committee website
and am organising the 2017conference in Cork.
List of Selected Publications
2013
Comedy-Boom in Japan: Performative und mediale Rahmung
von Humor in der aktuellen
Populärkultur. München: Iudicium.
2014‘Performative
AspektedesRakugo-theaters[Performative aspects of rakugo theater]’.
Bunron Zeitschrift für literaturwissenschaftliche Japanforschung 1:
131-143.
2016‘Black cat mansion’. In: Salvador
Murguia (ed). The encyclopediaof Japanese horror films. Lanham,
Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield:
22-23.
2016‘How Japanese wallflowers turned
intocelebrities:
Self-mockery
and self-revelation of the female
29

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

comedy duo Harisenbon’. Social
Semiotics 26(3): 283-297.
2016‘The Gods of Rakugo: Commemoration in Japanese comedy’. Irish
Journal of Asian Studies 2: 36-46

Prof Dr Urs Matthias Zachmann
Freie Universität Berlin(Culture and History of Modern
Japan)
Curriculum Vitae
Urs
Matthias
ZachmannisProfessor of History and Cultureof Modern Japan at Freie Universität Berlin. He received his
undergraduate
andgraduate
training in Japanese Studies (withChinese as minor) at Heidelberg
University (MA 2000, PhD 2006)
and completed his Habilitation in
Japanese Studies in 2010 at the
University of Munich (LMU). He
spent extensive research periods
at Waseda University, Harvard
University, and the University ofTokyo, as well as at the German
Institute for Japanese Studies(DIJ) in Tokyo. Zachmann is alsoa trained advocate in Germany(2nd State Exam 2002). In 2006,
30

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

he became Assistant Professor at
Munich University, followed by anappointment in October 2010 as
Acting Full Professor at Heidelberg
University. In 2011, Zachmann was
appointed the inaugural Handa
Chair in Japanese-Chinese Relations at the University of Edinburgh. In October 2016, he moved
to Freie Universität Berlin.
Zachmann’s research focuses on
the intellectual and cultural historyof modern and post-war Japan
within the context of East Asianinternational relations, as wellas the legal sociology and legal
history of East Asia. He is particularly interested in the transfer ofpolitical ideas and cultural institutions, their strategic re-interpretation of discourses on modernization and national agency, and thepractical consequences this hasfor the foreign relations of Japan,
particularly in East Asia.
List of Selected Publications(ed.) (2017) Asia After Versailles:
Asian Perspectives on the Paris
Peace Conference and theInterwar Order, 1919-1933, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,2017.
(2016) “From Nanking to Hiroshima to Seoul: (Post-)Transitional
Justice, Juridical Forms and theConstruction of Wartime Memory”,

Journal of Modern European
History 14 (2016) 4, pp. 568-584.
(2013) Völkerrechtsdenken undAußenpolitik in Japan, 1919-1960(The Discourse on International
Law and Foreign Policy in Japan,
1919-1960),
Baden-Baden:
Nomos, 436 pp. (Studien zur
Geschichte des Völkerrechts /Series History of International Law,
vol. 29)(2012) “The Postwar Constitution
and Religion“, in: John Nelson
and Inken Prohl (eds.), Handbook of Contemporary Japanese
Religions, Leiden: Brill, 2012, pp.
215-240.
(2009 / 2011) China and Japan in
the Late Meiji Period: China Policy
and the Japanese Discourse on
National
Identity,
1895-1904.
London: Routledge/Leiden Series
in Modern East Asian Politics andHistory, 2009 (Hardcover) and2011 (Paperback).
(2007) “Blowing Up a Double
Portrait in Black and White: theConcept of Asia in the Writings of
Fukuzawa Yukichi and Okakura
Tenshin,” in: positions: east asia
cultures critique, vol. 15, no. 2 (fall2007), pp. 345-368.

31

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

C

Prof Dr Andreas Niehaus
University of Ghent
Curriculum Vitae
I studied Japanese language andculture, English and German literature as well as sports history in
Cologne and at Keio University inTokyo. My research interests relate
to Japanese body and questions ofidentity, ideas of the body in earlymodern Japan and - more as apersonal hobby - the representationof birds in Japanese culture. I am
currently supervising three externally funded postdoctoral research
projects as well as three PhD projects. Since 2004, I am appointed as
professor for Japanese Studies at
the University of Ghent. Currently,
I act as Head of the Department of
Languages and Cultures (110 staff
members) and Head of the International Office at the Faculty of Arts
and Philosophy. I am also appointed
32

adjunct professor for Japanese at
the University of Eastern Finland(since 2011) and collaborative
professor at Kanazawa University(2015). I am member of different
MEXT student and research scholarship commissions since 2006 as
well as the JET program selection
commission and the Belgian Japanese Speech Contest from 20062015.
At the Institute of Japanese Studies
of Ghent University my mainteaching obligations are within thefield of Classical and modern Japanese, Japanese society, Japanese
literature as well as research seminars on MA level on a variety of
topics.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.southandeastasia.ugent.
be/andreasniehaus
List of Selected Publications“They should be called gluttons
and be despised”: Food, Body
and Ideology in Kaibara Ekiken’s
Yōjōkun (1713). In: Niehaus,
Andreas; Walravens, Tine (eds.):
Feeding Japan: Cultures and Politics of Food Identities. London:
Palgrave Macmillan 2017.
‘”We are children of the sea”. Swimming as Performative Tradition
in Modernizing Japan.’ In: Boschung, Dieter; Busch, Alexandra
W.; Versluys, Miguel, John (eds.):

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Reinventing ‘The Invention of
Tradition’?
Indigenous
Pasts
and the Roman Present. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2015, 19-43(=Morphomata vol. 32).
Niehaus, Andreas; Hosoi, Naoko(ed. and transl.): Nishitani Osamu:
Wunderland der Unsterblichkeit.
München: Iudicium 2015.
Niehaus, Andreas; Tagsold, Christian (eds.): Sport, Memory, andNationhood in Japan: Remembering the Glory Days. Oxon, New
York: Routledge 2012 (= Sport in
Global Society - Contemporary
Perspectives).
Niehaus, Andreas: Leben und
Werk Kanô Jigorôs. Ein Beitrag zur
Leibeserziehung und zum Sport inJapan. Überarbeitete Neuauflage.
Würzburg: Ergon Verlag 2010(=Sport, Kultur und Gesellschaft,
6).

33

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

News from the EAJS Office
Dear EAJS members,
It was very good to see so many of you at the EAJS International Conference in Lisbon this year. Since the General Meeting in Lisbon, the EAJS
Office has been busy implementing our members’ decisions while at the sametime writing grant applications for 2018 and setting up EAJS activities for the
coming year. The purpose of this note to you is to inform you about somerecent activities and events in the EAJS Office.
We are happy to report that the personnel situation in the office has remained
stable. Lorenz Denninger continues to work as office representative andadministers the day-to-day operations of the office as well as the logistics of
EAJS Ph.D. workshops and conferences. Jessica Rorison and André Finger
support the office as student RAs and take care of day-to-day membershipmanagement and technical administration. Alessa Peters, who has worked asa student RA in the office since 2016, is about to complete her undergraduate
degree at Freie Universität Berlin and will graduate in early 2018. We are sadto see her go and wish her all the best for her future plans.
For the EAJS Office, the most remarkable event last year was of course the15th EAJS International Conference, which took place in Lisbon from 30
August to 2 September 2017. The conference turned out to be the largest
EAJS conference ever held, with 1.200 participants and 726 given presentations. We would like to express our gratitude that so many of you joined us
to make this event as memorable as it has been. We are especially indebted
to Professor Alexandra Curvelo and Dr Ana Fernandes Pinto as well as theirteam at the Universidade NOVA, who over many months have put in enormous work to make sure the conference was well prepared and enjoyable forevery participant. Furthermore, we would like to thank Rohan Jackson andhis team from NomadIT. Thanks to their hard and highly professional work,
preparing for the Lisbon conference went smoothly from the start. It was agreat pleasure to work with Rohan and his team, and we are looking forward
to cooperating with them in the future. The Conference report as well as thereports by Section Convenors can be found in this Bulletin. We would also like34

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

to use this opportunity to say thank you again to all section convenors for theirkind cooperation with the EAJS Office in the process of conference preparations as well as their hard and very important work during the conference.
In summer 2017, we also held elections for the EAJS Council. Organising theprocess for candidate nomination and election by mail-in ballot was a major
logistical effort by the EAJS Office staff. The EAJS conference in Lisbon
also offered the newly elected Council members an opportunity to personallyintroduce themselves at the EAJS General Meeting. You can find the election results and profiles of all council members in this Bulletin. Personally, I
am very grateful to have been re-elected as EAJS treasurer, and I am verymuch looking forward to working with the new Council to further developing
our association. The newly elected Council has been registered with the Berlin
Court in winter 2017.
In conjunction with the conference in Lisbon, the EAJS held its 13th EAJSWorkshop for Doctoral Students in the vicinity of Lisbon in August 2017. The
workshop brought together 20 doctoral students from all over Europe under
the supervision of Immediate Past President of the EAJS, Professor Rein
Raud (Tallinn University and Freie Universität Berlin). The participants’ reports
in this Bulletin attest to the unique atmosphere of an intensive academic gettogether at the reclusive Convento da Arrábida set within the beautiful sceneryof the mountains of Portugal on the rim of the Atlantic Ocean.
The 14th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students is scheduled to take place inBelgrade, Serbia, in October 2018. The EAJS expresses its gratitude to the
Toshiba International Foundation and the Japan Foundation for their continuous support for the EAJS PhD Workshops.
Moreover, due to the highly positive reviews of the last EAJS Publication
Workshop in Berlin in 2015, the EAJS applied to the Japan Foundation for
funding for another Publication Workshop in fall 2018. We will update you indue course once we hear about the result of our application.
All EAJS activities are conducted with funding raised from external sources. As
Treasurer, I am delighted and grateful that the Japan Foundation provided us
with funding for 2017-18. The continuing financial support by the Japan Foundation enables us to operate the EAJS Office and to provide our members withvaluable services, such as the EAJS-L mailing list or the EAJS website. At the35

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

same time, Japan Foundation funding allows us to plan for key activities in
the near future with a reasonable degree of certitude. In 2017-18, the JapanFoundation supported the EAJS PhD Workshop in Lisbon/Arrábida and also
provided invaluable support for the EAJS International Conference in Lisbon.
We are immensely grateful for this support.
I am also pleased and deeply grateful to announce that the Toshiba International Foundation continued to extend its generous support to the EAJS,
especially with regards to the support for young scholars. Already in 2014 and2016 respectively, Toshiba International Foundation changed the status of
the Toshiba International Foundation Fellowships and the annual EAJS PhD
Workshops to that of non-grant programs. This means that, for the time being,
the Toshiba International Foundation will provide support for the Toshiba International Fellowship Programme, which continues to be administered by the
EAJS. In summer 2017, we also started to build a network of TIFO Alumni,
which is meant to link previous recipients of Toshiba International Foundation
Fellowships and participants of EAJS PhD Workshops through social media.
TIFO Alumni will be able to exchange information about planned researchand conferences as well as fellowship and job opportunities, and they will
also receive regular updates about developments within the Alumni network.
The EAJS office will administer a social media group and also publish regular
newsletters for the TIFO Alumni Network. At EAJS Conferences, there will
also be an opportunity for alumni to meet in person and to network. We had
a first, highly successful TIFO Alumni luncheon during the EAJS International
Conference in Lisbon with 44 participants. Additionally, in 2017 TIFO generously funded Travel Grants which enabled 10 early career scholars to travel
to Lisbon to participate in this year’s EAJS Conference in Lisbon. Due tothe high demand for these grants, the EAJS Council decided that the EAJS
would provide funding for 10 additional Travel Grants. As always, the EAJS isimmensely grateful for TIFO’s generous support.
While our organisation is thus steadily growing and the range of activities are
expanding, the overall funding situation required us to spend more funds fromEAJS membership fees to fund staff costs at the EAJS Office and to ensure
the continuation of all EAJS services for a growing membership in the future.
As discussed in the EAJS General Membership Meetings in 2011 and 2014,
the EAJS raised its membership fees starting January 1, 2017. This raise inmembership fees was the first in more than ten years. Moreover, we believethat compared to other scholarly organisations, our memberships fees are
36

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

still very reasonable. We have since started to update and clean out ourmembership database. Thank you all for your understanding and for yourcontinuing support.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us in case of questions andinquiries.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott
EAJS Treasurer, and the EAJS Office Team37EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 201715th EAJS International Conference,
Lisbon, Portugal, August/September 2017
Conference Report by the Local Organisers
1. Conference time
30 August – 2 September 2017
2. Conference venue
The main activities, sections panels and presentations as well as scientificevents were held at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH),
Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
All other events were held in different, emblematic places of Lisbon.
3. Conference schedule
The conference started with a keynote lecture by Professor Momoko
Nakamura of Kantō Gakuin University on 30 August at Cinema de São
Jorge. It was followed by a welcome reception at Museu Nacional deHistória Natural e Ciência.
All conference presentations and panels took place on days 2 - 4 (31August to 2 September 2017) of the conference.
The Gala Dinner took place on 1 September at Patio Gale, Praça do
Comércio.
The EAJS General Assembly was held on 2 September at Fundação
Calouste Gulbenkian.
All the mentioned places were either within walking distance of the FCSH
or near a metro station, close to the city centre.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

4. Participants
Total number of participants: 1200
4.1. Participants’ nationalities
In total, 1200 participants from 42 countries attended the conference. Mostof the participants came from Japan, but other well represented countries
were also the United Kingdom, Germany, the USA, France, and Italy. The
distribution in percentages according to the country of the participant isshown below. It was the largest Portuguese participation ever in an EAJS
Conference.

Country

No. of delegates

Share

Japan

512

43%

United Kingdom

129

11%

Germany

115

10%

USA

93

8%

France

41

3%

Italy

39

3%

Portugal

26

2%Austria

22

2%

Spain

20

2%

Switzerland

18

2%

The Netherlands

161%

Finland12

1%

Sweden121%

Belgium

11

1%

Canada

11

1%

China

11

1%

39

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 201740

Denmark

8

1%

Hungary81%Israel8

1%Poland8

1%Turkey81%Australia

7

1%

Russia7

1%

Slovenia

7

1%

Norway6

1%Czech Republic

50%Estonia40%Romania

40%Brazil30%

Ireland30%

Serbia30%Vietnam30%Lithuania

20%

New Zealand

20%Singapore

20%

Bosnia andHercegovina

10%Bulgaria

10%

Croatia

10%

Mexico10%Nigeria

10%

Taiwan10%

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Ukraine

1

Total

1200

0%

4.2. Active participants
There were 139 panels comprising 361 papers, 349 individual papers and
16 poster presentation, for a total of 726 presentations.
5. Registration data
There were two registration periods: early bird and late registration.
Registration opened on 28 February 2017. In total, 1240 delegatesregistered. Of these, 961 (77%) had registered within the early bird periodby 31 May 2017.
6. Fees
The fees varied according to the date of registration as well as whether thedelegate was a student and/or a member or non-member of EAJS or AJE.
6.1. Conference registration fees
The fees applied were the following:
Non-member: 220 / 240 (early bird / late registration)
Member: 130 / 150
Student non-member: 120 / 150
Student member: 70 / 90
7. Companies and institutions exhibiting at the conference
The conference was supported by the attendance of several exhibitors:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Aprende Japonés Hoy/Verasia
Bloomsbury Publishing
Brill
CHAM
Editions Chandeigne
Hakuho Foundation Japanese Research Fellowship
Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of JapanJPT Europe Ltd
41

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

•
•
•
•
•

Kinokuniya Publications Service of London Co. Ltd.
Monumenta Nipponica
Nikkei Europe Limited
Springer Japan
T&F

8. Support from Portuguese institutions• FCSH-NOVA• CHAM• Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia• BCP Milenium• Turismo de Lisboa / Lisbon Tourism• Câmara Municipal de Sintra / Sintra Municipality• Câmara Municipal de Lisboa / Lisbon Municipality• EGEAC• Camões, Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua
• AirFrance-KLM
9. Scientific events related to the conferencea) Satellite events at FCSH venue• “Commemorating the 900th Anniversary of Saigyo’s Birth”, organised
by: Saigyo Society.
• “Japanese Studies in Japan: A New Trend?”, organised by: Tohoku
University Global Japanese.
• “Funny Stories and Orality”, organised by: Toshiyuki Sadanobu, Kyoto
University.
• “Legacies of Kirishitan Culture: Searching for the Origins of Five
Centuries of Interaction between Japan and Europe”, organised by:International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
• “The near Future of Pre-Modern Japanese Text Research”, organised
by: National Institute of Japanese Literature.
• Screening of a Japanese documentary film, “Life is Fruity” (Tokai
Television Broadcasting, Ltd., 2016); in presence of the film’s director,
the producer, and the narrator, Ms. KIKI Kirin, organised by: Nanzan
Institute for Religion and Culture.
• Journal launch: Global perspectives on Japan, published by theJapanese Studies Association of Turkey (JAD); co-organised by theJapan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS)42EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017•

Section 6’s co-convenors meeting about publication of papers on thetheme: “Does Japan Need More Structural Reform?”b) Scientific events in other venues• EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students: 27 - 30 August at Convento da
Arrábida• Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO) Alumni reunion meeting on 31
Augustc) Other meetings• EAJS General Meeting• Association of Japanese Language Teachers in Europe, AJE, General
Meeting• JAWS business meeting
10. Conference programme
https://www.nomadit.co.uk/eajs/eajs2017/index
11. Social events• Welcome Reception, which was attended by approximately 700
delegates.
• Gala Dinner, held at Patio Gale in Lisbon city centre. It was an optional
event. 620 delegates attended.
• EAJS General Meeting, held at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Approximately 150 members attended.
12. Cultural events• Classical Concert at São Roque Church, Lisbon.
• 6 Luso-Japanese Highlights. Bibliography Exhibition at Coimbra’s
University Library.
• Opening ceremony of the exhibition: From the shadows of Kyoto to thelight of Lisbon, Tiles by Ishii Haru, Museu Nacional do Azulejo.
• Presentation of Flower Offering, by Hananofu Shuho, followed by a talksession with the Master, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

43

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

13.
Services
conference

duringthe

83 participants applied for the
excursions.

13.1. Lunch and coffee breaks
The conference fee included
food for three lunch breaks andfive coffee breaks. Conference
participants could pick up lunchboxes and drinks during lunch
breaks. Vegetarian and vegan
options were available. The coffee
breaks included coffee, tea, fresh
soft drinks and petit fours.

13.4 Volunteers
52 students volunteers worked
throughout the four days of theconference. They were deployedat the information desk and in
the seminar rooms to provide
technical and other support
to section convenors. They
furthermore helped with logistics
during lunch times and during
the cultural and social events. A
detailed schedule for volunteers
was drawn up to match as best as
possible their individual interestsin the conference programme,
their particular skills and theiravailability.

13.2 Babysitting
Professional
babysitting
service was provided through akindergarten within 10 minutewalking
distancefromtheconference venue. The service
was eligible for children aged 2 to
7 years in two scheduling options:half-day care or full-day care,charged accordingly. Applications
had to be given in advance andchild-care applications on the spot
could for organizational reasons
not be accepted. The parentsof five children applied for theservice.
13.3 Cultural tours
Six excursions on various days
were planned. Two excursions
offered day trips outside of Lisbon.
Because of the requirement of aminimum number of participants,
only three of excursions could
actually be carried out. In total,
44

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Section Reports
Section 1: Urban, Regional andEnvironmental Studies
Convenors: Volker Elis (Universityof Cologne) and Evelyn Schulz(Ludwig Maximilians University
Munich)The topic of the Urban, Regional
and Environmental Studies sectionwas ‘Cultural Turn in the spatial
sciences’. In our call for papers we
specified this topic by emphasizing
the interdisciplinary character ofthe section in inviting panels andindividual papers which not only
address urban and regional topics
in general, but particularly engage
with themes such as socio-cultural
construction of spaces, spatial
discourses, acceleration as aconsequence of globalisation, andrepresentations of memory andoblivion in space and architecture, among others. Other fields
of inquiry were Japan as a postgrowth society, and the impact ofthe 2011 triple disaster. Given the
topicality of the issues and thethematic range, ageing, shrinking,and stagnation were as much in
the focus as deceleration of socialand economic processes and ashift to the compact and informal.

Overall,
we
received
four
proposals for panels and 44
individual paper proposals. On
the basis of the quality of the
proposals and their connection tothe overarching theme defined inour call for papers, we selected
37 individual papers and all of thefour panels proposed. Our section
met for two and a half quite busy
conference days. The large quantity of abstracts mirrors the risinginterest in issues of urban andrural life and the challenges of thepresent and the future. We were
especially glad to be able to selectpapers by scholars in all stages of
their academic careers, from graduate students to full professors,and from institutions in Europe,
Japan, and the USA, which facilitated networking and exchange.
The four panels referred to thesection’s theme from a variety ofdifferent perspectives:• “Environmental impacts of ashrinking population in Japan:
Towards a ‘depopulation dividend’”• “Fractured rurality in contemporary Japan”• “Nature-making, sacralisation,and spatial contestation in the
Ryukyu Islands”
45

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

• “Developing
international
tourism in Japan: perceptionsof and interactions with foreign
visitors”.
The individual papers covered awide range of topics, but we could
actually group them together undercertain thematic headlines suchas:• “Shrinking/
demographic
change as a chance: spatialand social transformations”• “Conceptualising speed anddeceleration”• “The Japanese countrysideafter the 3/11 disaster”• “Heritage and history”• “Alternative life and living
arrangements” or• “Socioeconomic change in nonmetropolitan Japan”.
Given the diversity of the topics
and the variety of disciplinary
backgrounds,
thetheoreticalframeworks and methodologicalapproaches covered a wide range,
including analysis of primarysources, qualitative and quantitative data, and ethnographic fieldwork.
The section was well attended
throughout the conference, withthe sessions having on average an
audience of 15 to 30 people.
46

We enjoyed lively Q&A sessions
following the presentations. We
would like to thank the presenters
as well as the audience for making
the section a success.
In conclusion, the thematic andmethodological diversity of thepresentations could be interpreted
a sign of a growing interest in
spatial research.

Section2:
Linguistics

Language

andConvenors: Patrick Heinrich (Ca’Foscari University of Venice) andRiikka Länsisalmi (University of
Helsinki)
The theme of the Language
and Linguistics section (S2)was Multilingual Japan, which
attracted a fair amount of interest.
Contributions dealing with thefollowing topics were solicited: thelanguages of Japan (Ainu, Japanese, Ryukyuan, Sign Language,
Hachijoan), and their status anduses in- and outside of Japan,
as well as uses of and attitudes
to migrant languages in Japan,
and contact between any of theselanguages. The section received
suggestions for three panels and
55 individual papers, which wereorganized into two panels andtwelve sessions respectively. As

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

the conference keynote speechon August 30th, delivered byProfessor Momoko Nakamura
from Kanto Gakuin University,
discussed myths concerning theJapanese language, no separate
keynote speaker was planned
for the Language and Linguistics
section this time.
Due to time limitations, manypotentially
fascinating
papershad to be excluded. Besides thetwo panels, (01) ‘Rethinking theworld through language: the roleof Esperanto in modern Japanese
history’ and (02) ‘Construction
and utilisation of the corpus ofhistorical Japanese: Man’yōshū
and Christian materials’, individual papers were organized
into (loosely) thematic sessions,
including (03) ‘Phonetics andphonology’, (04) ‘Syntax I’, (05)‘Syntax II’, (06) ‘New approaches
to and fields of Japanese linguistics’, (07) ‘Historical linguistics’,(08) ‘Texts and philology’, (09)‘Language, technology and translation’, (10) ‘Language contact’,(11) ‘Language use’, (12) ‘Youngspeakers of Japanese’, (13) ‘Multilingual Japan’, and (14) ‘Linguistic
innovation and presentations of”self”’.
The regular sessions (3) through(14) featured 36 presentations in
total (excluding a couple of last-minute cancellations), forming
a truly international gatheringof scholars. In these sessions,
we had 17 presentations from
European universities and 20
from non-European universities
and research centres, mainly
from Japan. Themes related tolanguages and language use
in- and outside Japan were well
represented, including papers on
ellipsis strategies in Korean andJapanese, evidentiality in Sakhalin
Ainu, hentaigana charts in Meiji
textbooks, translanguaging, young
and transsexual speakers, Hachijoan, Japanese Sign Language,
and mother tongue educationin Japan, to name a few. Bothmodern and pre-modern stagesof the represented languages andcontacts were discussed.
The quality of the contributions
selected for our section was
generally high, and the great
majority of the papers were delivered in English. As an attempt tostimulate more interaction between
the presenters in each individual
session, we experimented witha format in which all the papers
were delivered first, after which
ample time was reserved for
discussion. This created confusion among some conference
participants, however, many ofwhom were switching between
our section and that on Japanese47

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Language Education (S10). Prior
to the conference, a number ofpresenters kindly agreed to act
as session chairs, despite thefact that they were scheduled topresent their own contributions inthe same session.
We are grateful to all ourcolleagues for fascinating contributions and discussions and to
the local organizers, the EAJS
Office and NomadIT staff for
excellent cooperation and coordination before, during and after
the conference. We look forward
to the following conference in
Ghent, Belgium – a European
region inviting further discussions
on multilingualism and the role oflanguage in the shaping of history
and society.

Section 3a: Modern Literature
Convenors:
SimoneMüller(University of Zürich) and Atsuko
Ueda (Princeton University)
The Modern Literature Section
consisted of 10 organized panelsand 24 individual papers (total of
51 presentation) given by scholars
from a great variety of European
countries as well as Japan, theUnited States, Israel and Taiwan.
48

In selecting the panels and individual papers, we have tried togenerate a balance between
individual papers and organizedpanels as well as between nationalities. We also prioritized paper
proposals that explicitly addressed
the special theme of this year’s
modern literature section: theinteraction between literature andpolitics in modern Japan
We started with a panel onŌe Kenzaburō (‘Reading ŌeKenzaburō’s A Political Youth Diesin the 21st Century’), presumably the most renowned politicallyengaged writer of postwar andcontemporary Japan. Many otherpanels and individual papers
focused on the interaction between
literature and politics, such as‘Japan, Russia and Revolution’,‘The Politics of “Voice” in Japan’s
Nuclear Literature’, ‘Identity andCommitment in 1960s Japan’,‘Violent Fictions: Literatures ofMobilization in Trans-War Japanand Korea’, and ‘Politics of Transgressive Sexualities in Modern
Japanese Literature’.
In addition, the section featured
panels on ‘Literature and Education in Modern Japan’, ‘The Politics
and Practice of Everyday Life inModern Japan’, ‘Literary Expression Opening the Way for the
Present: Focusing on PoliticalEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Incorrectness as Keyword’, and‘The Rebirth of the Author’.
The individual papers covereda wide range of topics, but wemanaged to group them together
under thematic headlines such as- ‘Post-Fukushima Arts’ (treatingtexts by Kirino Natsuo and Takahashi Gen’ichirō)- ‘Redefining Coloniality of modern
Japan’ (addressing Okinawa literature or literature on Formosa)- ‘Politics of Translation’, (examining works by Wakamatsu
Shizuko and Itō Sei; ThomasMann, and the Meiji novel Karyūshunwa)‘Reconstructing
the
Past’
(engaging with modern Japanese poetry, novels of Tanizaki
Jun’ichirō, as well as nostalgia in
Heisei literature)- ‘Representation of Violence’(in works by Hayashi Fumiko,
Murayama Tomoyoshi and Kunikida Doppo)- ‘Postwar Japanese Literary
Climate’ (taking up Japanesewriters in the Soviet union andNakajima Atsushi as a postcolonial
writer)- ‘Redefining Communality andLandscape’ (addressing works by
Suzuki Izumi, Abe Kōbō, Shōno
Yoriko)Despite the diversity of theirresearch objects, many papers

touched upon similar politically andsocially relevant issues such ascolonialism and postcolonialism,
gender issues as well as literary
engagement.
Having set the theme as the interaction between literature and politics, participants engaged in critical
dialogues over a wide range ofissues throughout the three-day
conference. Many participants
were eager to make their scholarly
work politically and socially relevant today, which was apparent
through discussions that revolved
around the reception of politicallyengaged literature in the 21th
century, and the potential of literature to transport political issues
and to contribute to social change.
On Thursday afternoon and Friday,
the section ran in two parallelrooms. Despite this, the panels
were very well attended (between
10 and 80 listeners per panel)and met with positive response,
which was evident not only fromthe many lively Q&A sessions that
followed the presentations, butalso from the many participants
who kindly approached us. We
would like to thank the presenters
as well as the audience for making
the section a success. We also
wish to thank the organizers fortheir efficient and friendly support.
49

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Section 3b: Pre-modern Literature

all dealing with medieval waka
poetics.

Convenors: Maria Chiara Migliore(University
ofSalento)andRajyashree Pandey (Goldsmiths,
University of London)

Day 2 opened with two parallelsessions, the first on epic narrative and on the writing of nō texts;
the second parallel session wascomposed of one panel on the
representation of topographicalborders between the humanand non-human worlds, and theother on possible strategies andapproaches to make literary classics accessible to a wider audience. This latter panel was wellattended and well received, withseveral comments by the audience. In the afternoon, we had
a panel on dream visions in premodern Japan, and individual
papers by three scholars working
independently of each other, but
all dealing with medieval SinoJapanese literature, in particularon commentaries on Wakan
rōeishū, commentaries written inkana on Chinese classic books,
and didactic works such as Kuchizusami.

The pre-modern literature section
consisted of ten organized panels
and four sessions of individual
papers, arranged for themes rather
than for chronological order. All
periods were well represented,
especially the Edo period, in awide generality of themes ranging
from prose to poetry, with the only
exception being the Nara period,on which there has not been any
contribution. Attendance was good
throughout, averaging between
twenty and thirty participants formost sessions, with many participants attending all three days.
Day 1 was organized in twoparallel sessions dealing mostly
with Edo period contributions; one
panel dealt with new perspectives
on Murasaki Shikibu’s Edo-period
legacy; two panels were devoted
to the subject of publishing andthe history of the book. We also
had one panel and three individual
papers, grouped together under
the thematic rubric of parody.
Pre-Edo literature was also represented in the form of three individual papers grouped together50

Day 3 had no parallel sessions
and began with a panel on genderand cultural space in pre-modern
Japanese texts followed by apanel on renga poetry; the section
closed with three individual papers
by three young scholars working
on very different themes: the first
one gave new insights on the well-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

know anecdote of Barlaam andJosaphat; the second exploreda fictional monogatari style of
the Shintōshū which could haveaccounted for the work’s popularity
in later periods; the third analysed
medieval Japanese travel diaries
from a geopoetic perspective.
Overall, the panel organisers feltthat the pre-modern literature
went well. It had good attendance and stimulating discussions,suggesting that it was a success.
In the future we would pay greaterattention to scheduling papers
such that they avoided clashingwith other panels dealing withsimilar themes in related sections
such as medieval religion andhistory.

Section 4a: Visual Arts
Convenors:
Jaqueline
Berndt(Stockholm University) and Khanh
Trinh (Museum Rietberg Zürich)
The subject area of Nihon bijutsushi has traditionally formed thecore of the Visual Arts subsection at the EAJS, but this area
has seen significant shifts inrecent years. In order to attract
contributions on various genres
and notions of visual art, weissued a Call for Papers related

to “Materialities of Visual Art.” Thesuggested focus on materiality
resulted in a multitude of papers
which considered old and new
mediums,
technologies,
sites(such as literary salons or contemporary art festivals), circulation
channels, and discursive contexts
in a way that differs from thesocial-science emphasis predominant in the Media Studies section,for example, by acknowledging
the performative agency of texts
and objects beyond representation. Many papers foregroundedvisuality, not rarely in relation
to multisensory perception andthe body, and investigated intercultural exchange (in East Asia,
in particular) as well transnational networks of both creators
and audiences. The majority of
papers addressed visual arts fromthe early modern, modern andcontemporary periods, stretchingfrom painting and woodcut prints
to photography, modern graphic
and industrial design, cinema
and animation. Unfortunately, theproposals related, for example, tocontemporary popular art forms
such as comics were the weakest
with regards to methodology andtherefore could not be considered.
From the 14 panel proposals and
34 individual paper proposals thatwere submitted, we selected ten
individual papers and eight panels
51

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

for presentation during the conference. In view of the fact that the
Visual Arts section does usuallyattract specialists rather than alarger audience, we opted against
parallel sessions. Due to theirconsistency and high level especially the panels sessions were
well received, namely ‘On Paper
and Beyond’ (Misato Ido, Haruko
Wakabayashi, Melanie Trede with
Seishi Namiki), ‘Ruling Momoyama
Arts’
(Nora
Usanov-Geissler,
Annegret Bergmann with Anton
Schweizer), ‘The Role of Art andLiterature Salons in 18-19the Cent.
Japan’ (Andrew Gerstle, Akiko
Yano, Nobuo Nakatani), ‘Materialities of Japanese Culture in the
19th Century’ (Tomoe Steineck,
Wibke Schrape, Rosina Buckland),‘Print Matters: Visuality, Materiality,
and the Afterlife of the Image inJapanese Art’ (Julie Nelsen, Davis,
Erin Schonveld, Ewa Machotka),
and the excellent papers by
up-and-coming researchers Kelly
McCormick,MaggieMustard,and Carrie Cushman in ‘The
Materials of Postwar JapanesePhotography’(with
JonathanReynolds). An exceptional attemptatinterdisciplinarity
betweenvisual and performing arts as wellas anthropology and philosophy
was undertaken in ‘Materiality andProcess in Japanese Art Festivals’(Gunhild Borggreen, Anemone
Platz, Katherine Mezur, Emil Bach
52

Sørensen), and the presentations
on ‘Chromophobia and Chromophilia in Japanese Cinema’ (David
Pinho Barros, Miguel Patricio,
Luis Mendonça with Sabrina D.
Marques) drew attention to yet
another kind of interdisciplinarity,that between Film Studies andJapan Studies expertise.
In view of future EAJS conferences, participants expressed thewish to improve the following: (1)cross-sectional
communication
between convenors with respect tothe programming of similar presentations, especially in the sectionsof Visuals Arts, Performing Arts,and Literature; (2) organization oftrans-disciplinary methodologicallyinformed panels outside of thesectional time frame (for example,
related to performativity, representation, mediation and post-media,
queering, narratology); (3) encouraging admitted speakers to deliver
their paper via Skype or Facetime
instead of cancelling participation.
Finally, the convenors would liketo thank all organizers — i.e., ourcolleagues at Universidade Novade Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências
Sociais e Humanas, the EAJS
council and NomadIT — as well
as all the presenters, discussants,
and audience participants formaking the conference in generaland the Visual Arts section in

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

particular an extraordinary site ofcritical stimulation and interpersonal exchange.

Section 4b: Performing Arts
Convenors:
BarbaraGeilhorn(University of Manchester) andAndreasRegelsberger(TrierUniversity)
The performing arts section wasco-convened by Dr. Barbara Geilhorn (University of Manchester)and Prof. Andreas Regelsberger(University of Trier). Our Callfor Papers invited scholars toaddress the theme of ‘Theatre
and Community’ in relation totheir current research. The theme
attracted considerable attention
and was a focus of discussion
during the conference. We had agood response to the call and wewere able to place more than halfof the papers. Compared to theconference in Ljubljana in 2014
we observed an increase of 30%
in regard to panel applications and100% in individual paper applications.
Number of presentations
The section had a full program of
papers comprising: 13 sessionsin 11 slots (only two parallelsessions) with 15 single presentations and 8 panels (with 23
presenters), there was a total of
38 presentations. (This indicatesto a growth of 23% compared
to 2014.) This turned out to bea good and very balanced mixof Japanese, European andAmerican (and other) presentersof both, young and upcoming
scholars with exciting new ideas
and approaches as well as wellestablished experts in academia.
Attendance
The section was well attended.
Having only two breakout sessions
meant that panellists could attend
almost all sessions and respondto the themes addressed over thedays of the conference. Individual
sessions had on average an audience of 15-40 people.
ThemesThe papers addressed all fields
of Japanese performing arts
including classical nō drama,
kabuki, bunraku, rakugo andcontemporary
theatre,performance and music. Almost all of
the papers reflected on the panel
theme of ‘Theatre and Community’, a theme that included studiesof theatre histories, production,
performance analysis and studies
53

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017of theatre in the wider context ofcultural history.
Panel Highlights
The papers were all of a highstandard and many drew onscholars’ current research in thefield. Themed panels were particularly successful in exploring thewider issues of research topics
from various interrelating perspectives.
- S4b_01 Kabuki and Its Spectators: The Theatrical Experience in
Edo- and Meiji Period Japan
Convenors: Tove Bjoerk (Saitama
University); Hiroko Goto (Tezukayama University); Takayuki Hioki(Shirayuri University)
Chair & discussant: Kyozo Takei(National Institute of Japanese
Literature)- S4b_02 The world of Noh: three
aspects of its socioeconomic structure
Convenors:
Reiko
Yamanaka(Hosei University); Diego Pellecchia (Kyoto Sangyo University);
Keizo Miyamoto (Hosei University)- S4b_03 Performance of History
and Memory: Extratextual Dimensions of the Tale of the Heike,Japan’s Iconic War Tale
Convenor: Elizabeth Oyler (University of Pittsburgh)
54

Chair: Michael Watson (Meiji
Gakuin University)
Discussant:SusanMatisoff(University of California, Berkeley)- S4b_04 Actor-Audience Relationships in Japanese Comic Storytelling (Rakugo)
Convenors: Sarah Stark (University of Ghent); Till Weingärtner(University College Cork); Bernhard Seidl (Vienna University)- S4b_06 Staging Christian Insurrection in Medieval Japan, and in
Early-Modern Japanese and European Memory
Convenor: Patrick Schwemmer(Musashi University)- S4b_08 Noh and Society: Performance Contexts, Performers andImagesConvenor:
Eike
Grossmann(University of Hamburg)
Overall, we were able to enjoy asmooth running and richly discursive program. We thank our hosts
for their excellent work and extend
a special thanks to the volunteer
helpers who worked so hard to
make sure that everything wentsmoothly.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Section 5a: Anthropology andSociology
Convenors: Andrea de Antoni(Ritsumeikan
University)
andEmma Cook (Hokkaido University)
The Section of anthropology andsociology (5a) took place fromthe 30th of August to the 2nd of
September 2017 in the “Bloco 1” at
the Faculty of Social Sciences andHumanities, Universidade NOVA
of Lisbon. Through the Call for
Papers, the Section theme was set
as ‘Feeling (in) Japan: Affective,
Sensory and Material Entanglements in the Field’. This was an
attempt to promote the application,
discussion and re-framing of affecttheory, the anthropology of thesenses, and theories on materiality
through the use of ethnographic
cases related to Japan.
We received a high number ofsubmissions (16 panels and 43
individual presentations), that weselected on the basis of their innovativeness, methodological soundness and promising quality. As aresult of the selection, the Section
featured 14 panels and 30 individual presentations. Roughly halfof them were related to the Section
theme, and approached it byfocusing on diverse ethnographic
cases and angles: mobility, workand education, ageing and theend of life, affective and sensory
research methods, music anddance, as well as material spacesof nostalgia and subcultures. The
other panels and presentations
looked into a variety of topics,
ranging from, for instance, Tohoku
studies,
homophobia,
genderand sexuality studies, attitudes todeath, food and globalization, tothe anthropology of organizations
and employment.
We organized the panels andpresentations into three parallelsessions on the first two days of
the Conference and two on thelast, arranging individual presentations into 10 thematic “panels”.
While attempting to keep someconsistency in the flow of eachparallel session, we grouped all
the presentations related to theSection theme into session 1 anddistributed the others into sessions
2 and 3, trying to avoid having
panels on relatively related topics
in the same time slot, in order toavoid competition. Because ofbudget restrictions, we decided
not to have any Section Keynote
Speaker or Panel, a choicethat was also aiming at keeping
equality with the panels and individual presentations not related to
the Section topic. Nevertheless,
we did set a Wrapping-up Round
Table – which we chaired – on thetheme, as a single session at the55

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017end of the Conference in order togive all participants the opportunity to attend and to take part indiscussion.
The roundtable discussion was
rather lively, in spite of the diversityof the topics of each presentations. We started the discussion
by explaining our standpoints andtrying to stimulate collaboration
through elaborating a theoretical
approach that includes feelings
and bodily perceptions – including
the ethnographers’ – in the field.
Several participants elaborated
on their own research experiences while sharing remarkablyinteresting theoretical ideas. In
spite of some obvious differencesin approaches or stances towards
affect theory and the anthropology of the senses, our general
feeling was of a general interest
towards the opportunities that thetheme has to offer to contributetotheanthropology/sociologyof Japan, as well as of positive
attitude towards theoretical challenges that bring the specificities
of Japan-based cases into thebroader anthropological theoreticaldebate and, possibly, in the direction of comparison. Currently,
we are considering the idea ofcollecting some of the papers andpublishing them as a special issue
in a Journal in anthropology or
56

Japanese studies, or as an edited
volume.
This session was followed by
the screening of the ethnographic
documentary‘Hierarchies of a Japanese Festival’, byNatalie Close. The documentary
screening, which was followed bya discussion, was very successfuleven though it was the last sessionof the final day. This, in our view,
opens up new possibilities for the
inclusion of new and more creative
formats of presentations, which
get away from the “traditional”
speech form which are maybe
supported by PowerPoint slides,
and involve the use of audiovisualmedia as a means not only forpresenting research results, butalso for ethnographic investigation
itself. The high degree of participation in this last section, including
the discussion, also showed an
existing interest in the opportunities that visual anthropology canoffer, both in general, and within
theanthropology/sociologyofJapan.
In spite of some presenters who
did not show up or cancelled at
the last moment, and some minor
technical problems related to
the Internet connection during
two presentations on Skype, theSection witnessed a high degreeof active participation and attend-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

ance. Overall, all the contributions
in our Section had a quality generally above average, and every
presentation was followed byinteresting and stimulating discussions. In our opinion, therefore, themeeting was a doubtless success.
This was due not only to the proactive attitudes of presenters andattendants, but also to the great
job of the local organizers, staff
and volunteers, who were always
present and extremely helpful.

Section 5b: Media Studies
Convenors: Dr. Blai Guarné(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) and Dr.
Ronald Saladin (DIJ – German
Institute for Japanese Studies,Japan)
This was the second time thata section on Japanese media
studies was convened at an EAJS
conference, after our first conference in Ljubljana 2014. For thatreason, we also wanted to place
an open call for papers to welcome
scholars of all levels working on
any aspect of Japanese media.
As convenors, we were very
happy to see once again theinterest aroused by the section
and, due to the high number ofquality proposals received in thecall for papers, we were glad toschedule parallel sessions during
the three days of the conference. This allowed us to program
a great variety of presentations
that covered a wide range of
topics such as film theory and TV
dramas, videogames and popular
culture, queer and gender representations, press freedom andjournalism, governance and social
media, negotiations of risk andhistory, sound and music industries, and script and media politics.
The keynote panel ‘(Mis)reading
pop culture texts in Japan andbeyond’ was convened by MarkMcLelland (University of Wollongong), chaired by James Welker(Kanagawa
University),
andincluded presentations by MarkMcLelland (University of Wollongong), Alisa Freedman (Universityof Oregon), and Debra Occhi(Miyazaki International College),which were discussed by James
Welker (Kanagawa University).
The pre-organized panels focusedon the following topics: ‘Press
freedom and identity politics incontemporary Japan’, convenor:
Jeff Kingston (Temple University
Japan); ‘Negotiations of hegemonic gender norms in Japanese
media
spaces:analysesof
women’s media and female audiences’, convenor: Hiromi Tanaka(Meiji University); ‘The Golden Age
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

revisited: labour, society, genderand politics in 1950s Japanesefilm’, convenors: Mats Karlsson(The University of Sydney) andAlexander Jacoby (Oxford Brookes
University); ‘Beyond the label ofcommerciality: approaching narrative complexity in contemporary
light novels, anime and gēmu’,convenor:
Antonio
LoriguilloLópez (Universitat Jaume I,
Spain); ‘The representations of
nuclear energy in Japanese mass
media and popular culture: The
Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident andits aftermath’, convenors: Tino
Bruno (Ritsumeikan University
and Lyon 3 University), Maika
Nakao (Ritsumeikan University),and Akihiro Yamamoto (Kobe City
University of Foreign Studies);and ‘Writing and script in Japanese media’, convenor: Naoko
Hosokawa (EHES). The individual
papers were presented under
the following thematic rubrics:‘Journalism in Japan’, ‘Governance through the media’, ‘Japanese media and the negotiationof risk’, ‘Social media in Japan’,‘Mediaandsocialdevelopment’, ‘Negotiations of history
and the media’, ‘Facets of movie
productions in Japan’, ‘Japanesemorning dramas’, and ‘Sound andmusic as medium’. The closing
panel focused on ‘Queeringand gendering popular culture
in Japan: manga, anime, and58

TV drama’. It was convened byAndrea Germer (Heinrich-HeineUniversity), chaired by Ulrike
Woehr (Hiroshima City University),
who also acted as discussant,and it included presentations byAndrea Germer (Heinrich-HeineUniversity), Rafael Vinícius Martins(Kyushu University), Tianqi Zhang(Kyushu University), and Jasmin
Rückert (University of Vienna). All
the sessions were of a high scholarly standard and most of themwill give rise to edited books andjournal publications. The section
was very well attended throughout
the conference, and we enjoyedexcellent presentations and very
productive discussions.
The numbers of the section clearlyshow its consolidation in thisconference. All in all, we ran eight
pre-organized panels and elevensessions of individual papers
in two parallel sessions, which
included fifty-five presentations
in total. Presenters came fromall regions of Europe (Austria,
Finland, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain, Switzerland, UK), as well asfrom Australia, Canada, USA and,of course, Japan. We had far more
submissions than we could accommodate, and it was an extraordinary successful conference for theMedia Studies section.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

The convenors want to express
their deepest gratitude to thepresenters and the audience fortaking part in the section andmaking possible its exciting andvibrant sessions, as well as to the
EAJS staff and the local organizers, specially our hosts for their
excellent work, and the peopleof NomadIT, and to extend thisspecial thanks to the volunteers
for their great job to make surethat everything went smoothly.
We are looking forward to anothersuccessful section in Ghent in
2020!

Section 6: Economics, Businessand Political Economy
Convenors:
Hugh
Whittaker(UniversityofOxford)andSébastien
Lechevalier(Écoledes Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales)We organized Section 6 this year
under the umbrella of a call for
papers on ‘Does Japan Need
More Structural Reform?’. The
CfP attracted a large number ofpanels (eight) and papers that
we organized into nine panels,
making a total of 17 panels. Some
addressed structural reform, andsome did not.

As a whole, Section 6 went well,with coherent panels, interesting
topics and interdisciplinary contributions from economists, politicalscientists, political economists andsociologists. This point should beunderlined: the Section attracted anumber of interdisciplinary contributions that contributed fittingly tothe topic we set out. It was particularly visible in a number of panels(arguably five out of nine) andindividual contributions that dealt
with the issue of Womenomics andWomen’s Advancement in Japan,
but also in the other panels as
well, which ranged from law andlegal reform to financial markets,brand management and social
security.
It was pleasing that there werevery few last minute cancellations, and for those few cases,
the reasons were convincing.
Presenters largely kept to theirallotted times. Having the sessions
in two rooms (extended to athird in one case because of acomputer issue) saved a lot of time
for participants, and made it easierfor the convenors. We would liketo acknowledge the support of thevolunteers, who made a big difference to sorting out problems when
they arose, so as to minimize
disruptions (with air conditioning,etc.). They did a great job, and as
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

we found, were often knowledgeable on the subjects themselves.
One (deep) regret by theconvenors but also by some of theparticipants in our Section was theenforcement of the rule that does
not allow convenors to present
their own paper. It made the organization of a post-conference publication more difficult. (Even though
there was an opportunity to havea session on a post-conference
publication, the restriction madeit rather abstract, and diminishedthe motivation of the convenors).
It does not make the position of
convenor very attractive, andmay well make it more difficult toconvince colleagues to play thisrole in the future. We suggest that
this restriction be lifted.

Section 7: History
Convenors: Mikael Adolphson(University of Cambridge) andMark Pendleton (University of
Sheffield)
Summary of Section’s Activities
This is the third successive EAJS
conference in which History has
had a dedicated disciplinary
section, separate from its previous
colocation with Politics & Interna60

tional Relations. However, in an
attempt to address the historicaldivision between modern andpremodern scholarship, we issued
a call for papers under the title‘Bridging Divides in Japanese
History: Troubling Periodizationand Methodological Rigidity’.
The theme attracted a very large
number of proposals - some 35
panel proposals, including two
double panels, and 70 individual
paper proposals. This signals
significant growth compared to2014, in which 13 panel and 51
individual paper proposals werereceived. We were generally
encouraged by the high qualityof proposals, accepting approximately two- thirds of proposals,
which allowed us to run 3.5
concurrent panels throughout theconference.
Despite this healthy growth, we
remain concerned about a few
elements of these proposals,
particularly in terms of diversity.
Nine of the 35 proposed panels(26%) were all-male, with none
consisting of only women. Several
panels contained contributions
from only one country, and acouple only involved presentersfrom one institution. While we
attempted to address this imbalance in our selection of individual
papers, which included moreEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

women and people from lesswell-represented
regionsandinstitutions, the section continues
to have a skew towards malepresenters. This is an area ofconcern looking forward to EAJS
2020 (see comments below).
We also call on our fellow men
working in Japanese history to
be conscious of these issues andactively seek to ensure inclusionof women, junior scholars andcolleagues from less ‘established’
institutions in future proposals.
Geographical spread also remains
an area of some concern. As inprevious years, the Anglophone
and German academic systems
remainheavily
represented,
including continued growth ininterest from colleagues in North
America. There were a goodnumber of applications fromJapan, although these were notalways well-integrated with European colleagues. Colleagues fromSouthern and Eastern Europe
were less well-represented. The
growth in interest in EAJS internationally is a cause for celebration,
but we do want to ensure that
there remains a strong focus on
including the diversity of scholarship on Japanese history acrossEurope.
In terms of sub-disciplinary spread,we were particularly pleased

to see a strong representationof medieval and early modern
proposals. In the end, about
one-third of papers represented
pre-Meiji historical scholarship.
There was also a good range ofinterdisciplinarity, including papers
from heritage studies, film andliterary history. Proposals werealso accepted from archaeologist
and archivist colleagues, who havetended to not easily fit within the
EAJS section divisions.
Structure andConference

OrganizationofWhile our preparations were
well supported by colleagues in
the central EAJS office and thecontracted conference organisers,
lines of communication were
often confused, with information
coming to convenors in a partial,
delayed or contradictory fashion.
A much clearer process shouldbe put in place for 2020 to ensurethat volunteer convenors are
well-supported in organising theirsections. In particular, a clearer
timeline both for section convenors
and for potential delegates would
be advantageous.
Future Suggestions
Strengthen
thelanguagearound diversity to contribute to
the building of pan- European
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

collaboration and prevent the reinforcement of existing hierarchies- consider language similar to the
Association for Asian Studies,
which specifies as a key selection criteria ‘Diversity in Gender,
ethnicity, and institutional balancewith a combination of juniorand senior scholars.’ We would
suggest adding ‘and scholars
working in different European
countries and beyond.’ We accordingly propose that diversity isadded and expressly noted as aselection criteria.
- The instruction around participation in more than one session
should be clarified more clearly.
We had extended discussions withsome proposers about serving
as presenter and discussant. In
principle, we believe participants
should only be allowed one official
appearance to ensure fair andequal access to the conference,but regardless, the rules need to
be clarified.
- Clarification needed on rules
around whether people areallowed to nominate both forpanels and individual papers‘double-dipping’increases
convenors’ workloads, and are
hard to detect when reading
through over 200 paper proposals.
From our perspective, we havea preference for not allowing
doubling up like this.
62- Include statement aroundinability to always accommodate
scheduling requests: ‘If applying
for this conference the assumption is that you will be available topresent at any stage during theconference dates. Convenors will
try to accommodate reasonable
scheduling requests, but this is notguaranteed.’- Consider how to attract
colleagues working in less wellrepresented parts of Europe.
- Consider renaming the section‘History and Archaeology’ to attract
greater interest from colleagues inarchaeology.
- The growth of the History section
is a very positive sign for the
EAJS, but it also means that thecustom of having the convenors
chair all panels (we had fourconcomitant panels at times) is
impossible. Thus, we suggest thatEAJS adopt a practice in which apanel organiser can serve as chair,and individual paper-panels canbe chaired by the convenors, or
specially assigned chairs. Anecdotal evidence does suggest thatpanels with convenors presiding
are indeed run more smoothly
than those without, so we would
suggest a process by which additional convenors can be recruited.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Section 8a: Religion and Religious Thought
Convenors: Lucia Dolce (SOAS
University of London) and Erica
Baffelli (University of Manchester)
The section ‘Religion and Religious Thought’ received a highnumber of proposal for this year’s
conference, most of very highquality: more than 20 panels and
18 individual papers for a total of
81 papers and 95 participants,
including panel chairs and discussants. We were eventually able
to accommodate 18 panels and 9
individual papers, organised in twoparallel sections. It is the first time
for the section to hold sessions,and we were grateful to the conference board for their willingness toafford us more space.
We had no dedicated theme
for this year’s conference but
requested the presenters to reflect
on how religion in Japan has beenstudied and present new research,in terms of either sources or
methodologies. The panels andpapers that followed each otherin the three days of meetings in
Lisbon discussed the methodological challenges that the study ofreligion in Japan poses today andreconsidered researchers’ contribution to the current developmentsin the field.

The section showcased a very
good mix of topics, exploring bothmodern and premodern material,
and touching on a variety of religious traditions. For instance, we
discussed topics such as materiality of the sacred, Confucianism,
constitutional revision, Shinto andGlobalization, definition of new
religions, spirituality, Shugendō,
history of Christianity in Japan.
Our delegates were a good mixof nationalities, coming fromvarious European countries, theUS and Japan. Noticeable was thegrowing participation of Japanesescholars, who this year accounted
for roughly a quarter of the panellists. Several panels were in
Japanese, but abstracts in English
and discussants who facilitatedthe questions from the audience
allowed the section to carry out theworks smoothly.
Equally, we had a good mix ofcontributions in terms of genderand seniority, with several panels
including early career scholars anddoctoral students alongside moresenior scholars.
Nearly all sessions were quite wellattended and for some panels
there was not sufficient room to sit
down. The new research producedin the field shows an increase incross-disciplinary approaches in
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

the study of religion in Japan, while
the number and quality of applications and the busy and stimulatingdays spent in Lisbon are witness
to the vitality of the field.

Section 8b: Intellectual History
and Philosophy
Convenors: Rein Raud (Tallinn
University) and Raji Steineck(University of Zürich)
The section received 9 panel
proposals and 27 individual paper
proposals, of which 4 panels and16 papers made it to the final
programme (including some individual papers from the rejected
panels), making the overall acceptance rate 52%. The presenters
ranged from established scholars
to PhD students. Unfortunately,
several presenters did not manage
to secure funding and had to withdraw as a result. Nonetheless,the section provided a selectionof high-quality research papers
covering a broad range of topics
and all periods of Japanesethought from early history to thepresent. At best, the allocatedroom was full with around 40
participants, but there were alsoa few less-attended sessions,where specific topics gathered an
audience below 10 participants. In
64terms of subjects, topics related
to the history of knowledge or thehistory of political ideas appeared
to draw larger audiences thanthose covering religious topics.
Even so, the conversation was
lively and in most cases had to
be cut short in order to keep withtime.
All in all, the section has proven its
vitality and necessity and is likely
to grow in popularity over the next
conferences.

Section 9: Politics and International Relations
Convenors: Paul O’Shea (Aarhus
University) and Karl Gustafsson(Swedish Institute of International
Affairs)
The Politics and International
Relations section consisted ofeleven panels, on a wide rangeof topics, from local politics tointernational security, and withpresenters from Europe andJapan. Rather than summarise
the panels here, we take theliberty of outlining some of our own
reflections and feedback from theparticipants. The section had noparallel sessions, and this seemed
to be generally popular, there
were no complaints (then again,EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

everyone had been accepted . . .
!). There was also a good attendance at all panels. Having parallelsessions would have allowed us toaccept a larger number of papers,
and we did receive a very large
number of submissions, but onbalance it seems to have worked
better without parallel sessions.
If the EAJS wants to open up to
more participants, it might want toconsider splitting the section into
one Politics and one International
Relations section.
As was discussed at the EAJSGeneral Meeting, allowing participants to assume multiple roles, atleast in terms of discussants andchairs, was generally considered
a good idea. Some participantssuggested that we require thepapers to be uploaded in advance,
and all panels should have discussants to ensure that all participants
get at least some feedback on
their papers. However, others said
that participants would not keep tothis rule, and besides, the purposeof this particular conference wasto be exposed to a wide range ofJapanese Studies research. There
was no consensus on this issue.

that in some presentations,Japan seemed to be incidental totheory. The issue of the relationship between Political Scienceand Area Studies is unresolved
andsometimes
controversial,
but the point is taken. In addition,
two participants not only failed toshow, but did not make contact,
meaning than one participant had
an entire session to herself. While
this did allow for a more in-depth
presentation, there was a question
as to whether those who drop out
without any warning should facesome kind of penalty, given the
disruption this causes (and also,that we could have accepted twoother participants had they let usknow).
Having said all that, overall, thesection was a great success,thanks to the participants, theorganisers, and the local staff.
We were very pleased, and are
already looking forward to the next
conference in Ghent!

Anumberofparticipantssuggested that in future, thesection should accept less theoretical pieces and more Japanfocused pieces. They complained
65

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Section 10: Japanese Language
Education

how networking with AJE cancontribute.)

Convenors: Marcella Maria Mariotti(Ca’Foscari University of Venice)and Noriko Iwasaki (SOAS University of London)

Section 10 had a large number ofpresentations in parallel sessions
in three venues. We received morethan 100 proposals and accepted
13 panels and 56 individual presentations, including oral and poster
presentations. All proposals wereblind-peer-reviewedbythree
reviewers. Many of the presentations were co-authored, andthe actual number of presenters
was above 130. All presentations
where almost fully attended. We
sought feedback from participants
and had positive feedback.

Section 10 (Japanese Language
Education) was organised by
the Association of Japanese
Language Teachers, e.V. (AJE).
The theme of Section 10 was‘Learning and teaching Japanesein Europe. Why? – Voices from thefield –‘We had one keynote (Prof. Christian Galan, INALCO, Students,
teachers, language, method, newmedia – where should Japanese
language education be anchored?
Some reflections from the field)
and one invited panel on day 2(On teaching Japanese in wider
Europe: the status quo and prospects in Central Asia, Bosnia
and Hercegovina, Denmark, andPortugal). We invited specialists, who are currently engaged
in Japanese language educationin these regions (Ms Yumi Onishi[Kazakh National University], Ms.
Nozomi
Miyanoya[Universityof Sarajevo], Mr Jiro Tomioka[Aarhus University], and Ms KeikoAmakasu [University of Porto])
to discuss their situations andfuture prospects (focusing on
66

We greatly appreciated the
support from NomadIT and Rohan
Jackson, who was very helpful
and was accommodating to AJE
members requests! Since we
had some problems in synchronizing registrations / applications/ English and (AJE) Japaneseversion of the program, we agreed
that in 2020 AJE would consult
with Rohan regarding peer review
and registration processes.
Last, but not the least, we are
extremely grateful for the EAJS,
who let us join such an important
event, and we are looking forward
to the next 2020 EAJS International conference!

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Travel Grant Programme
In 2017, the EAJS awarded for the
first time 20 travel grants that aimed
to enable junior scholars, who often
lack funding for conference travel,
to participate in the Lisbon conference. 10 travel grants were provided by TIFO, the remaining 10 were
paid by the EAJS itself. The EAJS
is very grateful for TIFO’s generous
support.

Conference Reports by
Travel Grant Recipients
I learned a lot from attending the15th International Conference of
the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) in Lisbon. It
was my first time attending a Japan
Studies conference in Europe. The
conference gave me invaluable
experience, new insights as well
as opportunities for making new
friends.
Since I am a student of Sociology,
I attended many panels organizedby the Sociology and Anthropology section. I was very much impressed by the level of sophistication of many presentations boththeoretically and empirically. The
sessions’ common theme on emo-tion and affection was interesting
and revealing, too. I also received
a number of good comments andsuggestions on my research fromthe attendees.
Networking opportunities were themost fruitful part of my participation in this conference. At the conference and JAWS events, I madeacquaintance with people who I
had only known from reading theirworks. It was very interesting to listen to their current project. I also
made friends among colleagues
from European universities, who I
would not have been able to meet
had I not come here. The group ofpeople I came to know in this conference will be an invaluable asset
for my academic career.
Without the support from EAJS, I
would not have been able to attend
the conference. Therefore, I am
thankful for the support from EAJS.
I also would like to thank the conference organizing team and thestudents who volunteered on site.
Yuki Asahina
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
USA

67

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017+++
I would like to thank the EAJS for
having given to me the opportunity, through its grant, to join sucha vibrant and multidisciplinary conference. Notwithstanding my participation both as a speaker andas a member of the audience in 12
academic conferences during my
PhD, the 15th EAJS International
Conference in Lisbon was with nodoubt the most prestigious and articulated event I have joined so far.
The logistic support provided by
the EAJS in collaboration with Universidade Nova of Lisbon was impressive, all the information wasprovided in advance and I did notexperience any problem in movingaround the city and in the conference venues.
The program was extremely variegated, offering to the audience thepossibility of freely moving among
several areas of interest and to join
diverse discussions. Due to the highnumber of renowned scholars who
participated in the role of speakers
and public, all the panels offered
extremely interesting sparks fordiscussion and food for thought.
At the same time, the presence ofearly career researchers added
new twists to established fields ofstudy and offered brand new areasof knowledge, inspiring for all theparticipants.
68

I personally attended mostly the socio-anthropological panels and thegender and sexuality related discussions, which provided me withan enhanced knowledge on the topics faced during the interventions,which I considered extremely helpful also towards the development of
my own thesis. I was also selected
as a speaker, and this gave me thematchless opportunity to present
my research in front of prominent
scholars and peers who provided
me with extremely useful feedback
and suggestions about my work.
Thanks to the visibility obtained
during the conference, I was able tofurther expand my working networkand to establish collaborations withacademics from other universities,
which will eventually lead me to join
or co-organize events in the field ofJapanese Studies.
Marta Fanasca
The University of Manchester, UK+++
I was excited to know that I wasawarded by EAJS with the travel
grant for the 2017 conference in Lisbon, where I presented a talk about
Japanese law in Panel S6_17, withthe title: “The consequences of thereform of Japanese Private International law”. Without this grant, I
would not have been able to attend

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

the conference, since my Ph.D.
scholarship ended last year. This
grant has been indeed a great help
for the covering of the flight and accommodation expenses.
This conference was very important to me and attending it has
been an significant opportunity for
my career, since it was one of thefirst times I had the chance to talkin such an important international
conference.
I found the conference well-organized and in a beautiful location. The
social welcome party was enchanting.
However, the most important thingis that my panel was interesting
and full of incredible people, who
attended our talk and discussedwith us. I would like to thank thepanel convenor and all the other
scholars who listened and gave metheir feedback. It was an incredible
experience.
I am really grateful for this opportunity.
Chiara Gallese
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,
Italy
+++

I have participated in the 15thEAJS International Conference
2017 thanks to the EAJS travel
grant. I was the convenor of thepanel S5b_09 “Writing and Script inJapanese Media” as part of which I
also presented my paper “From Japan to the World: Japanese words
in katakana and national identity incontemporary media”. Professor
Blai Guarné of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona kindly chaired thepanel and we had the pleasure towelcome Professor James Stanlaw
of Illinois State University as thediscussant. In the panel, we examined various reasons and effects of
the use of katakana in contemporary Japanese media. I looked atcases in which katakana is used forJapanese names, words, and expressions, arguing that the use of
katakana can be a way to manifest
Japanese identity to the world, taking the perspective of looking at Japan from abroad. After my presentation, Veronica De Pieri presented
her analysis of the use of katakana
for net-poetry. At the end of the panel, we had an insightful discussion
with Professor Guarné and Professor Stanlaw about how the choiceof script influences the meaningand effect of the language. The discussion was so thought-provoking
that we have also talked about thepossibility of a collaborative project to publish a book or a special
issue based on this panel, which I
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

hope to can be realised in the near
future. I also attended a numberof other presentations and it was
truly a valuable experience for myacademic career as an early-stage
scholar and I very much appreciate
the EAJS for the generous support.
Naoko Hosokawa
European University Institute, Italy+++
It was my first experience to participate in an EAJS conference. I presented a paper titled “We are kitanai people! Being one with the dirt
and growing one’s own food in theJapanese countryside” in the panel“Sensory Ethnographies in Spacesof Co-Production: The Quest for
Alternative Immersive Experiences” in the Sociology/Anthropology
section. This panel was a continuation of an academic collaboration
we started in Sapporo in 2016 at
an EAAA meeting. Although two offour presenters could not do it to
the conference due to sudden illness and visa issues, the remaining two presenters, myself andKsenia Golovina, accomplishedto give successful presentations.
We shared our research with theinformed audience as well as got
fruitful comments from our discussant Beata Switek. Another benefitof our participation in the conference was the section itself with the70umbrella topic – affect – that waselaborated in many panels. In the
wrap-up meeting of the Sociology/
Anthropology section, a discussion
was held about affect theory and its
implications for research about Japan. It was interesting to hear both
positive views and criticism of affect theory.
Overall, my experience of participation in EAJS was ambivalent. On
one hand, it is so exciting to takepart in such a big event with many
participants and panels with thriving discussions. On the other hand,
networking events for early career
scholars are lacking, so there arealmost no institutionalized opportunities for academic networking.
My future plans include submitting
my presentation with accommodated comments/suggestions fromthe conference as a paper for publication in an academic journal. Additionally, I will aim at continuing tocollaborate with other colleagues tocome up with a new panel for theupcoming conferences.
Sponsorship through travel grant
made my participation possible
and I want to express my gratitude
to the organizers.
Ksenia Kurochkina
Waseda University, JapanEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017+++
As expected, the 15th EAJS International Conference 2017 in Lisbon
was a highly memorable and informative event. Due to my early arrival, I was able to participate in the
pre-conference event “JapaneseStudies in Japan: A New Trend?”,organized by the Tohoku University
Global Japanese Studies Initiative.
I was also invited to attend a couple of alumni events, such as the
EAJS/TIFO Alumni Lunch at Hotel
Sana Malhoa, generously hosted
by Toshiba Foundation, and the
DIJ Alumni dinner. Since my panel“Attitudes toward Death, Dying andFunerary Customs in Japan – Past,
Present and Future” took place
during the first panel session, I wasable to visit the other presentations of the conference without any
stage fright. I joined panels mostly
in the sections S1: Urban, Regional
and Environmental Studies, S5a:
Anthropology and Sociology andS5b: Media Studies. There, I heard
talks that broadened my perspective on Japanese Studies, met
new interesting scholars and got
to catch up with old acquaintances.
My personal highlight was panel
S5b_19 “Governance through themedia”, where only a handful ofpeople joined, but the host moderated wonderfully, and the talks
were so interesting that we had theliveliest discussion I experienced in

the whole conference.
There was enough space to get
together and debate, catch up or
make future plans with colleagues.
I really liked the conference venue
for the spacious courtyard that allowed us to refresh after each session. It was also helpful that there
were booths of publishers where
we could negotiate prospective
publications.
I would hereby like to thank the
EAJS Council for providing mewith the opportunity to participate
in this conference by selecting
me for a travel grant. I am alreadylooking forward to the next EAJS
conference in 2020.
Dorothea Mladenova
University of Leipzig, Germany+++
It was a great opportunity for me
as a Ph.D., Candidate to present
my paper and attend the EAJS
conference in Lisbon, Portugal. I
was able to experience and learn
things that I could not have learned
at conferences in Japan (such as
the Japanese Association for Religious Studies or Association ofJapanese Intellectual History conferences). By attending the various panels and listening to many
presentations, I gained a better
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

understanding of what constitutes
a well-organized panel, and of whata good presentation looks andsounds like at an international conference. I became keenly awarethat I need to develop better presentation skills and prepare better
handouts and PowerPoint slides. I
also greatly appreciated the helpful
feedback that was provided to me
by European scholars when I gave
my presentation.
Among the panels that I attended, S8a-08 “Christians in Kansai
1827-29” was the best organized.
Three scholars focused on thewell-known Christian incident andtrial in 1829—the so-called Keihan
Christianincident—investigatedby Oshio Heihachirou, the Osakamachibugyosho yoriki who is also
well known as the ringleader of afamous uprising (known as “theuprising of Oshio Heihachirou”大塩平八郎の乱). Using official documents and other sources, and revealing much about the politics ofgender and religion in this period,
the presenters showed us new dimensions in research.
The first presenter, Prof. Mark
Teeuwen (University of Oslo), explained the brief story of what the
Keihan Christian incident was, howprevious researchers described
this incident and what information
remained from the official docu72

ments. His presentation enabled
the audience to gain a good understanding of the historical conditions
surrounding the Keihan Christianincidents.
The second presenter, Prof. Kate
Nakai (Sophia University), using judicial documents about the Keihan
Christian incidents, explained the
Tokugawa investigation system andthe government’s stance towardheterodox religious groups. From
her presentation, we could figureout how investigators thought about
the hidden Christians and how theywent about investigating the religious group that we now refer to as
the “Keihan Christians”. The final
presenter, Prof. Fumiko Miyazaki(Keisen University), focused on thegender aspect of the Keihan Christian Incident, using the same official
documents which other presenters
also used. She showed us how
female principals were describedin the investigation records as opposed to the male principals. She
furthermore demonstrated how serious women were about their religious practices at that time, in spiteof the scorn and prejudice they had
to experienced, and which is reflected in the official documents.
In sum, the panel was extremely
edifying and nicely structured; it
provided me with an exemplarymodel worth emulating in the future,EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

when I will organize panels myself.
Eiko Namiki
International Christian University,
Japan
+++
I was delighted to receive the EAJS
travel grant that enabled my participation in the EAJS conference in
Lisbon, since my university could
not support my travel. As a PhD
student, it was very important to beable to attend this milestone event.
I was the chair of our panel, which
was about parodic representationsof so-called irogonomi charactersin classical Japanese literature,and therefore closely related to
my PhD research. Unfortunately,
one of us had to cancel his participation, but on the other hand, wewere thus able to have a longer
discussion and to discuss more
freely. The other panelist was Stina
Jelbring from Stockholm University.
It was good to meet her and after
the panel we talked about possibilities to continue and strengthen the
co-operation between our universities in the form of translation workshops, for instance.
It was also great to meet many othercolleagues and hear such various
kinds of presentations. I was able
to have inspiring discussions withsome researchers, whose books

and papers I have been reading
during many years, wishing to havean opportunity to contact them directly. Furthermore, the presentation about peer-reviewed articles
of publishers was very informative. It was also nice to meet familiar scholars from Hosei University
where I used to study a few years
before. And of course, it was great
to have the opportunity to visit suchan inspiring city as Lisbon is.
Raisa Porrasmaa
Helsinki University, Finland+++
My heartfelt thanks go to the EAJS
for the generous travel grant supporting my participation in the 15th
International Conference of the European Association for JapaneseStudies in Lisbon in August and
September 2017.
I nearly spent all of my time at the
EAJS conference at the section 4a
Visual Arts with its focus on „Materialities of Visual Arts.” The convenors, Jaqueline Berndt (Stockholm
University, Sweden) and Khanh
Trinh (Museum Rietberg Zürich,
Switzerland), put together a verystrong program rich in variety. The
exchange on ongoing research
projects conducted at universities
and museums across Europe withinspiring side-glances from the73

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

United States and Japan was highly productive. The convenors of thesection did a great job in balancing
the strict time frame and facilitating
an open-minded and prolific atmosphere for profound discussions andnetworking.
I am also very thankful for the encouraging and helpful comments
and questions on my own paper on“A Material Glimpse at Edo’s Visual
Culture” in the panel “Materialities
of Japanese Visual Cultures in the
Nineteenth Century.” The talks of
my co-panelists Rosina Buckland(National Museum of Scotland)
and Tomoë Steineck (University of
Tübingen) and my own contribution
introduced case studies and complemented each other to an impressive picture of the understudied
field of Japanese visual cultures in
the nineteenth century and its collection history in European institutions. Moreover, notions and questions of our research also emergedin other panels of the section suchas “The Role of Art and Literature
Salons in 18th and 19th Century
Japan.” Thus, there were many
opportunities to start and deepen
ongoing discussions. A visit to theMuseu do Oriente with colleagues
was another source of learning andexchanging opinions after the daily
conference program.
I was also eager to attend more74

presentations in other sections
such as Pre-modern Literature andPerforming Arts, but it was difficult
to choose between simultaneous
panels. This is a common phenomenon at large-scale conferences,
but the frequent overlap of similar
topics in different sections such as
book cultures, Edo period cultures,or Momoyama cultures was especially notable and regrettable at thisyear’s conference.
Apart from these organizational
trifles, I experienced the conference as a very intense scholarly
exchange with colleagues fromacross Europe. As I spent so muchtime in one section, I was all themore eager to join the general
events of the conference such as
the opening reception and the TIFO
alumni reunion lunch reception. Especially the TIFO alumni reunion
reception was a great opportunity
to catch up with scholars and fellow
students not majoring in Art History.
Therefore, I am very thankful to the
EAJS not only for supporting myparticipation in the conference witha travel grant but also for facilitating
a conference promoting scholarly
exchange for junior scientists.
Wibke Schrape
Museum of Asian Art, Berlin,
Germany+++EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

The 15th International EAJS Conference was the biggest, wellorganizedandinternationally
reputable Japanese conference inEurope. As a doctoral researcher,
I gained tremendous academic experience specifically for Japaneseand Japanese related studies. This
was an important conference formy academic career.
The conference gave me an opportunity to learn from other diverse
scholars who could give me new
insights for my own research andpublications projects. At the reception, I met with other fellow doctoral
researchers (and TIFO alumni),senior researchers from aroundthe world and editors from peerreviewed journals. As a final year
PhD, I am poised to enter a highly
competitive job market. The EAJS
conference allowed me to expand
my networks for potential post-doc
and collaborative research opportunities throughout EU, East Asiaand beyond.
As a junior faculty, I am pursuing ahighly significant topic involving therole and impact of Japanese multinational practices in Southeast
Asia. The presented paper aims tofurther our understanding of Japanese business internationalisation
practices and their influence on employment relations in in Southeast
Asia where the EU and Japan havestrategic interests. At the presentation sessions, I was able to engage
in discussions with the convenor
and audiences collegiately. I furthermore became involved in discussions with European scholars
about their own research projects.
I regarded this as a great opportunity to make an essential step indeveloping collaborative research
between EU and Southeast Asia.
Through this discussion, I was
also able to gain some new networks and also advice from senioracademics on how to get access todata collection.
Overall, the international EAJS
conference was very important for
academia and I am very grateful
to both the conference organizers
and the EAJS. Thank you!
Joey Soehardjojo
University of Warwick, UK+++
The 15th EAJS International Conference in Lisbon was the first
EAJS conference for me to attend
as graduated scholar. It was thefirst time altogether that I presented
as a historian specialised in earlymodern East Asian history to sucha large group of colleagues andseniors trained in Japanese Studies. In short, I appreciated the opportunity as a very rewarding expe75

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017rience.
I was immediately intrigued by the
programme; yet at the same time
I found the number of parallel sessions and painful overlaps of personal interest to be stressful. In
the end, I attended mostly panels
in history. In retrospect, that wasa real shame because the conference offers such a rare opportunity
to engage with colleagues fromother disciplines yet working in thesame area.
My panel on early modern Japanese foreign trading passes, where
I presented alongside two Japanese and one Chinese early modern historian, was a great successthanks to a large audience, very
coherent papers and a stimulating
discussion afterwards. That said, I
regard the EAJS history section as
one of the best formats to engage
in discussions with the potential
to actually advance research. Unlike at other history conferences orworkshops, I felt that we all shareda very profound understanding ofboth general Japanese history andtheories, as well as the major debates and state of the art dominating the field. This specific setup isa great starting point for in-depth
conceptual considerations. A further plus was that the scholarshippresented at EAJS events seems
to be taken seriously among Japa76

nese scholars who attended in astonishing numbers.
On a slightly critical note, the venue
was not ideal. While I think that Lisbon was a great choice as host city,
the conference venue did not offer
the necessary facilities. Acoustics
were not great, some rooms were
too small and information about
availability of Wi-Fi was insufficient.
Birgit Tremml-Werner
University of Zurich, Switzerland+++
I had the honour and pleasure oftaking part in the 15th International
Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, inLisbon, from August 30th to September 2nd, 2017.
During this time, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet numerous colleagues, familiarize myself withmatters of interest in various scientific research centres across theworld, and hear many reports on
topics pertaining to my interests.
Seeing how I was mostly concernedwith the subjects of Japanese linguistics and Japanese language
education, I had spent the majorityof my time attending presentations
by members of Section 10. One ofthe presentations was given by me,along with Prof. Ljiljana Markovic,

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, andfounder of the 40-year-old Department of Japanese language, literature and culture at the Faculty. The
presentation, entitled Opening theBorders of the Japanese Language– Discovering and Answering the
Needs of Students of Japanese in
Serbia, sought to explain the methodological postulates which serveas the basis of our work whichis evident, among other things,
through a Japanese language textbook written in Serbian, the first of
its kind not only in the country, but
a broader language region as well.
Becoming acquainted with new
publications through various publishers’ presentations was crucial
too, seeing how such works are still
not readily available in Serbia.
The first time that I attended an
EAJS Conference was in 2014, in
Ljubljana. I am pleased to say that
the Conference has grown in the
short time since then, and attracted
numerous visitors. I appreciatedthat all of this year’s Conference
venues were in the same part ofthe city and easy to find. For the
first time this year, I followed thework of the Association’s Assemblyand became interested in the general organization of the Association. I hope that the Conference will
be held in Belgrade at some point.
Until that time, I am certain we willcontinue to further our collaboration with the goal of advancing
Japanese studies across the world.
Divna Trickovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia+++
From the 29 August to 3 September 2017, I flew to Lisbon from
London Gatwick Airport to attend
and give a presentation at the 15thEAJS International Conference.
On 31 August, I gave my presentation for the panel (S3a_04) titled‘The Politics and Practice of Everyday Life in Modern Japanese
Literature’ (Bungaku-kara-Nichijyoo-tou) with Professor Linda Flores(Oxford) and Professor Stephen
Dodd (SOAS). Approximately 50
participants attended, and towards
the end, we had a lively discussion
with the participants. Even after thepresentation, such as during thedinner, I received a lot of positive
feedback, such as from Professor
Keith Vincent (Boston University)and Professor Reiko Abe Auestad(Oslo University), Professor Saeko
Kimura (Tsuda College, Tokyo) andProfessor Anne Bayard-Sakai (INALCO, Paris) all of which was very
encouraging for me as an earlycareer researcher.
I participated in numerous panels for Modern Literature and77

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Language learning and teaching
sections. For example, (S3a_03)‘Reading Ōe Kenzaburō’s a political youth dies in the 21st century’,was a highlight of my participation,
to see presentations by Professor
Komori Yoichi, Professor Narita
Ryuichi and Professor Tsuboi Hideto. In addition, since recent jobs
in Japanese literature require somelanguage teaching, I joined panels
on Japanese language teaching. I
found them fascinating, particularly
on research on language teacher
training for teaching Japanese to
students with dyslexia.
The book exhibit was very helpful: I met the editor Ms. Stephanie
Roger from Routledge, and she
encouraged me to send my bookproposal to them by the end of theyear, to develop my PhD thesis intoa monograph.
Overall, EAJS participation was avaluable experience for me as ayoung researcher, it gave me confidence to keep researching in what
I believe is significant, and getting
feedback from the top scholars in
the field was such an honourable
affirmation. The job market at the
moment is very tough, but with thisfunding, networking with top scholars was a significant boon and has
become an asset for my research.
I greatly appreciate the EAJS for
funding this trip, and I hope I can78

contribute to the Association withmy research in the future.
Nozomi Uematsu
Queen Mary University of London,UK+++The opportunity to take part in the2017 EAJS conference in Lisbon
has been a very big help for myresearch. I would not have beenable to attend this conference, if itwere not for the EAJS travel grant,
and I would hereby like to express
my deep gratitude to the EAJS. It
is truly wonderful that the EAJS
gives such an opportunity to young
scholars, and I hope this program
continues so that others might benefit from attending this wonderfulconference in the future.
During this conference, I have presented a paper entitled “Eastern Altaic languages” as a language areain the Linguistics section. Thanks
to that, I have met other researchers that deal with similar topics andhad the opportunity to talk to them.
I also received some interestingquestions that helped me stir myresearch to some new areas. The
possibility to attend many otherinteresting presentations also considerably broadened my horizons.
That does not include only thepanel I was a part of, but also manyEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

other panels. My only regret wasthat it was physically impossible toattend them all. Still, I was able toattend many presentations on linguistics and pre-modern literature,areas I am deeply interested in.
Vít Ulman
Charles University / Palacky University, Czech Republic+++
I am very grateful for the travel fund
to attend the EAJS conference in
Lisbon in 2017. I first attended the
EAJS conference in Ljubljana three
years ago, which I felt provided fora relatively intimate, connected andstimulating conference setting: I amvery glad that the Lisbon conference confirmed in me this sense. I
find the conference provides a distinct and rich opportunity to deepen
and widen my academic network.
In part this comes from attending events during the conference(e.g. the conference dinner, JAWS
meeting and dinner) that provide
a means to meet new people, as
well as a forum in which to reconnect (such as attending the Toshiba
Foundation reunion meeting). I findthis allows me to connect and reconnect with scholars working on
closely related domains as well as
more far off topics and approaches, yet still related to Japan. This
breadth is important in stimulatinglines of enquiry to pursue and reflection on findings.
Furthermore, I appreciate that theconference draws scholars from
Europe, Japan, Australia, andother Asian countries, as my own
network of scholars has a similar
geographic spread. Furthermore,
the commonality of interests, ascompared to much larger conference settings, makes for engaging
sessions: there is more debate anddiscussion, which includes scholars that are close to the research
topic presented but not limited tojust specialists in that area. Indeed,
for my own presentation, I received
valuable feedback that will shape
my research. Thus, I find the conference addresses several important aspects of my academic career and I look forward to the next
edition.
Hiroko Umegaki
University of Cambridge, UK+++My first EAJS International Conference was truly remarkable. Initially,
I was nervous knowing that someof the big names in Japanese Studies, including people I follow in myarea, International Relations (IR),were attending. The jitters did notdisappear until the end, but the
combination of Lisbon weather
79

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017and passionate scholars created a
comfortable atmosphere for thinking, listening and conversing.
I got to meet scholars with criticaland imaginative perspectives in IR.
I was inspiring to see them in action– debating and exchanging ideas
with the intention of helping eachother improve their work. Being partof a graduate student panel, my fellow panelists and I were amazedwith the kind of support and invaluable feedback we got from the audience. Established scholars were
especially both scrupulous andgenerous with their comments.
I also sat in panels from otherdisciplines such as literature, history and philosophy. Listening topresenters made me see a single
issue through a variety of angles,
and their insights inspired me tofurther examine Japan beyond orthodox disciplinary scope. I especially liked the sessions on 20th
century modernization history, an
era that resonates deeply in postwar Japan’s domestic and international politics.
Having a Japanese studies conference in Lisbon was also great way
to explore intersections between
the East and West. The conference
organizers made sure that participants get to see Japan and Portugal’s shared historical and culturalexperiences through performance80

and visual arts. Lisboa A Capella’s
performance in the Church of São
Roque was enthralling and thenanban art exhibit at Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga was amazing.
Truly, to be part of a conference
packed with brilliant minds was
overwhelming.
The EAJS 2017 was not just a great
way to see the faces behind theacademic papers you read. It wasalso a great opportunity to learn
from other Japanese studies scholars. Disciplinary boundaries may
have separated us in many ways,
but thanks to this extraordinary triennial event, we were banded together in our common commitment
to understanding Japan.
Carmina Yu Untalan
Osaka University, Japan+++I have previously attended a postgraduate workshop in Edinburgh
and a conference in Kobe organised by the European Association
for Japanese Studies; I have always been impressed by the highlevel of organisation and intellectual atmosphere presented at theevents. I was not disappointed thistime either. The number and diversity of panels and papers was impressive and I enjoyed many goodtalks and panels during the confer-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017ence. The general organisation of
the conference from the registration process and communication
prior to the event, to the academic
sessions and social events during the conference seemed to runsmoothly and I thoroughly enjoyedmyself in Lisbon.
As this was the first time me and mycolleagues have proposed a panel
for a conference, we could not haveasked for a more suitable venue
and audience for our talks, enabling us to also make new contacts
with other researchers working inthe same field. The discussion andcomments on our papers were extremely helpful and enabled us tofine tune our approach further. The
number of 3/11 related panels provided an opportunity to familiarise
myself with other research carriedout on the disaster.
One of my favourite aspects of theevents hosted by the European Association for Japanese Studies has
always been the encouraging andwelcoming atmosphere for postgraduate researchers, and the support and feedback I have always
received in these events has been
instrumental in propelling my own
research forward. The events always enable me to reconnect withpeers and colleagues across thecontinent and Japan, and some of
the most lasting and meaningfulcontacts have been forged at EAJS
events. For young researchers
such an inclusive atmosphere is
crucial in fostering their confidence
and motivation.
This welcoming atmosphere extends to the financial support offered to PhD students and I would
like to thank once more for the assistance you offered to me to beable to attend the event.
Anna Vainio
University of Sheffield+++
I was very fortunate to receive a
travel grant for the EAJS conference in Lisbon. Participating in
the conference was a fruitful experience for me. It reminded me ofthe extraordinarily broad scope ofJapanese Studies. I jumped a lot
between sections in order to get
an overview of what topics are currently of interest in other areas ofresearch than my own. Among mypersonal favourites was the panel“Northeast Asian History Wars:
Competing National Narratives inJapanese, Korean, and Chinese
Museums” which encouraged researchers to question the simple
dichotomy of “perpetrator–victim”
that characterizes the narrative ofmany national museums dedicatedto the Second World War. The pan81

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

el’s comparative approach, which
avoided the isolation or stigmatization of Japan by employing thesame critical methods with regard
to revisionist tendencies and selective perceptions of history in Korea
and China, worked very well andshowed the way toward a common
understanding of the more recent
past in Northeast Asia.
The conference also gave me
the opportunity to meet many researchers who are active in myfield and discuss my work withthem. I received important feedback for my own paper “Situating
Sakuhin-ron within the International
Discourse on Mythological Studies”
in the panel “Sakuhin-ron – a Viable Approach to Kojiki and Nihon
Shoki Myths?” The conclusion wereached at the end of our panel wasthat while the text-oriented sakuhin
approach, which has come to dominate Japanese scholarship on theancient myths in recent decades,
offers significant new insights, it
should be complemented by otherethnology- or history-inspired approaches to broaden the scope ofJapanese mythological studies andconnect them to the international
discourse on methodology in studies of myth. All in all, I thoroughly
enjoyed my stay in Lisbon and received new inspiration for future
projects.

82

David Weiss
University of Tuebingen, Germany+++
I had the privilege to attend the15th International EAJS Conference in Lisbon thanks to the generous support of the EAJS Travel
Grant. I found the conference highly successful and had the chance
to re-meet many fellow scholars
while also making a number of newconnections that will be helpful for
my future research and career. I
mainly attended panels in the fieldsof “Anthropology and Sociology”
and “Economics, Business and Political Economy” but also caught a
few papers in other sessions that I
found particularly relevant and relatable. Listening to a broad varietyof papers and engaging in discussions helped to situate my own
work better and detect some trends
in Japanese Studies.
Presenting on a panel in the earlymorning of the first full day is always difficult, but I was positively
surprised by the outcome and especially the fruitful and lively discussion that followed our papers. I
was able to take away some suggestions and comments that do
not only help me improve my paper for publication but also added
new perspectives I will apply to myfurther research. Another highlightEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

was the JAWS business meetingand dinner, where I was able to get
together with both early career andhighly established anthropologists
and learn about their research andideas in a relaxed atmosphere.
I particularly appreciate how the
EAJS offers a number of spaces
and moments to connect with fellow scholars outside of the panels
for instance during refreshments
and lunch. In these breaks I wasable to catch up with many others
whose panels I had been unable
to attend, and was also introduced
to a number of scholars I hope towork with in the future. Overall theconference was a great success,not only by providing academic
stimuli but also by increasing myscholarly network.
Silke WerthEast Asia Center of the Universityof California, Santa Barbara, USA+++
I am very grateful to the EAJS for
providing me with the opportunity toattend their 15th international conference, which took place in Lisbon(Portugal), from the 30th of August
to the 2nd of September 2017. Organized by the Faculty of Social
Science and Humanities of the
Universidade Nova, the conference
was subdivided in 14 thematic ses-

sions, for a total of approximately
1200 participants and 250 panels.
Being a scholar of religions, I spent
most of my time in section S8a, forwhich I organized a panel (“Early
Modern Jesuit Roads to Salvationin Japan”) and presented a paper(“Jesuit soteriological preoccupations in the early modern mission in
Japan”). Some topics that I foundparticularly engaging in this section were Dr M. Lourenço’s talk on
the narratives created in Europe
and Asia around the early modern
Christian martyrs of Japan, and theconsiderations of Prof. K. Paramore on the nature of “religion,”and if Confucianism can be considered a religion.
Another section that was particularly interesting for me was the History
one, especially the numerous panels on the Sengoku and Tokugawa
periods, which included both talks
on specific aspects of Japaneseculture, and on the relationships
with Western countries, their religions and cultures. A panel I foundvery engaging was Dr M. Petrucci’s“Jesuit Religious Interaction in Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Japan”.
The excellent organization of conference could be seen especially inits many and rich satellite events.
On the one hand, the Opening
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Reception, the Gala Dinner, andthe concert in the Church of Sao
Roque all represented good occasions to mingle with fellow scholars and network in a more relaxedmanner. On the other, the events
that preceded the conference itself
touched upon many different topics; I attended the one organizedby Nichibunken on “The Legaciesof Kirishitan Culture,” which offereda window on the state of the studies on Christianity mostly from aJapanese point of view.
Overall, attending this conference
was engaging and satisfying as I
was hoping, and I am looking forward to build on the networks that I
was able to create there.
Linda Zampol D’Ortia
University of Otago, New Zealand

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2017
Time: 2 September 2017, 16:0018:00
Venue: Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation, Auditorium no. 2,
Lisbon, Portugal
Moderation by Bjarke Frellesvig,
outgoing EAJS President
The outgoing EAJS President
Bjarke Frellesvig (hereafter BF)
welcomed the EAJS members.
(1) Report by the EAJS President: Report on activities of theassociation (BF)
The outgoing President gave a detailed report on the activities promoted and organized by the EAJS
in the last three years (2015-17).
1. Triannual EAJS conference inEuropeBF reported that the 2017 conference in Lisbon was the largest EAJS conference so far. Approximately 40% of all participants
came from Japan. 29 participants
were from Portugal. BF thanked
the Japan Foundation (JF) and the
Toshiba International Foundation(TIFO) for their important support
which had helped significantly tomake this conference possible.

2. EAJS PhD Workshops
BF reported on the EAJS workshops for doctoral students, which
run every year and are funded by
TIFO. The last workshops took
place in Edinburgh in 2015, in Parisin 2016, and in Lisbon in 2017.
3. TIFO Fellowship
The Toshiba International Foundation also funds short-term scholarships to Japan that run on anannual basis. One of these threescholarships is always awarded
to an applicant from a European
country with fewer scholarship opportunities in the field of JapaneseStudies (e.g. Eastern Europe countries). From next year, the EAJS will
use the association’s own funds toaward an additional scholarshipthat will also be dedicated to an applicant from a country with fewer
scholarship opportunities.
4. Travel Grants
For the first time, in 2017 the EAJS
awarded 20 travel grants that aimed
to enable junior scholars, who often
lack funding for conference travel,
to participate in the Lisbon conference. 10 travel grants were provided by TIFO, the remaining 10 were
paid by the EAJS itself. The EAJS
wishes to continue and possibly
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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

extend the travel grant programmein the future.
5. EAJS Office
The EAJS runs an office in Berlin(where the association is registered) that takes care of all organizational matters. Currently, one
Council assistant and two student
assistants are working in the EAJS
office.
6. Publication workshops
The EAJS has initiated a publication workshop with experienced
publishers and scholars who meetwith young scholars to advise them
about how to submit successful
publications and research proposals. The first publication workshop
took place in 2015 in Berlin. The
next workshop is scheduled for2018. The venue has yet to be confirmed.
7. EAJS Japan Conference
The EAJS conference that is organized in Japan was initiated in 2011
by former EAJS President Harald
Fuess. The first EAJS Japan Conference took place in 2013 in Kyoto.
The second Japan Conference wasorganized at Kobe University in2016. It has proven a fruitful activity
which the EAJS wishes to continue
also on a triannual basis.

86

8. New Constitution
The EAJS constitution waschanged in 2015 and the EAJS wasregistered with the district court inBerlin. The new constitution wasapproved by EAJS members in
April 2015 at an extraordinary general meeting. These changes were
implemented to adhere to tax law inGermany, where the association isbased. The original text of the constitution is German. Both this andan English translation can be foundat the EAJS website (https://www.
eajs.eu/index.php?id=278).
(2) Report by the EAJS Treasurer: membership development, financial report and budget (VBT)In her report, EAJS Treasurer
Verena Blechinger-Talcott (VBT)
reported on the following points.
1. EAJS membership development
VBT reported that the EAJS membership continues to grow. VBT
explained a slight change in therules for EAJS membership under
the new constitution. The old EAJS
constitution allowed that members
could pause their membership for
up to three years. This meant thatduring that period they could keep
their membership despite pausing
on paying their membership fees.
Since the new EAJS constitution
does not allow pausing one’s mem-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

bership anymore, all members who
have not paid-up for the running
membership period will be reminded to pay, and if they fail to respondto two reminders will lose membership status. Even after clearing
those non-active members fromthe membership database, EAJS
membership has remained at aconstantly high number of around1000 members. By the time of thisyear’s conference, EAJS membership has risen to more than 1300
active members, which is a record
high.
Concerning the composition of
EAJS members, 78% are personal members with a salary and
20% are student members. The
remaining 2% are either honorary
or institutional members (1% each).
While most members are Europeans (51%), a closer look reveals
that the EAJS still has far moremembers in Western Europe thanin Eastern Europe (43% vs. 8%).
28% of EAJS members are Japanese, 12% are from the Americas.
The remaining members stem fromother parts of Asia (3%), Russia(3%) and Oceania (2%).
VBT confirmed that it remains theintention of the EAJS Council towork hard on the promotion of Japanese Studies in Eastern Europe.

2. EAJS financial situation
VBT explained that the EAJS finances stem from three sourcesof funding: Japan Foundation (JF,main sponsor of the EAJS), Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO)
and membership fees. The JF provides funding for running the EAJS
office, for a part of the EAJS International Conference (usually thesalary for 6 months for a member ofthe local organizing team and travel
expenses of the keynote speakerfrom Japan), and for part of theannual PhD Workshop (travel expenses of senior advisors).
TIFO is the main donor for theannual PhD Workshops, for alumni
networking activities, for three TIFO
short-term Fellowships per year, for
10 travel grants for participationin the EAJS International Conference, and for one part-time student
assistant in the EAJS office.
The EAJS uses membership fees
to pay for the salary of one fulltime student assistant (41 hours/
month), banking and legal fees, tax
audits (every three years), travel
grants for conference participation(10) as well as travel expenses (upto 500 EUR), accommodation (4nights) and conference registration
fee waivers for the section convenors to the conference and EAJSCouncil members.

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The support from JF has continued to decrease slightly in recent
years. However, JF remains the
EAJS’ main donor, for which VBT
expressed the EAJS’ immense
gratitude.
To the EAJS’ delight, TIFO’s financial support has constantly
increased in the last four years
and has reached 48.000 EUR in2017 (up from 15.000 EUR in FY
2013/14). For that, VBT expressed
the EAJS’ immense gratitude towards TIFO.
The membership account has developed very healthy in the lastyears, thanks to the increase inmembers’ numbers and the 50%
raise of membership fees in the beginning of 2017.
VBT further reports the introductionof the option to pay membershipfees online via PayPal since June
2017.
Finally, VBT explains the intentionof improving and modernizing the
EAJS website and the electronic
database system. The main aim
is to include more convenient systems for online membership registration and payment of fees.

88(3) Outcome of Council elections, farewell to outgoing Council members and welcoming ofincoming Council members
An EAJS member from the floor, Ian
Neary, expressed thanks from themembers for successfully organizing the Lisbon conference and put
forward a motion to confirm that the
old Council has no residual work to
be done and is now free from any
duty. He asked to formerly dismiss
the old Council and to welcome the
new Council. The motion was accepted by the general meeting.
For their service to the association,
the outgoing president expressed
the EAJS’ gratitude to the outgoing Council members. BF thenwelcomed the new members of the
EAJS extended Council: Andrea
De Antoni, Jaqueline Berndt,
Andrea Germer, Gabriele Vogt, Till
Weingärtner, Urs Matthias Zachmann. BF furthermore welcomed
the new / re-elected EAJS officers
Laura Moretti (Secretary), Verena
Blechinger-Talcott (Treasurer) andAndrej Bekeš (President).
Usually, at this point the new EAJS
President takes over the task ofchairing the remaining general
meeting. However, due his healthsituation the new EAJS President
asked the outgoing President tocontinue chairing the meeting.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

BF reported that the EAJS has
been informed that there were a
few cases were the postal ballots did not reach members. BF
explained that the wording of the
EAJS constitution does not allow
an electronic vote, but promisedthat the Council will examine possibilities with the district court inBerlin whether an electronic votemight nevertheless be possible fornext Council elections.
BF mentioned that the newly elected members are mainly of German
nationality. He encouraged moreparticipation from other geographical constituencies.
Comments from the floor were solicited. No comments were made.
The new EAJS President, Andrej
Bekeš, thanked the outgoing President for his excellent presidency
over the course of the last three
years. The outgoing President was
co-opted by the Council to remain amember of the Council as Immediate Past President.
(4) Nomination of a new honorary member
The Council proposed Joy Hendry
to be elected as honorary member.
The audience applauded this decision and Joy Hendry was con-firmed as new honorary member ofthe EAJS.
(5) EAJS conferences
BF thanked all parties that submitted bids. He then announced thevenue of the 16th EAJS International Conference in 2020. The next
EAJS conference will take place at
Ghent University. One member ofthe local organizing team will be
co-opted to the EAJS extended
council. The EAJS Office will be
asked to contact the local organizing team to find out who will represent the next conference organizer
on the council.
The timing of the next conference
will have to take into consideration
the running of the 2020 Olympics
in Japan. The Paralympics will beheld at the same time the EAJS
conference usually takes place.
There followed the reports by Section Convenors (convenor who reported)
Section 1 (Volker Elis)
Section 2 (Patrick Heinrich)
Section 3a (Atsuko Ueda)
Section 3b (Rajyashree Pandey)
Section 4a (Jaqueline Berndt)
Section 4b (Andreas Regelsberger)
Section 5a (Emma Cook)
Section 5b (Blai Guarné Cabello)
Section 6 (Sébastien Lechevalier/89

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Hugh Whittaker, excused)
Section 7 (Mark Pendleton)
Section 8a (Lucia Dolce and Erica
Baffelli)
Section 8b (Rein Raud)
Section 9 (Paul O’Shea)
Section 10 (Marcella Maria Mariotti)(6) Matters arising from Council
discussions
The Council explained that a fairamount of overlap was perceived
by the participants. The Council
proposed to set up a ProgrammeCommittee for the next EAJS International Conference which will
have the tasks of preventing unnecessary overlap and improving
coordination between sections andpanels.
So far the EAJS had a rule of one
presentation by each participant toprevent any participant from monopolizing the conference. This
time the wording was ‘participants
can only have one role in the conference’, and that was admittedly
too strict. The Council will discuss
this issue and possible solutions in
the next preparatory meeting.
(7) Any other business
Comments and questions were invited from the floor.
90

The Council was requested to consider an interdisciplinary sectionin the next conference. The Council promised that this issue will be
discussed in the next conference
preparatory meeting. The Council
was further requested to consider
a comparative or transnational section. The Council promised that
this issue will also be discussed in
the next conference preparatory
meeting. A comment was raised
against having discussants. The
Council replied that it should beleft to section convenors to decide
whether having discussants in theirsections. One member expressedthat presentations given in Japanese and in a Japanese mannerare often difficult to follow and thus
problematic. The Council explainedthat EAJS guidelines make it clearthat if presentations are given in
Japanese, they should be supported adequately with English
materials (e.g. Powerpoint slides,
handouts, etc.). Lastly, a request
was voiced to make the bids for the
next conference site public and to
let EAJS members decide on thenext conference venue with a vote.
The EAJS Council responded that,firstly, bidders would often like toremain anonymous if not selected;
and secondly, decisions with big
financial implications to the association should only be taken by theCouncil.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

The Council and the audience
thanked NomadIT. The Council
noted that NomadIT will be asked
to work again for the organisationof the next conference.
The Council and the audience
thanked the local organizers fortheir tremendous work.
The new President thanked theCouncil, the local organizers, theconvenors, the sponsors and all
the participants. He pronounced
the conference closed.
The General Meeting closed at
17.45.
Lisbon, 2 September 2017
Laura Moretti
EAJS Secretary91

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

16th EAJS International Conference in 2020:
Time and Venue
By the deadline of 30 June 2017 four bids were received to host the
16th EAJS International Conference in 2020. All bidders presented theirbid to the EAJS Council during the conference in Lisbon. There was anumber of very strong bids, but the Council eventually decided on Ghent,
Belgium, as the venue of the next conference, after carefully scrutinizing
and discussing each of the bids. The 16th EAJS International Conference
will be held in Ghent from 26 to 29 August 2020.

92EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 201713th EAJS PhD Workshop, Arrábida, Portugal
27-30 August 2017
Report by the
Academic Organizer
The PhD workshops organized by
the EAJS are becoming more popular each time, and the 13th workshop in the series, which took placein Arrábida (Portugal) on 27-30
August 2017 again drew a record
number of applicants - 93 eligible
students from all parts of Europe.
While on earlier occasions eachapplication has been reviewed by
all members of the council, thistime the workload was divided sothat each applicant was reviewed
by two council members except
the academic organizer, who had
his say on selection among applicants with near-equal results. All inall, the procedure worked well, because the chosen applicants presented work of superb quality andcreated, for the academic advisors,an atmosphere of a conference
rather than a seminar in class. We
were also pleased to note that quite
a few among the successful applicants had also been accepted as
participants in several sections of
the EAJS conference itself. Most
participants of the workshop took
advantage of the possibility to attend the conference and were seen

during sessions and breaks, talking
to their more advanced colleagues
and thus broadening considerably
their scholarly network. Quite a few
of them also expressed the wish toremain in contact after the event.
All 20 students submitted a reportof 5000 words and presented on
their topics during 8 sessions, with
2-3 participants each time. These
reports had been made available toall participants online and we wereagain pleased to note that quite a
few among them had made useof the opportunity and acquainted
themselves with the work of others.
The academic advisors to the workshop included:- Prof emer Joy Hendry, Oxford
Brookes University / St Antony’s
College, University of Oxford- Dr Rajashree Pandey, Goldsmith
College, University of London- Prof Rein Raud, Tallinn University,
academic organizer- Prof Verena Blechinger-Talcott,Freie Universität Berlin- Prof Urs Matthias Zachmann,Freie Universität Berlin

93

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Each academic advisor thus had
the task to discuss the work of 4-6
participants, according to their respective fields of research. The
range of topics among the selected participants was indeed broad,even if not as broad as during someof the previous workshops, including linguistics, anthropology, modern and classical literature, philosophy, religious studies, social andpolitical issues as well as history ofideas. Fortunately many of the issues addressed in the participants’dissertations were not too far fromeach other, thus the discussions
were always lively and continued
after the sessions.
The participants of the workshop
gathered at the Lisbon airport on
the afternoon of 27 August andwere driven by bus to the workshop
venue, the Arrábida Convento.
During the drive and in the evening,participants had the first opportunity to get to know each other and tolearn about the other participants’projects.
The following two days were filledwith presentations and intense discussions of the PhD projects. The
convent provided a great working
atmosphere and encouraged lively
discussions during and after the
work-intensive sessions.
Both days, after a joint breakfast,
the participants met from 9.15 am
94

to 6.10 pm. Each day, 10 candidates presented, grouped into four
panels of 2 or 3, with lunch andcoffee breaks in between. Eachcandidate was given 20 minutes topresent, with additional 20 minutes
for the advisor to comment and ageneral discussion.
On 30 August, after a last breakfast
together, participants were driven
back to Lisbon. Fortunately, the
EAJS Conference, which began
the same day, provided many opportunities to see and talk to eachother during the next days.
We are very grateful for the organizers of the Lisbon conference
for assisting us with finding thelocation for the workshop. The Arrábida convent in the mountains
near Lisbon, a site as beautiful as
it was isolated, provided a splendid ambiance for the event as wellas breathtaking views during ourtravels there and back. Last but
not least, we would once again
like to thank the Toshiba International Foundation for its generous
support, without which none of thiswould have been possible.
On behalf of the organizers,
Rein Raud
Academic Organizer

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Reports by the Participants
The 13th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students took place in the
Arrábida convent. Located in the
middle of a quiet forest, the venue
favored attention and tranquillity
to a level that is hard to find in an
urban environment. A significant
advantage, considering that theexperience was very intense: We
carefully followed and discussed
20 dissertation reports in two days.
The scheduling was adequate,
nonetheless. One day would nothave been enough to share timeand ideas together and get to know
one another well. One day more
would have been too exhausting.
I appreciate that the organisers tried
to bring together a wide variety of
topics and disciplines. Comments
were very constructive, respectful,and truly in the spirit of helping to
improve each participants work.
For me, the sharing of ideas andcomments in the workshop was
inspiring and helpful for my work
even beyond the time span of mypresentation.
In sum, for me the event was an opportune time to discuss ideas in myfield, and also to expand my horizon beyond the limits of specialisation. At least for researchers in the
incipient field of Japanese Philosophy Studies in Western languages,

chances like this are as scarce as
valuable.
I am thankful to the EAJS for letting me participate. All participants
and invited experts, especially Prof
Rein Raud, gave me critical comments, advice, and questions. I
was finishing my dissertation, but
the feedback I received was usefulfor assessing my progress. Last but
not least, I thank the Fundação Oriente for allowing us to occupy theirvenue and for all the excellent attention we received there.
Carlos Barbosa Cepeda
Pompeu Fabra University, Italy+++
When I applied for the 13th EAJSDoctoral Workshop, I was only
hoping to gain some feedback fromsenior scholars and peers involved
in Japanese studies, but this workshop gave me much more. Of
course, it was useful to highlightboth strengths and weaknesses,
receiving productive commentsthat helped me question and rethink many aspects of my research.
Besides, each of us came fromdifferent backgrounds, working indifferent fields, so that maintaining a high level of attention during
the presentations was easy, and it
pushed and challenged us to ex95

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017plain the very core of our researchusing simple terminology and making it accessible to everyone.
As I am currently enrolled in thesecond year of my PhD course, forme it has also been the perfect opportunity to reorganise my findings
and preliminary conclusions summarising them while also focusing
on aspects such as the theoreticalframework and some problems I
am currently facing.
The environment was extremely
friendly and supportive, and it allowed us to live this experience
without feeling judged or criticized.
The chosen location of this year
was a monastery far away fromthe city of Lisbon, and we were
given even more chances to bond,spending plenty of time together,and sharing our comments andacademic experiences over dinnerand during the evenings.
I would like to thank Prof Raud, Dr
Pandey and all the senior scholars
for their helpful comments and insights. I would also like to thankthe EAJS and the Toshiba International Foundation for having givenme this extraordinary chance and I
strongly recommend any PhD fellow involved in Japanese studies
to apply for participation in the next
workshops.

96

Corinne D’Antonio
Sapienza University of Rome+++I decided to apply for the 13th EAJSWorkshop for Doctoral Students
after I had heard the enthusiastic
account of a colleague who had
just returned from the past event in
Paris.
In my PhD dissertation I intend toprove how the anthropomorphismof foods in premodern Japanese
literature was a device used not
only to entertain readers, but also
to convey different types of knowledge and ideas in a more humorous way. I also aim to highlight
how the relationship established bythese texts not only with food itself,
but also with contemporaneous literary genres (especially with epic
war tales) changed significantly
through the centuries. All the scholars who commented on my project(and, in particular, my advisor Dr
Rajyashree Pandey and Prof Rein
Raud) provided me with invaluablecritical feedback on the tentative
framework of my dissertation andgave me further suggestions on
how to improve it.
Despite the intense and intellectually compelling program, the atmosphere was one of relaxed conviviality, where everyone felt free

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017to share opinions and snippets ofknowledge. And as often happens
when scholars in different fields
dialogue together, the discussions
that followed the individual presentations provided us with unusual
and challenging insights on our
topics. The workshop was not only
a good opportunity to take stock on
our own ongoing work, to reflect
upon it from different perspectives
and to practise our presentation
skills. It was also a unique chance
to meet other students from aroundthe world and enlarge our academic (and personal) network in a nicely informal environment. It was an
overall great formative experiencethat I will undoubtedly recommend
to my fellow colleagues.
Elena Follador
University of Cambridge, UK+++
What does it mean to think through“Japanese Studies”? This was oneof the significant questions that theparticipation to the workshop, as aconsequence, gave me the chance
to reflect on.
I was initially both excited anddaunted by the idea of discussing
my research with the group of fellow Ph.D. researchers and seniorscholars in the field; I neither havea background in Japanese Studies

or currently belong to Area Studies
at my home institution. However,I quickly became fascinated by
how the interdisciplinary nature of
the workshop enabled us to havemulti-layered discussions throughthe common intellectual and geographical framework of “Japan.” Inother words, the diverse disciplinary perspectives of the participants
and discussants shed lights on
unexpected commonalities amongus, gradually shaping what it mightmean to think through “JapaneseStudies” today.
Feedbacks from scholars and fellow students of the same discipline
as myself, i.e., intellectual history,
was also immensely valuable. Given the fact that their methodological and theoretical approaches
to the subject were different fromwhat I had been familiar with, I wasable to re-assess my proposal fromother perspectives I would haveotherwise overlooked.
Apart from these invaluable academic insights, meeting and getting to know an international cohortof Ph.D. researchers and seniorscholars of Japan was truly an indispensable experience. The relaxed, intimate, and isolated setting of the workshop at a former
convent in the beautiful mountainsof Arrábida certainly facilitated thefriendly environment for both col97

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

laborative learning and pleasure
day and night.
Such intellectual perceptions andfriendships I have gained throughthe workshop have already left mewith lasting impacts. One is that
now I feel I am part of a supportive
network of Japan scholars among
the cohort of fellow Ph.D. students.
Another is the wealth of relevant
references I have been advised tolook at by the senior scholars; theybroadened the contexts in which I
can be approaching my research
now and in the future. I am deeply
grateful to have been part of this
precious opportunity.
Eiko Honda
University of Oxford, UK+++
I had the great pleasure of being
selected to participate in the doctoral workshop in Lisbon, at the
Arrábida convent 27-30th of August 2017. The program was very
tightly packed, but as there werea certain number of papers to be
discussed, and only two days fordoing that, it could not be helped.
The grouping of papers was wellbalanced to counteract the effectsof their sheer number. There was avariety of subjects, but also topics
that resonated with each other, sothat a certain amount of recurring
98

notions, themes and methodological issues brought about the feelingof a shared set of problems which
helped to deal with the wide variety of topics. The structure of thesessions and the amount of time
given to a single paper was wellstructured and allowed enoughtime to make sense of each topic.
A lengthier presentation would risk
not sticking to the essentials, anddiscussions might branch out too
far from the feedback most necessary. As the days are as long as
they are intense, I do not think one
could not take in any more than two
full days.
The surroundings, the convent andthe staff were all superb. One really did not have to worry aboutprovisions or anything except the
papers. The feedback from thesupervising senior academics was
extremely helpful and the overall
aftereffects of the workshop arethose of renewed inspiration, insight and determination. I would
like to thank all persons involved in
making this possible.
Aleksi Järvelä
Helsinki University, Finland+++
I was delighted to have been selected to take part in the PhD workshop preceding the 15th EAJS
Conference in Lisbon this year. It

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

was a positive and enriching moment for my research, as well as avaluable personal experience.
First, I am glad I had the chance topresent my project to an audienceof Japanese Studies specialists
and get their helpful feedback. Especially as I am at an early stageof my research, the comments andsuggestions from my advisor, Prof
Zachmann, and from the other participants, will surely be beneficial tothe development of my ideas. Beyond having the chance to discuss
my research with the fellow PhD
students, I could also broaden myknowledge of Japanese Studies,enjoying the presentations and thepapers of my colleagues. Finally,
looking at the work in progress of
second and third year PhD students provided a good occasion toself-evaluate the progress and timing of my own thesis. The informal
setting and relaxed atmosphere of
the workshop were great for discussing our works, networking andsocialising in a constructive andencouraging environment.
I definitely recommend this experience to other PhD students fromany area in Japanese Studies, andat any stage of their research. In
this spirit, I would like to thank theorganisers, the advisors’ committee, and the Toshiba International
Foundation, which made this event
possible. I would also like to ex-press gratitude to the EAJS Office
staff that managed all our applications and inquiries, and the personnel at the Convento da Arrábida
that made us feel most welcome at
the enchanting location of the Arrábida Natural Park.
Thea Karagialidis
Durham University, UK+++
The 13th EAJS Workshop for
Doctoral Students coincided withthe scheduled completion of a
12-month period of fieldwork that
I was undertaking in Japan. The
workshop provided me with anexcellent opportunity to reflect on
my experience in the field, test myideas and receive feedback fromsenior scholars and peers on the
preliminary findings and analysis of
the data collected during fieldwork.
It allowed me to test the provisional
structure and emerging argumentof my thesis, as well as to identify
the strengths and weaknesses of
my argument in preparation for the
post-fieldwork process of writing.
Furthermore, the event served as
an excellent networking opportunity to connect with fellow PhD
researchers and gain an insight
into the range of methodologies
and topics emerging in the field ofJapan-related research. Engaging
99

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017with the peers and senior scholars
representing a range of disciplinary perspectives challenged me
to consider my research projectfrom alternative angles, whilst theirquestions and curiosity proved
both encouraging and enriching. At
the same time, learning about new
topics and modes of inquiry used inlinguistics, philosophy, literary studies, law and history among others,
was both grounding and illuminating.
The friendly and informal atmosphere of the workshop, coupledwith beautiful scenery surrounding
the monastery where we stayed,allowed for intellectual exchange,
not only during the sessions, butalso in informal conversations outside of them. I would like to express
my sincere gratitude to the funders
and organisers for this opportunity; and to the supervisors (ProfVerena Blechinger-Talcott, Profemer Joy Hendry, Dr Rajyashree
Pandey, Prof Rain Raud, and Prof
Urs Matthias Zachmann) and to all
the participants for this extremely
enjoyable and enlightening intellectual gathering. I hope that thefriendships and connections madeat the workshop will continue inour professional careers and future
personal endeavours.
Paulina Kolata
The University of Manchester, UK
100+++
I was very happy for having been
accepted to participate in the 13thEAJS PhD Workshop. The workshop was very productive for thefollowing two reasons. First, it wasa great opportunity for me to interact and network with other Japanese Studies scholars in Europe,and not just in the UK. I was very
pleased to meet leading professors in the field and immerse myself in a network of young scholars.
Especially because very few PhD
students in my department pay attention to Japanese politics, thisworkshop helped me develop my
network within the field of Japanesestudies. Second, I appreciated thevery productive feedback from thesenior advisors on the matter of mytheoretical framework. It was very
challenging, but at the same time agreat opportunity to assess my arguments and theoretical framework
based on their comments.
The themes of the presentations
were, however, a bit too broad forme. It was a great opportunity tolisten to other young researchers’
work in different subjects such as
literature and history, but I wish I
could meet more researchers frompolitical science, economics andinternational relations. As a suggestion for any future workshops,

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

it would be more fruitful if subsessions can be set up depending
on research field. Such a structure
could provide more in-depth conversations among peers who sharethe similar academic interests.
Kimiko Kuga
University of Oxford, UK+++
I am happy to report that the EAJSWorkshop was a rewarding and inspiring experience, on every possible level. I will highlight what madeit so precious to me, and try to add
some constructive observations.
Logistics (pickup, transportation,
location, food and drinks) were
flawless. I would only have wished
for a slightly looser schedule to enjoy the place a little longer, and tohave more time for freeform conversation with the participants.
I found the feedback from the advisors extremely helpful, and theintellectual and personal bonding with fellow PhD students very
meaningful – academically, butalso in a personal sense: I dare
say that everyone of us came backfrom the workshop with a renewed
enthusiasm and sense of academic
community.
Spreading 20 presentations on twodays, with 40 minutes for each presentation and ensuing discussion,
was, however, physically taxing.
Everybody was very attentive andengaged to the very end, but also
tired. Also, while the discussion of
the projects was the core of the experience, and very precious to me,
I wonder if by cutting a few minutesof every presentation, or making
the projects circulate in written formand be directly discussed, could
have left a free afternoon for group
activities, focus groups, a roundtable-style discussion of common
topics. On the same note, given the
sheer brilliance of the participants,
even some group assignment before or during the workshop would
have been a very enriching experience, at least for me personally.
I can also stress that the main
EAJS conference became much
more rewarding through the participation in the prior workshop, since
our attendance was already that ofa group – so that we could sharenotes of parallel panels, suggest
to each other relevant speakers,
and introduce to other people ourown academic contacts. There remained an extremely positive spirit.
Lorenzo Marinucci
University of Rome Tor Vergata,
Italy
+++
101

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

I had the privilege to be chosen
as one of the participants of the
13th EAJS PhD Workshop right at
the end of my first year of PhD research. The site of the Workshop– the Convento da Arrábida outsideof Lisbon, Portugal – was phenomenal, the ambience and the foodwere excellent, and both the participants and our senior academic supervisors were open and extremely
generous with their observations.
My research topic is Edo Period
Japanese Confucianism throughthe lens of comparative philosophy.
The workshop allowed me to present my work and receive valuable
feedback at a time when I had just
hit a rough patch in my research
and was beginning to doubt the direction in which I was headed. The
academic supervisors’ and otherparticipants’ favourable comments
helped me stop overthinking thingsand get back on track. I found it ofgreat value to be able to present
my work to researchers from different fields and I believe the multidisciplinary approach is one of thegreat strengths of the workshop.
As intense as the workshop was, I
feel it could even have been a day
longer.
This workshop was an important
experience for me. It provided mewith an opportunity to rethink myapproach and to find ways to im102

prove my work. It also helped mebuild new contacts with future colleagues. I would like to express mygratitude to the Toshiba International Foundation, the EAJS, oursenior academic supervisors, allother participants and anyone else,
who made it all possible.
Marko Ogrizek
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia+++“Happy the dwellers in this holy
house;For surely never worldly thoughts
intrudeOn this retreat, this sacred solitude[…]”
Even though Robert Southey’s
words might be over 220 years old,
the accuracy of his description stillmatches my feelings as I attended
the 13th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students at the Convento da
Arrábida in Portugal.
Worldly thoughts of the participants
were lost on the way to the retreat,just as the bus driver lost his way
on unpaved roads in the midst ofolive groves. Hence, the workshop
was all about carefree academic
discussions, vivid exchanges ofideas and open-minded communication, surrounded by mountains,
cliffs and wilderness, overlooking

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

the Atlantic Ocean. From the firstwords at dawn, mumbled over a
cup of coffee, throughout rich panels of presentations, to the last
spirited argumentations long after
midnight, the senior advisors Rein
Raud, Verena Blechinger-Talcott,
Joy Hendry, Rajashree Pandey
and Urs Matthias Zachmann endeavoured to provide feedback,critique and help to us doctoralcandidates. Furthermore, the discussions with fellow students werealso enlightening and inspiring moments, strengthening ties for future
networks and academic collaborations.
Finally, I would like to thank theparticipants and advisors for fourdays of intensive cogitation on various aspects of Japanese studies ina friendly, supportive environment,
far from the hostile commodified
academic institutions of our days.
But maybe, even in the former daysof Robert Southey, Convento da
Arrábida was a rare example of acarefree place:“[…] To have no cares that eat theheart,
no wants that to the earth chain
the reluctant spirit,
to be freed from forced commnion
with the selfish tribe who worship
Mammon”
Florian Purkarthofer

University of Vienna, Austria+++
First of all, I would like to express
my deepest gratitude for having
been selected to present my dissertation as a work in progress at
the 13th EAJS PhD workshop in
Lisbon. It was an engaging andthoroughly exciting experience,
which helped me develop my research further and allowed me tointeract with other PhD students
in a highly stimulating multidisciplinary environment.
This workshop gave me the opportunity to discuss my research withscholars from different fields andparticipants at different stages intheir career. Before attending theworkshop, I spent one year doing
fieldwork in Japan where I mainly
focused on philological and textual
analysis of primary sources. Thus,
I was hoping to receive feedback
about the structure of my dissertation and the theoretical framework
in order to broaden my research
focus. For this reason, I really enjoyed presenting my work within
an intimate and supportive environment. All the comments andsuggestions by the expert scholars and other participants from different research areas helped me
think about my research in a new
and fresh perspective. I also found103

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

the discussions that followed eachpresentation very fruitful, since thecomments addressed to other presenters helped me identify similar
issues in my own project. I particularly appreciated the multidisciplinary character of the workshop,
as it allowed me to get an overview
of the current state of research in
the Japanese Studies field from thenext generation of researchers.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Rein
Raud, for the invaluable feedback
I received on my PhD project andto all the advisers who shared theirexperience and knowledge. Lastly,
I would like to extend my sincerest
thanks to the Toshiba International
Foundation and the Japan Foundation for making this workshop possible and fostering intellectual exchange at different academic levels.
Marta Sanvido
Ca’Foscari University of Venice,
Italy
+++
I would like to express my gratitude
for having been able to attend the13th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral
Students 2017 at the wonderful Arrábida Monastery in Portugal. At
the time I was in the starting phaseof writing my thesis, in which I aim
to delineate the formative phase of104

the New Religion Tenrikyō in the
Meiji period until its official recognition in 1908, amidst ongoing negotiation of the concepts ‘religion’ and‘superstition’.
At that point in time, my life wasgoverned by two big questions:“Can I pull my thesis off well?” and“What’s next?” While I have had theopportunities to study in Japan andto reach out to Japanese scholars, this had largely prevented mefrom attending European forums ofscholarly exchange. Being chosen
for the workshop in itself gave mea lot of much needed encouragement for my project. Furthermore,
the workshop, its organizers andparticipants receive my full appreciation and gratitude for the following two reasons.
First, it truly is a rare forum, where
younger and senior scholars get together for a meaningful exchange.
It was not only an opportunity toobtain in-depth comments on one’s
research by scholars, who had readthe full report and had prepared immensely to give each participant
useful commentary. It also showed
the full potential of the (oftentimes
questioned usefulness of the) humanities, proving how a scholar
can apply their specialised knowledge to many different topics, andhow viewpoints differ based on thediscipline one is most accustomed

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

to. Even more so, advisors andstudents alike used all of the timeat the marvellous monastery, frombreakfast until way after midnight,
to discuss virtually anything andeverything. I would like to mention
especially Prof Rein Raud for his
exceptionally warm and welcoming ways, which played a huge partin creating an open atmosphere offree exchange.
The second unique opportunity the
EAJS workshop offered was thepossibility to connect with other
PhD students over a time of twodays, which not only gave room formuch needed bickering about thedifficulties of being a PhD student
and our future prospects, but alsobroadened my horizon concerning
different institutional realities, workshop opportunities, work experiences and personal motivations. I
look forward to seeing everybody
again sometime somewhere, eventhough we can hardly hope to getsuch highly delicious food as we
had at Arrábida!
Franziska Steffen
Martin-Luther University HalleWittenberg, Germany+++
I am really grateful for having been
accepted as a participant for the
13th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral

Students. As a DPhil student entering the final writing-up stage ofmy doctoral degree, I cannot thankthe EAJS and the Toshiba International Foundation enough for sucha valuable opportunity to receive
critical feedback on my work, andto understand specifics of current
academic discourse in JapaneseStudies in Europe through communication with academics and otherpostgraduate participants.
My research on perception andexpression of time and space concepts in modern Japanese is primarily focused on analysis of experimental data, which I obtained
through three sets of surveys withJapanese native speaking participants: a free word association
experiment and two spontaneous
speech experiments: one on spatial description strategies and one
on temporal description strategies. The feedback received fromthe senior academics and discussion of my presentation during theworkshop was particularly helpful
in identifying problems and gaps of
my approach to the language material, analysis and presentation of
the research findings. I really appreciated all questions and advice
from both senior academics andother doctoral students.
The EAJS Workshop for Doctoral
Students was also a wonderfulchance for me to meet other doc105

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

toral students involved in a variety
of fields of Japanese Studies. The
diversity of the topics presented
and discussed during the workshop gave me a unique opportunity
to learn about different and unfamiliar approaches and methods ina friendly atmosphere.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the organizers of
the workshop for choosing a venue
surrounded by the breath-taking
views of the Nature Park of Arrábida
.
Maria Telegina
University of Oxford, UK+++
I am very grateful to have been
accepted to participate in the 13thEAJS PhD Workshop that was heldat the Convento da Arrábida in Portugal. Overall, it was a unique opportunity to reflect on and further
develop my research, and to interact with senior scholars and PhD
candidates from in and outside ofEurope.
As a first year PhD student, it was
my first ever opportunity to present
my research outside of my home
university. Although my progress islimited, I was optimistic to partakein this interdisciplinary workshop.
When listening to other PhD stu106

dents present their research that
already had a definite form andadvanced progress, at first I sortof lost confidence in my project.
However, the informal context of
the workshop, which promoted afriendly atmosphere, and the comments that resulted from it, restored
my confidence and prompted me tolook at my project from a different
perspective and to think outside of
the box.
This informal atmosphere resulted
in comments and discussions that
did not criticize one’s project, buthelped you realize which parts you
can still improve. This alongside thepleasant and inspiring talks during
breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee
breaks, this workshop was the perfect opportunity for reflection andintellectual exchange. The locationof the workshop was breath taking
and provided the ideal scenery to
network and interact with professors and fellow graduate students.
Listening to their experiences as
PhD students – the ups and downs– also encouraged me not to losefaith in my ongoing research project.
I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the EAJS and to Prof Zachmann, for the instructive feedback
that I received on my PhD project.
Finally, my gratitude also goes to
the Toshiba International Founda-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

tion, the Japan Foundation and to
the participating members who introduced me to new perspectives
and research fields that I was previously unfamiliar with. Therefore,
I strongly recommend the EAJS
PhD workshop to all PhD students
in Japanese Studies, no matter inwhich field or year they are.
Freya Terryn
KU Leuven, Belgium+++
Even though I have received feedback for my project from my supervisor and other assessors during
the last two years, this was the firsttime I had the chance to present mywork to a group of people working
specifically in the field of JapaneseStudies. It was extremely stimulating to be able to discuss my dissertation with scholars at such variedlevels in their academic careers
and with such varied interests andbackgrounds. I feel like I got valuable criticisms and encouragementon equal measure, both after mypresentation and, more informally,
during the lunches and dinners weall shared.
The other sessions were equally
informative; having the opportunity to learn about projects so different from my own in their stagesof inception, and seeing the way

in which they were commented on
and judged, allowed me to derive
practical insights on academic production. At the same time, it wasparticularly pleasant for me to beable to meet with other Ph.D. students working in some capacity
on medieval Japan, which is not awidely popular subject in my homeinstitution. I trust this workshop will
prove not only useful for the development of my thesis throughout
the next year, but also in the longrun, as it has opened possibilitiesof academic collaboration, and widened my intellectual and personal
network.
I would like to thank both the organizers and the participants for avery enriching experience, as wellas the staff at the Convento da Arrábida, who made sure our stay
was memorable in the best possible way.
Iris Tomé Valencia
University of Oxford, UK+++
Thanks to the European Association for Japanese Studies and its
generous sponsors, I was able toparticipate in the 13th EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students. I feelextremely grateful to the organisersof this event, the committee who
selected my paper and to the other107

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

participants for their enthusiasm,
friendship, and support. My dissertation will benefit greatly from thethoughtful comments and the lively
debates we had during these threememorable days.
This workshop was the first opportunity to present the current stateof my research in English and it
put me in the position to rethink
my Ph.D. project as a whole bygiving it a systematic and palatable structure. I spent my second
year as a visiting student in Japan,
where I focused on very specificcase studies from a more ‘textual’point of view. In the meantime, theinterdisciplinary character of thisevent forced me to balance such anarrow philological approach withbroader methodological issues inorder to render my work intelligible
to a wider audience. In this sense,
I believe it constituted an invaluable chance not only to improveform and contents of my on-going
research but also to enhance myself-confidence in public speaking.
I would like to express here my
deepest gratitude to Dr Rein Raudand Dr Rajyashree Pandey for theirwise advice and encouragement.
Other supervisors had to leave thevenue right before my session, but
we enjoyed informal interaction
and fruitful discussion during thecoffee breaks, at lunch and in the108evenings. Finally yet importantly, I
was delighted to meet brilliant colleagues from all over the world andenjoy together the amazing atmosphere, food, and location of Arrábida monastery. I truly hope thatour paths will cross again somedayin the future.
Pier Carlo Tommasi
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,
Italy
+++
The 13th EAJS PhD Workshop wasa pleasant yet intense four days ofpresentations and discussions,
meeting fascinating people andenjoying the peace and quiet of aremote convent overlooking thebeautiful Portuguese mountains
and ocean.
To start, I very much appreciatedthe friendly atmosphere between
students and professors, which allowed for stress-free and honest
conversations. In different places,
the customs regulating studentprofessor relationships demanddifferent attitudes. The care andeffort to integrate PhD students inacademia by EAJS and this workshop is most remarkable and I cannot stress enough how valuable
it has been to me. The thoroughfeedback after the presentations,the sharing of personal experienc-

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017es, insights and tips, the informalchats all made it possible to gather
a wealth of information otherwise
hard to get by.
Since I am based at a Japanese
university, the workshop was agreat opportunity to find out what
Japan-related research is currently
being done in Europe. I was surprised to see a large number ofprojects focusing on pre-modern
literature, religion and philosophy. It
was stimulating and most insightful
to learn about the various methodologies and sources employed bycolleagues in different fields frommy own. In addition, I was encouraged to place my own research in alarger, international context, whichhas provided me with a new impetus to develop my study.
Attending the workshop, in combination with presenting at the 15thEAJS International Conference
itself, resulted in an intense weekthat offered me the critical feedback, intellectual stimuli and a new
network that I needed to improveand expand my research. I would
like to extend my thanks to all workshop participants, the EAJS andthe Toshiba International Foundation for making this unique event
possible.
Pieter Van Lommel
Tsukuba University, Japan+++
From the 27th to the 30th of August,I had the privilege and pleasure ofparticipating in the EAJS Ph.D.
workshop in Portugal. It was heldat the Arrábida Monastery, about a
two-hour drive by bus from Lisbon,
and it was a truly inspiring setting
for me on a personal level, as myown research project is centred onreligion and cultural heritage.
The workshop itself was incredibly
useful to me in a number of ways.
It was humbling to receive such insightful and constructive feedback
from the fellow participants andJoy Hendry, my discussant for theworkshop. Joy, who was incredibly
kind and engaging, took the time
to talk to me about my project at
length even outside of the workshop hours. My fellow participantsand I also had plenty of chances
over meals and in the evenings to
discuss our research with one another in more detail. It was a truly
enlightening experience overall
and an invaluable opportunity tomeet other young scholars in thefield of Japanese Studies. This lastpoint was of particular importanceto me, as I am currently the only
Ph.D. in Japanese Studies at my
department; a fact that occasionallymakes my work a relatively lonely
endeavour. The most precious partof the EAJS workshop experience109

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

for myself, therefore, was the ability
to make friends and useful contacts
among my fellow peers.
The two full days on the 28th and29th were, in truth, very long with a
lot of information to absorb in sucha short amount of time. However, it
was well worth the long days andthe beautiful meals we were served
certainly helped us cope! My only
regret is that we did not have moretime to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Morgaine Theresa Wood
University of Oslo, Norway+++
This year’s EAJS PhD Workshop
was a melting pot of different
people with a common affection
for studying aspects of Japan. We
were located in the most amazing
surroundings, up in the mountains
outside of Lisbon, and the shortfew days helped to form bonds between us that allowed us to discuss
everyone’s topics more frankly andconstructively.
The opportunity to present my workto other scholars of different fields
was both a daunting process and apositive one. It allowed me to think
about my project and how I wanted
to convey the ideas contained in
it to other people. Receiving feed110

back from senior academics was
also a great factor. Their experience allowed them to offer feedback from alternative angles. In
my case, I felt that this was helpful
in really focusing me on what was
important to my project, as well as
reassuring me that I was confident
enough in my knowledge to explain
my rationale and findings.
In some ways, though, the mostrewarding aspect of the time in
Lisbon was outside of the presentation room. Although we all had
our chances to speak there, time
was often limited because of thenumber of people participating. In
many cases the most productive
and interesting discussions transpired naturally between people inthe breaks, especially at lunchtime
and over dinner. Several of theseconversations revealed common
themes and ideas between diverse
fields that maybe I would not havethought about before. It also inspired those of us who study preEdo Japan to think about how tobetter approach representing thisarea of study in the wider European picture. I would like to thankthe EAJS for offering me the opportunity to participate in this great
experience.
Elesabeth Woolley
School of Oriental and African
Studies, UKEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Toshiba International Foundation Fellowships
Reports by the 2016/17 TIFO Fellows
Report by Kristýna Vojtísková,Charles University
Time, Space, and Ethics in Watsuji Tetsurō’s Thought
My research project
The dissertation project is mainly
focused on a critical evaluation of
Watsuji Tetsurō’s (1889-1960) moral philosophy. This work is basedon a qualitative textual analysisof philosophical treatises Climate(Fūdo) and Ethics (Rinrigaku). In
these major studies, Watsuji conceived an original ethical system
which drew on Asian schools ofthoughts and Western philosophy.
The dissertation is divided into
three major parts.
(1) The first chapters discuss thesources of intellectual influences
which considerably contributed toan articulation of Watsuji’s ethicalsystem (i.e. Heidegger, Nishida,
Mahāyāna Buddhism). In part one,my aim is to untangle an intricate
background of Watsuji’s philosophy
in order to read his thoughts throughthe lens of these influences, which
disclose the limits and possibilities
of his systematic ethics.

(2) The second part of the dissertation is dedicated to Watsuji’s
ethical perspective on space-time.
The very basis of my interpretation
lies in a description of his transition
from climatic space to “betweenness” (aidagara) as the essence ofsocial being in Ethics on one hand,
and transition from time as a climatic feature to a subjective time ofhuman being as explained in Ethics. The aim of the second part is todefine and examine Watsuji’s systematic ethics based on the notionof emptiness as a dynamic unity of
individuality and totality as well as
subject and object.
(3) The third major part re-evaluates Watsuji’s ethical thought inorder to demonstrate its applicability in disciplines such as phenomenology of natural science,
environmental ethics or social psychology. Principally, I focus on therelationship between the individual,
society, as well as the natural environment. In this part, I attempt to
examine the extent to which Watsuji’s ethical system contributes
to contemporary discourses in the
global society as well as the potential for future research.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

112

Stay in Japaning officially verified translation.

I arrived in Tōkyō on the 17th ofDecember 2016. Unfortunately,
my two-month stay in Japan was
overshadowed by a severe illness.
Right on Monday 19th, I was invited to the Tōshiba headquarters in
Hamamatsu-chō to meet the representatives of the Toshiba International Foundation, TIFO PresidentŌmori Keisuke, and Ms. Kuwayama Mariko. My initial plan backthen was to attend the meeting andhead for Ōsaka immediately to start
my research activities. However,right after my arrival in Tokyo, unfortunately I fell ill with acute tonsillitis. Regrettably, on my third day inJapan I collapsed due to high feverand had to be hospitalized for ashort time. In hospital, I was prescribed antibiotics. Adding to mybad luck, after an initial improvement of my health, I suffered an illness relapse shortly after my arrivalin Ōsaka. Overall it took almost amonth to fully recover from the illness. I should mention here thatduring this whole period Tōshiba
International Foundation’s Senior
Program Officer Ms. Kuwayama
stayed in touch with me, helped mewith gathering materials needed
to get reimbursement for medical
treatment from my insurance company and even translated a medical report to English for me so that I
did not have to worry about arrang-

After the difficult beginnings, almost in mid-January, I was finallyable to pursue my research. The
range of research activities I could
do during the illness period waslimited to reading books, articles,
and notes I gathered at conferences I participated in the previous
year. Therefore, as soon as I wasdone with materials I had at mydisposal, I ordered plenty of books
from Book-offs, which turned out
to be a treasure chest of works on
Watsuji. In mid-January, I started
researching in Ōsaka University libraries, focusing myself entirely on
the structure and content of my dissertation thesis.
At first, I did not perceive any problems considering my dissertation’s
basic assumptions, as I had formulated them before my stay in Japan. However, the more I was immersed in my resources, the more I
was aware of a need to re-evaluate
my approach to Watsuji´s notion of
space-time and go back to the veryroots of Watsuji´s existential spatio-temporality Fūdo. Watsuji criticizes Heidegger for not conceiving
a persuasive analysis of humanspatiality. Watsuji´s perspective
on existential spatiality, which wasdeveloped from this critique, wasbased on an assumption of a subjective approach to space-time. ForEAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Watsuji, space-time is a structureof human being that does not serve
as a passive framework for being in
the world.
I was struggling with Watsuji´s holistic assumptions on space-time
manifested in concrete human being, because I understood that I
naturally tend to separate time,
space, and human being, and view
them as a “stage” and a “performer”. In addition, I underestimatedthe importance of Watsuji´s critiqueof Heidegger for my understanding of his concept of aidagara andfūdo.
However, when I was almost on thebrink of giving up, a groundbreaking recognition occurred to me. It
was at the beginning of February
when I visited Saihōji (Kokedera)in Kyōto. As a part of the Saihōji
experience, I attended sūtra chanting. As I and other visitors werechanting the Heart Sūtra (Makahannya haramita shingyō), I felt
an urgent feeling of finding myself
not in space-time itself, but morein place and history, in fūdo, bothshaping it and being shaped by it.
Later I realized that what I was experiencing there was, in Watsujian
sense, me contextualizing myself
in the transient relational structureof existential space-time which interactively operated in the subjective, concrete, everyday being.

Encouraged by this occurrence, I
returned back to the beginning of
my research, went through everything I had written on Watsujian
space-time and emptiness so far.
Ultimately, I realized that precisely
because I am immersed in aidagara and fūdo, I am able to objectify
it as a background of my being incommon understanding, to distinguish time and history, space andplace, and ask myself questions
such as “how I dwell?” Right there,
clearly, aidagara, fūdo, and emptiness showed its substantiality ineveryday life. To put it simply, weare born into the world already immersed in the relational networkof aidagara as an existential limit.
Therefore, we are aidagara-making
entities, we cannot help but perform our being as such because weare never divorced from the sharedworld that we were born into. To
sum this up, aidagara correlates
and unifies subject and object.
Such a process precedes every human behaviour and no subsequentdivision of subject and object inobjective cognition would be possible without it. In this sense, ethics
appears to be fūdo-transforming
mutual interaction of dualistic subjects within aidagara as a structureof human being manifested in specific social structures and humanbehavior.

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In the light of the above-mentioned
recognition, during the second
month of my research in Japan, I
tried to look at the second part of
my dissertation from a different perspective. I found out that the wholetime I was dealing with Watsuji, theactual problem of spatial and temporal emplacement of ethics appeared to be only ontological. The
whole time I spent on Watsuji I did
not see what was right before myvery eyes. Naturally, this will havea considerable impact not only onpart two and three of my dissertation but also on its entire structure.
I hope that following this direction
will throw a new light on sub-chapters of my work I was not satisfied
with so far.
On the 18th of February, I returned
to Tōkyō. My second meeting with
Tōshiba International Foundation
representatives was scheduled for
Monday 20th. Ms. Kuwayama suggested an informal lunch. Over abowl of delicious kani chāhan, we
discussed my experience in Japan in a friendly atmosphere ofa restaurant in Hamamatsu-chō.
After the lunch, Ms. Kuwayama
gave me a three-volume manga
series Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni,
which I perceive as a token of Ms.
Kuwayama´s warm-heartedness
and kindness and I am deeply
thankful for this beautiful present.

114

I departed from Narita next day, on
the 21st of February with my luggage stuffed with books, and myhead stuffed with impressions andgood memories. Although, for thesake of a prolonged disease, I did
not manage to achieve everything
I had initially planned, the overall
experience of my stay in Japanwas very important for me on many
levels. First of all, I managed to go
through most of the important materials I needed to scrutinize for myresearch, which would be impossible with my busy schedule here
in Prague. Second, I was given
the privilege to focus almost entirely on the structure and content
of my dissertation, and to take amore detached view. Third, being
continuously exposed to the Japanese environment on a daily basis,
many times I found myself realizingthat what I observed here was toa certain extent what I had read in
Watsuji´s works before. Such a recognition cast a new and fresh lighton my general insight into the entire
problem of ethics and space-timeand hopefully provided me with anability to see different angles of myresearch topic.
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to express
my sincere gratitude to the Tōshiba
International Foundation for giving me the opportunity to accom-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

plish my research in Japan and forthe generous funding I obtained.
In particular, I would like to thankTōshiba International Foundation’s
President Ōmori Keisuke, and Ms.
Kuwayama Mariko, for supportingme from the tough beginnings in
Tōkyō during the whole period of
my study stay. I would especiallylike to thank Ms. Kuwayama forher friendly and compassionate attitude and for lending me a helping
hand when I needed it most. Ms.
Kuwayama has kept in touch evenafter my return to the Czech Republic, and I hope we will have another chance to meet, either in Japan or in Europe. I am also gratefulto the European Association forJapanese Studies for supporting
my application for the Toshiba International Foundation Scholarship and smooth communication
regarding formal requirements before, during and after my stay. Last
but not least, I am thankful to mysupervisor doc. Ing. Jan Sýkora,
M.A., Ph.D. for encouraging me toapply for the Tōshiba International
Foundation Fellowship.

Report by Lewis Bremner, University of Oxford
Magic Lanterns in Japan: The
Making of a Public Communication Technology, from the Late
Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century
Project Outline
My research looks at the history of
the magic lantern in Japan, examining its development as a public
communication technology fromthe late eighteenth to the earlytwentieth century. In plain technicalterms, the magic lantern is a relatively simple apparatus which enables pictures to be projected fromglass slides onto a screen using aboxed light source, a mirror, andcarefully aligned lenses. Yet, what
it made possible for the Japaneseof this period was the creation ofunique enclosed worlds in which
the attention of large audiences
could be focused on particularmessages, ideas, and images. Thisis a topic which has received very
little attention from historians, partly because there has been a tendency to view the magic lantern as
merely one minor artefact amongst
a deluge of Western commodities
flowing into Japan during this period. However, my research argues
not only that the usage of the magic
lantern had an especially signifi115

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

cant social and cultural impact inJapan, but also that the scope andmanner of this impact was chiefly
determined by the Japanese themselves.
In comparative research prior to mytrip to Japan, I explored the historyof magic lanterns in other Asian
countries, and found none whichdeveloped or utilised the technology to anywhere near the same
extent that the Japanese did in thenineteenth century. The device was
not recorded in China until the mid1890s, for example, nor did it reach
Korea, Malaysia, or Taiwan until
the same decade. In most countries that I looked at, the period between the introduction of the magic
lantern and the establishment ofcinema was so brief that the former
technology barely made a mark.
Moreover, there are extremely few
examples of magic lantern production or usage among local populations. Instead, it was often Westernmissionaries, or occasionally, in thecases of Taiwan and Korea, Japanese colonialists who imported
and utilised the device. The only
instance of a local population using and innovating with magic lantern technology in this period on alevel even slightly comparable withJapan was in India, where a formof magic lantern show known asshambarik kharolika gained considerable and lasting popularity be116

ginning in the 1890s. Yet, the first
appearance of the device in India
was around 1880, a full century after the Japanese began using it.
To explain why the history of themagic lantern in Japan is so much
more extensive and varied thanelsewhere in Asia, a fundamental shift in approach is necessary.
Rather than viewing the magic lantern as simply another instance ofWestern influence on Japan, my
research looks at the influence ofJapan on the magic lantern. Why
did certain people in Japan want toobtain the device, who were thosepeople, and what were their aims
for its application? What were thefactors within Japanese society
which brought about its early introduction into the country, and whichfacilitated or shaped its subsequentdevelopment in the country?
Archival Research
I wrote in the original project outline which I submitted to the EAJS
that I was interested in the ways inwhich the spectacle of magic lantern shows was “underpinned byinnovations made by Japanesemanufacturers [and] exploited by
Japanese educators, entertainers,
religious groups, politicians, labour
activists, and many others.” My
time in the archives here in Japanhas predominantly been spent try-EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

ing to uncover new information
about these overlooked Japanese
men and women, to understandfirst of all their motivations for using the magic lantern, and secondly how those motivations might beconnected both to changes in thetechnology over time and to the impact that it had on audiences andsociety at large. Some of the mostsubstantial written sources which I
have collected or consulted so far
include:• The papers of Tejima Seiichi, agovernment official in the Meiji era
who was not only a prominent advocate of the utilisation of the magic lantern for educational purposes,
but also responsible for introducing
to Japan in the mid-1870s a model
which could show photographic
slides. (Earlier models could show
only painted or engraved slides.)• The published books of Kitensai
Shōichi, a showman and magician
who was one of the earliest popular adopters of the new model ofmagic lantern introduced by Tejima
Seiichi. Alongside Kitensai’s own
writings, newspapers sources havealso helped me to flesh out the details of this little-known performer’s
involvement with the magic lantern.
His well-attended events, which hestaged across Japan, could last up
to seven hours, and involved not
only spectral illusions and conjur-

ing tricks using the magic lantern,
but also what were described as“civilisation spectacles” – partsof the show in which illustrative
slides were used to convey to theaudience the progress being madeacross Japan in disease prevention, political reform, urban planning, and so forth.
• Narration booklets and relatedmaterials from some of the mostwidely seen magic lanterns campaigns of the Meiji era. Many ofthese campaigns were organised
and run by state officials, and comprised of instructive lessons on
matters such as hygiene, morals,
or developments in agriculture andtechnology. In addition, though,I have also been able to study asignificant number of sources from
campaigns which were directed byprivate organisations or individuals,
particularly those which used magic lantern events to raise funds forthe victims of natural disasters or
for war relief during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars.
• The public and private writingsof Ishiguro Tadanori, the Surgeon
General of the Japanese Army,
whose nationwide promotional
magic lantern tour in the early
1890s was a major factor in thegrowth of the Japanese Red Cross
Society. The surviving material
from this campaign includes not
117

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

only narration booklets and scripts
but also replicas the original magic
lantern slides.
• The works of Nagaoka Tsuruzō, asocialist and union organiser who
in 1903, influenced by other leftwing activists such as Katayama
Sen and Nishikawa Mitsujirō, began the magic lantern to communicate his ideas to largely illiterateaudiences of labourers. Until 1907,
he was chiefly based at the Ashio
Copper Mine. The magic lantern
lectures which he presented during
this time, despite often taking place
within the limited confines of themineworker’s dormitories, attracted
huge crowds and may have contributed significantly the growth ofthe labour movement at Ashio.
• Magic lantern manuals and handbooks published by Toraku Ikeda,
a notable producer of magic lanterns and magic lantern slides in
the nineteenth and early twentiethcentury. Toraku’s business wasstarted by his father, Toraku Miyakoya, who first began manufacturing magic lanterns in 1804, making
it almost certainly the longest continuous producer of magic lanterns
in Japan.
As well as the sources listed above,
there are three other groups of material which have been a significant
part of my research in Japan.
1181) I have sought out the very earliest references to the device inJapan across a wide range of written sources, most of which wereaccessed in the National Diet Library either as physical resources
or on microfilm. These include local guidebooks, such as Hamamatsu Utakuni’s Settsuyō kikan(“Wonders of Settsu Province”);
foreign-word dictionaries such as
Morishima Chūryō’s Bango-sen(“Language of the Barbarians”);
books of magic tricks, such as
Hirase Tessai’s Tengutsū (“TheGoblin’s Nose”); satirical social
commentaries such as Jippensha Ikku’s Oranda kage-e otsuriki(“Dutch Shadow Pictures: What
Fun!”) and Koikawa Harumachi’s
Muda iki (“Useless Records”); andstudies of Western culture such as
Sugita Genpaku’s Rangaku kotohajime (“The Beginnings of Dutch
Studies”) and Ōtsuki Gentaku’s
Ransetsu benwaku (“Misunderstandings About The Dutch”).
2) The main sources which I haveturned to for descriptions of audience experiences at magic lanternshows have been contemporary
newspapers and magazines. In addition, though, many writers whogrew up in the Meiji era, such as
Terada Torahiko, Kimura Shōshū,and Oka Onitarō, would later recall their childhood experiences of

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017attending magic lanterns shows,
depicting an atmosphere of excitement, surprise, and sensorial
immersion among the often-enormous gatherings at these events.
3) Finally, I have also located,viewed, and copied sets of themagic lantern slides themselves.
Waseda University’s Tsubouchi
Memorial Theatre Museum has
perhaps the largest collections ofJapanese glass slides, numberingover 3,000, as well as a collectionof magic lantern projectors. Elsewhere, I have also managed to view
physical slides from the Tokugawa
and Meiji eras in the collections of
the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of
Photography and the National Museum of Science and Nature. I had
originally planned a trip to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History
in Kobe, but was able to secure
digital copies of the slides which I
had hoped to view, and so was able
to instead spend that time fruitfullyin Tokyo. This change in schedulealso allowed me the time to make aquick visit in early March to the Yokohama Archives of History, which
also has a small collection of magic
lantern slides from the Meiji period,
most of them intended as souvenirs for foreign visitors and tourists.
The amount of transcribed, copied,photographed, and scanned material which I have accumulated isalready considerable, with much
more to be added to the pile over
my remaining weeks in Japan. Thisis, therefore, only the beginningof a long process of translation,
analysis, and writing-up, and as aresult I am hesitant to pronounce
any firm findings or conclusions at
this stage. Nonetheless, I can saythat these few months have been
more productive and rewarding
than I could have hoped, not least
because of the kindness and gracious assistance which I have encountered so often during my visit.
Acknowledgements
My profound gratitude goes to the
Toshiba International Foundation
for their generosity in making thisresearch possible. In particular, I
would like to thank Ms. Kuwayama
Mariko and Mr. Ōmori Keisuke forwelcoming me to Japan and fortheir support throughout my time
here. Ms. Kuwayama was able toarrange a visit to the Toshiba Science Museum, and I extend mythanks to its Deputy General Manager, Mr. Taniguchi Toshiyuki, for awonderful tour.
At the European Association forJapanese Studies, my deepest
thanks go to Mr. Tim Herbort, who
first gave me information and guidance on the TIFO Fellowship when
I contacted him way back in the119EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

spring of 2015, and to his successor Lorenz Denninger, as well as
to Professor Verena BlechingerTalcott. Their tremendous support
at every stage has been invaluable.
I would also like to express mygratefulness to Professor Shitaro
Shinichi at Meiji Univeristy and to
his wife Chizuko for their generous welcome and abundance offriendly advice while I have beenin Tokyo. Lastly, I must extend myappreciation to my supervisor, Professor Sho Konishi, for his patienceand constant support.

Report by Sigfrid Östberg, University of Oxford
Diplomatic praxis and culture
in Japanese–Korean relations,
1811–1876
My current thesis project is concerned with diplomatic praxis anddiplomatic culture in nineteenthcentury Japanese–Korean relations. I aim to trace both continuities and changes in the relations
between the two countries fromthe perspective of diplomats engaged in direct negotiations on thefrontier. By moving the focus fromthe capitals and centres, I hope toenrich the common narrative thatemphasises decline in the first halfof the century, instead framing it asa period of innovative reconfiguration, thus shedding light on the options available and the many choices made. In extension, I am asking
what working-level diplomacy inEast Asia consisted of and what it
meant to those who practised it.
The traditional historiography ofearly-modern Japanese–Korean
relations, often mirroring that ofearly-modern Japan and Korea ingeneral, generally follows a narrative of recovery and consolidationin the first half of the seventeenth
century, an apogean period of richcultural exchange and flourishingtrade towards the end of the sev-

120

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017enteenth century and in the early
the eighteenth century, and gradualdecline into the nineteenth century,
culminating in the breakdown of diplomacy in the Taewŏn’gun years
and finally in the Kanghwa Island
Treaty of 1876, foreshadowing
Japanese imperial domination of
Korea.
With such a narrative in mind, theearly and mid-nineteenth century
naturally appears as little more thana transitional period that transports
us from the heyday of Japanese–
Korean exchange to the emergence of Japanese expansionism.
Yet, this narrative prompts two important questions. Firstly, how can
we explain the historical changethat so fundamentally turned on its
head the amicable relations of theearly eighteenth century? Indeed,
the congenial atmosphere that surrounded the 1811 embassy stands
in sharp contrast with the rise of
the seikanron during the early Meiji
period. Secondly, does this emphasis on rupture not obfuscate
the very real circumstances of thepeople living through those times
as they sought to adapt to changing situations without any knowledge of what was to come? The
second question relates especiallyto those living and working in Tongnae County, the Ch’oryang Japan
House, and Tsushima.

There is no doubt that the nineteenth century was transformative,
leaving East Asia profoundly different, but what was the nature ofthose changes? The periodisationthat separates the pre-modern fromthe modern—even when leaving
out the perennial problem of how todefine modernity—is helpful insofar as it highlights the manifold andinterlinked changes that did occur,
but a periodisation that juxtaposes‘pre-modern’ against ‘modern’ canbe equally befuddling when it is allowed to stress rupture at the expense of continuity. I approach the
diplomacy of Korean–Japanese relations in the nineteenth century as
a field of innovative reconfigurationof tradition. Innovation and tradition
were not necessarily at odds, andcontinuity was very real even if not
so apparent.
I trace these continuities, changes,
and innovative reconfigurations
over a long period of time, from theend of what may be termed a longeighteenth century to the dawn ofwhat we know as the modern era.
I also move between different levels of diplomatic interaction, fromthe inter-state events that were theCommunication Embassies to theroutine meetings of local officials
and anonymous dealings of smugglers. Throughout, I emphasise therole of individuals as agents of innovation, whose deeds and choic121

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

es explored the limits of what waspossible in their worlds.
Research in JapanI arrived in Tokyo on 15 November, 2016, and took up residence
at a dormitory in Komaba, Meguro
Ward, belonging to the University ofTokyo. This was thanks to the Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia,
University of Tokyo, having granted
me affiliation as a visiting researcher. This has also been very helpful
since it gave me access to libraries
at both the Hongō and the Komaba
campuses. Since I will remain in
Japan until mid-May, this is only aninterim report, but hopefully it will
give some idea of my work.
The bulk of primary sources that I
have consulted whilst in Tokyo areheld by the National Diet Library in
Chiyoda Ward. I did not view the
documents in original since they
are available on microfilm. They areeasily accessible in the Rare Books
and Old Materials Room. The library has made a vast amount of
documents available online, butmany of those I am interested are
missing, so visiting the library inperson was essential. The most important source at the National Diet
Library are the Kanshu nikki館守日記, that is, the diaries kept by theJapan House Masters. These were
meticulously kept throughout the122

Tokugawa period and we have extant volumes until the Meiji period.
The Japan House Master was the
top Japanese official supervising
activities at the Ch’oryang Japan
House, including diplomatic ceremony, trade, and preserving order. The diary is invaluable as a resource for understanding daily lifeat the Japan House, a space thatexisted between Tongnae County
and Tsushima Domain. It is especially precious as a source for theJapan House in the mid-nineteenth
century, because that is a period
when one can no longer rely on
official compilations of cases andprecedents, such as the Pyŏllye
chibyo邊例集要 or the Bunrui kijitaikō分類紀事大綱 as they stopped
being updated around that time.
One example of an innovative negotiating tactic that does not seemto appear in other sources is theJapan House Master’s decision in1864 to routinely hinder Korean interpreters from leaving the Japan
House compound as a way to protest incomplete deliveries of rice.
One event that I have looked into isthe ‘Defection Incident’ of 1836. It
is known as such because it started
with a Korean man calling himself
Nam P’ilsŏn asking that the Japan
House take him in and grant him
passage to Japan. The reason, heclaimed, was that he had acquired
information about Korean plans to

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

launch a military attack against Japan. What is interesting about thisevent is how the Japan House andthe Tsushima leadership finally decided to resolve it, and how it demonstrates the semi-independentagency possessed by the various
parties involved as they interactedwith each other. The Japan House
Master exhibited a definite ability tomake decisions on his own as thematter was handled swiftly. Basedon a calculation of risk and return,it was decided that harbouring Nam
P’ilsŏn would carry little merit, also
in the event that the Japan House
turned into a war zone. If so, it wasmore important to appease the Koreans in case the man was lying.
Between the uncertainty of a possible Korean attack and the desire to
maintain the status quo, they choseto garner favour from the Koreanauthorities by handing over Nam.
In the end, he was convicted andexecuted for treason in Korea. At
the same time, Tsushima consistently sought to control information
to keep the bakufu from misunderstanding the situation. The incident was finally concluded when
Tsushima dispatched a new kindof diplomatic mission to Tongnae—
known as the taijōshi体情使—so as
to innovatively fit the affair into theexisting framework of diplomatic intercourse.
I also had the opportunity to visit

the University of Tsukuba Library,where I read the Taiyū nikki対遊
日記 by Neo-Confucian scholar
Takatsu (Higuchi) Shisen (includedin the Tenkarō sōsho天香楼叢書,
vol. 76). The diary details Shisen’s
journey to Tsushima as part of thegroup of receptionary Confucian
scholars who welcomed the Korean embassy of 1811 to that island
domain. This was to become thefinal Communication Embassy toJapan, but to its participants it wasmore of a new start, the beginningof a new chapter of Japanese–Korean high-level diplomacy. Shisen’sdiary reveals aspects of the Japanese preparations for the embassy
not seen elsewhere. Notable, it
details how Koga Seiri’s group—of
which Shisen was part—practised‘brush conversation’ (writing in literary Chinese was the easiest way
for Japanese and Korean scholars
to directly communicate with eachother) on their way to Tsushima. It
shows their efforts to show off thevery best of Japanese learning,whilst they were equally full of respect for Korean scholarship. The
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had seen growing ethnocentrism in East Asia, a developmentthat would have great ramifications,but we also need to acknowledge
the efforts that were made both inJapan and Korea to further better
understanding and mutual respect.

123

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to express mysincere appreciation and thanks to
the Toshiba International Foundation for generously awarding me
this fellowship, thus allowing me tospend time in Tokyo. I am especially grateful to President Ōmori Keisuke and Ms Kuwayama Mariko,with whom I had the pleasure ofmeeting on several occasions andwho always were a great support.
I would also like to thank Mr Taniguchi Toshiyuki who showed us
around the Toshiba Science Museum.
Secondly, I am also grateful to theEuropean Association for JapaneseStudies who supported my application and have been of valuable assistance on many other occasions
as well. I thank Mr Tim Herbort andMr Lorenz Denninger for their email
correspondence and help in organising this research trip.
During my time in Japan I havealso received the support and helpof many fellow researchers andfriends. I would like to express special thanks to Prof. Manabe Yūko
who hosted me at the Institute forAdvanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo. I also thank Prof.
Tsuruta Kei at the Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo,
for sharing his expertise on Japa124

nese–Korean interactions in the
Tokugawa period and for introducing the sources available at the Historiographical Institute. My thanks
similarly go to the library staff at
the National Diet Library, the University of Tsukuba Library, and thevarious libraries at the University ofTokyo. Finally, I wish to thank mysupervisor, Dr James Lewis, for his
constant patience and for always
offering wise words of support andguidance.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Toshiba International Foundation Fellowships2017 TIFO Fellows
Application for the 2017 TIFO Fellowships opened on 16 January 2017 andclosed on 15 May 2017. After a careful evaluation of the 23 applications
that the EAJS has received this year, the EAJS Council has selected thefollowing three PhD candidates as recipients of the 2017 TIFO Fellowships:
Eiko Honda (University of Oxford, UK)• Dissertation title: “The Emergence of Anarchist Nature in Modern
Japan: Minakata Kumagusu (1867—1941) and the Politics of Planetary
Knowledge”
Hana Kloutvorova (Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic)• Dissertation title: “Personal deixis in the speech of characters in shojo
manga”
Daniel Wollnik (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)• Dissertation title: “The Ministry of Communications and the developmentof telecommunications in modern Japan (1885-1949)”

125

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

News from our Members
Backhouse, Tony (2016): Using
Japanese synonyms, Cambridge
University Press.
Bytheway,
Simon
James;
Metzler, Mark (2016): Central
banks and gold: How Tokyo,
London and New York shaped
the modern world, Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Garnier, Pierre; Garnier, Ilse(2016): Japon: textes choisis,établis et présentés par Marianne
Simon-Oikawa, Paris: L’herbe qui
tremble.
Godart, G. Clinton (2017):
Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine:
Evolutionary Theory and Religion
in Modern Japan, University of
Hawaii Press.
Hendry, Joy (2016): An anthropological lifetime in Japan, BRILL.
Prof. Dr. Joy Hendry is anhonorary member of the EAJS.
Moretti, Laura (2016): Recasting
the Past: An Early Modern Tales of
Ise for Children, BRILL.
Dr. Laura Moretti is the secretaryof the EAJS.
126

Niehaus, Andreas; Walravens,
Tine (eds.) (2017): Feeding Japan:
The Cultural and Political Issuesof Dependency and Risk, London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Niehaus is the
local organizer of the 2020 EAJSInternational Conference.
Papp, Melinda (2016): Shichigosan: Change and Continuity ofa Family Ritual in Contemporary
Urban Japan, Palgrave Macmillan
US.
Saito, Naomi (2017): Ishibumi: A
memorial to the atomic annihilation of 321 students of Hiroshima
Second Middle School, translated by Yasuko Claremont andRoman
Rosenbaum,
PoplarPublishing CO.
Tinello, Marco (ed.) (2017):
Sekaishi kara mita Ryūkyū shobun[The Ryūkyū shobun seen fromworld history], Ryūkyū sōsho 30,
Ginowan: Yōju shorin.

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

Items Received
Between January 2017 andDecember 2017, the EAJS officereceived the following items.
Please contact the EAJS office inBerlin for further information.
Akademischer
Arbeitskreis
Japan (ed.): Minikomi, vol. 86(2017).
Boardroom (ed.): The Importanceof Leaving A Legacy. 2017.
Eschbach-Szabo,
Viktoria;
Buck-Albulet,
Heidi(ed.):
Kulturwissenschaften und Frauenstudien. Aktuelle Arbeiten undVorträge an der Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften der Universität
Tübingen, vol 2 (2007).

Japanese Centre of International
Theatre Institute (ed.): Theatre
Yearbook 2017. Theatre in japan(2017).
Japanese National Diet Library(ed.): NDL Research Report
No.16. Super-aged Society and
Libraries. From Building “Ikigai“ toSupporting Dementia. 2017.
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo, vols. 118(March2017)
through
121(December 2017).
The Japan Foundation: Kulturprogramm November Dezember
2017.

HakuhoFoundation:
13th
Hakuho Foundation Japanese
Research Fellowship. 2017.
Hōsei daigaku kokusai nihongaku kenkyūjo 法政大学国際日本学研究所 (ed.): Kokusai nihongaku. Dai 14 gō. Kenkyū seika
hōkokusho. 『国際日本学』第１4号.研究成果報告書. 2017.
Japan Association of Translators (JAT): Translator Perspectives
2017.
127

EAJS Bulletin No. 88 | December 2017

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