CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020
What’s in thisissue
WelcomeMessage
Online Summer
Programme
MA inInterdisciplinaryJapaneseStudies
Beyond Japan
Piece of JapanUpcoming
Events

Editor: Oliver Moxham, CJS Project CoordinatorCJS Director: Professor Simon Kaner
Header photo by editor

General Links
Contact Us
Welcome Message

CJS ニュースレターへようこそ！

Welcome to the first July issue of the Centre for Japanese Studies e-Newsletter. This week we are proud topresent the latest fruits of our labour as we emerge from the worst of the COVID lockdown looking forward
and ready for the next academic year. We are delighted to announce the Online Summer Programme inJapanese Cultural Studies which will be launching later this month to supplement our postponed summerschools, as well as two new episodes from our Beyond Japan podcast. Fancy trying your hand at origami? Find
our new MA Origami Canaries in the MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies section. In our Piece of Japan
segment, we celebrate the 109th anniversary of the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation
signed by Japan, the UK, the US and Russia with our theme of nature & wildlife. You can find a message fromCJS Director Professor Simon Kaner on the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
website and hear more from our SISJAC colleagues on their monthly e-bulletin.

Written by Oliver Moxham, CJS Project Coordinator and editor
Editor’s note: Japanese names are given in the Japanese form of family name first i.e.
Matsumoto Mariko

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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020

Online Summer Programme in Japanese Cultural Heritage
The Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East
Anglia and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of JapaneseArts and Cultures are pleased to invite applications for aspecial Online Summer Programme in Japanese CulturalStudies. This programme is offered in place of the Japan
Orientation Summer School (sponsored by the ToshibaInternational Foundation) and the Ishibashi Foundation
Summer Fellowship in Japanese Arts and Heritage(sponsored by the Ishibashi Foundation), postponed fromsummer 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is ourcurrent hope that these two programmes will berescheduled to summer 2021.
The Online Summer Programme in Japanese Cultural Studies will include a guided and interactive
exploration of digital resources available for the field, including the Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
held in Japan from 2014-2018, and an opportunity to engage with the production of a review of the futureof Japanese cultural studies outside Japan, building on an international conference on this theme held inNorwich in 2017. The Academic Director of the Online Summer Programme is Professor Simon Kaner,
Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute and Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at UEA, andthe programme will offer the chance for digital encounters with academics from both organisations. Therewill also be opportunities to engage online with participants from around the world and to join the networkof young specialists who have taken part in the Japan Orientation Summer School and the Ishibashi
Foundation Summer Fellowship in previous years.
For more information, please see the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
website.
MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies

The University of East Anglia together with The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts andCultures are delighted to announce the launch of our new MA programme in Interdisciplinary JapaneseStudies. It’s been an unsettling time for prospective students, but we’ve worked hard to adapt and bring
you an exciting course for September 2020.

2CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020

Administered through UEA’s Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities, home to the Centre for JapaneseStudies, this MA course is a collaboration of Japan specialists from both the University and the Sainsbury
Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Lecturers with academic focus on Japan from several
schools of study at UEA, as well as academic staff of the Sainsbury Institute together have developed aninnovative interdisciplinary curriculum for students who want to know about Japan, its place in the world,
and its transforming cultural identity. For a taste of who will be teaching you and their areas of specialty,
watch our new video on YouTube or follow our new podcast series Beyond Japan for in-depth discussion
with the teaching team.
We hope that this course will help create a new generation of versatile experts on Japan, who are wellequipped to cross geographical, disciplinary, and institutional borders, ready to jump-start their careers inthis exciting field.
Applicants can still apply for 2020 entry with an opportunity of scholarships for outstanding applicants.
Arrival time is also flexible to allow for movement restrictions with students able to arrive as late as midOctober. The final deadline for applications is July 30, 2020.
To promote our new MA, we have a flock of origami canaries decorated with the themes of our programme
and life in Norwich taking flight. You can download the cutouts here, print them out and follow our step-bystep origami guide on YouTube to make your very own canary. Happy folding!

Beyond Japan Episode 3: Japan’s International Relations

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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020

The Centre for Japanese Studies is proud to announce Beyond Japan, a groundbreaking podcast series
exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Japanese Studies and what insights the field provides in otherareas of study. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest episodes, including our last episode on
Modern Japanese Literature with Dr Hannah Osborne.
This week we are joined by Dr Ra Mason, Sasakawa Lecturer in International Relations and JapaneseForeign Policy at the University of East Anglia who will introduce us to the dynamic and nuanced world ofJapan's International Relations. For more on Ra’s research, see his research profile here. If this episode has
given you an appetite for politics and diplomacy, you can join Ra at the cutting edge of Japanese Foreign
Policy on our new MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies. For more information, see uea.ac.uk/cjs.
Piece of Japan

日本のかけら

Each week we share some fresh recommendations from CJS members to help bring apiece of Japan to you at home through film, books, anime, manga and more. Today
marks the 109th anniversary of the signing of the 1911 North Pacific Fur Seal Convention
by the US, UK, Japan and Russia, preventing commercial hunting of seals in the Northern
Pacific, thereby making it the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation.
To celebrate this historic step towards humankind’s recognition of the value inprotecting the natural world, we bring you Japanese cultural artefacts on the theme ofnature & wildlife.
If you have any suggestions for themes or other recommendations, send us an email at cjs@uea.ac.uk.
Editor’s note: English e-books and Japanese e-books on Amazon can largely only be purchased on
amazon.co.uk and amazon.co.jp respectively, meaning that English and Japanese e-books cannot bepurchased on the same Amazon account. You can read in both languages on your computer, but it isnecessary to have two accounts. Furthermore, if you wish to read on a Kindle you must log in with either an
English or Japanese account. Switching accounts on a Kindle will delete any content already stored on thedevice, so choose wisely!
Environmental Archaeology in JapanCJS Director Professor Simon Kaner
Environmental archaeology is a well-established subdiscipline in Japan as well as
elsewhere, and informs the emerging field of Disaster Archaeology – everpertinent as Japan endures in the face of the forces of nature – from floods andearthquakes to the imminent eruption of Sakurajima, which sits on the edge of
one of the largest volcanic calderas in the world, whose previous eruptions havesent massive quantities of debris across the archipelago and surrounding regions,leaving datable traces in the stratigraphy allowing archaeologists to accurately
date the deposits they are excavating. I suggest a visit to the website of the Research Institute for
Humanity and Nature to get a flavour of the huge amount of innovative, international, transdisciplinary research in this area, and perhaps the Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University inSendai. For an overview this book on Multidisciplinary Studies of the Environment and Civilization
makes a good sampler, and Mark Hudson was also involved in the special issue of the Journal of AsianStudies on the Anthropocene.

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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)Film

July 10, 2020

映画のおすすめRecommendations by Dr Rayna Denison
Japan has a long history of documentary, and documentary-style productions.
Amongst these, the films of female documentarian-turned feature filmmakerNaomi Kawase provide great examples of stories that connect humanity and thenatural world. Most obviously, The Mourning Forest (Mogari no mori, 2007)[EN/JP] and Still the Water (Futatsume no mado, 2014) [EN/JP].

Manga and Anime 漫画とアニメのおすすめ
Recommendations by Dr Rayna Denison
Kimba the White Lion (1950-54) by Tezuka Osamu
ジャングル大帝
作者：手塚治Osamu Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion (Jangaru taitei, 195054) is famously (not) one of the major source materials for
The Lion King and follows the adventures of Kimba, jungle
emperor, as he grows up among a colourful cast of animal
characters. Rumour has it Disney appropriated the tale for
The Lion King – Mushi Pro started to contest it as copyright
infringement only for Disney to bury them in lawyers. Chancesare, the American animators on The Lion King could have seen
Kimba when they were kids themselves, because it would
have been shown at some regional syndicates when it was
first made, but nobody has come out and said anything official....
Available in Japanese e-book.
Available to stream in Japanese on Amazon.
Polar Bear’s Café (2005-13) by Higa Aloha
しろくまカフェ作者：ヒガアロハ
For something soothing this summer, you might try Polar Bear's Cafe(Shirokuma Kafe 2005-13), which follows a heavily anthropomorphisedgroup of "wild" animals as they go about their daily lives in Tokyo running a cafe, looking for love, or doing part-time work at Ueno Zoo.
Available in Japanese e-book.
Available to stream in Japanese.

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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)Books

July 10, 2020

本のおすすめRecommendations by Hannah Osborne, Lecturer of Japanese Literature at UEA
Nature in Literature
Nature has always figured significantly in Japanese literature. For instance, in the Man’yoshu(translated by Iain Hideo Levy as The Ten Thousand Leaves) the natural world often mirrors theemotional world of the poet; in Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), Genji’s feelings are animated byhis natural surroundings and the activities of wildlife; and in Noh plays, such as Matsu Kaze (PiningWind) or Yamamba (The Mountain Witch) the natural world is an ancient and divine realm which
manifests itself in various forms through shamanistic dances, enabling audiences a collective
emotional catharsis.
In modern Japanese literature writers have appropriated these tropes to represent
their own set of concerns. For instance, in Izumi Kyōka’s Koya Hijiri (The Holy Manof Mount Kōya, 1900) the male protagonist travels through the mountains of Japan,
where he encounters fields of snakes, forests that rain leeches, and a strange andbeautiful mountain woman who holds the ability to seduce men and turn them into
animals. For Kyōka, then, nature is a feminised force that threatens the sanity andsafety of modern man. By contrast, in various women’s writing at the beginning of
the twentieth century, nature’s alignment with woman lends it a regenerative anderotic power. This is notable in the waka poetry of Yosano Akiko, and in themodernist short stories, such as Hana wa Tsuyoshi (A Pageant of Flowers) andKingyo Ryoran (A Riot of Goldfish) by Okamoto Kanoko.
After the Second World War, however, Nakagami Kenji, a writer who grew up inShingū, a hisabcape storietsu burakumin (outcaste) district located in the southernpart of the Kii Peninsula, repeatedly sexualises and genders his wild and remoteregion as male. Moreover, he uses it in writing such as the short stories Shugen (TheMountain Ascetic) and Fushi (The Immortal), as a metaphor for the way in which theoutcaste community in Japan has been marginalised from mainstream history andliterature.
Even more recently, in the aftermath of the 3:11 disaster, wild animals havebecome the narrators of stories in novels such as Hideo Furukawa’s Horses, Horses,
in the End the Light Remains Pure, and Tawada Yoko’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear.
Such narratives allow us as readers to reconsider humanity’s climate crimes fromthe perspective of those most vulnerable and least able to influence change.

Recommendations by the National Institute of Japanese Literature
Director-general Robert Campbell of the NIJL (国文研) has announced that they will be releasing manyof their premodern texts on infectious diseases in response to the pandemic. These will be available
for free on their homepage at www.nijl.ac.jp with regular updates on the latest texts to be released.
You can watch Robert explain the move in both English and Japanese on YouTube.

6CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)Upcoming Events & Opportunites

July 10, 2020

催し物

Masterclass: Develop a Manga Storyboard with Kubo Kiriko
Japan House
Monday 15 July
11am-12:15pm
Free to attend, booking essential
Japan House London is delighted to dive deeper into theexploration of manga by inviting aspiring artists andillustrators to the first of three special online masterclasses
led by internationally renowned manga-ka Kubo Kiriko.
In this first masterclass focussing on creating a storyboard,
participants are guided through the creative process of a professional manga-ka. Kubo Kiriko explains
how to create a simple one-page story, from preparing a script to dividing the drawing space intoframes and sketching a panel.
The masterclass includes a drawing demonstration with the artist herself at work, which participants
can decide to follow along or simply watch depending on their level of experience. Participants arealso encouraged to engage with the artist by asking for tips and suggestions during the session.
Please note that, while no previous experience with manga is required, it is advised that this event
series is for participants aged 16 and over.
Make a HIROCOLEDGE Tenugui Face Covering:
Online Demonstration with Takahashi Hiroko
Japan House
Monday 27 July
11am-12pm
Free to attend, booking essential
Learn how to make your own washable pleated face coveringfrom tenugui (simply woven cotton Japanese hand towels) inthis live online event led by Takahashi Hiroko, contemporary
textile artist and founder of design brand HIROCOLEDGE.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Takahashi has made a range of face coverings from tenugui
helping wearers reduce the risk of spreading the virus. These reusable and washable face garments
dyed with Takahashi’s signature bold geometric patterns, save on the cost and waste that more

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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020

common disposable face masks would usually incur, while also transforming face coverings into
fashionable accessories.
This event accompanies the downloadable worksheet ‘Make a HIROCOLEDGE Tenugui Face Coveringin 7 Steps’. While following the live instructions from Takahashi Hiroko, participants are welcome tojoin in by making their own face covering. All materials required are listed in the worksheet.

日本にて新型コロナウィルスの情報

COVID News from JapanFor a running number of reported COVID19 infections, victims and recoveries in Japan, see theAsahi Shimbun homepage [JP].
For non-Japanese speakers, the numbers indicate:Nationwide infections: Yesterday (total) Deaths: Yesterday (total) Recoveries: Yesterday (total)
国内の感染者：＋前日（総数）

死者：＋前日（総数） 退院者：＋前日（総数）Visit the Pandaid website for comprehensive material for educating on coronavirus. Nosigner has contributed
many such manner posters including advising others to stay one tuna apart.
For a Japanese government public service video on coronavirus (Japanese only):
3 つの密を避けよう！
For Japanese speakers, here are two articles in English from the Japan Times laying out vocabulary coming
out of the crisis:••The Japanese words used to encourage self-restraint
Cancellations, postponements, suspensions — words that define the times

Click here for a comprehensive online document on Japanese universities adopting distance learning.
For more information on Japanese universities see this twitter thread by Rochelle Kopp, professor at
Kitakyushu University, for resources.
General Links

お役立ちリンク

Orientations Magazine
Embassy of Japan
Japan Foundation
JSPS
British Association for Japanese Studies
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Japan Society
EU-Japan Centre
Canon Foundation
Applications for JET Programme
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CJS e-Newsletter July 2020 1(2)July 10, 2020

Japanese Language Proficiency ExamUEA Japan Society: ueajapansociety@gmail.com
Taiko Centre EastCareer Forumsお問い合わせContact Us
If you have any contributions for the next e-newsletter,
please send them to us by 12:00 Wednesday 22 July to make the next issue.

The CJS office is located in the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (the mezzanine floor), although the office
is temporarily closed as per university guidelines. You can always email us at cjs@uea.ac.uk.
To keep up with goings-on at CJS, follow us on social media:

Or visit our website: uea.ac.uk/cjs

Left: CJS Director Professor Simon Kaner
Right: Editor and CJS Project Coordinator Oliver Moxham
If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please email cjs@uea.ac.uk

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