J CURRENT

Quarterly Newsletter of the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Winter 2006 Vol. 9 No. 1

Contents
1

Feature Stories

2

Recent Events

3

Faculty News

4

Student News5CJS Seminar

6

From the Library

7

The Tea Center

MAN’YŌSHŪ EXHIBIT CELEBRATED AT UH(CJS), who explored broad historicalissues surrounding the Man’yōshū.
The ceremony ended with the Suzuki’s providing a guided tour of theirartwork in the Hamilton Library
Gallery.

Yasumasa Suzuki’sさお鹿(Stag)

J-Current reports on the achievements
and activities of UHM Japanese Studies
faculty and students as well as Japanrelated events, research, scholarships
and overseas programs. Submission
deadline for the next issue is April 14,
2006. Please send to:
J-Current Editor
Center for Japanese Studies
1890 East-West Road, Moore 216
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Honolulu, HI 96822
E-mail: cjs@hawaii.edu
Tel: (808) 956-2667
Fax: (808) 956-2666
Web: www.hawaii.edu/cjs

Copyright © 2006 Center for Japanese Studies.
All rights reserved.
An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action
Institution

This spring, the Center for JapaneseStudies, along with the University of
Hawai‘i at Manoa Library, theConsulate-General of Japan in
Honolulu, and supported by the Center
for Korean Studies, hosted an exhibitof artwork inspired by the Man’yōshū(The Collection of 10,000 Leaves), one
of Japan’s earliest works of literature.
The artwork, on display at Hamilton
Library Gallery from March 3 throughMarch 20, was created by the celebrated
artists, Yasumasa and Seiran Suzuki.
They have reinterpreted Man’yōshū
poems, creating a vast collection of bold
and modern Japanese-style artwork thatbring the poems to life. In addition to
the gallery showing of their paintingsand pottery, the Suzukis were honored at
an opening reception on March 3, 2006.
The opening ceremony featured lectures
by Dr. Alexander Vovin (EALL) on
Korean origins of some texts within
the Man’yōshū, and Dr. Robert Huey

Seiran Suzuki’s 風のゆくえ(Where the Wind Goes)

The broader East Asian influences on
the Suzuki’s work with the Man’yōshū
have also been celebrated in exhibitions in Korea, China and at the United
Nations Center in New York. Theirexhibit at the University of Hawai‘i isthe first exhibition of their work in thestate. In conjunction with the Suzuki’s
exhibition, CJS sponsored a seminar on
the Man’yōshū, led by Dr. Vovin. See
page 5 for more details.

Yasumasa and Seiran Suzuki at the reception

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JCURRENT
SHAPS SAYS “ALOHA” TO DEAN
PORTER
An evening filled with song, dancemarked a going away party for SHAPSInterim Dean, Dr. Ed Porter. Many
members of the SHAPS family turned out
for the event, which featured a musicalperformance by
Dr. Jon Osoriofrom the Center for Hawaiian
Studies. Dr. Porter has been withSHAPS since its
inception in 1988,
and has served as
Dr. Porter says farewell

the interim dean since
fall 2002, and his tireless devotion to all of
the centers and programs within SHAPS
has been of benefit to
us all.
Leaving SHAPS,
Ms. Myra Yamamoto, Dr. Ed Porter, Ms. Joyce
Dr. Porter, along with
Morikuniand Ms. Julie Fujimoto at the Dean’s
his wife and two of his
farewell.
three sons, will move to
Beppu, Japan, where hehis family all the best as they open
will be a full professor and institutethis new chapter in their lives.
director at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific
University. We wish Dr. Porter andRecent Events
ASIA PACIFIC LECTURE
SERIES CONTINUESThe Asia Pacific Lecture seriesc o n t i n u e d t h i s s e m e s t e r a s D r.
Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, of the
University of the South Pacific, gave apresentation entitled “Global
Capital and Local Ownership in the
SolomonIslandFore s t r y I n d u s t r y. ” T h i s t a l kprovided a rich discussion of theinteraction between the global andthe local, examining natural resource
development in the Solomon Islands
forest industry. He argued that the
local is more than just a passive victimof global forces, rather the local actively
engages in interrogating, negotiating andadopting global forms and processes
to meet the local needs. Because ofcommunal ownership of resources atthe local level, the communities have,in their power, the potential to playa key role vis-a-vis globalization.

THE ACITVE AGING IN ASIA
PACIFIC CONFERENCE
The aging populations of Asian andPacific countries were the central themeat the Active Aging in Asia PacificConference, held February 26-28, 2006 at
the Imin Center. This conference
covered political, economic andsociological issues related to aging,and in particular those concerning
eldercare and concrete ways toenrich the lives and decrease the social
burden of rapidly expanding aging
populations. Panels featured speakers
from China, Korea, Japan, andHawai‘i; panelists discussed theimpact of aging in their respective
countries, and how governmental
and non-governmental organizations were working to improve aging
communities. The conference beganwith a discussion on the regional
context in which aging is occurringand then moved on to discussions
on how to promote active aging.
Topics included volunteerism, careenvironments, and healthy/productive aging. The second day of theconference included site visits to retirement communities and nursing homes
in Hawai‘i. The Center for JapaneseStudies was a member of the organizing
consortium headed by the UH Centeron Aging and was also a co-sponsor.

3Winter 2006

JCURRENTSYMPOSIUM AT THE
HONOLULU FESTIVAL

UPDATESVISITING SCHOLAR MASANORINAKAHODO RETURNS TO JAPAN

Professor Mark Levin (Associate
Professor of Law) gave a series of talks
at a number of universities in Japan,
including Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Ryukyu
and Kumamoto Universities while he wasthere on sabbatical conducting research.
He was also a panelist at a national
symposium on legal translation in Tokyo.
Dr. Christine Yano (Associate Professorof Anthropology) is publishing a book,due out in June, entitled Crowning theNice Girl: Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture
in Hawai‘i ’s Cherry Blossom Festival.
from The University of Hawai‘i Press.
She also presented three invited lectureson the mainland, including “Japan’s Pink
Globalization: From Fluff to Flat and All
Things In-between,” at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Masanori Nakahodo of the University of the
Ryūkyūs came to Hawai‘i to compile a database ofclasses (EALL 471&472). He gave guest lectures,
all the Ryūka (traditional Okinawan song andand advice on course content. He was an
poetry) written by first and second generation
insightful discussant for the CJS graduate
Uchinaanchu (Okinawans) since the arrival of
student seminar on Okinawan identity in Spring of
Uchinaanchu as contract workers in 1900. His
2005. In addition, he presented his own researchresearch also led him to contact thein March of this year (see Seminar
two major Ryūka associations inPage).
Hawai‘i and interview their members
Professor Nakahodo has also
on numerous occasions.
supported the Uchinaanchu
In addition to conducting his own(Okinawan) club, given numerous
research, while a visiting scholar,
guest lectures to the Gajumaru-kai
Professor Nakahodo contributed(a local Okinawan association) andgreatly to the promotion of Okinawan
the Okinawan Genealogy Society.
studies here at the University of
His collection of research materials
Hawai‘i by helping Dr. Kyoko Hihas also helped lead to the making
jirida and Dr. Leon Serafim withof an Okinawan Studies Library
Dr. Nakaohdo
the Okinawan Language and Culturecollection at the East-West Center.
prepares a lecture(Kyle Ikeda)

Faculty News

“Who is Ranald MacDonald?” was the central themeof a panel discussion at the Honolulu Festival on
Saturday, March 11, 2006, co-sponsored by theJapan America Society of Hawaii (JASH). The
panel, moderated by Dr. Robert Huey (Director, CJS, Professor, EALL), focused on the lifeof Ranald MacDonald, the first American to visit
Japan during the time it was closed to foreigners.
Ranald MacDonald was in Japan from 1848-1849,
a few years before Commodore Perry’s arrival in1852. The panelists included Mr. Frederik Schodt,
author of a work on Ranald MacDonald entitled“Native American in the Land of the Shogun,”Ms. Yumiko Kawamoto, a member of theHistorical Society of Western Learning and Historical
Society of English Studies of Japan, and Mr. DwightDamon, an ancestor of Rev. Samuel Chenery
Damon, whose newspaper published anarticle on Ranald MacDonald in 1848 as heentered Japan. This was the first time CJS
has collaborated with JASH on the Honolulu Festival.

Dr. Alexander Vovin (Professor of
East Asian Language and Literature)
recently published a book, entitled, A
Descriptive and Comparative Grammar ofWestern Old Japanese. Part 1:
Phonology, Script, Lexicon, and Nominals.
from Global Oriental (UK) and distributedby UH Press domestically.

42006 Winter

JCURRENT
Mr. Kyle Ikeda, Mr. Shinji Kojima, Ms. Rinda Yamashiro, Dr. Joyce Chinen and Ms. Chihiro Komine (left to right) at the Graduate

Student NewsCJS GRADUATE STUDENT SEMINAR SERIESThe Graduate Student Seminar Series continued this semester with a panel presentation and discussion on Okinawa, entitled “Legacies of War: Occupation Propaganda, War Memory, and Anti-Base Struggles in Okinawa.” The panel featured four graduate student
presenters. Ms. Chihiro Komine (Ph.D. student, American Studies), discussed how the U.S. Occupation of Okinawa was justified
in a U.S. administration propaganda magazine through the seemingly contradictory purposes of showcasing American democracy
and U.S. military expansion in a foreign land. Mr. Shinji Kojima (Ph.D. student, Sociology) spoke about the change in publicly
articulated war memory on the Battle of Okinawa and analyzes the implications of such change in the context of the reversion
movement of the 1960s. Mr. Kyle Ikeda (Ph.D. student, EALL), analyzed the various ways the Okinawan short story “Suiteki”(Droplets, 1997), in its representation of suppressed and un-narrated war trauma, reveals and alludes to the limitations of publicknowledge about the Battle of Okinawa gained through conventional war narratives and articulated memory, Ms. Rinda Yamashiro(M.A. student, Sociology), who examined the emergence of women’s anti-military groups in Okinawa and their involvement against
constructing a new US military facility within Henoko of Nago city in the northern part of Okinawa. The panel was moderated by
Dr. Joyce Chinen (Associate Professor, Sociology, UH-West Oahu).

PRESENTATIONSSarah McClimon (M.A. student, Ethnomusicology) gave a kotorecital in December at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts
and Music (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku) while on a Japanese
Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Culture(Monbukagakusho) scholarship.
Jane Yamashiro (Ph.D. student, Sociology) recently attended
the Japanese Studies Graduate Summer School, held as partof Asia-Pacific Week at the Australian National University in
Canberra, Australia. Her presentation was entitled “Americans
become ‘Nikkeijin’ but Brazilians don’t: A Comparative Analysisof “return migration” to Japan.”

SSRC WORKSHOP
Ryoko Yamamoto (Ph.D. student, Sociology) and Hirofumi
Katsuno (Ph.D. student, Anthropology) attended the Social
Science Research Council Japan Studies Dissertation Workshop
from December 14 to 18, 2005.

GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
February 2006 Competition
Waka Tominaga (Ph.D. student, EALL) will present her
paper “Can a grass-roots bilingual program elicit socialchange?: An ethnographic study of first grade English
immersion classrooms in Japan” at the Joint Conference of
the American Association for Applied Linguistics and theCanadian Association of Applied Linguistics, June 17-20,
2006 in Montreal, Canada.
Tad Wellman (Ph.D. student, EALL) will present his paper“The Story of the She-Devil Takahashi Oden: Towards a
Theory of Early Meiji Popular Narrative” at the SixthAnnual Graduate Student Conference: “Tales Told Twice:
Imitation and Transgression” at the Department of East
Asian Studies, University of Toronto on March 11, 2006.

DEADLINESCJS Graduate Student Travel Grant
May 1, 2005
Please note that submission guidelines have recently changed.
For more information, visit www.hawaii.edu/cjs/funding.
html.

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Winter 2006

JCURRENTCJS Seminar Series
RESEARCH AND PUBLISHING ON PREMODERN JAPANIn a seminar entitled “Research and Publishing on
Premodern Japan,” Dr. Wayne
Farris discussed with students
and faculty his demographicbased research into premodern
Japan. His talk focused on someof the materials he used to makeestimates of population and social
structure, given the lack of concrete records. During the second
half of the talk, he described how
publishing, and the audience forDr. Wayne Farris
books on Japan, have changed. He
used his personal experiences withseveral different university publishers to explain how
risky academic publishing can be for publishers.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN JAPANESE POLITICS?
Over the past few years, the Center for Japanese Studies
has been fortunate to have hosted
a number of stimulating presentations by Mr. Yukio Matsuyama, aformer editor of the Asahi Shinbun,and his talk, “What is happening inJapanese Politics” did not disappoint.
Mr. Matsuyama’s talk covered many
areas of both politics and society. He
discussed the debate over the possibility of female ascendency to theimperial throne, noting that with thepregnancy of Princess Kiko, that debate Mr. Yukio Matsuyama
will be put on hold until the gender ofher child is known.

TEXTS IN OLD JAPANESE: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: MAN’YōSHŪ SYMPOSIUM
In conjunction with the Man’yōshū
exhibit (cover page), Dr. Alexander
Vovin and three of his graduate
students presented research on ancientJapanese and the Man’yōshū. Mr.
William Matsuda (Ph.D. student,EALL) presented on Buddhism in the
Man’yōshū, Mr. John Kupchik (Ph.D.
Mr. Matthew McNicoll, Dr. Bob Huey, Dr. Alexander Vovin, Mr. William Matsuda,
student, Linguistics) explored regionaland Mr. John Kupchik (from left to right)
dialect issues in the text, andMr. Matthew McNicoll (Ph.D. student,EALL) discussed the significance of an ancient suffix in Western old Japanese. Dr. Vovin presented on the geographic ofigins ofterms and concepts in a specific Man’yōshū poem. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion among the presenters
and audience about the foundations of modern and ancient Japanese.

RYŪKA IN HAWAI‘I - SEMINAR AND PERFORMANCE
Visiting scholar Masanori Nakahodo, along with Mr. Takenobu Higa, gave apresentation on ryūka in Hawai‘i. Professor Nakahodo set the stage with a backgrounddescription on this traditional Ryūkyūan song, both in Okinawa and in Hawai‘i, before
introducing the person most associated wtih ryūka in Hawai‘i, Mr. Takenobu Higa. Mr
Higa, age 92, and the author of several books on Okinawan culture and Okinawans in
Hawai‘i, discussed the two ryūka organizations he founded, Hawai‘i Ryūka Kai and
Mr. Takenobu Higa, Dr. Huey and Dr. the Honryu Hawai‘i Ryūka Kai. The seminar was trilingual, with portions of theMasanori Nakahodo
presentation and discussion conducted in English, Japanese, and Uchinaaguchi(Okinawan). Mr. Higa was also joined by an audience member in a performanceof ryūka.

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From the Library
NEW DATABASES AVAILABLE AT HAMILTON LIBRARY

Two new databases are now available from the
Library. One is the Shōwa no Yomiuri Shinbun. Finding
relevant newspaper articles is not an easy task because
many Japanese newspapers lack sufficient indexes.
This database provides an alternate means for users
to find newspaper articles on the Yomiuri Shinbun
from 1925 to 1960. Just a simple keyword such as“Hawaii” in Japanese showed over 1,700 articles
between 1946 and 1960. The database provides afull image of the actual newspaper that contains yourkeyword. To learn more about this database, pleasecome to the PC #3 on the Asia Collection Reading
Room on the 4th Floor, or use the CJS computerat the Scholar’s Workstation next to the Science &Technology Reference Desk.
The other online database is called “The Japan
Knowledge.” It can be accessed from anywhere.
This multi-purpose database provides dictionaries,
encyclopedias (Nihon dai hyakka zensho), Jōhō
chishiki imida, Gendai yōgo no kiso chishiki, Kodansha
Encyclopedia of Japan, and more. The “One Search”
feature allows you to search among all the dictionaries
and encyclopedias. There are also full texts of the weekly
magazine Ekonomisuto and many volumes of Tōyō
Bunko, interactive Edo, Meiji Tokyo maps, and more. To
access, click on the Library’s Electronic Resources hot link:

Dr. Lonny Carlile and Masashi Shimonao researching at theMicrofilm Reading Room.

<http://micro189.lib3.hawaii.edu/ezproxy/details.
php?dbId=49904>
Last year, the Japan Foundation awarded 99 reels of the
microfilm “Nihon no kaishashi” to the University of
Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library. All the reels safely arrived fromJapan and are now available for your research (microfilm
S11519, S11520, S11523-S11525). (Tokiko Bazzell)

FILMS ADDED TO MĀNOA LIBRARY
Through a grant from the Japan Studies Endowment, the Wong Audio-Visual Library at the Univeristy of Hawai‘i
has added over twenty-five new Japanese films to the library’s holdings. We have provided a link on our website for you to explore some of these titles, which can be found at www.hawaii.edu/cjs/library.html or directly at
www.hawaii.edu/cjs/films. These films, organized by subject on the site, include documentaries, yakuza films,
psychological thrillers, gay/lesbian themes, anime and murder mysteries. These films are a welcome addition to
the already tremendous holdings at the Wong Library. We encourage you to take time to look over these films andothers already in the collection.

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JCURRENT

From the Tea Center
The Tea Center library, featuring
over 250 items--reference materials, videos, books, and guides--hasbeen catalogued. Materials, in both
Japanese and English, include historical works on past Tea Masters aswell as discussion for the beginner
and the veteran by Sen Soshitsu. If
you are interested in viewing thesematerials, please contact the Center
for Japanese Studies.

Dr. Genshitsu Sen paid a visit to
the University of Hawai‘i this pastFebruary. He gave two lectures to the Way Of Tea in Japanese History and Culture (HIST323) course in the History
Department. In addition, Dr. Sen
gave a copy of his new book,“The Enjoyment of Tea” to each
student in the history class, the Tea
Practicum (ASAN 324) and all themembers of the tea club.

If you would like the Center to give demonstrations at local schools,
or to host schools at the UHM campus, please contact Dr. Robert
Huey or Dr. Gay Satsuma at the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Hawai‘i at 808-956-2665 or cjs@hawaii.edu.

UH GATHERINGS IN TOKYOIf you are in Tokyo on the first Monday
of any month, please join in the monthly meetings of the UH community. The
gatherings, held in a variety of restaurants in Shibuya, are informal, usually
over dinner and drinks, and provide an
opportunity to meet with other students
and faculty conducting research andstudying in Japan. For more information, contact Mr. Brian Masshardt(PhD student, Political Science) at
masshard@hawaii.edu.

Dr. Sen’s new book

UPCOMING CONFERENCE ON
EAST ASIAN PRAGMATICSThe University of Hawai’i-Mānoa National
Resource Center East Asia, in conjunction
with the National Foreign Language
Resource Center at the University of Hawai’i,is pleased to announce a forum on teaching and learning pragmatics in the Chinese,
Japanese and Korean in the Foreign Language
classrooms. This conference, organized
by Dr. Dina Yoshimi (Associate Professor,
EALL), will be held at the East-West Centerfrom June 5-7, 2006. More information on
the conference, along with a complete
conference schedule, is available at http://
www.hawaii.edu/nrcea/CJKCallforPapers.
htm.

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Winter 2006

JCURRENTCJS MAILING LIST
If you would like to receive CJS announcements by e-mail, you can become a part of the CJS listserv by e-mailing the Centerat cjs@hawaii.edu with a subject heading of “E-mail Flyer.” In the body of the message, please include your first and last
name and regular (snail mail) contact address. If you prefer to receive the newsletter as hardcopy and flyers by e-mail, pleaseindicate your preferences. If you know someone who would like to be on our mailing list, please let us know.

Center for Japanese Studies
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies
1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 216
Honolulu, HI 96822
USATo: