Informasia #8, August 21, 2023~ Mark Rosa

“The Native Writing of Okinawa’s Further Isles”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/856587683?share=copy

Abstract 

Consider this question: Long before the Ryukyu Kingdom was absorbed into Japan, how did the far-flung islanders communicate? For instance, what was Yonaguni's native
language, and the native "kaida" writing system?

- What do these languages sound like?

- History behind the development of partial writing.

- Coming of Japanese school system in 1885.

- 1910s-1930s writers start commenting that only older people can still write these characters
Also, decifering a short, one-page document discovered in the National Ethnology Museum in Osaka.

Publications
Newly-Discovered Paper Records in Kaida Writing (2010)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27573

Paper Records Containing Okinawan Kaida Characters (2016)
https://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/records/27425

Informasia #2, February 15, 2021 ~ Felicity Greenland

‘Songs of Edo Period Japanese Whaling’

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705549228?share=copy

Abstract

What can Japanese folk songs (民謡 min'yō) tell us about whaling in the Edo period? We will listen to some of the songs and allow their lyrics to illuminate the communities of the time, their working methods, and attitudes to nature in general and whales in particular.

Felicity Greenland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Regional Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan

Informasia #3, March 21, 2021 ~ Penny West

“Letters of an American Tea Merchant & his wife: A Connecticut silk manufacturing family in the early Meiji”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705553522?share=copy

Abstract 

Penny West gives an overview of the lives of her great grandparents Gustavus Farley Jr (1844-99) and Katharine Cheney (1854-1933) through their collected family letters. Gus was in the Tea business and Kitty came from a silk manufacturing family. Tea and silk were two early staple exports from Japan. Though neither Gus nor Kitty are particularly remarkable in themselves, their lives might be of interest as they were there and writing prolifically.

Informasia #4, April 19, 2021 ~ Giulio Bertelli

“A Western Woman Travelling into the Interior of Japan in 1869 - The Travel Journals of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour, Spouse of the First Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy

Abstract

My talk will be centered on the figure and the writings of Mathilde Sallier de La Tour (née Ruinart de Brimont - 1838-1911), who, as the spouse of the first Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan Count Vittorio Sallier de La Tour, followed her husband to Japan, and lived in Yokohama from June 1867 to April 1870. Mathilde was a talented, sensitive and fascinating French noblewoman, and, while observing and trying to unravel the mysteries of Japan and its culture, wrote several private records such as letters, notes and travel journals. Mathilde’s full set of manuscripts (entirely written in French, but recently published with an English translation by Eureka Press / Routledge) consists of five elements.

Informasia #5, May 17, 2021 ~ Patricia Yarrow

“Blown Away: Adrift, Rescue, and Return in 1609 and 1813”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/693793738?share=copy

Abstract

Two castaways left records of great loss on the sea: one a young Japanese coastal commercial boat captain of the early 1800s, the other a nobleman of Spain returning home as the 1600s dawned. Both thought they would soon be home. Instead, their ships met disaster, but they survived. What preparations saw them through? How did they pass their days? What was their reception to their home countries?

This talk, based upon the captain’s diary and the nobleman’s book, will show the similarities and differences in their adventures. What education, world-view, and sense of themselves did they bring to their predicament? Once they initially survived, how did they endure? Thrown into cultures unknown to them, how did they understand people unlike their own? What expectations did they have of their eventual reception from their own sovereigns? What elements of their religious framework did they honour and find helpful? What home reception awaited them?

Patricia Yarrow is an instructor of English, including academic research reading and writing, with Tsuda University, Meiji University, and Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. She is from San Francisco and has lived in Ryogoku, Tokyo, since 2008.

Informasia #6, June 21, 2021 ~ Peter Kornicki

“Translating in the jungle, translating on the beaches, translating at sea: wartime Japanese learners at work"

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710994925?share=copy

Abstract

Prof. Kornicki will give us a talk “relating to my new book, Eavesdropping on the Emperor, which is to bepublished in April. Itconcerns the emergency Japanese programmes which were launched in the USA, UK, Australia, Mauritius and Canada in 1941 and 1942 and how the graduates were used during the war." Information about the book:
https://books.mailshop.co.uk/eavesdropping-on-the-emperor-9781787384729.html

Peter Kornicki is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at the University of Cambridgeand a fellow of the British Academy. The son of a Polish WWII fighter pilot, he was educated at Oxford and has taught at the University of Tasmania and Kyoto
University. He is the author of many books.

Informasia #7, July 19, 2021 ~ James Farrer

“Sustaining Tokyo’s Grimy Drinking Streets"

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710999899?share=copy

Abstract

Tokyo is known for its human scale and historic drinking streets, which take many forms, the most iconic of which of are the yokochō, dense warrens of small bars and eateries, redolent of humanity and a bit grimy. These are “urban third spaces”
between work and home, and urban contact zones for people from all walks of life. Once seen as a largely male preserve, they are increasingly popular with women. Though regarded as quintessentially Japanese, foreign business owners and foreign customers are increasingly visible. Despite their appeal, these spaces are under threat from COVID-19, urban renewal schemes, the aging society and the rise of mass tourism. This paper looks at drinking streets in Nishi-Ogikubo in Western Tokyo for signs of how these spaces can be sustained.

Related publications
Susanne Wessendorf and JamesFarrer. 2021. “Commonplace and out-of-place diversities in London and Tokyo:
migrant-run eateries as intercultural third places” Comparative Migration Studies. Volume 9, Issue 28, p. 1-7. https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-021-00235-3

JamesFarrer
James Farrer is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research focuses on the contact zones of global cities, including ethnographic studies of sexuality, nightlife, expatriate communities, and urban food cultures. Current projects investigate community foodways in Tokyo (www.nishiogiology.org) and the spread of Japanese restaurant cuisine across diverse world regions (www.global-japanese-cuisine.org). He is originally from Tennessee in the United States but moved to Japan in 1998.
 

Informasia #8, August 16, 2021 ~ Rosemary Chiba

“Kagura Dance in Iwate”

Vimeo video (First half accidently not recorded): https://vimeo.com/711004968?share=copy

Abstract

Why have people performed Kagura dances in Japan for over 1,000 years? I would like to share my experiences of dancing and drumming for 24 years in an Iwate Kagura group, giving an insight into the culture, group dynamics, the raw physical challenges and perhaps the elusive spiritual reward.

Rosemary Chiba, was born in 1949 in Leicester, England, and graduated in Fine Arts (Leeds). She worked in a museum
in Nigeria, taught English in Taipei, then from 1980, in Tokyo and Kobe. She is married with two sons, and moved to Hiraizumi, Iwate in 1991 to take over the family rice farm. She danced Kagura until 2015.

Her other accomplishments include assisting with Hiraizumi's UNESCO World Heritage application, and
introducing visitors to the area as a local guide.

Informasia #9, September 20, 2021 ~ John Bray

‘Ladakh: a global perspective on a Himalayan kingdom’

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711007790?share=copy

Abstract

For some 900 years, Ladakh subsisted as an independent kingdom ruled by a Buddhist monarchy in the Western Himalayas. Politically, it is now part of India, but adjoins disputed boundaries with both Pakistan and the People’s Republic of
China. Lying between the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges, it has been both a byword for remoteness and now a popular tourist destination.

This lecture will present a selective overview of Ladakhi history since the 17th century. Rather than highlighting Ladakh’s isolation, it will emphasize the region’s connectedness with Mughal and British India as well as Tibet and what is now Xinjiang. Neither a Shangri-la nor a Sakoku, Ladakh was always influenced by wider economic and religious currents, including Muslim ideas and trading networks as well as Buddhist ones. The discussion will be supported by images of buildings, coins, paintings and – from the 19th century onwards – photographs.

Ladakhis bordered by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan.

John Bray first visited Ladakh in 1979, and has retained a close connection with the region ever since. He is a former president of the International Association for Ladakh Studies (IALS), and has published extensively on Ladakh’s history, with
a specialist interest in Western missionary contacts and trading relations. He lived in Japan from 2002 to 2015, and is now based in Singapore.
 

Informasia #10, October 18, 2021 ~ David Burleigh

‘Lives of the Poets: Three Journeys to Kyoto’

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/700374007?share=copy

Abstract

David Burleigh came to Japan in 1978, and taughtat Ferris University in Yokohama for twenty-seven years, retiring in 2016, but then continued to teach part-time in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, near which he still lives, until the spring of 2021. He edited and introduced Helen Waddell’s Writings from Japan (2005), after writing a thesis on her work, and has also collaborated on translations of Japanese poetry and haiku.

Informasia #11, November 15, 2021 ~ Reg Clark

“What We Can Learn From the History of Rugby in Japan”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711017025?share=copy

Abstract

Today‘s lecture was first delivered in 2019, two days before the Rugby World Cup Final. It focuses on the history of sport and specifically rugby in Japan and what that may tell us about Japanese culture, and the commonly accepted account of the origins of rugby as an example of the role of mythology in history.

Reg Clark graduated in Modern History from Christ Church Oxford in 1979 and in 1980 joined Kobe Steel where he worked for three years and played rugby for the company team. He has a lifelong interest in the history of sport, and at that time wrote 12 articles for Rugby Magazine of Japan on the history of rugby. After a varied career, including a further decade
with Kobe Steel in London, he is now a consultant/investor in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. He took over Rhino, the sportsbrand specialising in rugby in 2006. https://rhino.direct/

In 2016 he received the Foreign Ministers Commendation Award from the Japanese government for services to UK-Japan relations and in 2017, he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Sports Sciences faculty at Nihon University.

Informasia #12, December 20, 2021 ~ Nadine Willems

“Sarashina' life and poems”, with colleague Paul Rossiter

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/711021127?share=copy

Abstract

Informasia #12 for 2021,our first full year of meetings, featured, Nadine Willems, on the occasion of revisiting the 2017 publication, “Kotan Chronicles: SelectedPoems 1928–1943”, featuring her translation of the insights into the Ainu, circa 1920s and 1930s, of Genzō Sarashina. Nadine lived in Japan for manyyears, and now teaches Japanese history. She joins us from the University of East Anglia.
 

Her colleague and collaborator, Paul Rossiter, lent his voice to the poems themselves. With our woolly hats and snowshoes at the ready, we settled in for the conclusion of our first year, suitably in freezing cold Hokkaido for “Sarashina's life and poems, and welcomed Nadine Willems and Paul Rossiter
 

Publications
Isobar Press https://isobarpress.com/
Paul Rossiter founded Isobar Press in 2013 afterretiring from teaching at the University of Tokyo. The press publishes
poetry in English by Japanese and non-Japanese authors who have lived in Japan, or who write on Japan-related themes. See the Chat for availability in Japan, London, and through Amazon.

Informasia #1, June 15, 2020 ~ Charles De Wolf

“Classical Japanese in Linguistic and Cross-cultural Perspective”

Vimeo video: none

Abstract

There was a gap between the written and spoken language and what that meant, as it meant very few people could read and write things, so there was a literate caste for awhile.

In the preface to his famous A Dictionary of theEnglish Language (1755), Samuel Johnson notes:
“When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century
to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand
years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able
to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases
from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and
secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change
sublunary nature, or clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.”
            

I cite this not only to show that,though no modern linguist, Johnson was quite aware that “mutability” applies to
human language as well as all else that is “sublunary,” but also to note that, as learned as he was, Johnson knew far less about the history of the English language than anyone with curiosity and access to Wikipedia can learn, in a
matter of minutes or at least hours. . .

Informasia #2, July 20, 2020 ~ Janine Beichman

“Poems by Yosano, probably from her 8th collection, Princess Saho (1909)”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/598430701?share=copy

Abstract

Janine Beichman will be our speaker –via Zoom – on Monday 20 July at 7pm. This will be an opportunity to pose
questions to the eminent translator and poet. Her current book project is a collection of the poetry of Yosano Akiko (the working title is The Portable Yosano Akiko), and she will read some poems by Yosano,probably from her 8^th collection, Princess Saho (1909).

Dr Beichman, Professor Emerita of Daito Bunka University, studied Japanese literature at Columbia University, where Donald Keene was her dissertation adviser, and poetry writing at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Unterberg Poetry Center, and The New School. In Tokyo, she was a member of the Uchufu Tanka Society and practiced writing tanka in
Japanese.

She is the author of the literary biographies Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works and Embracing the Firebird,  Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, and also of the original Noh play Drifting Fires, which has been performed in Japan and the United States.

Her Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems of Makoto Ooka was awarded the 2019-2020 Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her translation of Ōoka Makoto’s Poems for All Seasons: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Earliest Times to the Present contains numerous translations of medieval and pre-modern classical waka and haiku. She has also translated fiction by Setouchi Jakucho and Nagai Kafū.

Informasia #3, August 17, 2020 ~ Mike Galbraith

“Adventures Researching Japan’s Early History of Western Sports: Basic Facts and Issues Regarding Their Interpretation Inside Japan and Overseas"

Vimeo video: none, my apologies

Abstract 

Japan’s first athletes overcame size issues by hard training and challenged the world’s best in many sports! Their skills won admiration and they were often victorious.

1. How I became involved and some early discoveries

2. Examples of Japan’s amazing early international sporting forays

3. How Japanese sports bodies and historians present their history

4. Reflections on academic approaches to sports history

Informasia #4, September 21, 2020 ~ Michael Plastow

“Journey to the West”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705583761?share=copy

Abstract

100 photos of hikes through the greater Tokyo area with many birds.

Michael Plastow moved toJapan in 1980 after graduating from Cambridge University in History and Natural Sciences. He taught university in Gumnaand others until 1996. Since 1983, he has worked for NHK in International Radio and other projects. His two walking guidebooks, unfortunately long out ofprint, include Exploring Kiryu Ashio, and Nikko: Mountain walks in the land of Shodo Shonin 1992, and also Exploring Kanto, Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo 1996 by Weatherhill.

To view his trove of photos, visit his Facebook page (Michael Plastow). If new to Facebook, send a “Friends” request to him on that page.
 

Informasia #5, October 19, 2020 ~ Ian Ruxton

“Making Sir Ernest Satow’s Legacy Accessible to the World”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705601350?share=copy

Abstract 

1. How I became interested in Sir Ernest Satow

2. Who was Sir Ernest Satow?

3. My publications and work-in-progress

4. How to make Ernest Satow's name better known in the world?

5. Concluding remarks

6. Q and A

Informasia #6, November 16, 2020 ~ Brian Burke-Gaffney

“A Brief History of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/705610123?share=copy

Abstract 

The talk will include an overview of events from the opening of Japan's doors in 1859 until the treaty revisions of 1899, an introduction to some of the key players in Nagasaki, and a few comments on sources and related issues.

Informasia #7, December 21, 2020 ~ Robert Morton

‘Singleness of purpose’: Sir Harry Parkes, Interpreter and Consul in China, 1843-1865; British Minister to Japan, Korea and China, 1865-1885”

Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/710985656?share=copy

Abstract 

How did an orphan, who went on his own to China at 13, rise all the way up to Minister (equivalent to today’s Ambassador)?
His story was unlike that of any of his peers, but then everything about Parkes was exceptional. He was indomitable, fearless, incorruptible, often insufferable, always larger than life. This talk will attempt to bring him back to life for ninety minutes.