Japanese Studies Commons^™

'Land Of Kami, Land Of The Dead': Paligenesis And The Aesthetics Of Religious Revisionism In Kobayashi Yoshinori's 'On Yasukuni', James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In 2005, Japanese manga artist and conservative provocateur Kobayashi Yoshinori published a graphic work entitled Shin gōmanizumu sengen special: Yasukuniron (Neo-Gōmanism Manifesto Special: On Yasukuni), which tackles the much-debated ‘problem’ of Yasukuni Shrine, the militaristic religious complex that has become a lightning-rod for debates regarding Japanese historical memory – especially with regard to the military expansionism in East Asia that led to the Asia-Pacific War (1931–45). Frequently overlooked in discussions of Yasukuni, however, are a number of complex issues related to its religious doctrines – in particular, the interpretation of Shinto presented at Yasukuni and the dominant ideology of Japan’s …

Awakening Between Science, Art & Ethics: Variations On Japanese Buddhist Modernism, 1890–1945, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The half-century between the publication of the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo 教育勅語, 1890) and the bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941) was one of tremendous institutional and intellectual tumult in the world of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhist sects and scholars were not immune to the changing political and cultural winds. While it is true that by the late 1930s, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions had capitulated to the status quo, preaching, in the words of Joseph Kitagawa “the virtues of peace, harmony, and loyalty to the throne,” the previous decades show anything but a continuous progression towards …

The Sword And The Screen: The Japanese Period Film 1915-1960, Aaron Gerow, Rea Amit, Ryan Cook, Samuel Good, Samuel Malissa, Stephen Poland, Grace Ting, Takuya Tsunoda, David Dresser, Fumiaki Itakura

Film Series Commentaries

“The Sword And The Screen: The Japanese Period Film 1915-1960” was a groundbreaking collaboration between the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, marking the first time Japan’s national film archive had co-sponsored an event with a foreign university. The film series presented rare Japanese samurai films from the collection of the National Film Center, highlighting the abundant variety of Japan's most famous film genre. There are social critiques, melodramas, comedies, ghost films and even musicals, directed by some of the masters of Japanese cinema who, …

The Lotus Sutra, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Olympics In East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism, And Globalism On The Center Stage Of World Sports, William W. Kelly, Susan Brownell

CEAS Occasional Publication Series

Yale CEAS Occasional Publication Series - Volume 3

The National Imagination (Spring 2011), Robert D. Tobin, Beth Gale, Alice Valentine

Syllabi

What images make people think of the United States of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? The National Imagination explores the concept of a national community as constructed and critiqued through literary and cinematic narratives, as well as other cultural texts.

Our underlying premise is that national languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. We are interested in examining those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—that lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations. We are also interested in discovering points …

The National Imagination (Spring 2010), Robert D. Tobin, Belen Atienza, Alice Valentine

Syllabi

What images make people think of the United States of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? The National Imagination explores the concept of a national community as constructed and critiqued through literary and cinematic narratives, as well as other cultural texts.

Our underlying premise is that national languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. We are interested in examining those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—that lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations. We are also interested in discovering points …

Sexuality And Human Rights (Fall 2010), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

What happens when we think of sexuality, with all of its transgressive and individualistic energies, in terms of rationally established universal human rights? Literary texts that focus on individual cases in the context of larger cultural and social traditions with a particular attention to the power of language can help us sort through some of the complex ideas that emerge from a discussion of sexual rights. In this class, we will focus on controversial issues--like sadism, masochism, male homosexuality, lesbianism, age of consent, prostitution, polygamy and transsexuality—that bring rights conflicts to the forefront.

A photo of this Fall 2010 class …

The Traditional And The Modern : The History Of Japanese Food Culture In Oregon And How It Did And Did Not Integrate With American Food Culture, David P. Conklin

Dissertations and Theses

The study of food and foodways is a field that has until quite recently mostly been neglected as a field of history despite the importance that food plays in culture and as a necessity for life. The study of immigrant foodways and the mixing of and hybridization of foods and foodways that result has been studied even less, although one person has done extensive research on Western influences on the foodways of Japan since 1853. This paper is an attempt to study the how and in what forms the foodways of America-and in particular of Oregon-changed with the arrival of …

Historiography Of The Asia-Pacific War In Japan, Takashi Yoshida

History Faculty Publications

Interpretations of Japan’s involvement in the Pacific War and its war crimes have changed over time, and corresponding changes in social and political contexts both within and outside Japan have influenced these evolving interpretations. Today the people of Japan are far from a consensus over the meaning of the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45), and disputes relating to such topics as the Nanjing Massacre, Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea and Taiwan, and the sexual enslavement of the so-called Comfort Women continue to haunt the national memory. However, the current divisions over the significance of the war did not always exist. To the …

Japan And The World: Japan’S Contemporary Geopolitical Challenges – A Volume In Honor Of The Memory And Intellectual Legacy Of Asakawa Kan’Ichi, Frances Rosenbluth, Masaru Kohno

CEAS Occasional Publication Series

Yale CEAS Occasional Publication Series - Volume 2

Revising The Past, Complicating The Future: The Yushukan War Museum In Modern Japanese History, Takashi Yoshida

History Faculty Publications

In this three part series, we introduce historical museums in Japan and their role in public education. Following this introduction to peace museums, Ms. Nishino Rumiko, a founder of the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM), introduces WAM’s activities and the 2000 Citizens Tribunal on the ‘comfort women’. The final article is by Mr. Kim Yeonghwan, the former associate director of Grassroots House Peace Museum who describes the peace and reconciliation programs that the Museum sponsors.

This Sporting Life: Sports And Body Culture In Modern Japan, William W. Kelly, Atsuo Sugimoto

CEAS Occasional Publication Series

Yale CEAS Occasional Publication Series - Volume 1

Sports in Japan have long been embedded in community life, the educational system, the mass media, the corporate structures, and the nationalist sentiments of modern Japan. For over a century, they have been a crucial intersection of school pedagogy, corporate aims, media constructions, gender relations, and patriotic feelings. The chapters in this book highlight a wide range of sports, and together, they offer a significant window on to the ways that the sporting life animates the institutions of modern Japan.

The Nanjing Massacre. Changing Contours Of History And Memory In Japan, China, And The U.S., Takashi Yoshida

History Faculty Publications

In Japan, China, the United States and beyond, arguably no Japanese wartime atrocity against China is more widely known than the Nanjing Massacre. [1] Whatever the significance of mere name recognition, however, the history and memory of the Nanjing Massacre are profoundly complex. Indeed, even the phrase “Nanjing Massacre” (hereafter NM) remains contested, and to this day there are circles within which the words cannot be spoken without stirring deep feeling and disagreement.

Translation: “Building A Platform For Academic Buddhist Studies: Murakami Senshō,” By Sueki Fumihiko., James Mark Shields, Fumihiko Sueki

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Ikkyū, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Gyōgi Bosatsu, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Musō Soseki, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

KūKai, Founder Of Japanese Shingon Buddhism: Portraits Of His Life, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

2003 dissertation, UW-Madison, Buddhist Studies. A study of the life of the Kūkai (774-822), known posthumously by the honorific title Kōbō Daishi (Great Teacher who Propagated the Dharma). Kūkai is best known as the founder of Japanese Shingon Tantric Buddhism. The study is based primarily on writings attributed to him and his immediate followers and secondarily on early legends (those apparently dating from the Heian period) as identified by modern researchers. These writings show that Kūkai was involved in a variety of social activities. In some instances I have attempted to understand the socio-political intention of Kūkai’s biographers, his followers …

Gen Ms 02 Batchelder-Haley Letters Finding Aid, Susie R. Bock

Search the General Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Description:

Abigail E. Batchelder and Cora M. (Giles) Haley, graduates in the Second Class of 1899 of Gorham Normal School, lived and taught in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. The collection consists of letters to their former landlady and mentor, describing the people, landscape, and society there.

Date Range:

1906-1908, 1915-1916, 1918

Size of Collection:

0.25 ft.

In Pursuit Of Perfection: The Economic Dynamic Of Japan As Seen Through The Eyes Of Contemporary Confucianism After World War Ii, Gabriel Allen Ipolani Alisna

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

Tracing the development of Confucianism in China to contemporary Confucianism in Modern Japan helps us understand her miraculous economy after the ruin of World War II. Deconstructing this socio-cultural phenomenon allows one to weigh the value of Confucianism -- a system of ethics for the individual and the state -- in our modern day times -- especially East Asia.

Alien Land Laws : The Curtailing Of Japanese Agricultural Pursuits In Oregon, Amy K. Buck

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes the evolution and demise of Oregon's alien land laws of 1923 and 1945 and their impact on the Nikkei community and the state's culture.

After a brief discussion of Japanese immigration to Oregon and their lifestyle, the work discusses the emergence of discrimination against Japanese residents. At the same time, it outlines how the Nikkei adopted creative responses to the law. This thesis then explores the manner by which anti-Japanese internment policies during World War II shattered the Issei community, revoking many of the gains made in the previous half-century. The effects of the second alien land …

Japanese Economic Exploitation Of Central Pacific Seabird Populations, 1898–1915, Dirk H. R Spennemann

Pacific Studies

At the turn of the century, Japanese feather and plumage hunters visited most of the isolated, uninhabited atolls of the central Pacific Ocean. The seabird populations of these atolls were decimated to supply exotic feathers for the millinery market to meet an increasing demand created by the European fashion industry. Drawing on scattered archival records, this article reviews the history and dimensions of the feather trade in the Central Pacific and describes the responses of the affected nations.

The Japanese Approach To The End Of The Pacific War, Atsuo Hirano

Dissertations and Theses

Before World War II ended with the Japanese surrender to the Allied Nations on August 15, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on a Japanese city of Hiroshima. For fifty years, the question of whether the atomic bomb was necessary to end the war has been discussed by historians and journalists.

The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the Japanese situation in the spring and summer of 1945 by reading the statements and ideas of the Japanese Emperor, government officials and military officers at the time.

Since the Japanese Emperor was believed to have played a significant …

Buddhist Commons In Asia, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Although nothing precisely like the modern nonprofit organization, voluntary association or foundation existed in Asia prior to the 20th century, there can be little doubt that some types of similar indigenous activities are found deep in the history of the many cultures of Asia. Buddhism, for example, has a long record of organized activity, beliefs about giving, and other evidences of what might be termed Buddhist philanthropy.

Greg Gubler's Review Of Mark R. Peattie's Nan’Yo: The Rise And Fall Of The Japanese In Micronesia, 1885-1945, Greg Gubler

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

John Charlot's Review Of Lynn Ann Davis's And Nelson Foster's A Photographer In The Kingdom: Christian J. Hedemann, John Charlot

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Hungry Sharks: Japanese Economic Activity In Melanesia, 1960-1980, James A. Boutilier

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

A History Of The Japanese In Nebraska, Hiram Hisanori Kano

Special Collections

A history of the Japanese in Nebraska, authored by Father Hiram Kano. It interweaves his personal story with the larger narrative of Japanese people in Nebraska. Most of the content covers c. 1900-1970. Book includes numerous appendices of value to genealogists or others seeking individual Japanese who lived in Nebraska.

Introduction by Sheryll Patterson-Black

Shared with the permission of Scottsbluff Public Library

The History Of The Japanese In Seattle And Its Environs: First Arrival To 1940, Peter Armstrong Vall-Spinosa

All Master's Theses

This study is an effort to give an historical perspective on the Japanese living in the Puget Sound region up to 1940.