The Early Modern Medieval: Reconstructing Japanese Pasts
October 7-8, 2011
University of Michigan

The organizers of the conference, “The Early Modern Medieval: Reconstructing Japanese Pasts,” are pleased to announce that we have secured funding for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students to travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan and participate in the conference, to be held October 7-8, 2011.

Recipients of this award will be reimbursed up to $1000 for travel and lodging expenses.  Student participants are invited to attend all panels, source workshops, discussions, and receptions.

A full description of the conference can be found below.

To Apply:

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning August 1. Final application deadline is September 1.

Interested students should send the following application materials to Peter Shapinsky (pshap2@uis.edu )

(1)     1-page CV with full contact information
(2)  250 word statement that explains how the theme of the conference fits in with her/his work
(3)  A short paragraph from her/his advisor that endorses the student’s interest.

Conference Description:

In the early seventeenth century, Japan entered a period of prolonged, relative stability under the dominion of the Tokugawa shoguns and other regional lords.  This sustained period of peace, usually known by scholars as “early modern,” lasted until the mid-nineteenth century, and witnessed revolutions in printing, literacy, consumer culture, and scholarship in countless fields. The artifacts of this whirlwind of production were particularly shaped by their creators’ need to legitimize their present by reviving and revising motifs from earlier eras. Creators drew heavily from the period known to scholars as “medieval Japan” (c.1200-1600). Writers and artists across early modern Japan appropriated medieval terminology and reinterpreted the words and images to fit their own political, artistic, or social-economic agendas. These projects reconstructed the history of medieval men and women of all walks of life–from samurai to outcastes, from pirates to merchants, and from warrior monks to tea masters.

The chronological division between medieval and early modern times in traditional periodization reflects the actual transition of the country from war to peace. But the division between periods has also had the effect of impeding connections in pedagogy, research, and publication across the chronological boundary.  Scholars today on either side of the medieval-early modern divide share only rarely their sources or interpretations with each other.  Japanese academic institutions maintain a discrete section for each of the two periods.  As a result, relationships between the materials produced in each period have often been overlooked. Potentially more dangerous than the shape these particular chronological fields have taken is the impact this split has had on how modernity is understood.  Modern Japan unwittingly and uncritically claims itself to be the heir of an early modern that in fact projected imaginary histories onto its past in order to fit early modern agendas.

This conference features keynote presentations by Professor Kurushima Noriko of the Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo, and Professor Umezawa Fumiko of Keisen University; and panel presentations by Professors Kevin Carr, David Eason, Suzanne Gay, Thomas Keirstead, Morten Oxenboell, Morgan Pitelka, Eric Rath, Peter Shapinsky, David Spafford, Hitomi Tonomura, Melanie Trede, and Reinhard Zollner. In addition, each speaker will offer a short presentation of one primary source that was used to formulate her/his argument.

Organizers:

Hitomi Tonomura, University of Michigan (tomitono@umich.edu<mailto:tomitono@umich.edu)

Peter Shapinsky, University of Illinois, Springfield (pshap2@uis.edu)