Book Announcement: Zen-life: Ikkyu and Beyond

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Paula

Zen LifeEvgeny Steiner. Zen-life: Ikkyu and Beyond.

Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014. 475 pp. with ill.

This book examines Japanese culture of the Muromachi epoch (14-16 centuries) with Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481) as its focal point. Ikkyu’s contribution to the culture of his time was all-embracing and unique. He can be called the embodiment of his era, given that all the features typical for the Japanese culture of the High Middle Ages were concentrated in his personality. This multidisciplinary study of Ikkyu’s artistic, religious, and philosophical heritage reconstructs his creative mentality and his way of life. The aesthetics and art of Ikkyu are shown against a broad historical background. The book discusses in great detail Ikkyu’s religious and ethical principles, as well as his attitude towards sex, and shows that his rebellious and iconoclastic ways were deeply embedded in the tradition. The book pulls together materials from cultural and religious history with literary and visual artistic texts, and offers a multifaceted view on Ikkyu, as well as on the cultural life of the Muromachi period. This approach ensures that the book will be interesting for art historians, historians of literature and religion, and specialists in cultural and visual studies.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-life-Ikkyu-Beyond-Evgeny-Steiner/dp/144385400X

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Fun Link Friday: “Let It Go”: Japanese Google Translate Version

Posted on July 4, 2014 by LM

While the actual translation into Japanese of “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen is beautifully done, what would have happened if Google Translate had done the translation?

YouTuber N.Y. sora not only posts the Google Translate lyrics in Japanese alongside the original English but sings them along with the song, featured such gems as 「背を向けるとドアをバタンと閉める」(Turn away and slam the door; or, literally, “Turn my back and push the ‘close door’ button.)

Let It Go をGoogle翻訳で訳したら大変なことになった【歌ってみた】

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Exhibit: Woodblock Prints by Tsukioka Kôgyo

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Paula

nohThere will be an exhibition of 55 woodblock prints of the Noh theater by Tsukioka Kôgyo (1869-1927), lent to the museum by Richard and Mae Smethurst, at the Villa Terrace Museum in Milwaukee, July 18-October 5, 2014. Check the attached link for more details.

July 18 – October 5, 2014
Curated by Martha Chaiklin, PhD and Annemarie Sawkins, PhD

Opening Reception Friday, July 18 – 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Featuring:

Tsukioka Kōgyo and the Revival of Noh in Modern Japan
A talk by Professors Richard J. and Mae J. Smethurst
beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The Art of Ikebana
Friday, August 22 – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Japanese floral arrangement demonstration by certified Ichiyo instructor Laurie A. Wareham
$20 / $15 Museum Members
RSVP with asteinbach@cavtmuseums.org / No day of registration

The exhibition Noh Theatre in the Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869 – 1927) will feature over 50 unique woodblock prints of Noh and Kyōgen theatre scenes, from the collection of Richard J. and Mae J. Smethurst, as well as authentic Noh masks provided by local collectors. Tsukioka Kōgyo became one of the most famous and internationally celebrated print artists of the Meiji Period in Japanese history. He was, and remains, the preeminent artist of Noh (and Kyōgen) theatre. Between the 1890s and his death in 1927, Kōgyo produced five major sets of prints. The prints in the exhibition not only showcase his incredible artistic talent but also a popular form of theatre for audiences in Japan.

http://www.villaterracemuseum.org/calendar.html

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Job Opening: Comparative English and Japanese Literature or Linguistics

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Paula

job opening - 5Full-time Associate Professor or Assistant Professor of Literature or Linguistics
Department of English Linguistics and Literature,
Faculty of Letters, General Department of Humanities, Kansai University

Vacancy No: D114051130

The Department of English Linguistics and Literature in the Faculty of Letters at Kansai University, Suita Japan, invites applications for a position teaching comparative English and Japanese literature or linguistics tenable from 1 April, 2015.

The successful applicant will become a member of the Department of Linguistics and Literature and will be expected to develop and teach a course in comparative English and Japanese literature or linguistics in English, as well as teach seminars in English literature or linguistics at all levels, in addition to supervising graduation and graduate theses written in Japanese or English and to carry out administrative duties in Japanese. Applicants should hold a PhD or have conducted equivalent research and have native or near-native competence in English as well as a high level of Japanese proficiency.

Those seeking further information should contact: bunkoubo@ml.kandai.jp

To learn how to apply for this vacancy and download the necessary forms, please visit:
http://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorDetail?fn=4&id=D114051130&ln_jor=0 (Japanese) or

http://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorDetail?fn=0&ln=1&id=D114051130&ln_jor=1(English)

Closing date: 31st July, 2014.

Interviews are scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2014.

Kansai University is an equal opportunity employer.

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Job Opening: Postdoctoral research fellowship in oral history

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Paula

job opening - 5Institution: Ryerson University, Sociology
Location: Ontario, Canada
Position: Post-doctoral Fellow

Landscapes of Injustice
Partnership Project

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP IN ORAL HISTORY
Position start date Fall 2014

Landscapes of Injustice is a seven-year multi-sector, interdisciplinary project that aims to explore and narrate the history of the dispossession of Japanese Canadians and to share this history with audiences across Canada and beyond. Research findings will be disseminated in a traveling museum exhibit, teaching materials for elementary and secondary schools, educational websites, popular and scholarly publications, and public presentations across the country. Many Canadians know that people of Japanese ancestry, the vast majority of them Canadian citizens, were uprooted from the British Columbia coast during the 1940s. Less widely known is the Government policy to forcibly sell all of their property and most possessions. The dispossession of Japanese Canadians caused enduring and, in some ways, irreparable harms. It left Japanese Canadians without homes to which they could return after restrictions were finally lifted in 1949. It forced the eradication of Canada’s historic Japanese-Canadian neighbourhoods and settlements, thereby transforming individual lives and subjectivities, as well as the landscapes of Canadian ethnic and urban life. It resulted in material hardships and its memory has reverberated across multiple generations.

Our partnership team includes 14 institutions and 33 specialists from universities, community organizations, and museums across Canada. The project is funded by a major grant and by the participating institutions (see: www.landscapesofinjustice.ca).

The Postdoctoral Fellow will assist Dr. Pamela Sugiman, Professor of Sociology, Ryerson University, in the management of the oral history research cluster of the Landscapes project. The successful candidate will contribute to the intellectual direction of the cluster and assist in the supervision of graduate and undergraduate research assistants. She/he must furthermore demonstrate a strong interest in and understanding of oral history, in depth interviewing, and issues of racism and racialization.

A goal of the oral history cluster is to conduct interviews with various groups of individuals who experienced the internment, directly and indirectly, with a focus on property loss: Japanese Canadians who were dispossessed during the Second World War, Hakujin (non-Japanese) bystanders and witnesses of the dispossession, and the descendents of both of these groups. This cluster will also integrate existing interviews into its research materials. In addition to assisting in the supervision of research, the Postdoctoral Fellow will be involved in the administration, analysis, and presentation of materials related to this research, as well as the larger intellectual development and activity of the Landscapes project. Finally, the Postdoctoral Fellow will teach a one-semester course in the Sociology Department at Ryerson University, subject to the conditions set out in the Ryerson University-CUPE 1 collective agreement.

The Postdoctoral Fellowship is valued at $40,000/year and is renewable for a total of two years. Additional funds will defray the cost of the Postdoctoral Fellow’s travel for research and presentation of project materials.

Contact:

Applications should include a cover letter, a CV, three letters of recommendation and if available, a writing sample.

Please e-mail applications to Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross, Project Director, Landscapes of Injustice, at landscapesofinjustice@gmail.com. We will begin to review applications on July 25, 2014 and will continue on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

For more information, email our project at landscapesofinjustice@gmail.com

Website: www.landscapesofinjustice.ca

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Funding: CCWH/Berks Graduate Student Fellowship 2014

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Paula

money [150-2]CCWH/Berks Graduate Student Fellowship 2014

The Coordinating Council for Women in History and the Berkshire Conference of Women’s History Graduate Student Fellowship is a $1000 award to a graduate student completing a dissertation in a history department. The award is intended to support either a crucial stage of research or the final year of writing. The applicant must be a CCWH member; must be a graduate student in a history department in a U.S. institution; must have passed to A.B.D. status by the time of application; may specialize in any field of history; may hold this award and others simultaneously; and need not attend the award ceremony to receive the award. The deadline for the award is 15 September 2014. Please go to http://www.theccwh.org for membership and online application details.

Sandra Dawson
Northern Illinois University
Zulauf Hall
815-895-2624
Email: execdir@theccwh.org
Visit the website at http://www.theccwh.org

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Book Announcement: Art through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection

Posted on June 29, 2014 by LM

MURARTVia University of Washington Press.

Art through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection
VOLUME 1: MIYEKO MURASE, WITH IL KIM, SHI-YEE LIU, GRATIA WILLIAMS NAKAHASHI, STEPHANIE WADA; VOLUME 2: MIYEKO MURASE, SOYOUNG LEE, DAVID AKE SENSABAUGH, WITH IL KIM, SHI-YEE LEE, GRATIA WILLIAMS NAKAHASHI, STEPHANIE WADA

paperback not available
$125.00S HARDCOVER (9780295992686) ADD TO CART

PUBLISHED: July 2013
SUBJECT LISTING: Asian Art, Art History
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: 2 vol slipcased set, over 1500 color illus., bibliog., index, 9.5 x 12 in. Vol. 1: Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, and Calligraphy, 432 pp. Vol. 2: Japanese Objects, and Korean and Chinese Art, 352 pp.
TERRITORIAL RIGHTS: World
DISTRIBUTED FOR: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation

CONTENTS

This two-volume publication represents the only comprehensive documentation of one of the finest private collections of Asian art in the world. More than 1,000 works of art are shown in exquisite color reproductions, along with a special reference section of illustrated and translated texts, signatures, and seals. Since the collection will be dispersed for public use, Art Through a Lifetime provides the only opportunity for scholars, students, and admirers of Asian art to enjoy it in its entirety.

The first volume of this boxed set, Japanese Painting, Printed Works, Calligraphy, presents Japanese paintings, printed works, and calligraphy that date from the Nara period to the late 20th century. The second volume, Japanese Objects, Korean Art, Chinese Art, presents the remainder of the Japanese works – ceramics, lacquer, metalwork, sculpture, and textiles – along with an extensive array of Korean and Chinese works of art.

Miyeko Murase is professor emerita of Japanese art at Columbia University and special consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Soyoung Lee is associate curator for Korean art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. David Ake Sensabaugh is the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art, Yale University Art Gallery. Shi-yee Liu, senior research associate in the Department of Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, provided translations.

CONTENTS
Volume 1

Dedication to Mary Griggs Burke by Miyeko Murase
Preface
Acknowledgments
An Appreciation by James Ulak
History of the Collection by Mary Griggs Burke
Chronology
Note to the Reader

Japanese Painting

1. Buddhist Painting: Shinto Painting
2. Yamato-e; Illustrations of The Tale of Genji
3. Ink Painting of the Muromachi and Momoyama Periods
4. Kano School of the Edo Period
5. Rinpa
6. Screens by Unidentified Artists of the Momoyama and Edo Periods
7. Ukiyo-e
8. Nanga
9. Maruyama-Shijo School
10. Independents and Various Schools of the Edo and Later Periods
11. Printed Works
12. Calligraphy

Recent Acquisition

Record of Ownership
Translation Sources
Photography Credits

Volume 2

Chronology

Japanese Objects
-Sculpture
-Ceramics
-Lacquer and Netsuke
-Metalwork
-Textiles and Dolls
-Bamboo Baskets and Wood Objects

Korean Art
-Paintings
-Sculpture
-Ceramics
-Lacquer
-Metalwork
-Textiles

Chinese Art
-Paintings
-Ceramics
-Lacquer
-Metalwork
-Furniture

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Job Opening: Office Manager, Hinoki International School

Posted on June 28, 2014 by LM

job opening - 5Via the UM-CJS Mailing List.

Institution: Hinoki International School
Location: Livonia, Michigan
Type: bilingual (“high proficiency”)
Deadline: open until filled

Position Summary: Assists the Principal, Board of Education Members, and Consortium by performing secretarial and clerical duties as described below. Acts as liaison between the district and community, Principal and parents, and Principal and staff.

Primary Tasks:
• Greet public; place and receive telephone calls; distribute messages; monitor Facebook; and review email.
• Sort and distribute school mail, open and date stamp central office mail (with the exception of mail marked “Confidential” which will be forwarded unopened).
• Type and proofread all correspondence for the Principal and Consortium.
• Translate requested correspondence (Japanese-English/English-Japanese) for the Principal and Consortium.
• Arrange appointments and make travel arrangements for the Principal.
• Type updates to policies for board meetings and distribute policies as approved by the Board of Directors.
• Process all incoming applications and distribute to HRE 1108, Inc. for open positions.
• Create, maintain, and provide access to personnel files according to board policy.
• Complete personnel action forms including New Employee Checklist, Employee Status Change, FMLA forms, and other personnel or payroll related forms as required and submit to HRE 1108, Inc.
• Process required substitute teacher paperwork.
• Process all enrollment applications and forms, keep updated listing, and check against SRSD at each student count and reconcile discrepancies.
• Contact board members for board and committee meetings, post the meetings, develop and distribute agendas and packets, attend special board meetings, and take, process, and file minutes of board meetings.
• Set up administrator meetings, contact administrators, and develop agendas.
• Process FOIA requests.
• Process bid specifications and correspondence as required by Principal and Consortium.
• Maintain central office petty cash fund.
• Maintain the central filing system, including CA60s, in adherence to the School Records and Reporting Guidelines found at (http://www.michigan.gov/documents/hal_mhc_rms_local_gs2_171482_7.pdf).
• Update and maintain office equipment, including fax and postage machines and copiers.
• Distribute approved purchase orders and maintain purchase order log.
• Maintain school phone tree contact information.
• Support accounting functions and coordination of the daily operation of the school’s food service program.
• Coordinate food purchases, preparation, and personnel for special events.
• Oversee and manage student accident forms, records, and medication distribution.

Required Education/Skills:
1. High proficiency in written and spoken Japanese and English preferred. Experience with Dual Immersion and/or Bilingual educational programs.
2. Graduation from an accredited high school (Associates Degree or post-secondary training in education or related field preferred).
3. Skilled in the use of computers and office equipment. Must be able to utilize school software and have high level of proficiency in the use of Microsoft Word and Excel.
4. Must pass competency test in English writing skills, grammar, basic math skills, and use of Microsoft Word and Excel.
5. Excellent written and verbal communications required. Ability to communicate and work effectively and courteously with staff, students, parents, vendors, and the general public.
6. Ability to assume responsibility and maintain confidentiality.
7. Ability to prioritize and manage tasks efficiently.

Full details on duties and application Office Manager_Hinoki International School Job Posting

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Fun Link Friday: The Secret Science Behind Japanese Food Pairings

Posted on June 27, 2014 by LM

Why does sushi taste so good with wasabi? Why is edamame such a popular beer snack?

Graham Nelson explores the science behind popular Japanese food pairings over on Spoon & Tamago. Check it out here.

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Job Opening: Lead USA Girl Scouts Overseas Advisor [Okinawa]

Posted on June 23, 2014 by LM

job opening - 5
Employer: Girl Scouts of the USA
Location: Okinawa, Japan
Posted June 10, 2014

Three-year term assignment – based in Okinawa, Japan

The Lead USA Girl Scouts Overseas (USAGSO) Advisor is responsible for leading and managing the relationship between GSUSA and the military communities in Japan, including the island of Okinawa and South Korea. She/he recruits and assembles volunteer communities to support the Girl Scout program within the US military communities on Okinawa and in South Korea.

The Lead USAGSO Advisor is seen by customers as someone they regularly consult when engaged in strategic decision making. She/he provides on-going consultation, coaching and training to volunteers supporting girl program. This position is also responsible for developing tactical plans to actualize goals and program models for volunteer series and events. Other specific contributions include:

– Designing girl program for implementation West Pacific wide.

– Leading and managing the annual cookie program.

– Creates and develops marketing and program collaterals and brochures.

– Builds community partnerships to sustain program funding and create greater visibility.

Qualifications:

  • BA/BS degree in relevant field plus 5+ years of relevant experience.
  • Prior international experience—living, studying, or working outside of the US.
  • Prior experience in volunteer management.
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience in the development and implementation of membership recruitment and retention strategies.
  • Strong platform skills to deliver presentations and training sessions.
  • Demonstrated ability to work remotely with minimal supervision as well as work in a collaborative team environment.
  • Excellent written and verbal communications; excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Must possess a proven track record of building membership.
  • Must be social media savvy and proficient in MS Office.
  • Ability to travel-up to 35% of time.
  • Valid passport and U.S. Driver License required.

Full details on Idealist.org.

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