tsushin - fas.harvard.edurijs/pdfs/tsushin/tsushin4_1.pdf · tsushin research on japan in china has...

TS U S H I N

Research on Japan in China has achieved majoradvances since the 1980s. The concrete conditionsfor this progress are explained by several major

changes: the consolidation of research institutions, thegrowth in the number of researchers, and the content of theresearch.

Broadly divided, Chinese institutions dealing with Japanresearch are connected to universities, to social scienceinstitutions, or to government, or are situated in the privatesector. In universities, Japan researchers exist in the largerpart of the country, including in more than forty universityresearch locations. Their specialty areas include history,economics, society, literature and linguistics. Amonghistory departments, the most important are NankaiUniversity’s Japan studies center (at its Research Institutefor History), in addition to Nankai's separate JapanResearch Center, Beijing University’s Japan researchcenter (in its Department of History), and FudanUniversity’s Japan research center (in its Department ofHistory). In economics and sociology, the most importantsites are the Beijing Center for International TradeStudies's Japan research center (Institute of ForeignTrade), Nankai University’s global economics researchcenter (in its Economics Research Institute), and FudanUniversity’s Japan economics research center (in its GlobalEconomics Research Institute). In literature andlinguistics, the number of locations has risen to almosttwenty. Japanese language and Japanese literaturedepartments have become established in Shanghai ForeignLanguages University, in Guangdong Foreign Languageand Foreign Trade University, and in Beijing ForeignLanguage University, as well as in the foreign languageinstitutes at Dalian, Xian, Sichuan, Tianjin and so on. Inaddition, there are Japanese language and literatureresearch groups at Beijing, Nankai and Fudan Universities.

The Japan research center in the Research Institute forHistory at Nankai University is especially known forresearch in Japanese history. The center, founded in 1964,has included many outstanding researchers and has becomeone of the representative Japan research institutions whichhas undertaken national projects. Here was established thefirst doctoral program in Japan studies in China, which hasalready trained ten people to the Ph.D. level; the researchwork of the faculty and graduate students has beenpublished by many Chinese and Japanese publishers.

Japan research connected with social science institutionsalso holds an important place in Japan research in China.Among these the central role is played by the JapanResearch Institute at the Chinese Social Science Institute.This institute, founded in 1981, is large in scale. Its staffnumbers nearly sixty people, and centers for politics,economics, culture, and education, as well as a center forlibrary resources, are well established; six times a year itpublishes the national academic journal JapaneseProblems.

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Japanese Studies in the East: China Today

S P R I N G 1 9 9 8 • E D W I N O . R E I S C H A U E R I N S T I T U T E O F J A P A N E S E S T U D I E S • V O L . 4 N O . 1

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Qian Guohong, Nankai University Center for International Studies

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Japanese Studies in the East: China Today. ............................................................................................................1— ...........................................................................................................................1

From the Director: The Postwar Development of Japanese Studies in the United States.......................................2— . ................................................................................2

Japan Forum/Events for Spring 1998.............................................................................................................. ........31998 .......................................................................................... ..........3From the Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan: Journal Index Databases.............................................4

— .....................................................................................4Special Events .........................................................................................................................................................5

............ ...........................................................................................................................................5Research and Publication in the Harvard Japanese Studies Community ...............................................................6

.......................................................................................................6Japanese Studies in the West: CEAO at University of Madrid ..............................................................................8

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Japanese Studies in the East: the Asiatic Society of Japan....................................................................................15— ..................................................................................................................15

From the Editor .....................................................................................................................................................17...............................................................................................................................................................17

A Unique Performance Event: Kibigaku ..............................................................................................................19— ...................................................................................................................19

Table of Contents

In 1998 the Reischauer Institute will issue avolume (to be published by E.J. Brill)documenting the postwar history of United States

scholarship on Japan in twelve essays chroniclingthe historical development of each discipline orsignificant sub-field, and addressing the continuingtask of strengthening the field’s impact within thedisciplines. The essays put current debates on areastudies in historical perspective and provide usefulbibliographies. This volume should help to assessJapanese studies’ achievements throughout thedisciplines, identify underdeveloped areas, and helpto chart directions for the future. In this article Iwould like to present a synthesis of the volume’sfindings.

Scholarship by Japanese studies specialists hascontributed to virtually all the disciplines of thehumanities and social sciences. Recognizing thecentral importance of history within Japanesestudies, this volume devotes several studies to it,including a comprehensive survey of postwarhistorical scholarship on Japan (John Dower),studies of diplomatic history (Akira Iriye), arthistory (John Rosenfield), and religious history(Hardacre), and separate essays on prehistory andancient Japan (Martin Collcutt), the Edo Period

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Tsushin • Volume 4 Number 1 •

The Postwar Development of Japanese Studies in the United States

Helen Hardacre, Institute Director

R e i s c h a u e r I n s t i t u t e o f J a p a n e s e S t u d i e s •

31 9 9 8 • V o l u m e 4 N u m b e r 1 • T s u s h i n S p r i n g 1 9 9 8

The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese StudiesJapan Forum/Events: Spring 1998

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February 5 JAMES WHITEUniversity of North Carolina“A Rising Tide Inundates Everything: Perceptions of the Capital and the Development of Paris and Tokyo”

February 12 BOB TADASHI WAKABAYASHIYork University“Imperial Japanese Opium Operations inChina and Postwar Political Correctness”

February 19 STEVE VOGELHarvard University“Rethinking Postwar Japan: Consumer Politics in a Producer Economy”

March 5 GENNIFER WEISENFELDHarvard University“Japanese Modernism and Consumerism: Forging the New Artistic Field of ‘Shøgyø bijutsu’”

March 10 KAZUE SAKAMOTO(Tuesday, 4 PM) Ochanomizu UniversitySPECIAL “The Construction of a New Identity

Among Japanese Women in Women's Magazines of the 1970s and 1980s”

March 12 CHERIE WENDELKENHarvard University“Reconstructing History: Politics and Architectural Preservation in Modern Japan”

March 19 JOHN TREATUniversity of Washington“Self-Portraiture and Modern Japanese Fiction”

March 31 *TAKIE SUGIYAMA LEBRA(Tuesday, 12:30 PM) University of Hawai‘i

“The Imperial Institution and Japanese Culture on the Eve of the 21st Century”

March 31 ANDREW GERSTLE(Tuesday, 4 PM) School of Oriental and Asian StudiesSPECIAL “Popular Culture in the Nineteenth

Century”April 2 CAROLE CAVANAUGH

Middlebury College“A Working Ideology for Hiroshima: Imamura's Film 'Black Rain'”

April 7 *SHELDON GARON(Tuesday, 12:30 PM) Princeton University

“Molding a Culture of ‘Diligence and Thrift’: Promoting Savings in Postwar and Contemporary Japan”

April 9 JOHN WHITMANCornell University“The Genetic Affiliation of the JapaneseLanguage: An Update”

April 14 ANDREW BARSHAY(Tuesday, 4 PM) Institute for Advanced StudiesSPECIAL “Capitalizing Japan: The Uno School

and Its Legacy”April 16 JOSHUA MOSTOW

University of British Columbia“Constructing the Classical in Modern Japan”

April 21 LAURA HEIN(Tuesday) Northwestern UniversitySPECIAL “The Model Citizen: Textbook

Nationalism in Contemporary Japan”April 30 EDWIN CRANSTON

Harvard University“The Dark at the Bottom of the Dish: Fishing for Myth in the Poetry of Ruriko Mizuno”

May 4 GAVAN MCCORMACK(Monday) Australian National UniversitySPECIAL “Okinawan Dilemmas: Coral Kingdom,

Concrete Kingdom”

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THE JAPAN FORUM is sponsored by the Edwin O. Reischauer Instituteof Japanese Studies at Harvard University and is held (except asnoted) on the above listed TThhuurrssddaayyss from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.,Seminar Room 2, Coolidge Hall, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge,MA 02138.

*Co-sponsored with the Program in U.S.-Japan Relations

4 R e i s c h a u e r I n s t i t u t e o f J a p a n e s e S t u d i e s •

7Continued on page 7

Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan (Reischauer Institute, Sponsor): New Databases

Kuniko Yamada McVey, Documentation Center Director

TTWWOO JJAAPPAANNEESSEE JJOOUURRNNAALL IINNDDEEXX DDAATTAABBAASSEESS AAVVAAIILLAABBLLEE

TTHHRROOUUGGHH HHAARRVVAARRDD--YYEENNCCHHIINNGG AANNDD DDCCJJ

Two Japanese online databases now available via theDocumentation Center on Contemporary Japan and theHarvard-Yenching library will interest readers of Ts¥shinand other researchers on Japan. Zasshi kiji sakuin (ZKS,index of magazine articles) and Janaru indekkusu (JI,journal index) may be accessed by individuals with Harvardaffiliation through these two Harvard channels.

Zasshi kiji sakuin is Japan's sole academic journal index.It has been available on paper since 1949, and academiclibraries in the U.S. have tended to stick to the print versionbecause of technical and cost issues associated with its CD-ROM and telnet format. Nichigai's new web-based service,however, makes available at a reasonable fixed fee all thebenefits of an online index, including timeliness (updatedevery two weeks), cross-reference capability, and efficientsearch through over ten years of records. Further details areavailable at Nichigai's website (http://web.nichigai.co.jp)

ZKS is produced by the National Diet Library of Japanand covers most of the postwar period in all academicfields, including the sciences and technology. The onlineversion has entries for over 1.1 million articles drawn froma total of 5,607 journal titles (3,067 up to June 1996, whenanother 2,540 were added). Many of these journals arehighly specialized and non-commercial. ZKS excludesarticles of less than two pages, as well as announcements,statistical information, and literary works.

Janaru indekkusu is produced by Nichigai Asosietsu,which from the start designed it for electronic distribution.JI has entries for some 600,000 articles from 155 popularand general journals starting in 1981, and is updatedweekly. There is considerable overlap with ZKS for journaltitles after June 1996, when ZKS expanded its coverage, butJI complements ZKS for many articles published betweenJanuary 1981 and May 1996.

From the user's point of view, how well do these indexdatabases perform and compare with each other?

ZKS and JI have almost identical interfaces, which aresimple and easy to use. Both databases allow search bydate, title, author, journal title and uncontrolled keyword.ZKS is partially searchable by publisher and ISSN. Thesearch requires no complex strategy such as one mightemploy with Nexis, so that first-time users will find whatthey need. Yet limited search options limit their utility, as

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Harvard Graduate Student ConferenceReischauer InstituteCoolidge HallHarvard UniversityCambridge, Massachusetts 02138FAX (617)496-8083

(attention Noell Howell and Ted Mack) <[email protected]>http://hcs.harvard.edu/~sjsh

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1977 1983 Encyclopediaof Japan

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UUPPCCOOMMIINNGG SSPPEECCIIAALL EEVVEENNTTSS Harvard GraduateConference for Japanese Studies: Following a strongresponse to last year’s conference, the Society for

Japanese Studies at Harvard, in conjunction with theReischauer Institute, is now soliciting papers for the 1998Harvard Graduate Conference for Japanese Studies, to beheld on Saturday, April 4, 1998. Only papers submitted bygraduate students will be considered, although everyone iswelcome to attend. Full panels and individual papers willbe accepted. Papers may also be delivered in Japanese.

To submit a paper, please send us a one-page abstract anda paragraph of biographical information, including yourname, contact address (including e-mail if available), andinstitutional affiliation. Presentations will be limited totwenty minutes. The deadline for abstracts is January 31,1998.

For pre-registration forms and additional information, pleasecontact:Harvard Graduate Student ConferenceReischauer InstituteCoolidge HallHarvard UniversityCambridge, Massachusetts 02138FAX (617)496-8083

(attention Noell Howell and Ted Mack)<[email protected]>http://hcs.harvard.edu/~sjsh

* * *

Distinguished scholar MMaarrkk RRaammsseeyyeerr will assume theposition of Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studiesat Harvard Law School in July 1998.

RREECCEENNTT SSPPEECCIIAALL EEVVEENNTTSS On October 10, 1997, theEdwin O. Reischauer/Kodansha Ltd. CommemorativeSymposium took place at the Reischauer/ Kodansha

House in Belmont, Massachusetts. After opening remarksby Mr. KKaazzuuhhiiddee SSaaiinnoowwaakkii, Vice President of Kodansha,Professor TTaakkeesshhii KKookkuubboo, executive editor of theKodansha Encyclopedia of Japan between 1977 and 1983,discussed the production of the encyclopedia. Afterwards,Mr. Sainowaki presented the Noma-Reischauer Prizes forbest student essays to this year's winners, BBaarrbbrraa AAmmbbrrooss,JJeeffffrreeyy BBaayylliissss, and EEddwwaarrdd MMaacckk (graduate students) andRRoobbbbii LLoouuiissee MMiilllleerr (undergraduate). Undergraduates EEmmeerrOO''DDwwyyeerr and SSaannddrraa PPaarrkk also received special bookprizes. Other guests from Kodansha included Mr. TTeettssuuooYYaammaammoottoo, Mr. JJiirroo OOnnooddaa and Ms. KKeeii OOhhaarraa; the JapanForum was represented by Mr. NNoobbuukkaazzuu TTaakkaasshhiimmaa andMr. YYuukkiioo IIttoohh. The Symposium was accompanied by aphoto exhibit depicting Prof. Reischauer's activities duringthe ambassadorial years. The Noma-Reischauer awardswere established by Kodansha in October 1995 to honor thememory of the late Prof. Reischauer, who began to teach atHarvard in 1938.

* * *

On November 24, 1997, journalist and author IIaann BBuurruummaapresented his research on “The Peril of Evil Symbols: TheNanking Massacre in Historical Imagination.”

Special Events


Puubblliiccaattiioonnss ffrroomm tthhee CCoouunncciill oonn EEaasstt AAssiiaann SSttuuddiieess

Studies in the Comic Spirit in Modern Japanese Fiction byJoel R. Cohn, Associate Professor of Japanese at theUniversity of Hawai‘i at Manoa. (Harvard-YenchingInstitute Monograph Series 41)

Unlike traditional Japanese literature, which has a richtradition of comedy, modern Japanese literature (or at leastthe parts of it studied by literary critics) is commonlyassociated with a high seriousness of purpose. In this path-breaking study, Joel R. Cohn analyzes works by threewriters—Ibuse Masuji (1898–1993), Dazai Osamu(1909–1948), and Inoue Hisashi (1934– )—whose worksconstitute a relentless assault on the notion that comedycannot be part of serious literature.

Cohn focuses on thematic, structural, and stylisticelements in the works of these writers to show that modernJapanese comedic literature is a product of a particular setof historical, social, and cultural experiences. Manyelements found in Japanese comedy can be found in theliteratures of other nations, particularly the tendency to usecomedy as means of deflating cultural norms. Cohn finds,however, that cultural and social forces in modern Japanhave led to the creation of comic literature that tends todeflect attention away from a human other and turn in onitself, either in the form of authorial self-mockery or ludictreatment of non-human objects, the imperfections oflanguage, and texts.

Other recent studies on Japanese literature from the Councilon East Asian Studies include:

The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki’s Fiction byAnthony Hood Chambers

Rituals of Self-revelation: Shishøsetsu as Literary Genreand Socio-cultural Phenomenon by Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit

The Willow in Autumn: Ry¥tei Tanehiko, 1783–1842 byAndrew Lawrence Markus

Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism inthe Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Öe Kenzaburø by SusanJ. Napier

Three Japan-related articles will appear in the June1998 issue of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies:“Dømyaku Sensei and the ‘Housemaid’s Ballad’

(1969)” by the late Andrew Marcus; “From WomanWarrior to Peripatetic Entertainer: The Multiple Historiesof Tomoe” by Steven T. Brown; and “Textual Malfeasancein Yosano Akiko’s Shin’yaku Genji Monogatari” by G. G.Rowley.

Research and Publication in the HarvardJapanese Studies Community

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we will see. The only inconvenience with both interfaces isthat the menu for the next search can be brought up only atthe end of a long scroll.

I tried a dozen searches for this review and, for each, gotmore than twice as many "hits" from JI than from ZKS.For example, a keyword search for "uyoku" (right wing) forthe last five years turned up 292 articles with JI, but 48 withZKS. About 20 percent of both the JI and ZKS finds wereabout non-Japan right-wing topics; ZKS also incorrectlyreported three articles that had the wrong "uyoku" (anadnoun meaning foremost, right-hand side) in their titles.When I modified the search with the keyword "Japan", ZKSreported only four finds, versus sixty with JI. The narrowedsearch missed a large number of potentially pertinentarticles with both databases, suggesting that a “geographiclocator” is missing in most of the indexing in bothdatabases.

A closer look at the initial results of my search helps tounderstand the different characters of these two journalindex databases. Of the forty-eight articles reported byZKS, only two referred to current politics. In contrast, JIreported many articles on right-wing involvement innational politics, including recent prime ministers. Yet aunique virtue of ZKS is its extensive coverage ofmonograph series published by Japanese universities, and ofother serials published by academic and research institutes.A number of the "uyoku" articles reported by ZKS appearin specialized professional and academic journals likeKeisatsu jihø (Police current), Keisatsugaku ronsh¥ (Policestudies), Hyøron shakai kagaku (Review of Social Science),and Rødø undø (Labor movement). JI is likely to give moreextensive results for searches on contemporary topicspertinent to the social sciences, and even to literature andhistory. Its ability to generate more results may owe toZKS's two-page rule, its less aggressive indexing based onolder classifications, and its small universe of indexedjournals prior to 1996.

But the usefulness of both of these index databases willdepend on the needs and strategies of the individualresearcher.

P.S.: Nichigai Web Service can provide xeroxed copies ofrequested articles to registered members via fax or mail fora fee. Nichigai's own ID number follows each citation forthis purpose. An electronic document delivery system isunder development by NACSIS (National Center forScience Information Systems) of Japan.

4 Continued from Page 4

Documentation Center onContemporary Japan


Japanese Studies in the West: CEAO at theUniversity of Madrid

The CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS DE ASIA

ORIENTAL (CEAO, Center for East Asian Studies)

was created in 1992 at the Universidad Autónoma

de Madrid (UAM). Its premises are conveniently located

in the Rectorate Building of the main Cantoblanco campus.

UAM ranked top in the only research performance

evaluation of Spanish Universities (conducted by the

Ministry of Education and Science in the early 1990s) and

was chosen by the Spanish Royal Family for the education

of the Crown Heir, Prince Felipe de Borbón, who recently

graduated there in Law and Economics. The first of its

kind formally established in Spain, the CEAO is devoted to

research and teaching activities on the diverse cultural,

social, economical, and political facets of East Asian

countries, though with special attention to Japan and China.

CEAO faculty teach curricular courses and seminars at

both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as

extracurricular courses. All members are engaged in a

number of research projects and specialized programs,

national and international. In this way, gradually, solid

foundations are being set for the establishment of UAM

degrees in East Asian studies. In addition to regularly

organized symposia, the CEAO also provides translation,

documentation, and other consulting services to both pubic

institutions and private entities.

The CEAO is directed by Dr. Taciana Fisac, Titular

Professor of Chinese Language and Culture at the UAM.

Other Senior members include: Professor Santos Ruesga

(Japanese economics), Professor Kayoko Takagi (Japanese

language and culture), Professor Pilar González España

(Chinese language and culture), Professor Francisco

Marcos Marín (Chinese linguistics), Professor Michael

Prosser (Chinese society), and Ms. Du Wenbin (Reference

library and documentation). Junior members include: Ms.

Leila Fernández Stembridge (Chinese economics), Ms.

Gladys Nieto (Chinese anthropology), Ms. Elena García

Herrero (Reference library and documentation), Mr. Javier

Salamanca (Chinese linguistics), Mr. Luis Lara (Chinese

linguistics), and Mr. Victor M. Benito (Chinese studies).

Associate members are: Professor Kazuei Tokado

(Japanese economics) and Professor Zhang Baowei

(Chinese art and architecture). Current Visiting Lecturers

are: Ms. Aki Imaeda (Japanese language) and Ms. Fu

CEAO, Centro de

Estudios de Asia Oriental 1992

U A M , U n i v e r s i d a d

Autónoma de Madrid CEAO

UAM 1990

CEAO

UAM

CEAO

Du

Wenbin

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Zhang Baowei

Fu Xiaofang

CEAO

UAM

UAM CEAO

Chiang Chingkuo

CEAO

Zhejiang

(e-mail: [email protected])

Xiaofang (Chinese language).

Since its inception four years ago, the activities of the

CEAO have been possible thanks, first of all, to the full and

sustained support offered by the academic authorities of the

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. For instance, UAM was

the first university in Spain to incorporate Chinese studies

and Japanese studies on a curricular basis, and to create

permanent professorships in the area of East Asian

Languages and Cultures. But the CEAO strongly benefited

also from research grants and teaching funds provided,

among others, by the following governmental and non-

governmental bodies: Spanish Inter-Ministerial Commission

for Science and Technology, Spanish Ministry of Foreign

Affairs, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation,

Japan Foundation, State Education Commission of the PRC,

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Spain, Chiang

Chingkuo International Foundation, Kodansha Publishing

Company, Tiema International Corporation, Fujitsu

Corporation, and the British Council.

The CEAO maintains formal links and collaborative

exchange projects with the Center for Modern Chinese

Studies at Oxford University, the Department of Chinese

Language and Literature at the University of Hawai‘i in

Manoa, the Instituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, the

Departement d’Études Extrême Orientales at the University

of Bordeaux, the Centro de Estudios de Africa y Asia at El

Colegio de México, the Foreign Studies University in

Beijing, the Zhejiang Fine Arts Academy, and the Hokuriku

University in Japan. CEAO has also been endowed by

UNESCO with complete editorial responsibility for its East

Asian Literatures series in Spanish.

(e-mail: [email protected])

University of Madrid

Continued from Page 8

Production CreditsLayout: Galen Amstutz/Jeff Kurashige

Original Design: Bradley K. Edmister

TSüSHIN was produced using QuarkXPress 3.31J, Adobe Photoshop3.0, and Adobe Illustrator 6.0.


Development of Japanese Studies

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(Harold Bolitho), and the Meiji Restoration (AlbertCraig). This volume also addresses Japanese studieswithin anthropology (Jennifer Robertson), literarystudies (Norma Field), law (Frank Upham), andpolitical science (Kent Calder). The volume’s finalessay discusses the situation of Japanese studieswithin contemporary debates on the post-Cold Warfuture of area studies (Andrew Gordon).

The period 1945 to 1960 saw the establishment ofJapanese studies in the major research universities,staffed by a generation of scholars who hadparticipated in World War II or the AlliedOccupation of Japan after the war, often eitherraised in Japan or having their first instruction inJapanese language as part of their militaryexperience. Such wartime studies as Benedict’s TheChrysanthemum and the Sword had identified apsychological profile supposedly valid for allJapanese in all times, a monolithic, stereotypicalportrait which would sort out the essentialdifferences between Japan and the West. Theframework was implicitly comparative andstraightforwardly essentialist. The circumstances ofits undertaking were defined by the needs of militaryintelligence. Translations of literature emergingsoon after the war dovetailed with Benedict’semphasis, stressing ahistorical, apolitical images ofJapan rather than representing a cross-section of theactual literary world after World War II, which wasriven with division, desperate to confront thequestion of war responsibility, and struggling todiscern religious meaning in the tragedy of theatomic bombings. Zen emerged to epitomizepopular American images of the entire culture ofJapan. These various images combined to producean exotic, aesthetically pleasing foil to wartimeattitudes, making it clear that Japan offeredsomething eminently worthy of study, showing acultural sophistication equal to the standards ofWestern history and culture. In the main, Japanesestudies emphasized empirical scholarship, withcorrespondingly less stress upon conceptual ortheoretical innovation.

For most of the postwar decades, modernizationhas provided the major framework for the study ofJapan, establishing an enduring line of scholarship.The history of Japan since the Meiji Restoration of1868 was conceptualized as the period of Japan’smodernization, a century or so in which Japan wastransformed from a premodern or “feudal”agricultural country to a modern, industrialized,urbanized society. In the process, political forms

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developed from an autocratic regime, withmilitaristic and imperialistic phases, to a democraticnation after 1945. How Japan accomplished such amonumental and thorough-going change in so shorta time was a question that inspired many scholars ofJapan since 1945 and influenced the entire field.The pervasive influence of the modernizationperspective also provided a unifying force withinJapanese studies, even as each area of study becameincreasingly specialized. No alternative perspectiveof comparable power to connect Japan to other areasof academic inquiry has yet emerged, nor do themore recent paradigms provide a comparable unityfor the whole field.

In the 1980s, studies of modernization wereovershadowed by a variety of other theoreticalframeworks. Not all of these derived from acritique of modernization, though as the influence ofsocial and cultural history has grown in theAmerican academy generally, many doubts havebeen raised about just how “painless” Japan’stransition to modernity was. A natural sequel tosuch suspicions was the study of non-elite groups,for whom the transition to modernity was anythingbut painless. Structuralism, post-structuralism,deconstructionism, postmodernism, and rationalchoice theory have all found proponents in Japanesestudies. The waxing and waning of these theoreticalparadigms follow diverse patterns within Japanesestudies’ various fields.

Critiques of area studies, based on the idea thatthey are inherently “Orientalist,” began to make animpact on Asian studies as a whole and on Japanesestudies in particular during the 1980s. As theauthors of this volume’s essays describe thesituation, many early studies of Japan in factincorporated the assumptions of the orientalistperspective, misguidedly perpetuating an implicitbinarism, a tacitly comparative perspective tendingto caricature Japan. Postmodernism incorporatesand extends critiques of area studies based onOrientalism. Postmodernism emphasizes differentideas in different disciplines, but these essayssuggest that postmodernism’s appeal withinJapanese studies shows a pervasive generationalpattern, such that many younger scholars find itconstructive and illuminating, whereas their elderstypically find it undermining and inimical.

Rational choice theory challenges all area studiesthrough its claim that humanity everywhere obeysunitary rules of human behavior, implying that morespecific considerations of particular histories,

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societies, and cultures are merely epiphenomena ofno determinative value. In other words, theory-making can and should be “content-free.” Localknowledge on this view becomes almost an obstacleto understanding rather than a precondition of it.The discipline most affected by the rational choiceperspective is political science, along with someareas in modern history. Rational choice has fewoutright proponents in Japanese studies, but thisvolume’s essays suggest that, at least among youngerscholars, there is a growing interest and a belief thatit must be addressed straightforwardly.

Japanese studies in each discipline has becomeincreasingly specialized, following a general patternin the American academy. Graduate training haslengthened, making it possible for students to receivemore advanced disciplinary training as well asrequiring increasingly higher levels of competence inJapanese language and deeper knowledge of aparticular subject within Japanese studies. The levelof specialization expected in the disciplines has risenso much that it is difficult for, say, a politicalscientist of Japan to understand and appreciate theefforts of literary scholars, and vice versa. Japanesestudies in the disciplines of economics andlinguistics has become so technical that other Japanspecialists can rarely claim to comprehend them.While increasing specialization is a mark ofJapanese studies’ increasing sophistication andacceptance, growing specialization makes it unlikelythat a single theoretical perspective could emerge tocapture the attention of the whole field again.

As modernization gradually ceased to provide aunifying focus, Japanese studies was growing in sizeand diversity, including many more women andAsian-Americans than before. Those beginningtheir academic careers in the 1980s had been betterfunded as graduate students, and they had theopportunity to study language (often withgovernment grant support) for much longer thantheir predecessors, under more professional teachers,using better texts, and holding to a higher standard.They were able to study in Japan for longer periods,and to develop extensive contacts with Japanesescholars. Although their undergraduate yearscoincided with the Vietnam War, almost none hadmilitary experience, though many had the experienceof civil disobedience in opposition to that war or inthe context of the civil rights or feminist movements.Almost no one was in sympathy with the propositionthat area studies should contribute to intelligencework. Their experience channeled them towards

11





iconoclasm and attracted them to the debunkingpotential of new theoretical writings. They were lessrespectful of Japanese society’s taboos onunwelcome topics (discrimination against women,the burakumin, or studies of the imperial house,crime, minorities, etc.). There were more outlets forpublications, and, in part because they were alsomembers of the “baby boom” generation, higherexpectations of publication were imposed on them asa condition of being granted academic tenure. Theyfaced little competition from European or Britishscholarship on Japan, and indeed, European andBritish scholars, foreseeing the decline of their ownuniversity systems, came to this country insignificant numbers.

By the end of the Cold War, a variety of dissonantimages of Japan had proliferated to replace theexotic, essentialized portraits. Japan is no longer the“younger brother” to be instructed (an attitudelasting into the 1970s), nor does anyone expect it tobecome the next world hegemon (a much-fearedscenario of the 1980s). There is much interest incomparative scholarship, and postmodernism andrational choice theory both offer scope forcomparative work. Similarly, the resurgence of apan-Asian perspective in public discourse withinJapan itself has led to renewed interest amongJapanese scholars in comparative scholarship.

This volume’s essays were written between 1995and 1997, just as the implications for area studies ofall kinds of the end of the Cold War were beingdebated. One long-standing criticism of area studiesheld that they were originally sponsored in order toassist government and military intelligenceoperations and hence lack academic independenceand integrity. On this view, leveled most pointedlyat Southeast Asian studies and Soviet studies, theend of the Cold War should signal the end of a needfor area studies. From a different perspective,however, it is argued that “globalization” and theincreasing economic integration of nations produce amuch increased need for deep understanding of thehistory, society, language, and culture of othernations, underlining the continued, even increasedneed for sophisticated area studies. With suchdebates about the meaning of the end of the ColdWar for area studies forming the geopoliticalbackground, current theoretical debate seems toundermine the value of area studies education, whichstresses extensive language work and broad, detailedunderstanding of other nations’ history, society, andculture.

1970 1980

1995 1997

12




Japanese studies in the United States today is alarge and flourishing area of scholarship, onecontributing strongly to global research on Japan andfully established in the humanities and in most socialsciences disciplines of American universities. Bycomparison with other branches of area studies,Japanese studies has developed steadily andexpanded without major setbacks since 1945. Thegreat outpouring of scholarship on Japan, far beyondthe capacity of a single scholar even to monitor, letalone read and digest, testifies to the vitality of thefield and to its record of cumulative scholarshipthroughout the disciplines.

Yet when seen from a perspective examining theinfluence of Japanese studies within separatedisciplines or sub-fields, many scholars would saythat it has yet to achieve its full potential, that thebroader significance of insights gained in the studyof Japan is too seldom recognized by those outsideJapanese studies, and that scholars of Japan havehardly ever succeeded in altering the Eurocentricperspectives which prevail in most disciplines. Inother words, Japanese studies’ quantitative andinstitutional growth has not been matched by acorresponding theoretical impact.

Nevertheless, other factors have emerged tomitigate this situation. With the advance of“globalization,” convergences between Japanese andWestern society have become apparent. Much likeAmerican young people, Japanese youth arecurrently fascinated by questions of personal identityand the potentials for recreation, personaltransformation, and social change to be found inreligion, pop culture, and technology. Currentliterature displays similar themes. There is littleidealization of tradition, no essential self, and nofirm barrier between humanity and the technology itcreates. In this situation, it is hardly to be expectedthat anyone could seriously entertain the idea of amonolithic national essence. National boundarieshave become less relevant, and this means that it ismore difficult to sustain thoroughgoing distinctionsof cultural boundaries, and that it is more appealingto place the study of Japan within a globalcomparative or at least pan-Asian context. Thoughthe connections are indistinct and indirect, theconcerns of contemporary culture thus seem to echothe postmodern or rational-choice perspectives of therising generations of scholars of Japan. I hope thatthis volume can contribute to a more comprehensiveunderstanding of the history and presentcircumstances of Japanese studies.


1945


Continued from Page 13 13


Japanese Studies in the East: the Asiatic Society of Japan

—

5 1872

125

18761889

1992 120

1997

Alive and well in Tokyo! The purpose of this report isto invite all Asia scholars to become involved in theactivities of the Asiatic Society of Japan.

The Asiatic Society of Japan was established in Yokohamain 1872, just five years after the Meiji Restoration. In thespirit of the times, as the Japanese were looking intensely atthe world outside their borders, a group of largely Britishand American diplomats, businessmen, and missionariesliving in Japan decided to meet regularly to learn moreabout the country where they resided. At that time verylittle scholarly information about Japan in English wasavailable, so at almost every meeting what members heardwas fresh and groundbreaking to them. Though they didn’trealize it at the time, they were participating in the birth of anew field of scholarly inquiry, Japan Studies. Societymembers carried out two basic activities: monthly meetingsconsisting of a lecture, and production of an annualpublication called Transactions of the Asiatic Society ofJapan.

Today, 125 years later, these two activities continue toconstitute the core efforts of the Asiatic Society’s membersin Tokyo. Lectures are usually held on the second or thirdMonday of the month and are announced in The JapanTimes and other English language newspapers. TheTransactions, now in its Fourth Series and running to manyvolumes, was updated in style and format about ten yearsago, but it continues to uphold the high standards of itsearlier volumes.

From the very beginning, the Asiatic Society hasconducted its activities, both lectures and publications, inEnglish. Japanese members were welcomed from the veryearliest meetings and continue to be active in the Societytoday, both as officers and members. Historically, the best-known Japanese member of the Society was probably MoriArinori, who became Minister of Education in the MeijiGovernment. He first joined the Asiatic Society in 1876 andwas a member still in 1889 at the time of his assassination.Scores of other distinguished Japanese scholars and officialswho played important roles in modern Japanese historywere once members, including many government officialsand university presidents during the Taishø and early Shøwaperiods.

Since the end of World War II, the Society has enjoyedactive support from members of The Imperial Family. Forexample, at its 120th Anniversary in 1992 the Society wasaddressed by His Imperial Highness The Crown Prince, whospoke about his research on Japanese history. In 1997 theAsiatic Society welcomed as its Honorary Patrons TheirImperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Takamado, whohave long been supporters of the Society and are often

Ronald Suleski, Associate, Fairbank Center, Harvard University

16 Continued on page 16

present at its gatherings.

Among the Western names affiliated with the Societyeither as officers or as guest lecturers, one will find a virtualWho’s Who of Japan Studies from its earliest days to thepresent: Basil Hall Chamberlain and Ernest M. Satow, twopioneering Western scholars of Japanese history; J.C.Hepburn, creator of the romanization system for Japanesestill used today; and G.B. Sansom and Lafcadio Hearn, bothacute observers of Meiji Japan. The Presbyterianmissionary August Reischauer spent twenty-six years as amember of the Asiatic Society; his son Edwin becameAmerican Ambassador to Japan in the early 1960s and waselected to the Council of the Society (the ReischauerInstitute at Harvard is named after Edwin). These daysaudiences are likely to include the respected observer ofJapanese popular culture Donald Richie, the Editor ofMonumenta Nipponica (and former President of theSociety) Michael Cooper, and, when he is visiting Tokyo,the doyen of American Japan scholars Donald Keene.

Perhaps because of its distinguished history and its well-placed connections, some people see the Asiatic Society asan exclusive club not welcoming to younger scholars. Theopposite is true. The Asiatic Society is a place where allpersons with an intellectual curiosity about Japan and itsAsian neighbors are welcome to join and become active,especially individuals who will be in Tokyo and thus able toattend the monthly meetings. Moreover, the Society eagerlywelcomes younger scholars who will be contributing to thefield of Japanese Studies into the future.

Members receive a monthly Bulletin that reports onprevious and upcoming lectures and gives news of theSociety. Members also receive a copy of the annualTransactions. Scholars who will be in Tokyo and wouldlike to address the Society are invited to contact the Societyin Tokyo with their proposal (several months in advance,please), and scholars wishing to order the Transactions or bepublished there are invited to contact the Editor in Tokyo.The current President/Editor is His Excellency, TheHonorable George Sioris, the Ambassador of Greece, arespected and widely published scholar of Asia.

The Society can be contacted through Mrs. NorikoIriyama, The Asiatic Society of Japan, OAG Haus 7-5-56Akasaka, Minatoku, Tokyo 107 Japan. Tel 81-3-3586-1548; Fax 81-3-5572-6269Internet: http://tiu.ac.jp/~bduell/ASJ

(Dr. Ronald Suleski joined the Asiatic Society of Japan in1981 and served as its President from 1987 to 1994.)


HM

G B

261960

—Mrs. Noriko Iriyama, The Asiatic Societyof Japan, OAG Haus 7-5-56 Akasaka, Minatoku, Tokyo 107Japan. Tel 81-3-3586-1548; Fax 81-3 5572-6269Internet: http://tiu.ac.jp/~bduell/ASJ

19811987 94

Asiatic Society of Japan



From the Editor

Galen Amstutz, Editor

Once, six years ago, I was working on my Ph.D.dissertation on a cold and snowy winter’s day inPrinceton, New Jersey. I needed to know in

Japanese characters the name of a certain author and thetitle of the author’s Japanese book. (Foolishly, I had notwritten the information down properly at the right time.)But because I needed to know the answer on that day, I setout to walk a mile through the snow to the Princeton Asianlibrary. I climbed the flights of stairs, located theinformation in the traditional card catalog, and then returnedhome, a mile through the snow again, to my computer.Although I enjoyed a refreshing hike through the chill, Ilost a lot of time in this process....

Japanese studies scholars in any previous generation mayrecognize this kind of anecdote! However, since the spring1997 arrival of the NACSIS Webcat system on the Internet,the relative inaccessibility of Japanese bibliographicinformation which caused my travails just a couple of yearsago has vanished.

Japanese-language library records have actually existedin electronic forms for a number of years. A CJK (Chinese,Japanese, Korean) system has long been used in the UnitedStates by the cooperative university research consortiumknown as RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network).However, RLIN’s CJK records have always required aspecial (and expensive) software to decode, and with rarelocal exceptions—for one example, a few computers inHarvard-Yenching Library’s public area which werespecially loaded with this software —CJK records wereused only by North American Asian studies librarians.They were not visible to ordinary library users, whocontinued to have to rely on card catalogs.

In Japan the computerization of library records hassteadily evolved for many years, especially under thesponsorship of NACSIS, the National Center for ScienceInformation Systems in the Monbushø. This largegovernment agency was founded in 1986 to serve universityresearch in Japan and has undertaken a number of importantinformation retrieval and distribution projects (these aredescribed on its website at http://www.nacsis.ac.jp/nacsis.index.html). However, the availability of thiselectronic library information initially tended to berestricted to academic environments within Japan itself. Forone thing, access required membership in the NACSISsystem, but more importantly, although the records were intheory available worldwide to foreign members, in actualpractice for technical reasons the procedure was too

1997NACSIS Webcat

CJKRLIN

RLIN CJK

CJK

NACSIS

1986

(http://www.nacsis.ac.jp/nacsis.index.html

NACSIS

Reischauer Institute Website (includes Japanese Studies links and calendar of Japanese Studies Events)

www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs

18 Continued on page 18

cumbersome to be useful.

Early in 1997, however, NACSIS began a pilot project todisplay a national compilation of bibliographic informationabout books in Japanese libraries on an Internet site, oneaccessible worldwide with no technical obstacles. This siteis the NACSIS Webcat bibliographic search engine(http://webcat.nacsis.ac.jp/webcat.html) and it marks arevolution.

NACSIS Webcat is very well designed. It operates inboth kana/kanji and romaji modes so that it locates books inany languages cataloged in the participating Japanesecollections. Instruction screens for users are available inboth Japanese and English. Queries can be entered byauthor, title, publisher, year of publication or standardidentification numbers. Keyword searches are possible.Although the information may be less useful outside ofJapan, the entries indicate the Japanese libraries which holdthe title and their addresses. Such records of course haveall kinds of incidental uses, for example ascertaining thecharacters for writing Japanese names or whether names areto be written with long or short vowel markings intransliteration.

Thanks to NACSIS Webcat, we students of Japanesestudies may not from this point in time onwards get quite asmuch physical exercise as in the past! In exchange,however, we are all now able to have, sitting at our personalcomputers, unprecedented awareness of the contents ofJapanese libraries and of bibliographic entries in Japanesealmost instantly. Perhaps nothing will be more importantfor the increasing globalization and sophistication of ouracademic field.


1997 NACSIS

NACSIS Webcat (http://webcat.nacsis.ac.jp/webcat.

html)

NACSIS Webcat

NACSIS Webcat

Address ideas and correspondence about TSüSHIN to Dr. Galen Amstutz,

Institute Coordinator, at the Reischauer Institute address, or via e-mail to

ggaammssttuuttzz@@ffaass..hhaarrvvaarrdd..eedduu.. Most of the content of TSüSHIN is available on the

Reischauer Institute’s Internet website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs.

The Reischauer Institute would like to thank the following persons who

have specially contributed recently:

Kuniko Yamada McVey, Documentation Center Director

Yumiko Ishii, Volunteer

Kazuo Yoshizaki, Volunteer

Hiromi Maeda, Volunteer

Maki Kuroda, Volunteer

Naomi Fujikawa, Volunteer

Tomoko Sanada, Volunteer

Jeff Kurashige, Work-study Assistant

The Institute offers its sincere thanks to all those individuals and

institutions who have submitted articles and information featured in this issue.

Dr. Ga l en Amstut z

gam stut z@fas .harvard.edu

htt p: // www. fas.

harva rd. edu/~ri js

DCJ

From the Editor



On Sunday, April 19, 1998, the Edwin O. ReischauerInstitute of Japanese Studies with the Japan Societyof Boston will present “Kurozumikyø Kibigaku:

Shintø Sacred Dance.”

From Okayama City, Japan, over sixty dancers andmusicians of Kurozumikyø (a Shintø religion founded in1814 by the Shinto priest Munetada Kurozumi), willperform Kibigaku, its official music and dance, whichincorporates elements of gagaku and shrine kagura, musicperformed on koto, drum, and reed instruments.Traditionally performed before a shrine altar, it is presentedin a series of discrete songs and dances, some of which aresolo performances and some of which involve as many asfive dancers at one time. The costumes (modeled on Heiancourt attire) form an important part of the performance andare very beautiful. This event will be the first-everperformance of Kibigaku outside of Japan.

The lecture/performance will take place in Lowell Hall,Harvard University, at 3:00 - 5:00 pm and is free to thepublic. Free tickets will be issued beginning in Marchthrough the Sanders Theatre Box Office (in Memorial Hall,45 Quincy St., (617) 496-2222). For further informationplease contact: Reischauer Institute, (617) 495-3220.

A Unique Performance Event: Kurozumikyo Kibigaku

—

1998 4 19

—

1814

45 Quincy St. 617-496-2222

617-495-3220

"Male Dance" from the ceremonial music known as the "Divine Music"

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese StudiesHarvard University319 Coolidge Hall1737 Cambridge StreetCambridge, Massachusetts 02138United States of AmericaTEL: (617) 495-3220 • FAX: (617) 496-8083

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