| Abstract |

In diesem Vortrag wird die Souvenirphotographie aus dem Yokohama der 1890er Jahre, die in dieser Zeit den Gipfel ihrer Popularität erreichte, aus dem Blickwinkel des modernen „Sehens“ untersucht. Im 19. Jahrhundert, einer Epoche, in der eine Vielzahl neuer gesellschaftlicher Phänomene auftraten, wurden neue Sehgewohnheiten zu einem festen Bestandteil des modernen Lebens, in dem u.a. das künstliche Licht und neue Fortbewegungsmittel die Wahrnehmung der Welt entscheidend transformierten. In verschiedenen Feldern wie visuelle Kultur, Unterhaltungsindustrie, Kulturpolitik und Ausstellungswesen veränderte sich darüber hinaus der Prozess des Sehens, das teils ideologisch aufgeladen wurde. Die visuellen Souvenire aus dem Meiji-zeitlichem Japan, die in diesem Umfeld entstanden sind, stellen daher ein besonderes Format interkultureller Begegnung dar, bei denen Machtverhältnisse durch Fotografien zu Tage treten und spezielle Blickregime sichtbar werden.

Der Vortrag beleuchtet die Zentralität des Phänomens des (modernen) Sehens für die Meiji-zeitliche Souvenirphotographie, und geht auf die enge Verbindung zwischen der Souvenirphotographie-Industrie, dem Globetrotter-Tourismus, der Unterhaltungsindustrie, den Völkerschauen, dem Ausstellungswesen und der Rationalisierung des Sehens ein. Mit diesem Ansatz zeigt der Vortrag eine neue Perspektive für die Analyse der kommerziellen Photographie der späten Meiji-Zeit auf.

| Bio |

Dr. Mio Wakita-Elis ist Leiterin der Sammlung Asien und Kuratorin am Museum für angewandte Kunst in Wien (MAK). Nach ihrem Studium der Politikwissenschaft an der Keiō-Universität in Tokyo schloss sie das Studium der Europäische und Orientalische Kunstgeschichte sowie Japanologie an der Universität Köln und Universität Bonn ab. An der Universität Heidelberg hat sie in Japanischer Kunstgeschichte promoviert. Nach Forschungsaufenthalt am German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. und London sowie Forschungstätigkeit am Exzellenzcluster der Universität Heidelberg lehrte sie bis 2019 Japanische Kunstgeschichte am Institut für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens in Heidelberg. Die von ihr kuratierten Sonderausstellungen mit Bezug zu Ostasien-relevanten Themen sind u.a. „Kuniyoshi+: Design und Entertainment im japanischen Farbholzschnitt“ (2019, zusammen mit J. Wieninger), „UKIYOENOW“ (2019, zusammen mit J. Wieninger), „FALTEN / FOLDS“ (2023) und „Wiener Weltausstellung 1873 Revisited: Ägypten und Japan als Europas <orient>“ (2023, mit J. Wieninger als wissenschaftlicher Berater). Die Schwerpunkte ihrer Forschung sind Kunst- und Designgeschichte Japans und Asiens im globalen Kontext, postkoloniale Geschichten asiatischer Kunst in Mitteleuropa, Provenienzforschung chinesischer und japanischer Sammlungen in Österreich, feministisch-postkoloniale Repräsentationskritik und visuelle und materielle Kultur Japans des 19., 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts </orient>

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e11
Thursday 2024-01-25, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e11.

| Abstract |

The two rocks of the famous Shinto monument Meoto Iwa, a symbol of divine marriage, have inspired many Japanese and foreign visitors. One of those so inspired was Austrian art collector Adolf Fischer, who developed a strong interest in Japanese art after visiting the Weltausstellung 1873 in Vienna. In his book "Bilder aus Japan", Fischer offers an arresting description of Meoto Iwa, accompanied by a small illustration. Gustav Klimt, who had a close and productive relationship with Fischer, not only knew his book but also—and not without Fischer’s help—assembled his own collection of Japanese art. This paper argues that Fischer’s engaging account of Meoto Iwa in the book (as well as undoubtedly in his private conversations with the artist) inspired a series of Klimt’s key paintings. At first, the modified version of the two rocks of Meoto Iwa appeared in the second Portrait of Emilie Flöge (1902), Klimt’s life-long friend and companion.

A few years later, Klimt, an ardent adherent of Symbolism, return to the gripping symbolism of Meoto Iwa in his key work The Kiss (1908), placing an embraced coupled on top of a large rock. This research illuminates stylistic, iconographic, symbolic, and even thematic parallels between the two paintings. Klimt’s interest in Shinto symbolism continued until the end of his life. The highly synthesized rock-like ‘construction’ that encapsulates human bodies—similar to kami that occupy rocks—reappears in his subsequent paintings The Virgin (1913), Death and Life (1910-11), The Bride (1918), etc. Offering an analytical approach and, accordingly, critically reevaluating and reexamining prevailing concepts, this lecture illuminates not only Klimt’s interest in Shinto and its symbolism but also elucidates that without taking in account the role of Japonisme in Klimt’s oeuvre it is impossible to fully understand the intricacy of his complex art.

| Bio |

Svitlana Shiells, a former professor of art history, has taught at a number of universities in Ukraine, America, and Austria (among them University of Maryland, College Park, American University, Washington, D.C., George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, VA, Webster University, and Vienna). She completed her studies, including a Ph. D. in art history, in Ukraine. Dr. Shiells has also worked as a Research Associate at the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C, where she was Director of the Washington Cultural Fund. The focus of her research is Japonisme in Eastern and Central European modern art. Dr. Shiells has published widely and presented her research at numerous lectures and seminars, for instance, at Harvard University, Tokyo University of the Arts, the College Art Association, the Library of Congress, the Salzburg Seminar, and other art museums, as well as at conferences in London, Tokyo, Paris, Barcelona, Chicago, Montreal, Baltimore, Salzburg, Washington, D.C., Kharkiv, Budapest, Lviv, etc. Dr. Shiells is a recipient of fellowships in the field of art in the U.S., Ukraine, and Japan. Currently, as an affiliated faculty of GMU, she is living in Vienna, Austria and working on a monograph on Japonisme in Gustav Klimt’s art.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e10
Thursday 2024-01-18, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e10.

| Abstract |

This talk is an exploration of media scandals in contemporary Japanese society. In shedding new light on the study of scandal in Japan, the talk offers a novel view of scandal as a highly mediatized “ritual” which manifests and manages revealed transgressions throughout Japanese history.

The first part of the talk focuses on Japanese scandal as “media product”, and it delves into the media's role in constructing, shaping, and distributing scandals in Japan. Here, Igor Prusa explicates the role of Japanese media organizations in a symbolic process of transforming leaked gossip into a full-fledged scandal.

The second part of the talk approaches Japanese scandal as “social ritual”. It explores the performative nature of scandal, highlighting how the scandal actors become characters in a larger social drama. Further, it demonstrates how the social drama of confession, exclusion and reintegration is turned into a spectacular media event with a high degree of ritualization.

| Bio |

Mgr. Igor Prusa, Ph.D. et Ph.D. is a Czech scholar in Japanese studies and media studies, currently affiliated with Ambis University, Prague. He worked at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Prusa received his first PhD in media studies at Prague’s Charles University in 2010. In 2017 he defended his second doctoral thesis at the University of Tokyo. His research interests include contemporary Japanese society, media scandals, and anti-heroism in popular fiction. His research has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Media, Culture & Society and Japan Forum. Apart from his academic activities, Igor Prusa is a music composer in a Japan-themed band, Nantokanaru.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e09
Thursday 2024-01-11, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e09.

| Abstract |

In the face of socio-economic shifts—a high aging/low childbirth population, decline in marriage and co-residence, irregularization of labor —the family model of mortuary care that once prevailed in Japan is coming undone. As more and more Japanese live and die alone, they face the prospect of becoming “disconnected dead:” stranded without a grave nor social others to be tended by once there. Given the specter of such a bad death, new designs and trends are emerging for both necro-habitation and care-giving the dead.

Prominent here is making mortuary arrangements for and by oneself while still alive (seizen seiri). Such anticipatory death-planning is the issue taken up in this talk. Based on fieldwork with new initiatives and services catering to a clientele of aging singles in Japanese, it is asked: What kind of grievability is this when the sociality of being cared for by others is handled by the self in anticipation of death? Mortuary presentism; a new ontology of the dead?

| Bio |

Anne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, United States. A specialist in contemporary Japan, her books include Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club (1994), Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination (2006), and Precarious Japan (2013). Published this year is Being Dead Otherwise on new Japanese practices regarding the dead, and the relations between self and other in caregiving them.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e08
Thursday 2023-12-07, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations |

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e08.

| Abstract |

After the peak of the ski boom in Japan during the 1990s, many ski resorts either retrenched or ceased operations. However, Niseko, one of the ski resorts in Hokkaido, was an exception. Since 2001, Niseko has been attracting international tourists, particularly from Australia, and has even been referred to as “Little Australia.” As a result, the area has taken on a more Western atmosphere, complete with English signage, Western-style restaurants, and cafes.

The influx of international tourists to Niseko has also created a demand for foreign workers to accommodate guests. During the ski season, a large number of temporary workers come to Niseko to work in the tourism sector. While this is temporary mobility, as they are employed seasonally, there are also people who migrate to Niseko, attracted by the lifestyle. This lecture examines the flow of people to Niseko and its impact on the community, highlighting the voices of local residents.

| Bio |

Atsushi Takeda is a Professor at Ritsumeikan University’s College of Social Sciences in Japan. His research interests include international mobility, migration, tourism, transnationalism, and popular culture. He has published book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on these topics in various journals, including Sociology Compass, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Asian Anthropology, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, and International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Additionally, he serves as an editorial board member for Qualitative Research and the Romanian Journal of Sociological Studies.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e07
Thursday 2023-11-30, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e07.

| Abstract |

In Matsuda Aoko‘s creations, she weaves together traditional feminist themes like gender roles, women in the workplace, marriage, and maternity with more modern discussions on gender identity, sex, and sexuality. Her works often unfold against the backdrop of contemporary Japan, particularly in work settings, shedding light on stories involving gender-based violence and inequalities like sexual harassment, sexism, and abuses of power. 

This lecture focuses on some of the most representative works by the author and their theoretical impact. We examine to what extent they challenge gender normativity and reflect on the preponderant use of devices like metamorphosis, irony and repetition and their different outcomes. We also see how her works, which are generally focused on women‘s characters, in reality reveal an urge for men too to set themselves free from established roles.

| Bio |

Daniela Moro received her Master's Degree from Waseda University in Tokyo and her Ph.D. from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, with a thesis on the works of Enchi Fumiko that was later published as a monograph. She is currently Associate Professor in Japanese Studies in the Department of Humanities at the University of Turin. She is interested in the relationship between Japanese literature and feminist, gender and queer studies. In particular, she focuses on female writers working between the 1960s and the 1980s, but she also looks at contemporary writers. Recently she has published an article on Matsuda Aoko's work (2023): "A silent fight to challenge the norm in Matsuda Aoko's 'Sutakkingu Kanō' (2012)", Japan Forum, 35:4, 410-43. DOI: 10.1080/09555803.2023.2248156

You can reach her at daniela.moro@unito.it

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e06
Thursday 2023-11-23, 18:00~19:30

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Abstract |

As the final decade of pre-online mediated street culture came to an end in the early 2000s, curated interest in girls' fashions, culture and postures of defiance vanished along with street fashion and public subculture in its last stand. What arose and has taken attention in the twenty first century have been various animation, ero ge-mu, and boys' screen and bedroom cultures which have picked up and run the theme of defiance from schoolgirl actors in the media gaze of the 1990s to early 2000s.

In this lecture we will explore the combatative girl character in cross-dressed male parody of real girls, cross-dressed play and virtual shōjo avatar livestreaming. This paper will explore the transfer of bombastic girls' street style into boys parodic cross-dressing, and the re-assemblage of girls' cute aesthetics as a form of masculine virtual style and some of the underlying context for these riveting performances in social class and gender rearrangements in the late recessionary period of the 2000s.

| Bio |

Sharon Kinsella's earlier work looked at cuteness and infantilism as rebellion; the educational and class factors behind the institutional and commercial transformation of manga for adults in the 1990s; otaku subculture and Lolita complex subcultures. Sharon's second full-length book, Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan (2014) incorporates research on girls' street styles and male journalism and an examination of the 'cult of girls' in the late 1990s to the 2010s. Sharon's most recent research focus has been on the rise of female cross dress amongst younger men in the 2010s. In this research phase she has written 3 articles and made a collaborative film, Josō, exploring the political-economic and social class factors surrounding cross-dress fashion and cuteness for men (otoko no ko) in Tokyo.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e05
Thursday 2023-11-16, 18:00~19:30
max. 50 participants (on site) + max. 300 participants (online) 

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e05.

| Abstract |

Wohl eher unerwartet war das Jahr 2023 von breiten öffentlichen Debatten geprägt, die alte Fragen von Gender und Sexualität neu in den Blick nahmen. Unter anderem haben sich AktivistInnen, das Rechtssystem, und die Politik mit transgender Operationen als Voraussetzung für einen rechtlichen Geschlechtswechsel, der Zustimmung des Partners für eine sichere Abtreibung, der Legalisierung der gleichgeschlechtlichen Ehe, und der Anerkennung der Vergewaltigung ohne Gewaltanwendungsnachweis auseinandergesetzt.

Der Vortrag nimmt diese Debatten zum Anlass, die Geschichte der Geschlechter und Sexualitäten im modernen Japan zu reflektieren.

| Bio |

Sabine Frühstück ist Professorin und der Koichi Takashima Chair für japanische Kulturwissenschaften an der University of California Santa Barbara. Sie interessiert sich für Japans Moderne und Gegenwart im globalen Kontext, schreibt manchmal über die Konventionen wissenschaftlicher Arbeit und stellt gerne die Grenzen nationaler, kultureller und disziplinärer Ordnung in Frage. Im vergangenen Jahr erschienen u.a. ihr Buch Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan (Cambridge UP) sowie die russische Übersetzung ihres Buches Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army [Тревожные воины. Гендер, память и поп-культура в японской армии]und die japanische Übersetzung ihres Buches Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Militarism in Modern Japan [『「戦争ごっこ」の近現代史—児童文化と軍事思想』].

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e04
Wednesday 2023-11-08, 18:30~20:00
max. 50 participants (on site) + max. 300 participants (online) 

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e04.

| Abstract |

This lecture discusses immigrant integration in Japan. It focuses on economic and psychological integration. We also explore social and cultural integrations as predictors for economic and psychological integrations. Hence, we investigate integration from different angles and what hinders the integration of immigrants in Japan. We discuss the characteristics of the contexts under which immigrants are received in Japan. This discussion includes immigration control policies, labor market structures, and ethnic communities.

To examine immigrant integration in Japan, we use the statistical data derived from the nationally representative survey targeting immigrants in 2018. To consider economic integration, we focus on the role of education and labor market segmentation in shaping logged hourly wages. For the study of psychological integration, we observe mental health and intentions to settle or return.

| Bio |

Hirohisa Takenoshita is a professor of sociology and stratification research at the Department of Political Science, Keio University. Before joining Keio University, he worked at Shizuoka University and Sophia University. He published several journal articles and book chapters. These articles were published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration, Journal of International Migration and Integration, Comparative Social Research, Japanese Journal of Sociology, and Sociological Theory and Methods. Book chapters were published in Routledge, Springer, Palgrave Macmillan, and Trans Pacific Press.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e03
Thursday 2023-11-02, 17:00~18:30
max. 50 participants (on site) + max. 300 participants (online) 

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e03.

| Abstract |

KI-gesteuerte Waffensysteme ([Lethal] Autonomous Weapons, [L]AWS), werden oft als "dritte Revolution in der Kriegstechnologie" bezeichnet. Doch während Forscher*innen und Intellektuelle mahnen, dass das Urteil über ein Menschenleben niemals einem Roboter überlassen werden dürfe und im Rahmen der UN-Waffenkonvention bisher ohne viel Erfolg über Regulierungen oder Verbote von LAWS verhandelt wird, verschwimmen zunehmend auch die Grenzen zwischen militärischer und ziviler Technik angesichts selbstfahrender Autos, breit zugänglicher KI-Assistenten und ziviler Drohnen.

Diese vielschichtige Debatte, die von technischen Möglichkeiten, ethischen Bedenken und pragmatischen Abwägungen geprägt ist, wird auch in Japan geführt. In der Tat ist Japan ein spannendes Beispiel für einen Diskurs über solche neuen militärische Technologien: Wie schließlich geht ein Land mit dieser "dritten Revolution" um, dessen in der Verfassung verankerter Verzicht auf das Recht, Krieg zu führen und reguläre Streitkräfte zu unterhalten, integraler Bestandteil seiner pazifistisch geprägten Sicherheitsidentität ist? Und inwiefern spielt die Roboter- und Technikaffinität, die sich häufig in Japanbildern findet, eine Rolle? In Annäherung an eine Antwort auf diese Fragen werden im Vortrag mehrere Diskursebenen (Politik, Forschung, NGOs, Tagespresse) betrachtet und ihre Verflechtungen auf inhaltlicher, sprachlich-symbolischer und auch personeller Ebene erörtert.

| Bio |

Dr. Bernhard Seidl ist Senior Lecturer am Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften der Universität Wien. Er interessiert sich insbesondere für die Dynamik gesellschaftlicher Diskurse im gegenwärtigen Japan, deren Struktur, Akteure und sprachliche Handlungsmuster er über korpuslinguistische Methodik zu erschließen versucht.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e02
Thursday 2023-10-19, 18:00~19:30
max. 50 participants (on site) + max. 300 participants (online) 

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e02.

| Abstract |

During the Edo period (1600-1868), several great festivals honoring the Tokugawa bakufu were staged in Edo in an annual rotation. These were the Sannō Festival, the Kanda Festival, and in 1714 the Nezu Festival. Each event was accompanied by an enormous parade, in which the three sponsoring shrines and supporting city wards presented portable shrines, huge floats, colorful exhibits, exuberant performances of music and dance, and much else. For the bakufu, the shrines, and ward residents the meaning of these festivals changed in conjunction with the social, economic, political, and religious contexts in which the celebrations were embedded. This talk will trace some of these changes in order better to understand what the great festivals of the city signified to sponsors, participants, and spectators alike.

| Bio |

Gerald Grömer, geboren in 1957 in den USA, studierte Klavier an der Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore und Musikwissenschaft an der Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. Von 1998 bis 2023 war er Professor an der University of Yamanshi in Kōfu (Japan), seit Sommer 2023 wohnt er in Wien. Viele seiner Zahlreichen Bücher und anderen Veröffentlichungen beschäftigen sich mit japanischen Strassenkünstlern und blinde Musikerinnen der Frühmoderne. Seit 2016 erschienen auch drei Bände von Übersetzungen von japanischen Essays (zuihitsu) der Edo Zeit (1600-1868).

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s07e01
Thursday 2023-10-12, 18:00~19:30
max. 50 participants (on site) + max. 300 participants (online) 

| Place & Preparations | 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s07/#e01.