u:japan lectures

Season 3 | Fall-Winter 2021/22 | University of Vienna - Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies


Transition from Painted to Painter: The Female Body of Okinawa and its Women Artists

27.01.2022 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Eriko Tomizawa-Kay (University of East Anglia)

| Abstract |

In pre-war Okinawa, while male painters were striving to be recognized and acknowledged by central art circles, with the exception of female students under the tutelage of Okinawan male teachers, opportunities for Okinawan women as artists were extremely limited. The emergence of Okinawan female artists had to wait until the post-war period. This paper discusses the significance of depictions of Okinawan women wearing Ryukyuan apparel - a favourite subject of both Japanese painters and Okinawan male painters during the war emergency period (1930s and 1940s) - in order to elucidate the social complexities of Okinawan women at that time when Okinawa was under the dominion of the Japanese Empire.
   This paper examines three issues: first, how the representations of the Okinawan female body were appropriated to express the relationship between subjugated Okinawa and mainland Japan, and justify discrimination against the Okinawan people. Secondly, during the post-war period, how Okinawan female artists establish their careers and identity under the periphery of the nation-states of Japan and the patriarchy in Okinawa. Finally, I discuss contemporary Nihonga, which is also labelled as contemporary Ryukyu painting, painted by female artists in Okinawa. This presentation will also reconsider contemporary Okinawan painting by female painters in relation to both Japanese and East Asian art histories in order to cast a new view of Okinawan painting as the living Traditional Painting, and also Modern Okinawan Painting as a descendant of Ryukyu. 

| Bio |

Eriko Tomizawa-Kay is lecturer in Japanese Language and Culture, at School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies, the University of East Anglia. She specializes in modern Japanese art history, particularly nihonga (Japanese style painting):
   She is the organizer of 2019 international conference, entitled "Okinawan Art in its Regional Context: Historical Overview and Contemporary Practice". The conference report (Japanese/English) will be available on the website shortly as Sainsbury Institute Occasional Papers 2.
   Her publications include ‘Reinventing Localism, Tradition, and Identity: The Role of Modern Okinawan Painting (1630s - 1960s)’ In East Asian Art History in a Transnational Context, edited by Tomizawa-Kay, E. & Watanabe, T. Routledge, 2019. 

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e13
Thursday 2022-01-27, 18:30~20:00 CET
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e13

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

Tensions of Making and the Art of Breaking: Putting Salt Fields to Rest in 19th Century Japan

20.01.2022 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Aleksandra Kobiljski (CNRS)

| Abstract |

Drawing on a preliminary reading of The Secrets of Salt Making 塩製秘録, an 1816 salt-making manual by a little-known Japanese salt-maker Miura Genzô 三浦源蔵 (?-1835), this lecture seeks to address the change in production dynamics in the Seto Inland Sea region in the first half of the 19th century. In so doing, this talk contributes to the rethinking of the nature of Japan's early industry and conceptualization of profit.

| Bio |

Aleksandra Kobiljski is Senior Researcher in Modern and Contemporary History at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Before joining the CNRS she taught at University of Belgrade and Harvard University. Since 2022, she is the Principal Investigator of J-InnovaTech, a European Research Council (ERC) funded project which explores structuring characteristics of Japan's early industry from 1800 to 1885 (ERC StG GA 805098).

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e12
Thursday 2022-01-20, 18:30~20:00 CET
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e12

ISLANDS FOR LIFE: Art Projects and Post-Growth Philosophies in Japan

13.01.2022 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Adrian Favell (University of Leeds, Bauman Institute)

| Abstract |

Japan offers one of the most dramatic examples of population decline and urban/rural polarization in the world. Although mostly off the radar of contemporary art theory discussions abour "socially engaged art", this context has provided some of the most creative international examples of bi/tri-ennales and art projects working in remote locations with socially isolated, ageing populations. My presentation will discuss in particular the ideas and practice developed by art producer Fram Kitagawa in Niigata's Echigo Tsumari (a triennale that has been running since 2000), as well as the Seto island based art projects of the artist Yukinori Yanagi, including one I have participated in, the Momoshima Art Base. While these projects draw on the almost limitless resources offered by the voluntary participation of young "lost generation(s)" artists and creatives as well as abundant empty properties in remote locations, a younger generation have responded in their own way to Japan's stagnation and dilemmas over housing and art careers, with anarchist-like ideas of autonomous self-sufficiency and collective organisation. Here I consider the examples of Chaos Lounge, Kyohei Sakaguchi, Parplume and Shibu House. These various projects raise interesting questions about the progressive intention of their ideas about the post-growth condition in Japan, as well as the particular politics of art organisation and participation in these contexts.

RECOMMENDED READING: "Echigo-Tsumari and the art of the possible: the Fram Kitagawa philosophy in theory and practice", in Fram Kitagawa, Lynne Breslin, Adrian Favell et al, Art Place Japan: The Echigo-Tsumari Triennial. Reconnecting Art and Nature. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp.142-173. [Download

| Bio |

Adrian Favell is Chair in Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Leeds, UK and Director of the Bauman Institute. He is the author of various works on immigration politics, citizenship, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism. In 2006-7 he was a Japan Foundation Abe Fellow in Tokyo, leading to the publication of Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011 (2012). A revised, updated and expanded 2nd edition of this book, including a full discussion of more recent post-disaster and post-growth art projects since 2011, will be published in 2022 by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). He has also published essays in Art in America, Bijutsu Techo, Impressions, Artforum, ART-iT online, and for the catalogue of a exhibition in 2021 on Tokyo: Art and Photography at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently working on a book about "post-growth" art and architecture in Japan, a long term collaboration with the architect Julian Worrall, University of Tasmania. More info: www.adrianfavell.com

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e11
Thursday 2022-01-13, 18:30~20:00 CET
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e11

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

Community-based Renewable Energy Structures: A Case of Small Hydropower in a Japanese Rural Community

09.12.2021 12:30 - 14:00

A virtual u:japan lunch lecture by Junko Fukumoto (Fukuoka Prefectural University)

| Abstract |

Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, Japan has started to turn its attention towards renewable energy. Before the accident, renewable energy attracted little attention in Japan, and the rate of expanding energy production in that direction was very low. Unlike Austria or Germany, Japan has been slow to implement new institutional or political measures to stimulate the expansion of renewable energy, which is why it is still not among the popular ways of energy production. Further, the public’s interest regarding renewable energy is rather low and the popularization due to social movements cannot be anticipated anytime soon. Due to Japan’s rather steep topography, one might expect small hydropower generation to be an obvious choice of energy production. However, just like other forms of renewable energy, the introduction of small hydropower generation is still scarce.
   However, while their numbers remain low, it is indisputable, that small hydropower plants are looking back on a long history within Japan. How are they being sustained, even though they receive neither favorable treatment by official the government, nor support by citizen’s high environmental consciousness?
   In this presentation I will use an ethnographic case-study to disclose, how the preservation of small hydropower plants hinges on the traditional ways in rural communities throughout Japan. In order to find a realistic way to expand the usage of renewable energy in Japan it is essential to first understand the current state of rural communities. While considering the aspects mentioned above, I will introduce the structures and equality of rice cultivation in rural hamlets in Japan.

| Bio |

Junko Fukumoto is a lecturer at Fukuoka Prefectural University. After graduating from Waseda University, she continued her studies at Kumamoto University, specializing in Community Sociology, Environmental Sociology and Rural Sociology. Using ethnographic fieldwork, she focusses mainly on research regarding depopulated rural hamlets, the application of renewable energy and topics regarding life in rural areas, such as the problems surrounding agricultural leaders and damages due to wildlife.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e09
Thursday 2021-12-09, 12:30~14:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e09

Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan

02.12.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Michael Strausz (Texas Christian University)

| Abstract |

Why has Japan’s immigration policy remained so restrictive, especially in light of economic, demographic, and international political forces that are pushing Japan to admit more immigrants? Michael Strausz will answer this question by drawing on insights from nearly two years of intensive field research in Japan. In addition to answering this question by outlining the central argument of his 2019 book, Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan, this presentation provide context to recent developments in Japanese immigration policy – particularly the December 2018 decision to admit more than 300,000 foreign manual laborers, the immigration policy response to the COVID pandemic, and the role of immigration in the 2021 House of Representatives election.

| Bio |

Michael Strausz is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Asian Studies at Texas Christian University. He earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington in 2007. He is currently editing a collection of essays by an interdisciplinary group of scholars tentatively titled The Past and Future of Immigration in Japan which aims to put recent immigration reforms into context. His book Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan was published in 2019 with SUNY Press.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e08
Thursday 2021-12-02, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e08

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

“Manner Posters” and the Management of Passenger Etiquette on Japanese Urban Railways

25.11.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Christoph Schimkowsky (University of Sheffield)

| Abstract |

Illustrated posters appealing to passenger conduct – so-called “manner posters” (manā posutā) – are ubiquitous in Japanese public transport spaces. Usually issued by public transport providers, Japanese manner posters target a broad range of potentially problematic passenger behaviours such as the “correct” way to transport luggage or hold a smartphone on a crowded train. Notably, manner posters usually avoid straightforward prohibitions or modes of address that could be perceived as moralizing by passengers. Instead, they attempt to encourage desirable commuter conduct in a polite, friendly, or humorous manner. To do so, manner posters employ highly creative designs featuring cultural references, cute characters or elaborate drawings. This has repeatedly brought them to public attention in Japan and abroad, as seen in Tokyo Metro’s well-known “Please do it at home” poster series or Seibu Railway’s series of woodblock print (ukiyo-e)-themed posters.

This lecture provides an introduction to manner posters as a friendly yet pervasive media presence in Japanese urban transport environments. It offers a glimpse behind the curtain of manner poster production by exploring the corporate and creative considerations driving poster design and deployment.  Drawing on expert interviews with transport, advertising and design professionals, alongside analysis of archival materials, the talk provides an overview of the content, production pathways, history, and design motivations of manner posters. While there is a tendency in popular and academic discourse to understand manner posters as a strategy of social control, this lecture contends that corporate manner improvement poster initiatives are not primarily concerned with disciplining passengers but satisfying customer sensibilities. It examines company and designer perspectives on  posters’ content, design, and limitations to argue that manner poster production is not driven by normative conceptions of “good” and “bad” passenger behaviour, but is primarily shaped by concerns about customer sensibilities and satisfaction.

| Bio |

Christoph Schimkowsky is a PhD researcher in the Department of Sociological Studies and the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield studying passenger manner improvement initiatives by Japanese railway providers. He holds MA degrees in Anthropological Research Methods (SOAS, University of London) and International Relations (Waseda University), as well as a BA degree in Political Science & Social and Cultural Anthropology (University of Göttingen) and was a visiting research fellow at Keio University and Waseda University when conducting fieldwork for his doctoral thesis. Christoph’s work has appeared in Japanese Studies, Contemporary Japan, and Mobilities, among others. His research interests include urban mobilities, visual communication, and the management of everyday conduct and public life in contemporary cities.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | #7
Thursday 2021-11-25, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants (online)

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03/#e07.

Japankoreanische hibakusha als Irritation nationaler Narrative: Die Erzählung Saihate no futari („Zwei Menschen am Rande“, 1999) von Sagisawa Megumu

18.11.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Maren Haufs-Brusberg (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)

| Abstract |

Die Schriftstellerin Sagisawa Megumu (鷺沢萠, 1968-2004) gilt sowohl als Autorin von Prekariatsliteratur als auch von japankoreanischer Literatur. Nachdem sie erst nach ihrem frühen literarischen Debut 1987 entdeckte, dass ihre Großmutter väterlicherseits koreanischer Herkunft war, begann sie, sich intensiv mit der japankoreanischen Minderheit in Japan zu beschäftigen und ab 1994 Texte hierzu zu veröffentlichen. In meinem Vortrag setze ich mich mit Sagisawas 1999 publizierter Erzählung Saihate no futari („Zwei Menschen am Rande“) auseinander. Im Mittelpunkt der Erzählung steht eine junge Frau, die ein uneheliches Kind eines US-Soldaten und einer Japanerin ist. Sie arbeitet in einer Bar, wo sie sich in einen Gast verliebt, einen Japankoreaner, der deutlich älter ist als sie. Die Beziehung zwischen beiden währt jedoch nur wenige Monate, da der Japankoreaner bald an Leukämie verstirbt. Wie sich im Nachhinein herausstellt, war er der Nachkomme einer hibakusha, denn seine ebenfalls in mittleren Jahren verstorbene Mutter war eine Überlebende des Atombombenabwurfs auf Nagasaki. Die Erzählung endet damit, dass die Protagonistin bemerkt, dass sie schwanger ist.

Wie anhand der knappen Zusammenfassung der Erzählung deutlich wird, entwirft Saihate no futari bereits durch die Figurenkonstellation ein komplexes Netz an Beziehungen und Verweisen, dessen Fäden gewissermaßen in der Figur des Ungeborenen zusammenlaufen: Dessen Vorfahren väterlicherseits sind koreanischer Herkunft. Seine Großeltern emigrierten als Folge der Kolonialisierung Koreas und des von Japan geführten Pazifikkriegs nach Japan, wo die Großmutter Opfer des US-amerikanischen Atombombenabwurfs auf Japan wurde. Dieser bedeutete für Japan die rasche Kapitulation, für die USA den Sieg und für Korea die Befreiung von der japanischen Kolonialherrschaft. Seine Großmutter mütterlicherseits hingegen ist Japanerin und der Großvater mütterlicherseits ein US-Soldat, der im Zuge des Vietnamkriegs in Japan stationiert war, womit auch auf den Kalten Krieg, in dem die nukleare Bedrohung eine wesentliche Rolle spielte, verwiesen wird.

In meinem Vortrag richte ich meinen Fokus auf die Figuren der japankoreanischen hibakusha in der Erzählung, nämlich der Mutter des Japankoreaners als hibakusha der ersten Generation und ihren Sohn als hibakusha der sogenannten zweiten Generation, und arbeite heraus, inwiefern diese vor dem Hintergrund der geschilderten komplexen Figurenkonstellation sowohl vorherrschende nationale japanische Narrative als auch US-amerikanische Narrative der Atombombenabwürfe irritieren.

| Bio |

Maren Haufs-Brusberg M.A. studierte mit interdisziplinärer Ausrichtung Japanologie, Politikwissenschaften, Philosophie und Soziologie an der Universität Trier. 2007/2008 absolvierte sie als DAAD-Stipendiatin ein Studienjahr an der Tōkyō kokusai daigaku in Kawagoe, Saitama. Nach ihrem Studium war sie von 2013 bis 2018 als Lehrbeauftragte in der Japanologie der Universität Trier tätig, wo sie auch ihr Promotionsvorhaben zu Verflechtungen von Ethnizität und Gender in der japankoreanischen Gegenwartsliteratur begann. Von August bis Oktober 2018 forschte sie hierfür als Stipendiatin am Deutschen Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ) in Tokyo. Seit ihrer Rückkehr nach Deutschland ist sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Modernes Japan an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e06
Thursday 2021-11-18, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at
or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03#e06

Zuflucht in Shanghai - The Port of Last Resort

11.11.2021 18:30 - 20:30

A special u:japan lecture with Paul Rosdy

(Filmscreening and Director Talk)

| Synopsis |

THE PORT OF LAST RESORT presents the little-known story of nearly 20,000 European Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai in the years 1938-41. Shanghai was a free port that did not require papers for entry, and became the “last resort” to find a safe haven from the Nazis. This lost world is revealed through the memories of four survivors, and through a collage of rare and remarkable film footage. Extraordinary images of refugees and uncommon views of Chinese life create a compelling vantage point for understanding and experiencing this story of survival.

... more about the film https://www.rosdyfilm.com/port and the trailer https://www.rosdyfilm.com/port/en/zuflucht-2/#trailer 

| Director’s Statement |

I made this film because I wanted to know what it was like for a person of my home country – or any other country, to be – all of a sudden – declared an enemy of the state that actually exists, among other things, for to protection of this very same citizen. What was it like for a person to be thrown out of his home country, all their belongings taken away, and finding refuge in a city like Shanghai? What happened there and how did people survive?
   For me, to understand the history of my home country it was not enough to just read about it and know the story. Making this film made me much more aware of what these people had to go through, something that today hardly anyone imagines can happen again. Though it just did happen not long ago in Bosnia & Hercegovina.
   Shanghai was for most refugees a lost time. They survived but often lost their youth, lost their chance for an education and after these 10 years they had to start all over again for the 2nd or 3rd time. But time did pass, people became older and so their chance for a happy and successful life. As Sig Simon says in the film: The bad is buried by the good.
    For me this is a positive story, a story of survival with all it’s hardship, facts and memories that usually are not mentioned in history books: human feelings about their struggle to survive. To know what this is like I made the film. I know how privileged I am in being able to make this film and I am grateful for that. I know from the response of the people who were in Shanghai, that they appreciated that their story was finally told.
Paul Rosdy, June 1999

| Bio |

Geboren und aufgewachsen in Wien, war Paul Rosdy zunächst in der Tourismusbranche tätig. In den 1980er Jahren bereiste er für American Express die Welt: Sowjetunion, China, USA. Dann hatte er genug und übersiedelte nach Vancouver (Kanada), wo er einen Filmlehrgang abschloss. Sein erster Film hieß You Don’t Look for Street Signs When You’re in a Jungle (1991), gefolgt von Release Day (1992) – beide Filme setzten sich mit dem Leben im Gefängnis auseinander. In New York gründete er mit Joan Grossman Pinball Films und kam 1998 mit The Port of Last Resort – Zuflucht in Shanghai heraus, einem Film über die rund 20.000 Juden, die vor den Nazis nach Shanghai geflüchtete waren. Anschließend richtete er seinen Blick auf Mittel- und Südosteuropa und es entstand Neue Welt (2005), eine Fahrt durch die Mitte Europas, von der alten Welt in eine neue. 2009 machte er Çernobílá Barevná (Schwarzweiss Farbe), eine tschechische Auftragsproduktion über die Veränderungen in Zeit und Raum in den nordböhmischen Braunkohlegebieten. 2011 Der letzte Jude von Drohobytsch: ein Portrait über Alfred Schreyer, der eine Geschichte zu erzählen hat, so unglaublich, dass ein Leben nicht ausreicht, sie zu fassen. 2012 begann eine lange Reise durch die Kinolandschaft und -geschichte Wiens von 1896 bis heute. 2018 feiert Kino Wien Film beim Viennale Film Festival Premiere.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | #5
Thursday 2021-11-11, 18:30~20:30
max. 300 participants (online) max. 25 participants (live)

18:30 ~ 19:45 Filmscreeing on site only*

19:45 ~ 20:30 Director Talk (hybrid = on site with live stream via zoom)

* If you can't attend the screening on site, you might be interested in watching the film by using one of the many online possibilities here https://www.rosdyfilm.com/port/en/buy/  (e.g. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theportoflastresort)

| Place & Registration | 

Filmscreeing LIVE @ Campus of the University of Vienna (registration required!)
Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.4 (Campus), 1090 Vienna, Austria

Please bear in mind, that strict CoVid-precautions are enforced, therefore
- bring and wear a FFP2-mask,
- provide a proof that you are tested, recovered or vaccinated (2,5-G rule) and
- register beforehand:
To register for the live event, please send an email to ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at with your full name and telephone number.

Please visit these links for university's special and general information regarding the current restrictions.

| Plattform & Link |

... only the Director Talk is STREAMED online (no registration required)
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/99418614604?pwd=aU83QUtqRUlsdnFqVVo4SnBnK1hwQT09 
Meeting-ID: 994 1861 4604 | PW: 145573

Instructions and Netiquette (in English and German)
How to join a lecture via Zoom Meeting (in English)
Frequently Asked Questions (in English)

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at our visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03/#e05.

Das Ende des Intimen - Raumkonstruktionen in Murata Sayakas Satsujin Shussan

04.11.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A hybrid u:japan lecture by Ronald Saladin (Universität Trier)

Vor 100 Jahren war Mord etwas Böses. […]

Tatsächlich dauerte es etwas, bis das Mordgeburts-System, das besagt, dass man einen Menschen töten darf, wenn man zehn Babys geboren hat, in Japan akzeptiert wurde. […]

Aber deshalb kann ich alles ertragen. Und während ich es ertrage, wird der Mord zum Lichtblick meines Lebens. […]

Noch zu unserer Kindheit haben wir in einer falschen Welt gelebt. Mord wurde als etwas Schlechtes angesehen. Mordgelüste zu verspüren wurde auf geradezu hysterische Art und Weise mit Wahnsinn gleichgesetzt. […] Aber die Welt wurde korrigiert. Dadurch, dass ich zu einem „Geburtsmenschen“ geworden bin, wurde meine Mordlust zum Nährstoff des Lebens unserer Welt. Darüber bin ich wirklich sehr glücklich.

(Murata Sayaka, Satsujin Shussan, 2014)

| Abstract |

Murata Sayaka, die spätestens mit ihrem Roman Konbini ningen (2016, dt. „Die Ladenhüterin“) einen großen internationalen Erfolg gefeiert und damit auch außerhalb Japans Bekanntheit erlangt hat, wird angetrieben von dem in Frage stellen gegebener Tabus. Für sie persönlich ist das Schreiben ein Weg zu ergründen, woher die negativen Gefühle stammen, die durch diese Tabus evoziert werden. So fragt sie beispielsweise, wieso Notwehr oder aber die Todesstrafe erlaubt sind, wenn Mord doch eigentlich als Tabu gilt? Es ist typisch für Muratas Schaffen, sich mit den Spannungen zu befassen, die zwischen dem auftreten, was als soziale Norm verstanden wird, und Dingen oder Menschen, die sich aus irgendeinem Grund nicht daran anpassen können oder wollen.
   In Ihrer Kurzgeschichtensammlung Satsujin Shussan [Mordgeburt] beleuchtet Murata das Thema Liebe und Sexualität. Dabei handelt es sich um Themen, die die Autorin grundlegend in den meisten ihrer Werke behandelt. Bei den Kurzgeschichten dieses Bandes geht es vor allem darum, wie Liebe und Sexualität im Spannungsverhältnis zu Gesellschaft und Staat stehen. Dies trifft insbesondere auf die Geschichte zu, die dem Band ihren Namen gibt.
   In diesem Vortrag werde ich die Kurzgeschichte Satsujin Shussan mit einem Fokus auf Raumkonstruktionen analysieren. Dabei werde ich sowohl unter Bezug auf Foucaults Konzept der Heterotopie, Lotmanns Semiosphäre als auch narratologisch untersuchen, inwiefern Murata Raumkonstruktionen nutzt, um das Spannungsgefüge zwischen Individuum und Gesellschaft anhand von Sexualität und Fortpflanzung zu thematisieren und zu fokussieren. Dabei fragt sie nicht nur danach, wo Privates endet und öffentlicher Einfluss auf intimste Bereiche des Lebens beginnt, sondern karikiert ebenso, inwiefern „Normales“ unumstößlich als „normal“ angesehen werden kann.

| Bio |

Ronald Saladin ist Juniorprofessor für Japanologie an der Universität Trier. In Forschung und Lehre beschäftigt er sich mit japanischer Gegenwartsliteratur, Medien und Populärkultur, die er unter anderem aus Perspektive der Sozialwissenschaft, Gender Studies und Cultural Studies untersucht. Seine Dissertation ist 2019 unter dem Titel Young Men and Masculinities in Japanese Media – Unconscious Hegemony bei Palgrave Macmillan erschienen.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | #4
Thursday 2021-11-04, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants (online) max. 25 participants (live) 

| Place & Registration | 

LIVE @ Campus of the University of Vienna (registration required!)
Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.4 (Campus), 1090 Vienna, Austria

Please bare in mind, that strict CoVid-precautions are enforced, therefore
- bring and wear a FFP2-mask,
- provide a proof that your are tested, recovered or vaccinated (3-G-Regel) and
- register beforehand:
To register for the live event, please send an email to ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at with your full name and telephone number.

Please visit these links for university's special and general information regarding the current restrictions.

| Plattform & Link |

... and STREAMED online (no registration required)
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/98286164086?pwd=cFpMRC96T2ZVd1l3QWZ3NGZGaTlGdz09
Meeting-ID: 982 8616 4086 | PW: 779550

Instructions and Netiquette (in English and German)
How to join a lecture via Zoom Meeting (in English)
Frequently Asked Questions (in English)

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at our visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s03/#e04.

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

What Does the Individual Stand for? Victims, Survivors and Noble Spirits in Japanese Memorial Museums

28.10.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Frauke Kempka & André Hertrich (ÖAW)

| Abstract |

Emotionally highly charged representations of individuals have become a prominent feature in many museums commemorating atrocities around the world. However, similar exhibition designs do not necessarily imply similarities in the contents of an exhibition or in its contributions to debates on commemoration. As a means to convey very divergent narratives about the war we will focus on representations of individuals at the Women's Active Museum (WAM), the Yûshûkan and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. All three museums refer to WWII, but are otherwise worlds apart in their contributions to debates on how to commemorate the war in Japan. 

The WAM is a small private museum. It commemorates women who were exploited for sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Military around Asia, the so-called comfort women. Its exhibition places a strong emphasis on Japanese perpetratorship and the victimization of the women survivors. Since the state's involvement in and responsibility for the systematic perpetration of sexual slavery is often broadly rejected by conservative or right-wing actors in debates on WWII commemoration, the WAM is taking a critical stance towards mainstream debates. The Yûshûkan however represents a completely different brand of war memorialization. It is part of the Yasukuni Shinto Shrine, where the spirits of 2.5 million Japanese war dead are enshrined and deified. The Yûshûkan exhibits artifacts that are attributed to the individuals worshipped as “noble spirits” at Yasukuni Shrine. The exhibition stresses their humanity as loving husbands or dutiful sons and daughters and highlights their death as the ultimate sacrifice for their loved ones, alongside emperor and nation. Whereas the Yûshûkan seeks to present its "noble spirits" as role models for today's generation, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum places its focus on the victimization of the city's population by the atomic bomb and the horrors of nuclear warfare. Especially the new exhibition which opened doors after an intensive renovation in 2019, puts the stories of beloved ones killed by the atomic bomb in the centre of its attention. Thus, the exhibition aims at “psychologically impact and […] emotionally grip the visitors” (City of Hiroshima) by concentrating on the individual victim and the feeling of loss and grief.

We are therefore presenting findings from three Japanese museums that are representing opposing ways of commemorating WWII. Yet, individual photographs, personal artifacts and biographies are on display in all three exhibitions. In our presentation we are unravelling the different expositions of individuals within the WAM, the Yûshûkan and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Assuming that “an exposition is always also an argument” (Bal 1996), we outline the museums' arguments as a contribution to the ongoing debates on how to commemorate WWII in Japan.

| Bio |

Frauke Kempka is an Associated Researcher with the Globalized Memorial Museums ERC project at the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, Austrian Academy of Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Studies from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany and an M.A. degree in East Asian Art History and Japanese Studies from Freie Universität Berlin. 

André Hertrich is a Post-Doc Researcher with the Globalized Memorial Museums ERC project at the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, Austrian Academy of Sciences. He holds an M.A. in Modern History and Japanese Studies from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (Munich), an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the Philips University (Marburg) and a Ph.D. degree in Japanese Studies from the University of Hamburg. 

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e03
Thursday 2021-10-28, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

univienna.zoom.us/j/94260785861
Meeting-ID: 942 6078 5861 | PW: 503422

Instructions and Netiquette (in English and German)
How to join a lecture via Zoom Meeting (in English)
Frequently Asked Questions (in English)

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at.

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

Frauen als groteske Monster – Weiblichkeit und Abjektion in den Werken Kirino Natsuos

21.10.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Anna-Lena von Garnier (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)

| Abstract |

Die japanische Autorin Kirino Natsuo (*1951) erhebt sich in ihrer Literatur bewusst gegen die patriarchalen Machtstrukturen Japans, das sie als „Bubblonia“ bezeichnet, in Anlehnung an die Wirtschaftsblase der 80er Jahre und ihr Platzen im Jahr 1990, was wirtschaftliche Stagnation und sozialen Verfall nach sich zog. Sie ist größtenteils bekannt durch ihre Kriminalgeschichten, die sich dem so genannten „gesellschaftskritischen Krimi“ (shakaiha) zuschreiben lassen. Kirino zeichnet in ihren Werken ein dystopisches Bild Japans, in dem ihre Figuren mit Prekariat, Einsamkeit und der Unmenschlichkeit des kapitalistischen Systems konfrontiert werden.

Obwohl Kirino sich nicht als feministische Autorin versteht, stehen gender-orientierte Thematiken in ihren Werken häufig im Vordergrund und in den Lebensgeschichten ihrer Figuren zeichnet sie unter anderem strukturelle, sexistische Diskriminierung am Arbeitsplatz, Sexualisierung und die Abwertung älterer Frauen in einer männerdominierten Gesellschaft nach. Ihre Herangehensweise ist meist intersektional und zeigt auch Schwierigkeiten anderer marginalisierter Gruppen auf. Die starke Zäsur durch den Zusammenbruch der Wirtschaftsblase 1990 wird in Kirinos Werken besonders deutlich.

Im Vortrag beschäftige ich mich mit ihren Werken „Out“ (1997) und „Grotesque“ (2003), in denen Kirino ihre weiblichen Protagonistinnen in einem patriarchalen System agieren lässt, das keine weibliche Agenda zulässt und Frauen, die von der traditionellen Geschlechterrolle der Hausfrau und Mutter abweichen, bestraft. Weibliche Figuren, die in die männlich dominierte Arbeitswelt vordringen oder sexuelle Selbstbestimmung entwickeln möchten, werden als „Monster“ und „grotesk“ bezeichnet und die Subversion gegen bestehende Geschlechterrollen skandalisiert und abgewertet.

Dies erinnert stark an Julia Kristevas Theorien zum Abjekten. Kristeva definiert das Abjekte als einen Zusammenbruch der symbolischen Ordnung, der durch den Verlust der Unterscheidung zwischen Subjekt und Objekt hervorgerufen wird und sich meist durch Gefühle des Ekels äußert. Die grundlegendste Form von Abjektion stellt dabei Ekel vor Essen oder Verwesung dar, jedoch findet sich Abjektion auch in der Störung bestehender gesellschaftlicher Ordnungen und in diesem Sinne können auch feministische Strömungen und Subversionen gegen bestehende Geschlechterrollen als abjekt gedeutet werden. Im Vortrag soll daher herausgearbeitet werden, inwiefern weibliche Handlungen und Lebensentwürfe innerhalb der patriarchalen Welt Kirinos als subversiv und somit abjekt gelesen werden können.

| Bio |

Anna-Lena von Garnier studierte von 2007 bis 2014 Modernes Japan und Kunstgeschichte an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Während des Studiums absolvierte sie von 2009 bis 2010 ein Auslandsjahr an der Ryûkyû-Universität in Okinawa, Japan. Seit 2016 ist sie Promotionsstudentin und am Institut für Modernes Japan der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. In ihrem Dissertationsvorhaben beschäftigt sie sich mit der Inszenierung weiblicher Körper in der Literatur moderner japanischer Autorinnen am Beispiel von Kôno Taeko, Kirino Natsuo und Kanehara Hitomi.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e02
Thursday 2021-10-21, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

univienna.zoom.us/j/99494863402
Meeting-ID: 994 9486 3402 | PW: 071802

Instructions and Netiquette (in English and German)
How to join a lecture via Zoom Meeting (in English)
Frequently Asked Questions (in English)

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at.

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

Tatamis and Concrete – Antonin Raymond and the challenges of early modern architecture in interwar Japan

14.10.2021 18:30 - 20:00

A virtual u:japan lecture by Yola Gloaguen (East Asian Civilizations Research Centre, Paris)

| Abstract |

Antonin Raymond is one of few Western architects who allow us to explore the dynamics at work in the development of modern architecture in a non-Western context. Together with his wife and work partner Noemi Pernessin, the Czech born American architect arrived in Japan on the eve of 1920 to join Frank Lloyd’s international team and assist with the building of the new Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Soon, Raymond opened his own office in the capital, setting out to become one of the pioneers of modern architecture in Japan. The human and technical challenges taken on by the architect and his international team are embodied in a large body of work produced between 1921 and 1938, particularly a large number of private houses and villas designed in Tokyo and its surrounding resort areas. Such works reflect the increasing demand for the design of a dwelling suited to both a Western and Japanese lifestyles by Tokyo’s international elites. It also reveals the technical challenges of fire and earthquake-proof construction in the domestic field. This is reflected in both the spatial design and construction techniques adopted by Raymond and his office over the first 15 years of his practice, drawing both on the international modernist idiom of the interwar period and the characteristics of premodern local architecture. After a brief presentation of Raymond’s pre-Japan background, the talk will focus on the architect’s design process, from a spatial and technical point of view, as well as his role in the genesis of modern Japanese architecture. The presentation of various architectural examples will highlight the way Raymond and his team developed a way of design based on the appropriation and adaptation of selected elements of the Japanese vernacular into the Western modernist idiom, which itself had to be re-evaluated in the particular context of Japan. Through the medium of architecture, this talk offers a reflection on the reassessment of the usual binaries of Western influence and Japanese adaptation.

| Bio |

Yola Gloaguen is a post-doctoral researcher at the East Asian Civilizations Research Centre in Paris, France. After receiving her degree in Architecture from Paris La Villette School of Architecture, she became a postgraduate student at Kyoto University and studied the history of modern architecture in Japan, with a focus on cultural and technological exchange between Japan and the Western world. In this context, she took a particular interest in the work of Czech born American architect Antonin Raymond (1888-1976), who lived and practised in Tokyo for 43 years, starting in 1921. In 2016, Yola Gloaguen obtained a PhD from École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, with her dissertation entitled Les villas réalisées par Antonin Raymond dans le Japon des années 1920 et 1930. Une synthèse entre modernisme occidental et habitat vernaculaire japonais (Villas designed by Antonin Raymond in interwar Japan – A Synthesis between Western Modernism and the Japanese Vernacular). Since then she has regularly contributed papers and book chapters to publications on the history of Japanese architecture and landscape. She is currently preparing the publication of a monograph based on her PhD dissertation.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s03e01
Thursday 2021-10-14, 18:30~20:00
max. 300 participants 

| Plattform & Link |

univienna.zoom.us/j/93383068603
Meeting-ID: 933 8306 8603 | PW: 074906

Instructions and Netiquette (in English and German)
How to join a lecture via Zoom Meeting (in English)
Frequently Asked Questions (in English)

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at.

Organiser:

Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies

Season 3 | Fall-Winter 2021/22

The third season of the u:japan lectures will start at the 14th of October 2021 in a hybrid format, again consisting of distinguished scholars delivering lectures about crucial subjects in Japanese studies. Here you find a first list of speakers, so you can already reserve a spot in your busy timetable for our lecture series.

 

# | DATE | PRESENTER | AFFILIATION

  • #1 | 14.10.2021 | Yola Gloaguen | CRCAO
  • #2 | 21.10.2021 | Anna-Lena von Garnier | Universität Düsseldorf
  • #3 | 28.10.2021 | Frauke Kempka & André Hertrich | ÖAW
  • #4 | 04.11.2021 | Ronald Saladin | Universität Trier
  • #5 | 11.11.2021 | Paul Rosdy "ZUFLUCHT IN SHANGHAI" | (Film Screening + Gespräch)
  • #6 | 18.11.2021 | Maren Haufs-Brusberg | Universität Düsseldorf
  • #7 | 25.11.2021 | Christoph Schimkowsky | University of Sheffield 
  • #8 | 02.12.2021 | Michael Strausz | Texas Christian University
  • #9 | 09.12.2021 | Junko Fukumoto | Fukuoka Prefectural University (Online Lunch Lecture)
  • #10 | 16.12.2021 | Sabine Frühstück | UC Santa Barbara (canceled)

  • #11 | 13.01.2022 | Adrian Favell | University of Leeds
  • #12 | 20.01.2022 | Aleksandra Kobiljski | EHESS
  • #13 | 27.01.2022 | Eriko Tomizawa-Kay | University of East Anglia