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Center for Japanese Studies Contents From the Director Greetings from Ann Arbor, which has continued to be warm and pleasant right up to Thanksgiving. Throughout the Fall term the Center's film and lecture series have been consistently well attended. In addition to the many stellar lectures delivered at our weekly Noon Lecture series, two events stood out this term. The first was the workshop on "Experts and Expertise in Pre- and Early Modern Societies" that was funded by the Ford Foundation's program on "Crossing Borders: Revitalizing Area Studies," sponsored by the International Institute, and convened by the CJS Director. The workshop featured scholars of societies throughout the world and throughout history, including those of Athens, Iceland, Mexico, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Byzantium, Islam, France, Germany, British America, England, China, and Japan. Participants brought their specialization to bear on questions such as how these different societies conceptualized "expertise" and defined "experts"; how political authorities appropriated, exploited, or abused experts; and how the knowledge of expertise could promote the holder's social status and authority. Though every society had people with specialized knowledge, skills, and practice, not all societies recognized experts as a special category. During the two days of discussion, the concepts of "experts and expertise" at times seemed porous and unstable, but increasingly analytically potent and challenging. The workshop ended with a useful cautionary note that questioned the fundamental meaning of expertise and why it should be desirable, what exactly is unspecialized knowledge and if this is the same thing as illicit or illegitimate knowledge, and finally who experts are not. In the words of our discussant Valerie Traub, "However performative in its construction, however dependent upon signifiers of social status, however reliant upon official sanction or communal response, however contestatory of monarchical or state power, expertise itself seems, as a category, impervious in its boundaries and hegemonic in its status as a form of cultural capital or mode of constructing identity. It is as if the social desirability of the claim to specialized knowledge is itself self-evident." The workshop offered a number of comparative viewpoints and inspired further thoughts on the meaning and social position of the "expert." Our second notable event was squarely centered on Japan. Professor Peter Duus, the past president of the Association for Asian Studies and William H. Bonsall Professor of History at Stanford University, was our honored speaker on November 2nd. The talk on "Capital Crimes: Civic Politics and Civic Corruption in Meiji Tokyo" began with a description of a grisly murder scene in which a "gentleman, his eyes flashing, plunge[d] a samurai short sword into the prostrate torso of Hoshi Toru, the head of the City Council, who had collapsed face down on the table blood gushing from his mouth." The description developed to examine an era of political turbulence and scandal of the 1890s, during which Tokyo had launched a program of "municipal improvement" to rebuild itself as a modern, rational, and efficient city, fully equipped with a new water system, new roads, bridges and canals, and other features, that generated a rising budget - by as much as 450 percent - during the decade. U-M professors Leslie Pincus and Ken Ito, and the Center's Toyota Visiting Professor, Jordan Sand, commented on the talk, raising issues such as the political meaning of economic class and corresponding geographical relevance of the unfolding events. (See page 4 for further details.) The panel was a delightful occasion in which much fun was had by all, of course during the presentation, but also afterwards around the canopies of goodies. Educational institutions across the country have risen up in the aftermath of September 11th to look for means of productive intellectual engagement. We are no exception. The International Institute, of which the Center for Japanese Studies is a member, has been coordinating efforts that are dedicated to exploring international perspectives on the September 11th events and related issues under the rubric of "Religion, Security, and Violence in Global Contexts." A series of seminars and public presentations have promoted reasoned dialogue about differing interpretations and analyses of the variety of terrorisms that the world has experienced. Please keep your eyes and ears open for our announcements on these and other planned activities. As we get ready for a busy Winter term filled with discussion and decision on student admissions and fellowships, faculty fellowships, and Japan-related position searches, among other projects, we are pleased to introduce to you our new administrative assistant, Yuri Fukazawa, who comes to CJS with much administrative experience in both Japan and the United States, and will join Amy Carey, our Program Associate, in supporting and promoting Center activities. Hitomi Tonomura The Center offers to scholars, students, and those interested in Japan a broad list of titles for Spring 2002. In our reprint series, Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies, we will publish Sanshiro, a Novel, by Natsume Soseki, translated and with a critical essay by Jay Rubin (Harvard University). One of Soseki's most beloved works of fiction, the novel depicts the twenty-three-year-old Sanshiro leaving the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the constantly moving "real world" of Tokyo, its women, and the university. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humor and our awareness of Sanshiro's doomed innocence, the novel comes to life. Sanshiro is also penetrating social and cultural commentary. Jay Rubin provides with his translation an extended study of Sanshiro and Soseki's symbolism, imagery, and his metaphorical use of light and darkness (ISBN 1-929280-10-6, Paper only, $24.00). Treatise on Epistolary Style: João Rodriguez on the Noble Art of Writing Japanese Letters, by Jeroen Pieter Lamers (Royal Netherlands Embassy, South Korea), is a treasure trove of diplomatics and epistolary stylistics of late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Japan. One of the topics of the Arte da lingoa de Japan deals with Japanese epistolary style, or sorobun. Rodriguez explains in his treatise what kind of letters there are and their names, the set phrases that are used, how a letter is divided into its component parts, how to interpret the physical layout of a letter, and how the level of politeness can be determined. Rodriguez also deals extensively with the courtesies for the Buddhist clergy. The information that Rodriguez gives to us can help us understand the valuable historical and social clues that are often hidden in what appear to be trivial epistolary details (ISBN 1-929280-11-4, Cloth only, $49.95). Transformations of Sensibility: The Phenomenology of Meiji Literature, by Kamei Hideo (Emeritus, Hokkaido University), translation edited and with an introduction by Michael Bourdaghs (UCLA), is a monumental publication on the literary history of Japan. First published in Japan in 1983, this book is now a classic in modern Japanese literature studies. Covering an astonishing range of texts from the Meiji period (1868-1912), it presents sophisticated analyses of the ways that experiments in literary language produced multiple new-and sometimes revolutionary-forms of sensibility and subjectivity. Along the way, Kamei Hideo carries on an extended debate with Western theorists such as Saussure, Bakhtin, and Lotman, as well as with such contemporary Japanese critics as Karatani Kojin and Noguchi Takehiko. Transformations of Sensibility deliberately challenges conventional wisdom about the rise of modern literature in Japan and offers highly original close readings of works by such writers as Futabatei Shimei, Tsubouchi Shoyo, Higuchi Ichiyo, and Izumi Kyoka, as well as writers previously ignored by most scholars. It also provides a new critical theorization of the relationship between language and sensibility, one that links the specificity of Meiji literature to broader concerns that transcend the field of Japanese literary studies (ISBN 1-929280-12-2, Cloth only, $60.00). My Life: Living, Loving, and Fighting, by Sumii Sue, interviewed by Masuda Reiko, with an introduction by Livia Monnet (University of Montreal) and translated by the Ashi Translation Society, is a fascinating interview with a freedom fighter for minority rights. Sumii Sue (1902-97), author and human rights leader, was best known for her novel about childhood in a burakumin village, The River with No Bridge (Hashi no nai kawa). The burakumin, who had been a lower caste in the highly stratified society of feudal Japan, were still suffering severe discrimination when Sumii's book was published in 1961. To date, over 8.3 million copies of the book and its sequels have been sold; it has been translated into English, Chinese, Italian, and Tagalog and was made into a film twice. This book, My Life: Living, Loving, and Fighting, is an interview with Sumii Sue conducted by her daughter, Masuda Reiko, a reporter and editorialist for the Mainichi Shimbun and a well-known writer. Masuda succeeds in eliciting details of daily life and personal relationships that give us a wonderful picture of this courageous woman and her fighting temperament, her pride in her achievements, and her self-effacement. My Life is also a fascinating document of social history, describing the conditions of life in twentieth-century Japan as Sumii experienced it: the poverty of sharecroppers, the political movements of the 1920s, the Great Kanto Earthquake, and life on the home front during World War I (ISBN 1-929280-09-2, Paper only, $29.95). In Religion and Society in Nineteenth-Century Japan: A Study of the Southern Kanto Region, Using Late Edo and Early Meiji Gazetteers, Helen Hardacre (Harvard University) presents a detailed analysis of the structure of nineteenth-century Japanese religious institutions in a period of dramatic change. Using local geographies of the Kanto region as a basis for her study, Professor Hardacre presents a statistical portrait of the religious institutions existing in Koza County of Sagami Province and the Western Tama area of Musashi Province in the years from roughly 1830 to 1840. She then interprets this data to provide the social setting for these religious institutions by supplementing the statistical portrait derived from the geographies, first with an examination of the legal framework governing religious institutions during the Edo period, and then with case studies of four significant religious sites in the survey area. The dynamics of the institutional organization of these four sites are analyzed, with attention to the relations among temples and shrines and to the development of the shrine priesthood. This analysis is further supplemented with a discussion of popular religious life centering on the temples and shrines of the survey area at the end of the Edo period. Religion and Society in Nineteenth-Century Japan offers extensive and concrete detail for the complex institutional ways in which Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines were interwoven and interpenetrated in the late Edo period, and for the specific and equally complex ways in which this whole system was transformed in the Meiji period. The book also details the economic basis of institutional religions, the relative roles and strengths of various Buddhist sects, and the ritualization of sericulture (ISBN 1-929280-13-0, Cloth only, $60.00). To order these and other titles, please contact the University of Michigan Press, 839 Greene St. / P.O. Box 1104, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1104, tel: 734/764-4392; fax: 734/936-0456; e-mail: um.press.bus@umich.edu. To find descriptions of all of our publications, see the Center's web page and click on Publications, or go to the web page of the University of Michigan Press at www.press.umich.edu. Bruce Willoughby It has been a difficult season at the Asia Library this fall. University wide, the library system has been affected greatly by the tragedy of September 11. Many family members of library staff were affected either directly or indirectly by the incidents in New York and Washington. In addition to this unfortunate situation, our Public Services Coordinator, who had supervised our computing room for graduate students and faculty, resigned. Fall, just as in New York and Washington, was a rebuilding season for the Asia Library as well. This rebuilding allowed us the opportunity to rearrange the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean computing resources in our library, which we began in September. Fortunately, Mr. Takeuchi, a new Japanese cataloger, and Ms. Whang, the Korean studies librarian, took the initiative to attend a workshop for developing websites in August. After they received this training, we were able to completely revamp our website into one of the best Japanese web pages of its kind. We are continually updating and improving the site. You can reach our site by going to the U-M Libraries' home page and clicking on Asia Library. There is a "Japanese information" link in the left column here. Many academic information sites on Japan are available through our website in both English and Japanese. Our website is not the only rebuilding we have been doing this fall. Our digital databases (CD-ROM) have also been refurbished with the Windows 98 Japanese Language System. We deeply appreciate Professor Ann Takata's assistance in this endeavor. She devoted a tremendous amount of time to help us with this complicated implementation. Without her help, we never would have been able to make these resources available to everyone so quickly. The following is a list of new acquisitions: CD-HIASK (Asahi Shinbun kiji Database) 1985-1999, a full text database of Asahi Shinbun; CD- ASAX 50 Years (Sengo 50-nen Asahi Shinbun midashi Database) 1945-1995, a headlines index database of Asahi Shinbun; Meiji no Yomiuri Shinbun CD-ROM database (from November 2, 1874 to July 30, 1912), includes 600,000 articles in 60,000 total pages; Taisho no Yomiuri Shinbun CD-ROM database (from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926), includes 500,000 articles and advertisements in 42,000 total pages; and Taiyo CD-ROM database, (from January, 1895 to February, 1928), in 78 CDs. The above list is our multi-volume CD database collections, but we have many other mid-size databases and annual publications, such as government document CDs. Please do not hesitate to come visit our refurbished facility. Kenji Niki FROM THE TOYOTA VISITING PROFESSOR I had the pleasure recently of responding to distinguished historian
Peter Duus' presentation on Meiji-period Tokyo. This gave me the
opportunity to explore some of the university's unique resources for urban
history. Tokyo's history has long been an interest of mine, although I
have never studied urban planning and politics in depth. Hearing that
Professor Duus would be speaking on the municipal improvement plans of
the late 1880s, I decided to look for some maps from the era and try to
show the audience how the political changes he was discussing were reflected
in visual representations of the city. This led me first into the dusty
attic of the Asia Library, where old atlases are stored along with other
oversized Japanese books, and then to the Map Library on the 8th floor
of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. Jordan Sand HAROLD STEVENSON In June 2001, Center for Japanese Studies faculty associate Harold Stevenson retired from his teaching position in the psychology department and was awarded the title Professor Emeritus. Professor Stevenson, in his 30 years at the University of Michigan, was an active and integral member of the Japanese studies community. He served on CJS's graduate student admissions and fellowships committee, the faculty fellowship committee, numerous Japan search committees, the CJS executive committee, and was acting director of CJS in the mid-1990s. So, how did a psychologist whose research interests include learning and cognitive development, cross-cultural studies, and child development and social policy become interested in Japan? Harold Stevenson's first encounter with things Japanese occurred over fifty years ago. He grew up in the hills of Wyoming and then in a small town in Colorado, and was in high school when the United States entered World War II. At that time, with the country at war and Harold at a young age, he felt he had three choices: join the Army, join the Navy, or be drafted. He chose to decide his own fate and joined the Navy, and what happened following that decision would change the course of his life and career. After enlisting in the Navy, Harold was chosen to interview for the
prestigious Navy Foreign Language Program. At the time, the Navy was training
enlisted persons to interpret Japanese, Chinese, Malay, and Russian. To
his own surprise, after the interview, Harold was selected for the Navy's
Japanese Language School which was being held nearby at the University
of Colorado. (Coincidentally, the Army's Japanese Language School was
here at the University of Michigan.) He says that Japanese was fascinating
to him, but he would have been happy studying any of the languages offered.
Luckily for the field of Japanese studies, it was Japanese he was chosen
to study for an intensive 14 months. Since the purpose of the language
school was to train military personnel to help in intelligence capacities,
as his studies were nearing completion, he was told that he would be going
to Japan to help the U.S. in the war effort. Equipped with a Navy uniform,
Harold was ready for the challenge, but as fate would have it, just as
he was graduating from the language program, Japan surrendered and the
war ended. Since 1986, Harold and his team from the U-M have been working closely with psychologists at the University of Tokyo, Sendai University, and Hokkaido University. Together, the American and Japanese researchers conducted a study focusing on the upper 2% of performers in American and Japanese schools. Many defenders of the American education system claim that while Japan and other countries can, on average, score higher on standardized tests in math and other subjects than American children, the top 2% of American children can fare better than the top 2% of children in other countries. Their study found that, contrary to popular belief, the top 2% of the Japanese children scored higher than the top 2% of American children. Through his studies, Harold also developed a keen interest in China and even began studying the Chinese language. In 1986, he became one of the first academics to travel to China, which had opened its gates to foreign researchers only very recently. At the time, the National Academy of Sciences was seeking new forms of cooperation between academics in China and the United States, and Harold's research group on early childhood was chosen to be the first of its scientific exchanges. This led to further recognition of the caliber of research that his team conducted, this time by UNICEF. UNICEF and the All China Women's Federation were collaborating to establish a Child Development Center of China in Beijing. In order to exchange ideas on the form of this development center, representatives from UNICEF and experts from around the world in nutrition, early childhood development, OBGYN, and pediatrics were assembled here in Ann Arbor. Harold organized the conference of world-renowned experts that was held in the Rackham School of Graduate Studies. The experts were able to construct the basic principles of the Center during the conference; the actual Center in Beijing was completed a few years later. Today, the Child Development Center of China has grown to include a nursery, a library, a park, and a research center. Harold, who was instrumental in building this Center from its conceptualization, has conducted research in this innovative facility numerous times in his over 20 visits to China. Harold admits that although he has been active in China, he has done more work on his first East Asian interest, Japan. In addition to his many research trips to Japan, he has close ties with the Japanese community in Michigan. His research has benefited greatly from such local resources as the all-Japanese language classes held at the Japanese School of Detroit and the Japanese School of Chicago. In addition to being a world-renowned researcher, he is a widely read author. He has written numerous monographs and articles, including the following major works: Child Development and Education in Japan (WH Freeman, 1986) and The Learning Gap, with J.W. Stigler (Simon and Schuster, 1992). After nearly ten years in print, The Learning Gap is "still selling remarkably well." He also co-authored, with Shin-ying Lee, Chuansheng Chen, and J.S. Stigler, a monograph, Contexts of Achievement: A Study of American, Chinese, and Japanese Children (Monographs in Society for Research in Child Development, vol. 55, no. 1-2, University of Chicago Press), which eventually became the second-best seller in the history of the series. After retiring from his teaching post at U-M, Harold continues to work on his research and writing as a fellow in the Center for Human Growth and Development. Since 1979, his research has focused on children in East Asia, and in particular in Japan, China, and Taiwan, as they compare with children in the United States. Currently, he is working on some major projects, including a longitudinal study of learning and thinking in children in Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. that goes back more than two decades. The subjects, who were babies initially, are now 23 years old! He is also writing the results of a longitudinal study he conducted in China, looking at the interests and skills of children and whether recent changes in social and economic development have affected those interests and abilities. It seems fitting that the University of Colorado's library has recently set up a center to commemorate the Navy Language School that was there in the 1940s, the language school that sparked Harold Stevenson's interest in Japan. That school and the Army Language School here at the University of Michigan produced many young Japanese speakers who went on to become distinguished Japan scholars in universities around the country; Harold Stevenson is a stellar example. The Noon Lecture Series begins this winter on Thursday, January 17 with Frank Chance, visiting professor of art history, speaking on "Passing and Painting the Mountain: Tani Buncho, Ando Hiroshige, Mt. Fuji and the Tokaido Highway." Other lecturers include Toyota Visiting Professor Jordan Sand; Edward Kamens, professor of East Asian languages and literatures, Yale University; Margo Okazawa-Rey, professor of social work, San Francisco State University; Karen Nakamura, professor of anthropology, Macalester College; William Tsutsui, professor of history, University of Kansas; Linda Chance, professor of Japanese, University of Pennsylvania; Dennis Washburn, professor of Japanese studies, Dartmouth College; Lisa Yoneyama, professor of Japanese studies and cultural studies, University of California, San Diego; and Eiichiro Azuma, professor of history, University of Pennsylvania. All noon lectures are free and open to the public and are held on Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in Room 1636 on the first floor of the School of Social Work Building. Paul Anderer, professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Columbia University, will be presenting the fourth annual Robert Lyons Danly Memorial Lecture on Friday, January 25 at 4 p.m. The lecture, "Beyond Realism: Fiction, Film, and 'Modern Japan,'" will attempt to stimulate thinking about the status of "realism" as the primary constituent of the "modern" in modern Japanese literature by focusing on Kurutta ippeiji, a movie written by Yasunari Kawabata. This lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in Room 806 of the Hatcher Graduate Library. CJS will be sponsoring a seminar on "The Ways Some Japanese Live Now" to be held from January 11 to 13, 2002. Behavior and values today in Japan appear different from "traditional" Japanese patterns. This seminar is a collective effort to look at three areas of rapid change in contemporary society: young people and work; middle-aged women and caregiving; and "new" old people. Participants include Hiroko Akiyama, senior researcher, Institute for Social Research; Pat Boling, professor of political science, Purdue University; Mary Brinton, professor of sociology, Cornell University; John Campbell, professor of political science; Ruth Campbell, professor of social work; Regula Herzog, senior research scientist, Institute for Social Research; Hiroshi Ishida, professor of sociology, University of Tokyo; Susan Long, professor of anthropology, John Carroll University; Hiromi Ono, research scientist, Institute for Social Research; Jim Raymo, professor of demography, University of Wisconsin; Sawako Shirahase, senior researcher, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan; and Yuko Suda, professor of sociology, Tokai University. John Campbell (Political Science) moderated a panel discussion sponsored by CJS on "Japan and September 11." The event, which took place on December 3, 2001, featured Glen Hook of the University of Sheffield (U.K.). A leading expert on Japanese foreign policy and currently President of the British Association of Japanese Studies, Professor Hook discussed the meaning of the incident for Japan's world role and US-Japan relations. Kenneth Lieberthal (Political Science), former special assistant on East Asia to President Bill Clinton, also commented on America's posture toward Japan and East Asian security in the light of September 11. Shoko Emori (ALC) will have her article, "The Japanese particle: Maa" published in Journal Cajle. CJS welcomes Junko Kondo, a new lecturer in the Asian Languages and Cultures Department (ALC). Junko graduated with an M.A. in Japanese pedagogy from Columbia University in May 2001. She has previous teaching experience at Madonna University and Oakland University in Michigan and is teaching first- and second-year Japanese here at U-M. Jersey Liang is a Professor of Health Management and Policy and a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Gerontology. Since the mid-1980s, Jersey has been actively engaged in comparative studies of health, health care, and aging in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and China. In Japan a longitudinal database involving a national probability sample of 2,200 elderly people has been maintained since 1987. In conjunction with existing longitudinal data from the U.S., this research aims to examine the cross-cultural differences in the dynamic linkages among social relations, financial well being, and health status among the older-old (i.e., 70 years of age or over). In addition, Jersey and his associates have established longitudinal studies of health and aging in the United States, Taiwan, and China. In the summer of 2001, Jersey spent several weeks working with his colleagues at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (TMIG) and University of Tokyo and lectured on old age mortality in Japan and health transitions in China. In addition, he has prepared a paper on "The Quantity and Quality of Health Among the Japanese Elderly" to be included in a research volume edited by Dr. Hidehiro Sugisawa at TMIG. His recent publications include "Assessing cross-cultural comparability in mental health among older adults" (Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 2001), "Transitions in living arrangements among the elderly in Japan: Does health make a difference?" (Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences), and "Religion, death of a loved one, and hypertension" (Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 2001). CJS welcomes John Lie as a professor in the sociology department and a CJS faculty associate. John, who arrived on campus in January, was most recently a visiting scholar at Harvard University. His research interests include national identity, ethnic minorities, popular culture, and the colonial period. John's recent publications include Han Unbound: The Political Economy of South Korea (Stanford UP, 1998), Multiethnic Japan (Harvard University Press, 2001), and Modern Peoplehood (forthcoming). Professor Emeritus William Malm gave the keynote, Charles Seeger
Lecture at the Society for Ethnomusicology on October 27 in Southfield,
Michigan. In addition to Professor Markus Nornes (ALC, Film and Video Studies) lectured on the documentary filmmaker Kamei Fumio at the 2001 Yamagata International Film Festival, and wrote an essay on the director for a special catalog the festival published. He also presented work on translation and film dubbing at a Dartmouth University workshop on translation and Japanese Studies. Mayumi Oka (ALC) was promoted to Lecturer III. Hiromi Ono (Sociology) was awarded the upcoming Abe Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council. She will be visiting the University of Tokyo next year. Hiromi and Ming-Ching Louh have a forthcoming paper titled, "A Wife's Separate Purse from the Common Pot: Intra-marital Financial Arrangement in Contemporary Japan," in Journal of Family Issues, November 2002. Professor Robert Sharf (ALC) has a new book, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. He also gave lectures at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. Masae Suzuki, who teaches a class in ALC on Japanese calligraphy, recently displayed her calligraphy artwork at two exhibitions in Japan. The first, which took place this September, was at Toro no Kai in Gifu, Japan, and she won prizes at the Tokyo Calligraphy-Art Exhibition (Tokyo Shosaku ten), which took place in November 2001. Additionally, she recently published Japan Calligraphy Renew 2000 (Art Bank, Japan). Professor Mieko Yoshihama (School of Social Work) held a press conference on November 27, 2001 in Tokyo to release findings from the World Health Organization Multi-Country Study of Women's Health and Domestic Violence, which was partially funded by CJS. She is also providing training on domestic violence for fujin sodan (women's counselors) in Japan. This is part of the nationwide training sponsored by the National Association of Women's Counselors. In addition to her active outreach, she has several papers about domestic violence in Japan forthcoming and is currently revising a Japanese book originally published in 1998, entitled, Domestic Violence: Towards the Elimination of Violence Against Women by Husbands and Boyfriends. Hrishikesh Ballal, mechanical engineering M.S. student, R. Nemeth, computer science and economics B.S. student, and Tzskit Kelvin Wong, industrial and operations engineering M.S. student were accepted as interns in Japan through the JITMT Internship Program, coordinated by JETRO and U-M's Japan Technology Management Program. They will be interning at Yamaha Corporation, NTT, and Taiheyo Cement Corporation, respectively. Heather Hopkins Clement is enjoying her new life in Pasadena, California. She recently accepted a position as Business Development Manager for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group in West Covina, California. She is keeping up with her Japan interests through affiliations with the Japan America Society, Little Tokyo Service Center, Pacific Asia Museum Japanese Art Council, and the Nichibei Study Group. William Londo (History Ph.D. student) is spending the 2001-2002 academic year as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Religion and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Michael Martin finished his M.A. in Japanese Studies in April 2001. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at U-M. He spent the summer as a visiting researcher at Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory in Tsuchiura, Japan, through the National Science Foundation's Summer Program in Japan. Eric Rath (1999, Ph.D. in History) received a Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant from the American Historical Association and a Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies grant in 2001. In Spring 2002, he will co-direct a faculty seminar on food and culture at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas. CJS alumni Larry Rosensweig (1975) and Tom Gregersen (1977) recently completed 25 and 24 years, respectively, as director and senior curator of The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida. The Morikami (www.morikami.org) celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2002, having opened the highly acclaimed Roji-en: the George D. and Harriett W. Cornell Japanese Gardens in early 2001. The Morikami commemorates an early 20th century community of Japanese farmers in Florida and is the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to Japanese culture. Douglass J. Scott recently received a faculty appointment in the School of Human Sciences at Waseda University in Japan. Marcus Willensky (1999 CJS graduate), is currently director of Dynaword Inc., a translation house in Tokyo, and is also continuing his research on the Uyoku in anticipation of publishing his graduating thesis, Sonnou Toukan (Revere the Emperor, Destroy the Traitors). He and his wife, Satomi, are expecting a baby. Awards Announced Recipients of Japan Foundation Research Fellowships for 2001-2002 included two University of Michigan professors: Hugh deFerranti (ALC) for "Tales of Biwa-hiki: Yamashika Yoshiyuki and the Biwa Recitation Traditions of Kyushu" and Jennifer Robertson (Anthropology) for "Blood and Muscle: Ikeda Shigenori and Japanese Nation Building." Additionally, Jeremy Robinson received the Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship 2001-2002 for "The Convergence of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Traditions in the Tsukushi Man'yo Poets." Student Funding Opportunities The deadline for both the Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships and the Center for Japanese Studies Endowment Fellowships is February 1, 2002. For more information, please click here. Center for Japanese Studies students specializing in Japanese area
studies attending academic meetings in the United States or overseas to
give papers, chair panels, act as discussants, or serve in an executive
capacity are eligible to receive the Center for Japanese Studies Student
Conference Travel Support (transportation and lodging only). Students
who are attending conferences for professional development, such as AAS
job interviews, may apply with a letter of support from a U-M faculty
member attached. Requests should be made directly to the Center for Japanese
Studies (not through departments). In addition to the aforementioned funding opportunities, the Center for Japanese Studies website also provides information about a number of outside funding opportunities, such as the Abe Fellowship Program, the Fulbright Program, and the Mombusho Scholarship Program. Please visit our website for links to these programs and more. February 7-8, 2002 February 9-10, 2002 February 23, 2002 February 24-26, 2002 March 16, 2002 April 4-7, 2002 April 12-14, 2002 April 11- 14, 2002 June 6-9, 2002 June 22-23,2002 Seeking Project Assistant Based in Japan and Ann Arbor, the project includes elementary through high school participants from Brazil, Taiwan, Israel, and Europe as well as the US and Japan. The UM project team already includes a diverse group of students, staff, and faculty. During Winter term River Walk can fund up to 20 hrs/week; GSA funding may be possible for a CJS-affiliated student. (However, the position is not limited to students.) Hours and pay rate are negotiable. There is a possibility of continued employment beyond Winter term in Ann Arbor and/or Japan. Please contact Jeff Kupperman (jkupp@umich.edu, 734-764-5547). Asia Library Travel Grants up to $500 are available to help defray the cost of travel, lodging, meals, and photo-duplication for Japan scholars at other institutions who wish to utilize the collection at the University of Michigan Asia Library from July 1, 2001 until June 30, 2002. The Asia Library collection includes over 567,388 volumes in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Of these, 250,039 volumes, 9,670 microfilm sheets are in Japanese. An on-line access to the Nichigai databases from Japan is one of the newer acquisitions in electronic resources. The library is strong and well balanced in humanities and social sciences with growing collections in film and women's studies. Further information about the library is available at http://www.lib.umich.edu/asia/ or by contacting the Library Assistant at 734-764-0406. Interested scholars should submit an application letter, a brief statement (not to exceed 250 words) to the Center describing their research and the need to use the Asia Library collection. Additionally, scholars should provide a current curriculum vita and proposed travel dates. Please send e-mail to umcjs@umich.edu or write to: Asia Library Travel Grants Looking for Updates The Center for Japanese Studies wishes to take this opportunity to thank our donors for their generous contributions to Center programs. JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL *All Lectures begin at Noon in Room 1636 SSWB unless otherwise noted The University of Michigan, an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the University's Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, 4005 Wolverine Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1281, (734) 763-0235, TDD (734) 647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call (734)764-1817. Director: Hitomi Tonomura Student Assistants: Publications Program Center for Japanese Studies Telephone 734-764-6307 http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs Center
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