Throughout the year, IMAP/IDOC hosts a robust calendar of visiting lectures, workshops, and symposiums that include internationally recognized scholars from leading universities around the world. Students assist in planning and implementing these important gatherings and benefit from the vast expertise, curricular variety, and network of introductions to the world of Japan studies that these visitors provide.

Upcoming Events

2024

April 22, 5:00pm. Online Lecture
Diplomatic Gifts and Cultural Exchanges: Sino-Korean Artistic Interactions in the Late Eighteenth Century
Seo Yoonjung (Associate Professor, Myongji University)
This online lecture is made possible through funding from Getty's Connecting Art Histories Program 
Zoom Meeting link
Meeting ID: 858 7698 0278
Passcode: 494251

Abstract
This study delves into the realms of diplomatic gifts between Joseon and Qing China in the late eighteenth century, uncovering the complexities of cross-cultural exchanges in East Asia. The research offers an overview of the diplomatic gifts traditionally circulated in East Asia and then narrows the focus to the sophisticated products emanating from the Qing imperial workshops, along with Sino-European objects bestowed upon Joseon envoys by Emperor Qianlong. Among these prized offerings were jade ruyi scepter, exquisite lacquerware, fine ceramics, luxurious silks, sumptuously woven textile, and volumes bearing imperial endorsement, as well as the emperor’s calligraphic pieces and poems, alongside copper-plate engravings reflecting European artistic sensibilities.

The scope of analysis is acutely attuned to the Joseon envoys dispatched in the late 1780s, providing a meticulous exploration of two notable print series that portray the Qing military campaigns known as the “Conquest of Western Regions” and the “Conquests of the Great and Lesser Jinchuan.” The investigation extends to probe several key aspects, including the role of Western-styled artifacts in Sino-Korean and broader East-West diplomatic engagements, the underlying principles governing the selection of these gifts, the occasion on which gifts were conferred upon foreign delegations, the profiles of the agents engaged in the exchange, and the ways in which these objects were esteemed and assimilated into the Joseon society. In its essence, this study attempts to examine the intersection among visual, material, and textual sources, elucidating the rich tapestry of diplomatic gift exchange practices and the resulting material culture as viewed through an intercultural lens. Thus, the research reveals a wide spectrum of interpretations pertaining to the semiotics of gifting, delineates the complex networks forged through the act of gifting, and assess the nuanced political and economic significance within their distinct historical and geographic framework.

Past Events

2023

November 6
Angkor Wat as Gion Shōja: Japanese Mappings of Buddhist India in Maritime East Asia
D. Max Moerman

October 26
Shared Coasts, Divided Historiographies - Opening Event

October 14-15
”Approaching Modernity in Japan’s Mountains ”
October 14 - Jan Hausmann, Cheng Yamei, Raditya Nuradi, Caleb Carter, Kobayashi Naoko, Furukawa Fukachi, and Amada Akinori.
October 15 - Field trip to Miyajidake

October 12, 4:00pm
”Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan: Elite Graffiti in Premodern Korea”
Maya Stiller (University of Kansas)

October 4, 5:00pm
“Korea’s Mount Potalaka, Naksan, and the Water-Moon Avalokiteśvara of Goryeo Dynasty — A Comparative View”
Sun-ah Choi (Professor, Myongji University)

September 14, 5:00pm
“A people who forget their myths must fall to ruin”: Investigating Sacrality and Identity in the Case of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki
Julia Dolkovski & Louise Neubronner (Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Tübingen) 

September 12, 5:00pm
The Strategic Use of Popular Culture in Japanese Elites’ Discourses
Felix Spremberg (Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Tübingen)

June 29th, 5:00pm
"Ise in the Eternal Present: The Meiji-Period Museification of Shrine Treasures"
Jordan Sand, Professor of Japanese History, Georgetown University, Kokugakuin University

May 31, 16:00 JST
“Reinterpretations of Heike Monogatari Reinterpreted: A Case of Battle Paintings”
Naoko Gunji, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

May 31, 10:30am
“Writing a New Christian History: Japanese Immigrant Churches in Pre-WWII Los Angeles”
Emily Anderson, History Curator, Japanese American National Museum

May 19, 4:30pm JST
“Thinking Through Landcape: Digital and Analog Approaches to Site-based Research in Premodern Asia”
Dr. Stephen Whiteman, Reader in the Art and Architecture of China, Courtland Institute of Art London

2022

December 13, 5PM JST
“Imaginations Turned Into Reality: Japanese Early Photographs”
Filip Suchomel, Senior Research Fellow, Charles University Prague; Lecturer, Technical University in Liberec

December 8, 2PM JST
“Mythology, Mountains, and the Gods: A Double Book Launch with Authors David Weiss & Caleb Carter”
Discussant: Ellen Van Goethem

December 7, 5PM JST
“Conflicting Images and Problematic Sources: Rethinking the Legacy of Hōjō Masako”
Ethan Segal, Michigan State University

October 21, 5PM JST
“Places of Memory and a Linear Chronology – on the Myth of ‘Jinmu Tennō’”
Klaus Antoni, University of Tübingen

This event is hosted by the International Master's Program (IMAP) and International Doctorate (IDOC) in Japanese Humanities at Kyushu University. For questions, please contact weiss@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

July 19, 5pm JST
“Zen-inspired Terrorism in 1930s Japan”
Brian Victoria, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies

July 12 - July 13
“From Seabeds to Mountaintops: East Asian Religions in Situ”
A Workshop in Japanese Religions - Ito Campus Kyushu University (In Person)
July 12 - Ellen Van Goethem, Emm Simpson, Fabio Rambelli, Caleb Carter, Dunan Reehl, Aike Rots, and Ioannis Gaitanidis.
Juyl 13 - Jan Hausmann, Lilly Gray, Raditya Nuradi

April 27, 1pm JST
“Navigating Postgraduate Studies in Japan”
James Frances Loftus III

March 28 – 30, 10am BST/ 6pm JST
“Islands in the Global Age: Identification, Estrangement and Renewal in the East-West Dialogue”
GLASGOW-KYUSHU INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

March 17, 10am JST
“The Reiwa Daijōe Screens and Poems”
Edward Kamens, Yale University

This lecture is funded by Kyushu University through a Progress 100 Grant (Research Hub for the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Knowledge RINK).

March 3, 6pm JST
“Archaeology Re-writes the History of the Ryukyu Islands”
Mark Hudson, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

February 18th, 6pm JST
“Transition from Painted to Painter: The Female Body of Okinawa and its Women Artists”
Eriko Tomizawa-Kay, University of East Anglia

This talk is part of the “Transcultural Exchanges: Mapping Movement of Art, Ideas, and People in Asia” series.

February 18, 9am JST
“Pilgrims Until We Die: Unending Pilgrimage in Shikoku”
Ian Reader, University of Manchester
John Shultz, Kansai Gaidai University

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

February 12-13
International Online Symposium - Transcultural Exchanges: Mapping Movement of Art, Ideas, and People in Asia

The symposium is hosted by IMAP Kyushu University, and sponsored by Kyushu University Institute for Asian and Oceanian Studies, Faculty of Humanities at Kyushu University, Progress 100 Grant (Research Hub for the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Knowledge RINK).

February 10, 6pm JST
“Archaeology Re-writes the History of the Ryukyu Islands”
Mark Hudson, Max Planck Institute

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 31, 10:30am JST
“Women, Domestic Caregiving, and Mental Illness in Meiji Japan”
H. Yumi Kim, Johns Hopkins University

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 27, 5pm JST
“Heritage, Health and Wellbeing: How the Past Can Help Us Feel Good in the Present”
Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute/University of East Anglia

This lecture was recorded, should you wish to view it, please contact Simon Kaner (s.kaner@uea.ac.uk) or Ellen Van Goethem (vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp)

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 26, 9am JST
“Early Modern Japan’s Maritime Cultural Landscape: Seafaring and Coastal Life in Woodblock Prints”
Michelle Damian

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 24, 6:30pm JST
“Japan’s Forgotten God: Jūzenji in Medieval Texts and the Visual Arts”
Or Porath, Leiden University

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 21, 5pm JST
“Constructing the Modern: Japanese Salon Art on Display in Colonial Seoul and Taipei (1922-1945)”
Magdalena Kolodziej, Lecturer, Toyo Eiwa University

This talk is part of the “Transcultural Exchanges: Mapping Movement of Art, Ideas, and People in Asia” series.

January 20, 1pm JST
“The Ryukyu Kingdom’s Embassies to Edo as Seen in Samurai Diaries”
Travis Seifman, Tōdai’s Historiographical Institute

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Jan 13, 11am JST
“Politics of the Sword: Violence and Ideology on the Eve of the Meiji Restoration”
Michael Wert, Marquette University

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

2021

Dec 17, 9am JST
Morten Oxenboell, Indiana University
“Environment and Conflict in Thirteenth-Century Japan”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Dec 6, 9am JST
Nadia Kanagawa, Furman University
“The Name Game in Nara Japan: Immigrant Origin and the Court Status System”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Dec 3, 10am JST
Peter D. Shapinsky, University of Illinois, Springfield
“Dressing like a pirate: Ascriptive Ethnicity and Commoner Transformation in the Fifteenth-Century East Asian Maritime World”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Nov 29, 5pm JST
Enrico Crema
“Archaeological Approaches to Prehistoric Demography”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Nov 12, 6pm JST
Ilona Bausch
“Fabulous Foragers: Adornment and Identity in Jomon Japan”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Oct 29, 9am JST
Carl Gellert
“From the Earthly to the Celestial: Material Culture and Funerary Practice at Fujinoki Kofun”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

July 12, 2021
Sherman W. Horn III (University of California, Santa Barbara)
“Before the Kings and Queens”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructions, Practices, and Places,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant (AY2019–2021). For further information, please contact vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

February 2021
International Online Symposium - Beyond the Southern Barbarians: Repositioning Japan in the First Global Age

This symposium was co-organized and co-funded by Kyushu University’s Faculty of Humanities and Yale University’s Council of East Asian Studies. The funding from Kyudai comes through a Progress100 Research Hub for the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Knowledge (RINK) Grant.

February 17, 2021
Andreas Niehaus
“Cleansing the Universe” (uchū no misogi): Religious Nationalism and Spiritual Training in Pre-war Aikidō”

This talk is part of the events organized for the Kyushu University IMAP/IDOC & Ghent University Japan Studies/BOCULT Network and is made possible through a Kyushu University Webinar 100 grant. For further information, please contact Ellen Van Goethem at vgoethem@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

January 22
Dana Mirsalis
“Women as Substitute, Women as Complement: Two Stories on the Gendered Shinto Priesthood in Postwar Japan”

This event is part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

2020

December 14
Sven Saaler
“Men in Metal: A Topography of Public Bronze Statuary in Modern Japan”

Click here to listen now (password required)

December 10
Ashton Lazarus
“The Realm Beyond Our Senses: Sensation and Renunciation in The Tale of Genji”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

November 20
Paula R. Curtis
“Medieval Lives and Afterlives: Locating the Kawachi Casters in Objects and Legend”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

November 18
In conversation with: Andrea Castiglioni, Fabio Rambelli, Carina Roth, Kawasaki Tsuyoshi, Max Moerman, and Caleb Carter
“Defining Shugendō: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

October 26
William Wayne Farris
“A Bowl for a Coin”

August 24
Luke Roberts
“A Samurai Wife Divorces Her Lout of a Husband”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

August 6
Emily B. Simpson (discussant: Ryūichi Abé)
“The Empress’ New Sister: The Role of Toyohime in Medieval Legends of Empress Jingū”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

July 1
Frank J. Korom
“A Contentious Public Sphere: Debating Ritual Performance during Hosay in Trinidad”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Negotiations through Practice,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

January 30
Eric Siercks
“Constructing Postwar Literature/Reconstructing National Literature: Rural Magazines and Archival Scales, 1945–1955”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructing the Past,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

January 23
Stephanie M. Hohlios
“Visualizing the Laboring Female Body in Chikuhō: “Women’s Work” and Regional Historical Consciousness”

January 15
Doreen Mueller
“Painting Nature Running Amok: The Affective Potential of Western Realism in Nineteenth-Century Japan”

This event was part of a series titled “Reiterations of the Past: Reconstructing the Past,” which is made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership Acceleration Grant.

2019

December 7–8
International Symposium - The Many Shapes of Meaning: Object and Performance in Asia

This symposium was supported by the 2018–19 AY Challenge type 3, Progress 100 (Invitation program for top global researchers) RINK Research Hub for the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Studies, Kyushu University grant, The Many Shapes of Meaning: Object and Performance in Asia Across Time.

Speakers:

Claire-Akiko Brisset, University of Geneva
Reading as a Performance? Cryptography in Japanese Lacquerware Tradition

Eike Grossmann, Hosei University
Material Traces of Ephemeral Performances: Writings on Nō and their Impact on Tradition-making

JohnT.Carpenter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Inscribed Maruyama-Shijō Paintings as Records of Late-Edo Literary and Intellectual Trends

Nozomi Naoi, Yale-NUS College
Reproducing the Reproducible: Takehisa Yumeji and Mass Media in Twentieth-Century Japan

Andrea Castiglioni, Nagoya City University
The Presence of the Absence: Yudonosan Religious Confraternities and Their Material Culture

Michael Dylan Foster, University of California, Davis
Patterns and Particularities in Raihōshin Rituals

Judith Zeitlin, University of Chicago
Pipa vs. Qin: Contesting the Gender of Musical Instruments in Seventeenth-Century China

Keiko Suzuki, Ritsumeikan University
Aloha Shirts and Sukajan: Their Circulation and Domestication throughout Asia

Paul S. Atkins, University of Washington
The Souvenirs of Zekkai Chūshin

Kristopher Kersey, University of California, Los Angeles
The Early Modern Fold: Pleated Fans in Japan’s Encounter with Europe

Wu Hung, University of Chicago
Intersections Between Image, Object, and Performance: Cases in Ming Dynasty Courtesan Culture

Michael Jamentz, Ritsumeikan University
Preachers, Painters, Poets and the Rise of Fugen Imagery in the Medieval Japanese Court

Takeshi Watanabe, Wesleyan University
Did Genji Eat? Representations of Food and Eating in the Late Heian Period

Youn-mi Kim, Ewha Womans University
Performative Clothing inside Korean Buddhist Statues

Lucia Dolce, SOAS University of London
The Abhiseka of the Yogin: Bodily Practices and the Interiorization of Ritual in Medieval Japan

December 3
Joshua Frydman
“Classical Clickbait: "Pop" Poetry Circulation in Premodern Societies”

November 30
International Workshop - Substance and Symbol in Japanese Architecture

Speakers:

Nomura Shun’ichi, Tohoku University
To be Surrounded by “sansui” in Medieval Zen Temples: A Study in Architectural History Based on the Case of Musō Soseki

Mark Karl Erdmann, University of Melbourne
Circles and Squares: Understanding the Azuchi Castle Donjon within Sengoku Ideology

Anton Schweizer, Kyushu University
Shaping a Deity: Architectural Form at the Toyokuni Shrine in Kyoto

William Coaldrake, Tokyo University
Model Diplomacy and the Taitokuin Mausoleum at the Japan-British Exhibition

Ran Zwigenberg, Pennsylvania State University
Southern Barbarians at the gates: Kokura Castle’s struggle with authenticity

November 28
Book talk by Gwyn McLelland
“Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki: Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives”

October 28
International Symposium - Emperor and Shrine: Commemoration, Ideology, and Identity

Jointly funded by: Forum for Interdisciplinary Religious Studies (FiReF-FIRSt), University of Göttingen & Progress 100 Strategic Partnership “Reiterations of the Past,” Kyushu University (FY 2019-2021)

Speakers:

Ellen Van Goethem, Kyushu University
”Reconstructing a Palace and Building a Shrine: Heian Jingū as a Marker of National and Regional Identity”

Karli Shimizu, Hokkaido University
”Shinto Shrines in Hawai’i: Translating Between Secularisms, 1898–1941”

Liza Wing Man Kam, University of Göttingen 
”Underneath the Grand Yellow Imperial Roofs of Martyrs’ Shrines: Taiwan’s Colonial Past, Present and Onwards, and the Political Symbolism at Play”

Caleb Carter, Kyushu University
”Whose Shrine? Community and Meaning in the Land of Shinto and Power Spots”

Michael Wachutka, Tübingen University Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
”What to Do with the Dead Tennō? Funeral Rites, Burial Sites and Commemoration of the Dead in the Japanese Imperial Family”

October 23
Ivo Smits (Leiden University)
“Hidden Poets of the Past”: Early Modern Canonizations of Heian Kanshi and Waka”

June 20
Gregory Smits (Pennsylvania State University)
“Early Ryukyu as a Frontier Region of Japan”

June 20
Yasuko Tsuchikane (The Cooper Union / Waseda University)
“Why Fukiji Served as the Model for the Shitennōji Murals in Early Shōwa Osaka”
Lecture funded by Kyushu University QR Program Tsubasa Project “Heian Jingū: The Creation of a New Shrine”

June 11
Ran Zwigenberg (Pennsylvania State University)
“The Atomic City: Military Tourism and Urban Identity in Postwar Hiroshima”

April 24
Justin Stein (Bukkyo University)
“Buddhist Youth: The ‘Vanguard of Buddhist Resistance Against Western Imperialism”

April 24
Jolyon Baraka Thomas (University of Pennsylvania)
“Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan”

March 2
Rethinking Object and Performance in Japan and Beyond: An International Workshop

Speakers:

Naoko Frances Hioki (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture)
”The Jesuits and Japanese Folding Screens: Transcultural Gift-exchange and Its Implications on Japanese Art in the Early Seventeenth Century”

R. Keller Kimbrough (University of Colorado, Boulder)
”Spells and Secret Scrolls in the Martial Fiction of Late Medieval Japan”

Ashton Lazarus (Kyushu University)
”Animate Objects: Kemari as Symbolic Pursuit in Heian Japan”

Beng Choo Lim (National University of Singapore)
”Traditional Japanese Theater in Contemporary Time—From the Perspective of Technology”

Ryoko Matsuba (The British Museum and SOAS University of London)
”Reading Images: Visual Conversation between Performances and Printed Images”

Hanna Mcgaughey (University of Trier)
”Japan’s Richard Wagner? Authorship and Artistry in the Modern Reception of Zeami’s Treatises”

Jeffrey Niedermaier (Yale University)
”Wang Zhaojun (Ō Shōkun) Translated and Reflected in Foreign Objects: Mirror, Stage”

Patrick Schwemmer (Musashi University)
”The Medieval Japanese Life of St. Alexius of Edessa”

January 25
Caroline Hiraswa (Waseda University)
“Contracts and Cosmologies: The Promotion of Inter-worldly Commitments in Fourteenth-century Japanese Paintings.”

January 22
Kristopher W. Kersey (UCLA)
“Reconsidering the Eyeless Sūtras (Menashikyō): Temporality, Dissonance, Method, and Ritual.”

January 17
Erin Brightwell (University of Michigan)
“Now Isn’t the End: A Medieval Experiment in Re-writing Mappō and Violence.”

January 11
Nan Hartman (Waseda University)
“The Soundless Stage and Imagined Audience—A Translation of Japanese Plays into Vernacular Chinese.”

2018

International Symposium - “Cultural Circulation in Asia: Narrative, Human, and Visual Flows”
February 1–2

Speakers:

John Breen (Nichibunken), Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University), David Weiss (University of Tübingen), Akiko Walley (University of Oregon), Hsueh-man Shen (New York University), Lucas Nickel (Vienna University), Tansen Sen (NYU Shanghai).

Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”) for the creation of interdisciplinary research hubs in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Charles Inouye (Tufts University)
July 19: “Re-enchantment: Thoughts about Neo-animism and the End of the Secular Era.”

Melanie Trede (Heidelberg University)
October 10: “Cutting, Selling, Repurposing: The Eventful Lives of Handscrolls in Japan.”

Christina Laffin (University of British Columbia):
October 15: “Narrative, Performance, and ‘Premodern’ Forms: Ishimure Michiko’s Contemporary Noh Play Okinomiya and its Costuming by Shimura Fukumi.”

Miyata Daiki 宮田太樹 (Fukuoka Art Museum)
November 19: “An Analysis of the Production of the Standing Yakushi Nyorai at Kokusenji in Relation to the Hachiman Faith.”

Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
November 19: “Hachiman as a Pirate Deity.”

Annegret Bergmann (The Free University of Berlin)
November 26: “What a difference a name makes – ceramics from Gimhae in the Japanese tea ceremony.”

Andrea Castiglioni (UC Berkeley)
December 19: “Talismans, Votive Stelae, and Mummified Bodies: The Religious Performances of Mt. Yudono Ascetics in the Early Modern Period

2017

Dr. Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, Columbia University

January 30 and 31, 2017: “Buddhism and Neuroscience”

February 2, 6, and 7, 2017: “Japanese Buddhist Gods”
Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”).

2016

Theme: Japanese Religion
January 21–24

Speakers:

Gina Barnes (SOAS), Michael Como (Columbia University), Lisa Kochinski (University of Southern California), Fabio Rambelli (UCSB), Or Porath (UCSB), William Matsuda (Kyushu University), Henny van der Veere (Leiden University); fieldwork in Ōita prefecture with Satomi Yamamoto (Kyoritsu Women's University) and Lindsey DeWitt (Kyushu University). Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”).

“Religion and Imagination in Japanese Contexts”
December 7–10

Speakers:

Dr. Brian Ruppert (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Dr. Chari Pradel, Dr. Fabio Rambelli (UCSB), Dr. D. Max Moerman (Columbia University), Dr. Cynthea J. Bogel (Kyushu University), Dr. Lindsey DeWitt (Kyushu University).
Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”).

Dr. Catherine Vance Yeh, Professor of Chinese & Comparative Literature, Boston University
December 12, 15, and 19, 2016. Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”).

Theme: Pre-Modern Japanese literature
December 19

Speakers: Ivo Smits (Leiden University), Torquil Duthie (UCLA).
Funded by Kyushu University’s World Premier International Researcher Invitation Program (“Progress 100”).

2014

“The Making of Religions and Religious Representations in Pre-Modern Japan: Imported, Native, and Modified Forms”
January 13–14

Speakers:

Max Moerman (Columbia University), Michael Como (Columbia University), Lucia Dolce (SOAS), Samuel C. Morse (Amherst College), Caroline Hirasawa (Sophia University), Hillary Pedersen (Kobe University), Lindsey DeWitt (Kyushu University)

“Fengshui in Asia and Beyond: Origins and Diasporas”
January 27–29

Speakers:

Florian Reiter (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Hong-key Yoon (University of Auckland), Michael Paton (University of Sydney), Stephen Field (Trinity University). Funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant for Young Researchers A (no. 23682001)