From 1963 onward, six urns containing of Holocaust victims remains have been interred in Japan. These urns’ journey was both transnational, converging with the Polish state museums memory diplomacy, as well as a very local one, as the meaning of and politics around the remains were intimately connected with Japan’s own experience. Indeed, this phenomenon is not unique to Japan. Polish museums have sent such urns all around Poland and globally, building a secular network of pilgrimage sites with its own relics and altars. Taking advantage of the fragile corporeality of ashes, this practice transformed them into portable commemorative objects. The (literal) objectification of the Jewish dead globally and in Japan meant different things for different actors in this story. Tracing the journey of the urns and their various uses, reveal the complex politics of transnational commemoration of World War II in its very local meanings in Japan and beyond.

Ran Zwigenberg is associate professor at Pennsylvania State University and Kyushu University. His research focuses on modern Japanese and European history, with a specialization in memory and cultural history. He has taught and lectured in the United States, Europe, Israel, and Japan, and published on issues of war memory, atomic energy, psychiatry, and survivor politics.  His latest manuscript Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (University of Chicago Press, 2023) deals with the psychological aftermath of the nuclear attacks on Japan. For more information on this and other projects, please see https://sites.psu.edu/zwigenberg/

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 894 1109 9080).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from July 22.

Horimono, or Japanese tattooing, has been documented in photography since the first commercial series in 1859, with technical problems that were quickly overcome by coloring the monochrome prints. The arrival of Western travellers led to the emergence of tourist photography ateliers (Yokohama shashin), which flourished in the new treaty ports. All the renowned photographers, such as Shimooka Renjō, Beato, Stillfried, Usui, Kinbei, and Kajima Seibei, included portraits of tattooed men in their portfolios. Alongside the geisha, the tattooed man became a new expression of Japanese masculinity in the eyes of Westerners.

Claude Estèbe is a French photographer and Japanologist. Formerly resident at the Villa Kujoyama (2001), he obtained his PhD in early Japanese photography from INALCO (2006). His publications include Les Derniers Samouraïs (2001) and Yokohama shashin (2014). He is currently editing a book on tattoos during the Meiji period. He has curated several exhibitions for the Guimet Museum, Kyotographie, and the MCJP (Le Japon en couleurs, 2022).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 842 6720 2188).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from June 23.

The spread of Afro-Brazilian religions—especially Umbanda and, to a lesser extent, Candomblé—has followed the flux of the migrations of Brazilians (mostly of Japanese descent) looking for work and better living conditions in Japan. This presentation will show some preliminary results on how religious experiences are entangled with migration, the search for healing, life plans, the possibility of people and objects to circulate between Japan and Brazil, and the complex relationship with Japanese society, nature, and spirits.

Daniela Calvo is a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, and is currently working on a project on Umbanda in contemporary Japan. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences (State University of Rio de Janeiro) and a PhD in Mathematics (University of Pisa).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 852 6441 2277).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from May 20.

Western classical culture, and Greek culture in particular, has been a formidable source of reflection and imagination for twentieth-century Japanese artists and intellectuals. After tracing the milestones of this encounter, we will examine the nature of the link thus created between modern Japan and ancient Greece. At a time when the West is stumbling over the paradoxes of universalism, a reterritorialization of Greece seems more necessary than ever.

Michael Lucken is Professor of Japanese Contemporary History at Inalco (Paris), where he is teaching and studying intellectual history and visual culture. His main books are L’Art du Japon au vingtième siècle (Twentieth-Century Japanese Art; Hermann, 2001); Imitation and Creativity in Japanese Arts from Kishida Ryūsei to Miyazaki Hayao (Columbia University Press, 2016); The Japanese and the War: Expectation, Perception, and the Shaping of Memory (Columbia University Press, 2017); Nakai Masakazu. Naissance de la théorie critique au Japon (Nakai Masakazu: The Birth of Critical Theory in Japan; Presses du réel, 2015); and Le Japon grec. Culture et possession (Greek Japan: Culture and Possession; Gallimard, 2019).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 863 0847 2410).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from April 15.

The publishing world of the late Edo period was marked by the attempts to involve a female readership as literary consumers. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, female readers were not considered as the “specific target” of a literary output. Thus, authors and publishers resorted to many expedients to find a product explicitly designed for their preferences, such as the ninjōbon (sentimental books). However, this paucity of literary contributions, whose main aim was to fulfil womanly interests, does not imply that authors did not try to involve them before the publication of these “sentimental books”. Furthermore, publications with men as their original consumers could in fact be tailored to a female readership. When a literary product changes its model reader, the transformations that the text undergoes are not concerned solely with the surface—cover and illustrations—or the plot. Changes are seldom embedded in deep narrative structures. This lecture aims to outline the evolution that texts, in particular tales of vengeance or katakiuchi mono, went through when they addressed a female readership, which involved morphological and structural changes.

Mario Talamo obtained his PhD from the University of Naples ‘l’Orientale’ and has a Postdoctoral Diploma in Sciences of Religion and the History of Thought from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He is currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies. His research is on the late-Edo popular literature of the nineteenth century. Among his publications are the Italian translation of Jippensha Ikku’s masterpiece, Tōkaidōchū hizakurige (Hizakurige: a piedi lungo il Tōkaidō, Aracne Editrice, 2019); an anthology of tales of vengeance from the end of the Edo period (Storie di vendetta di samurai, Asiasphere, 2021); and “Evolutions of Ethical Paradigms and Popular Fiction: The Case of Late Edo Tales of Vengeance,” Japan Review (2023): 29-50

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 842 5377 2915).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from March 27.

Praised by younger writers like Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, Kawabata Yasunari, and Mishima Yukio, Izumi Kyōka (1873-1939) is today one of the most challenging of modern Japanese novelists to read, much less trans-late into a foreign language. His prose style is one of enchantment: as Nakajima Atsushi put it, it has the effect of a narcotic like heroin, taking the reader into an altered state of consciousness. Using examples from his own translation of the story, in this lecture the speaker will focus on Sanjaku-kaku (“Three Feet Square,” 1898) and its sequel Kodama (“Echo”) to ex-plore how, through language, Kyōka makes the lost world of late-nineteenth century Fukagawa come alive.

Cody Poulton is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, Canada, and currently serves as Director of the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. A specialist in Japanese performance, he is author of Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyōka (2001) and A Beggar’s Art: Scripting Modernity in Japan, 1900-1930 (2010). He is also chief editor and translator of Citizens of Tokyo: Six Plays by Oriza Hirata (2018), co-editor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama (2014) and Okada Toshiki and Japanese Theatre (2021), and contributing editor to The Cambridge History of Japanese Theatre (2016).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 840 2211 1804).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from February 19.

The vanishing energy of Japanese traditional kites, crafted from paper and bamboo, echoes their departure from Japanese landscapes since the latter half of the twentieth century. This fading artistry has escaped the discerning gaze of foreign scholars specializing in Japanese studies and has been confined to the status of kyōdo gangu (Japanese folk toys) by Japanese researchers in regional studies. Yet, diligent research initiatives and the creation of the collective volume Cerfs-volants du Japon: à la croisée des arts (Japanese Kites: At the Crossroads of Arts) in 2021 calls attention to the untapped artistic richness of the study of Japanese kites. This lecture will highlight how the Edo period witnessed the rise of these delicate yet sturdy kites, not merely as celestial entities in the sky but as integral elements within the entertainment culture of the floating world. Indeed, their ethereal dance resonated with literature, poetry, theater, and the nuanced canvas of visual culture. The lecture will then illustrate how these delicate creations descended from the sky to find a new sanctuary upon the walls of galleries and museums as the twentieth century unfolded.

Cecile Laly has a PhD in Art History from Sorbonne University and is a Specially Appointed Lecturer at Kyoto Seika University. Specializing in Japanese arts and culture with a global perspective, her extensive research on Japanese kites is evident through her multiple scholarly publications, in particular her edited volume Cerfs-volants du Japon: à la croisée des arts (Nouvelles éditions Scala, 2021), a seminal contribution to the discourse on Japanese artistic heritage.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 826 0859 2665).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from January 20.

In recent years, there has been a growing appreciation worldwide for soy-based products that are often associated with Japan’s culinary tradition, such as tofu, shōyu (soy sauce), miso, or edamame. However, the path that soy has taken to become a pillar of Japan’s culinary identity is a fascinating story that encompasses not only nutrition or agriculture but also politics, diplomacy, and economy. Soybean cultivation began in ancient China, and for centuries, soy production, trade, and consumption remained concentrated in East Asia (“food from somewhere”). However, by the late nineteenth century, it gradually transformed into a global commodity (“food from nowhere”). This lecture explores Japan’s crucial role in this transformation. In the 1930s–1940s, Japanese colonialism fueled soy production in Manchuria, then the world’s leading producer. After World War II, Japan became a major market for American soy, enhancing U.S. dominance. The 1973 soybean embargo led Japan to diversify sources, notably investing in Brazil, which became the world’s leading exporter. Our narrative culminates in Japan’s recent efforts to restore soy’s cultural significance in its cuisine (washoku) through gastronationalism and gastrodiplomacy.

Felice Farina is Research Fellow at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” where he teaches a course titled “Politics and Institutions in Contemporary Japan.” His research primarily focuses on Japan’s food security, gastro-diplomacy, washoku, and the history of soy. He is the author of La via della soia. Una storia politica, economica e diplomatica del Giappone contemporaneo (Cierre Edizioni, Verona, 2023).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 868 7531 9515).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from December 10.

The Hokusai ‘brand’ in book illustration was the product of astute marketing, wilful misrepresentation, blatant plagiarism and great art. Titles illustrated by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) such as Hokusai manga and Fugaku hyakkei were the hottest property in art book publishing in 19th-century Japan. Hokusai also illustrated novels, poetry anthologies and educational texts. Some publishers even reissued books illustrated by his pupils in his name. No other Japanese artist produced as rich, varied and powerful a corpus of images for reproduction in book format as Hokusai. The books of few other Japanese artists were disseminated as widely as his. Art books assumed a major role in the formation of Hokusai’s reputation in his lifetime; posthumously they played a significant role in his recognition and appreciation abroad. His book illustrations attracted notice in Europe and North America well before his colour woodblock prints or paintings. After the latter became more widely known, interest in his books did not abate. It is, therefore, appropriate to characterise the Hokusai oeuvre in book form as a highly marketable brand, one that has been eagerly consumed by a global audience.

Ellis Tinios taught East Asian History at the University of Leeds. He has participated in research projects at the School of Oriental & African Studies, Cambridge University, the British Museum and the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University. He has taught courses on the book in early modern Japan in the USA under auspices of the Rare Book School. His research has encompassed the materiality of the book, erotic books, and books illustrated by Maruyama-Shijō artists, and Hokusai’s books.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 848 7771 2839).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from November 20.

Historical written sources related to the construction of the successive walls of the city of Kaesong, capital of the Koryŏ Kingdom (918–1392), are biased and partial. They rarely provide details about the exact configuration of the defence systems, the evolution of construction techniques, modifications, or repairs, and they do not explain the transformation of the city.

The research we conducted on the structures and successive boundaries of the walls of Kaesong not only provide a significant contribution to the historical and material knowledge of the city, but also constitute the scientific basis for the development of an operational heritage management strategy.

In 2011, the Archaeological Mission at Kaesong (supported by the Commission for Archaeological Research Abroad of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) was established, involving the French School of Asian Studies and the National Authority for Protection of Cultural Heritage, DPR Korea. In 2014, an exhibition presenting the first results was held in Pyongyang. Since 2018, research has been extended to royal tombs distributed outside the enclosures of the city of Kaesong. This lecture will outline the progress of this unprecedented cooperation.

Élisabeth Chabanol is Associate Professor at the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO). She specializes in Korean art history, archeology, and heritage. She is the head of the Seoul Centre of the EFEO and director of the Archaeological Mission at Kaesong. She is the coeditor (with Ro Chol Su) of Chosŏn-P’ŭransŭ Kaesong sŏng kongdong chosa palgul (2017) and the author of “Kaesong, 1630: une stèle méritoire en l’honneur du secrétaire général O Tan” (Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, 2019).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (email required in advance) and via Zoom (meeting ID: 815 7645 5692).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from October 29.