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Reassessing Kodai: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Approaches to the Cultural History of Early Japan and its Historiography

Friday, February 12, 2016
9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Henderson Room Michigan League Map
Register here: http://goo.gl/forms/mGJndNmXmk

Unlike other historiographic categories such as “medieval” (chūsei), “early modern” (kinsei), and “modern” (kindai), the notion of kodai (the so-called “ancient periods”) has been less carefully interrogated in the field of Japanese studies. Broadly divided into three political periods (Asuka, Nara, and Heian), kodai is often defined through a series of historical watersheds aligned with the rise and fall of imperial power. Interrogating that perspective, the workshop aims to depart from the model of critical historical events as ruptures. Instead, it focuses on the processes and continuities of cultural development during the longue durée of early Japan. Thus, “kodai” is defined in its broadest sense—ranging from the sixth to the twelfth centuries—and participants are invited to engage with the artistic and religious developments of kodai as embedded in ritualistic, religious, literary, visual, and material cultures. In addition, the workshop will critically examine the historiography of scholarship on kodai, and interrogate how frameworks and binaries that are frequently employed in the study of this period gradually acquired scholarly purchase over time. By rethinking kodai as both a historiographic category and a framework of analysis, the workshop aims to generate a compelling set of questions that can reinvigorate the study of early Japan.

Event Schedule:
Reception (open to all, no preregistration required)
2/11/2016 (Thursday) 5:30 PM
Venue: Multiple Purpose Room, University Museum of Art, 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor

Workshop (open to all, preregistration required: http://goo.gl/forms/mGJndNmXmk)
2/12/2016 (Friday)
Venue: Michigan League (Henderson), 911 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor

8:30 – 9:00 am
Continental breakfast

MORNING SESSION
9:00 – 9:30 am
Kevin Carr (UM): Welcome and Introductory Remarks

n.b.: We will not necessarily be following a strict schedule during the workshop. Each paper will be approximately half an hour. After that, we will have a general discussion about the paper and the issues it raises. There will not be any designated discussants or panels.

9:30 – 10:15 am
Samuel Morse (Amherst College): “Saidaiji in the Eighth Century—The Phantom Temple”

10:15 – 11:00 am
Yoko Hseuh Shirai (Independent Scholar): “Queen Consort Kōmyō (701-760) and the Amitābha cult in 8th century Japan: A close look at “figured tiles” (senbutsu) and statuary”

11:00 – 11:45
Cynthea Bogel (Kyūshū University): “Two Capitals, One Cosmology: Clues to a Dual History of the Temple of the Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushiji in the Fujiwara and Nara capitals)”

11:45 – 12:00
Preliminary General Discussion

12:00 – 1:00
Lunch Break

AFTERNOON SESSION

1:00 – 1:45 pm
Mimi Yiengpruksawan (Yale University): “Heian Time Northern Time: On the Curious Cultural History of Julian Year 1052 in Northeast Asia”

1:45 – 2:30 pm
Bryan Lowe (Vanderbilt): “Empty Temples, Nameless Monks, and Why They’re Important: A New Take on Early Heian Buddhism”

2:30 – 3:15 pm
Akiko Walley (University of Oregon): “Burying the Buddha: Reconsidering Heian-period Sutra Mounds (kyōzuka) in the Context of Asuka- and Nara-period Relic Worship”

3:15 – 4:00 pm
Ryūichi Abé (Harvard University): “On the gaze of the Dragon Princess — deciphering the Devadatta scroll frontispiece in the Heike Nokyo”

4:00 – 5:00 pm
General Discussion and Closing Remarks

For inquiries, please contact Susan Dine at smdine@umich.edu.

For information on the graduate student seminar on on the 8th century Hokkedō of Tōdaiji temple in Nara: https://events.umich.edu/event/28155

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of History of Art, Center for Japanese Studies, Institute for the Humanities, Rackham Graduate School, College of LSA, International Institute, and the Association for Asian Studies Northeast Asia Council.
Building: Michigan League
Website:
Event Type: Conference / Symposium
Tags: AEM Featured, History, Japanese Studies, Visual Arts
Source: Happening @ Michigan from History of Art, Center for Japanese Studies