How did script and books arrive in Japan from the continent? Why does classical Japanese theatre often include scenes of travel? How was the body represented in Buddhist religious texts circulated in Japan? These are some of the questions being answered in visual ways by a team of researchers in Asian studies.
Five scholars are currently producing a series of short videos that guide us through the world of premodern Japan thanks to a unique opportunity made possible with support from the Toshiba International Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Graduate students Haley Blum, José Manuel Escalona Echániz, Saeko Suzuki, and Miaoling Xue are collaborating with Dr. Christina Laffin to create up to twenty videos (each around five minutes in length) which capture aspects of research on premodern Japan. Through their project, “Exploring Premodern Japan,” they have interviewed eminent specialists and practitioners, including scholars and noh actors. They look forward to releasing these open access videos for use by educators, or anyone with an interest in Japan before the nineteenth century, via their YouTube channel and within cIRcle, UBC’s digital repository.
