Since 2020, Asian Studies graduate students Miaoling Xue, Saeko Suzuki, and José Manuel Escalona Echániz have been collaborating with Dr. Christina Laffin to create a video series named “Exploring Premodern Japan” capturing aspects of research on premodern Japan. The team is excited to announce that they have released three new videos in the series.
In “Kingship, Media and Material Culture in Medieval Japan,” Abe Yasurō of Ryukoku University considers medieval “kingship” through an examination of twelfth to thirteenth-century illustrated handscrolls (emaki) and visual culture.
In “Washed by the Waves of Waka Bay: Translating the Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds,” Thomas McAuley of the University of Sheffield introduces forms of knowledge and practices that contributed to the largest extant Japanese poetry competition “Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds” (Roppyakuban uta’awase, 1193–1194). The end of this video also includes a traditional poetry recitation performed by Mitarai Yasuhiro 御手洗靖大 from Waseda University.
In “Embryonic Generation of the Perfect Body: Ritual Embryology from Japanese Tantric Sources,” Lucia Dolce of SOAS University of London considers conceptions of the body and ritual embryology in Japanese Buddhism through an examination of visual materials from Medieval Japanese Tantric sources.
Find these videos and more on their YouTube channel.
The team is grateful to be able to collaborate in presenting some of the exciting ideas, perspectives, and scholarship they see happening in the study of premodern Japan. They hope colleagues find the videos useful for teaching and more!
