IMJS Reports
A PUBLICATION OF THE INSTITUTE
FOR MEDIEVAL JAPANESE STUDIES
Vol. 3, No.2 April 1992
Conference Report
Female and Male Role-Sharing in Japan: Historical and Contemporary
Constructions of Gender
On December 18-21, 1991, an international
conference titled "Female and Male Role Sharing in Japan: Historical and
Contemporary Constructions of Gender" was held at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor. Both North American and Japanese scholars participated. What
follows is a list of papers presented; those interested in further details
should contact Joanne Heald, Center for Japanese Studies, 108 Lane Hall,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290 (Tel. 313-764-6307).
Panel One
Red Trousers and Gender: Status and
Gender Distinctions in Ancient Codes of Dress*
Sachiko Takeda (History, Osaka University
of Foreign Studies)
Holding the Line: The Prevalence
of Female Sovereignty in Early Imperial Japan and the Case of Emperor Koken-Shotoku
Joan Piggott (History, Cornell University)
Discussants:
Diane Owen Hughs (History, University
of Michigan)
Ronald B. Toby (History and East
Asian Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana)
Panel Two
Medieval Nuns and Nunneries*
Ryoichi Hosokawa (Religious
Studies, Kyoto Tachibana Women's College)
Desires and Demons: Gendering Sexuality
in Twelfth-Century Japan
Hitomi Tonomura (History, University
of Michigan)
Discussants:
Helen Hardacre (Religious Studies,
Griffith University)
Paul Groner (Religious Studies,
University of Virginia)
Panel Three
Role Sharing in Medieval Japan: Warrior-Class
Women and Village Women*
Yasuko Tabata (History, Kyoto Tachibana
Women's College)
Medieval Ie and Gender: Emperors,
Aristocrats, Townspeople, and Outcastes*
Haruko Wakita (History, Osaka University
of Foreign Studies)
Discussants:
Thomas Keirstead (History, McGill
University)
Suzanne Gay (History, Oberlin College)
Panel Four
Prostitution in Early Modern Japan*
Hiromi Sone (History, University
of Kobe)
The Women of Hanaguruma-cho:
Wage-Labor and Gender in Bakumatsu Nishijin
Gary Leupp (History, Tufts College)
Discussants:
Julia Adams (Sociology, University
of Michigan)
Mary C. Brinton (Sociology, University
of Chicago)
Panel Five
Division of Labor and Women in Early
Modern Japan*
Fuyuhiko Yokota (History, University
of Kobe)
Japanese Nationalism and the Female
Body: Women in the Silk Industry as National Subjects?
Mariko Tamanoi (Anthropology, University
of Iowa)
Discussant:
Kathleen Uno (History, Temple University)
Panel Six
Formulation of the "Female" in Modern
Japan*
Masaki Hirota (History, Osaka University)
Eroticizing the Japanese Cafe Waitress
Miriam Silverberg (History, University
of California - Los Angeles)
Discussants:
Marilyn Ivy (Anthropology, University
of Chicago)
Judith Allen (History, Griffith
University)
Panel Seven
Reproduction and Midwives in Early Modern
and Modern Japan*
Emiko Ochiai (Sociology, Doshisha
Women's College)
Hygiene and Women in Modern Japan*
Ryuichi Narita (History, Nihon
Women's College)
Discussants:
Margaret Lock (Medical History, McGill
University)
Yuki Fujime (History, Konan College)
Panel Eight
Women's Diary: Japan and the West*
Yuko Nishikawa (Literature,
Chubu University)
Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration:
Texts of Self and Gender
Anne Walthall (History, University
of California - Irvine)
Discussants:
Anne Herrmann (English and Women's
Studies, University of Michigan)
Yoko Iwahori (History, Osaka University
of Foreign Studies)
Panel Nine
From Ars Erotica to Scienze Sexualis:
The Impact of Western Sexology in Early Meiji Japan*
Chizuko Ueno (Sociology, Kyoto Seika
College)
The Rhetoric of Androgyny in Japan
Jennifer Robertson (Anthropology
and Women's Studies, University of Michigan)
Discussants:
Sherry Ortner (Anthropology and Women's
Studies, University of Michigan)
* paper presented in Japanese.
Letter to the Editor
(excerpted)
""....Reading in IMJS REPORTS, (Vol.
3, No. 1: August 1991 Summer Seminar of the Kenkyukai Nihon no
josei to Bukkyo) the summary of discussions held there on the "state
of the field' now as compared with eight years ago, I felt that the conclusions
reached seemed to apply only to the field in Japan. I understand
why the participants' purview is so domestic. Still, if the subject of
"Women and Buddhism in Japan' is to be recognized in world academia as
a "field' (as the seminar participants advocate), then the field must improve
its international interface. For onething, when the Kenkyu\kai is planning
a Summer Seminar such as the one reported on in IMJS REPORTS, could it
not be arranged that they send preliminary announcements, invitations,
and calls for papers to scholars on the IMJS mailing list? Knowing about
such seminars well in advance, I for one might make special efforts to
attend or participate in some way. In the meantime, the IMJS performs a
great service by publishing such reports of the Kenkyu\kai's proceedings
and distributing copies of abstracts, and I hope IMJS will continue to
do so.''
--Edward Kamens
Yale University
[ Volume 1 of IMJS Reports was
prepared by Indra Levy ]
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