2014 USC-Meiji University Exchange Schedule

University of Southern California & Meiji University

Faculty and Graduate Student Research Exchange in Japanese Premodern Historical Studies

December 3-­‐4, 2014
12:00-­‐6:00
SOS 250
Schedule

Complete List of Presentation Paper Abstracts

Doi Shohei: Emergence of Standardized Tumuli (kofun) in the Third-century Northern Kantô in Eastern Japan

12/3 - 12/4/2014

Emergence of Standardized Tumuli (kofun) in the
Third-century Northern Kantô in Eastern Japan 弥生・古墳時代移行期の群馬県域における古墳出現過程
DOI Shohei土井翔平, Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology, Meiji University

This paper explores the process behind the appearance of the highly standardized tumuli or kofun in the third-century northern Kantô region of eastern Japan. It has previously been a well-accepted hypothesis that keyhole-shaped tumuli appeared in eastern Japan in the middle third century under the cultural influence of the Tôkai region, Pacific coastal region of the central Honshu, and that people’s life style and mortuary practices came to be unified in the fifth century. The problem of this hypothesis is that it supposes that all the cultural influences from the west were uniform across the entire eastern Japan, which was not necessarily the case. In terms of methodology, it is also problematic that data are skewed toward large keyhole-shaped tumuli. The latter problem is particularly apparent in Gumma Prefecture, northern Kantô. While the overwhelming majority of tumuli of the mid-third century are small ones, from ten to 30 meters in length, discussion of the appearance of tumuli is based on keyhole-shaped tumuli of more than 100 meters in length.

In order to cope with these problems, the author has looked at all the tumuli of the mid-third century in Gumma Prefecture, paying particular attention to the mound form, mound size, pottery offered to the dead, and goods deposited with the dead. As a result of the author’s analyses, it has become clear that in the late third and early fourth centuries, there were two distinctive cultural flows from the Tôkai region. These two were spatially distributed on the northern side and southern side of the Tone River. As to mortuary rituals, the author has found that pots offered at tumuli morphologically changed from ritualistic ones in the fourth century to more practical ones in the fifth century. By paying attention to regionally and locally various patterns and taking several types of material cultures into consideration, the author’s research broadens our understanding of a very complex process that underlay the appearance of standardized tumuli in eastern Japan.

従来、古墳時代の東日本は東海地方からの影響の中で古墳文化が流入し、その中で大形の古墳が出現し、古墳時代中期段階に近畿地方から関東地方にかけて生活様式・墓制等々が統一されるという見方が一般的であった。しかし、この視点は、関東地方という広域に広がる西日本からの影響をすべて等質にとらえてしまうことと、大形の前方後円墳を中心に議論が構成される傾向があった。本稿の検討対象地域とする群馬県域においても古墳時代前期の東海地方からの古墳文化の影響が想定されているが、県内の墳墓としては墳長10～30ｍの小形の墳墓が検出数としては圧倒的に上回るにもかかわらず、その検討に挙がるのは墳長100ｍ以上の大形古墳が中心である。

そのため本稿では、県内で確認されるすべての墳墓を対象とし、墳形・規模・供献土器・副葬品に関して分析を行った。その結果、古墳前期において東海地方からの文化流入に2つの流れが想定され、それが利根川を挟み分布を異にして発展することが確認された。また、墳墓祭祀に関して、古墳時代前期から中期へ移行するに従い供献土器における壺が儀礼的なものからより実用的なものに変化していくことが、形態的分析から確認できた。
本研究において、これまで西日本からの一方面的な分析視点に対し、在地における多方面の資料の分析の結果によって古墳出現過程のより詳細な様相を捉えることができた。

2014 Meiji Exchange Paper Extracts

You can few the abstracts for the 2014 USC-Meiji University Exchange here.

Topics Below:

Process of the Appearance of the Standardized Tumuli (kofun) in Third Century Northern Kanto, Eastern Japan by DOI Shohei, Ph.D. Candidate in History (Archaeology)

Local Elites in Eastern Japan and Kingship in Ancient Japan by SUNAGA Shinobu, Ph.D. Candidate in History (Ancient Japanese History)

Change in Elite Symbolism from Keyhole Tombs to Buddhist Temples in Seventh Century Japan by Ken’ichi SASAKI, Professor of Archaeology, Meiji U.

Control over and Trade with the Emishi People of Northeastern Frontier under the Ritsuryo Code of Ancient Japan by IGARASHI Motoyoshi, Ph.D. Candidate in History (Ancient Japanese History)

Production and Consumption of Salt and Taxation under the Ritsuryo Code of Ancient Japan by YANAGISAWA Nana, JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow

法会を営む女性―国立歴史民俗博物館所蔵『転法輪鈔(てんぽうりんしょう)』を中心 に―
牧野淳史MAKINO Atsushi

後白河院と今様合 ――『吉記』(きっき)における承安四年「今様合」を中心に――
須藤あゆ美SUTO Ayumi

江戸時代の古文書を求めて
野尻泰弘 NOJIRI Yasuhiro

Michelle Damian: A Geographic Analysis of Domestic Trade in the Late Medieval Seto Inland Sea

Friday 12/6/2013,   4:00-4:45 PM, Waite Phillips Hall 104* 

A Geographic Analysis of Domestic Trade in the Late Medieval Seto Inland Sea
Michelle Damian, Ph. D. Candidate, History Department, USC

This presentation will demonstrate how a geographic analysis of written and archaeological records can reveal new information about maritime trade in late medieval Japan (14th - 15th c). Although several Japanese scholars have examined the Records of Incoming Ships at the Hyōgo Northern Checkpoint (Hyōgo Kitaseki Irifune Nōchō) to determine major ports and cargoes, my study emphasizing the geography of the area illuminates new connections and roles of the people and places recorded in the Nōchō. I have incorporated this information into a Geographic Information System (GIS), which aids in showing which ports were vital transshipment hubs and how ships’ captains collaborated with each other in their voyages. This methodology even suggests resolutions for debates revolving around disputed port sites. Moreover investigating archaeological evidence together with the written record provides additional information about lateral trade ties as well as the flow of goods from the Inland Sea periphery to the center in the capital district. This geography-based study of trade in the medieval Inland Sea region reveals to a much greater extent than in past connections between smaller ports and the historical actors who lived and worked in them. 

Sachiko Kawai: Land-based Power of Retired Royal Ladies (Nyoin) in Early Medieval Japan: A Case Study of Senyōmon’in (1181-1252), an Unmarried Royal Daughter

Friday 12/6/2013,  3-3:45 PM, Waite Phillips Hall 104* 

Land-based Power of Retired Royal Ladies (Nyoin) in Early Medieval Japan: A Case Study of Senyōmon’in (1181-1252), an Unmarried Royal Daughter
Sachiko Kawai, Ph.D. Candidate, USC History Department

My research explores the economic and religio-political roles of late Heian and Kamakura nyoin, whose titles made them female equivalents of male retired monarchs. And although women had ceased to ascend the throne, nyoin owned a large number of royal properties, that helped them attain economic, political, and even military influence. But my research demonstrates that they did not automatically succeed in wielding that influence. They had to overcome challenges in securing material and human resources from their estates. Through this case study of Senyōmon’in, I explore the challenges and coping strategies that nyoin used in managing their estates. By closely analyzing a list of miscellaneous dues levied on estates, The List of the Chōkōdō Estates that dates from the late twelfthcentury,  I have investigated the religio-political roles played by Senyōmon’in as an unmarried royal princess while also reconstructing the material culture and economic power she was able to obtain from her estate holdings.

Through this analysis I argue that Senyomon’in utilized three strategies: first, she strengthened her control over land by raising royal offspring and sponsoring memorial services (for whom?) to justify her levy and collection of dues; second, she stabilized her income by supporting the political advancement of her officials and providing them with estate management positions to ensure their economic prosperity; and third, rather than maintaining independent control over her land, she capitalized on alliances and the influence of other powerful authorities. By explaining the complex relations between socially acknowledged rights over estates and the ability to actually acquire resources, this research contributes to the understudied but nevertheless important issues of medieval nyoin and women’s land-based power. 

Yoshiko Kainuma: Studio Production in Mid-to-Late Heian Japan: Craftsmen or Artists?

Friday 12/6/2013,  2:00-2:45 PM, Waite Phillips Hall 104* 

Studio Production in Mid-to-Late Heian Japan: Craftsmen or Artists?
Dr. Yoshiko Kainuma, Associate, USC Project for Premodern Japan Studies

Buddhist sculptors in Nara and early Heian Japan were generally regarded as craftsmen or artisans, rather than as artists in the modern sense.  Around the mid-Heian period however, some drastic changes in environment led to a rise in their social status and greater independence for them as Buddhist sculptors who could then assert their own aesthetic values in their works of art. In this talk I present a history of a brilliant epoch for the mid-to-late Heian sculptors who carved in wood. 

Kevin Wilson: Hachiman Cult Foundation Legends (engi) as Cultural and Social Capital

Friday 12/6/2013,  12:30-1:15 PM,  Waite Phillips Hall 104*

Hachiman Cult Foundation Legends (engi) as Cultural and Social Capital
Kevin Wilson, Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, USC

The Hachiman cult is one of the most ubiquitous and important cults in premodern Japan. In this presentation I will analyze foundation legends (engi) associated with two key centers of Hachiman worship: the shrines at Usa and Iwashimizu. Foundation legends associated with Hachiman have rarely been studied in western scholarship and there has been little consideration as to how these legends function. Through an analysis of the Usa Hachimangū Mirokuji Konryū Engi  (844), Iwashimizu Gokokuji Ryakki (863), along with engi variants found in the Tōdaiji Yōroku (1134) and Hachiman Usagū Gotakusenshū (1313), I will demonstrate how foundation legends functioned as repositories of what Pierre Bourdieu calls “cultural or social capital.” I will also show how I think engi authors manipulated the image of Hachiman ― as well as key figures associated with the establishment of shrine-temple complexes dedicated to Hachiman ― in order to increase the cultural and social capital associated with such engi. This study points not only to the importance of engi in the study of the Hachiman cult but also to the importance of acknowledging changes in foundation legends and to understanding how these changes reflect trends at court and the personal aspirations of engi compilers. 

Kato Tomoyasu: Issuing, Receiving, and Organizing Documents on Paper and Wood in Classical Japan

Friday 12/6/2013,  11:50-12:30 PM, Waite Phillips Hall 104*

Issuing, Receiving, and Organizing Documents on Paper and Wood in Classical Japan
Prof. KATO Tomoyasu, Meiji University

In classical Japan the ritsuryô codal system was adopted as the mode of government. All the functions of the state were based on it. And in accord with the ritsuryô code, all orders and directives were transmitted through written documents. In this process that may be referred to as the “ritsuryo documentation system,” large quantities of documents on paper or inscribed on wooden tablets (mokkan) were created. In order to understand the nature of the state during the Nara and Heian periods, it is essential to examine how this system to transmit, organize, and manage a large amount of information was maintained. My presentation deals with: 1) the information processing system mandated by the Kushikiryô, a section of the administrative code (ryô) that regulated documents on paper, and the nature of those documents; 2) the processing of information on wooden tablets; and 3) perspectives to be considered in interpreting documents as historical sources, with special reference to the Tôdaiji Tônan‘in archives, a large collection of documents organized in the late Heian Period.

Handout PDF (in Japanese)

Joan Piggott: Gender in the Japanese Administrative Codes, An Ongoing Project

Friday 12/6/2013, 11 AM – 11:45 PM, Waite Phillips Hall 104

Gender in the Japanese Administrative Codes, An Ongoing Project
Prof. Joan Piggott, History Department, USC

I will report on the ongoing project for which members (Yoshie, Ijuin, Piggott) are translating and annotating relevant sections of the Yôrô-era administrative code (ryô), two parts of which are now finished for publication. I will highlight particular challenges of the project and why I think such multilingual translation/annotation projects are critically important for the study of Japanese history.

Igarashi Motoyoshi: Military Issues under the Ritsuryō System, Military Campaigns to Northeastern Japan

Thursday 12/5/2013,  4:00-4:45 PM, Doheny Library 233

Military Issues under the Ritsuryō System, Military Campaigns to Northeastern Japan
IGARASHI Motoyoshi, Graduate Student in History, Meiji University

One of the military issues that the ritsuryô state of ancient Japan was faced with in the eighth and ninth centuries C.E. was preparation for military campaigns to northeastern Japan. The ritsuryō state referred to indigenous people residing in northern and north-eastern Japan who were not conquered by the central government as Emishi. The central government systematically attempted to expand its territory by gradually taking over land under Emishi control.  In the process, the central government had to dispatch military campaigns numerous times; and hostile military tensions constantly existed in northeastern Japan.

The military strength of the ritsuryô state depended upon organized troops consisting of large numbers of soldiers and materials, including weapons. The Emishi people, however, were divided into numerous groups, and for this reason they were inferior in their capacity for continuing military engagement over a long time span. While the ritsuryô state found it difficult to cope with the considerable ability of the Emishi, the state finally achieved the goal by overwhelming them with enormous manpower and materials. At the same time the ritsuryō state was not enthusiastic about the development of new weapons and new tactics.

It is true that the military system of ancient Japan drastically transformed itself after the loss at the Hakusonkô battle in southern Korean peninsula in 663.  In order to compete with Tang-dynasty China and the kingdom of Silla on the Korean peninsula, the ritsuryō military system became more systematic and structured. Nevertheless I have not found evidence of considerable progress in important aspects of the military system even when the ritsuryô state experienced numerous battles in northeastern Japan.  In other words, military campaigns to northeastern Japan in the eighth and ninth centuries had a limited impact on the ritsuryô state.

Handout PDF (in Japanese)

Yamazaki Kenji: Ordering the Man'yōshu

Thursday 12/5/2013,  3:00-3:45 PM, Doheny Library 233

Ordering the Man'yōshu
Prof. YAMAZAKI Kenji, Meiji University

The order of poems in the Man'yoshu is different depending on the manuscript copy of the Man'yoshu.  I would like to consider the possible background and significance of this difference in order, and I will show slides of old manuscript copies of the Man'yoshu.

Presentation PDF

Yamaguchi Naomi: Acts of Looking and Listening in the Kojiki

Thursday 12/5/2013,  2:15-3:00 PM, Doheny Library 233

Acts of Looking and Listening in the Kojiki
YAMAGUCHI Naomi, Graduate Student in Japanese Literature, Meiji University

The section devoted to the reign of the monarch known as Nintoku Tennô in the eighth-century Kojiki, or Record of Ancient Matters, begins with the geneology of the monarch and then records an episode when he looked out over his realm from a hill.  At the time he observed that very few families were cooking their meals and thus he decided not to tax people for three years.  Three years later Nintoku looked out again and observed smoke from fires where rice was cooking at numerous residences.  So he knew that the people prospered and he decided to tax them again. In later times people praised the reign of Nintoku Tennô and called it a divine sovereign’s era. This act of a monarch looking out over his realm was an important royal ritual called “kunimi,”  and we find it described in extant gazetteers (fudoki) and in the Man’yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves).

In my view however, a careful reading of the Kojiki suggests that the action of listening was as important as the action of looking. Listening too had ritualistic significance, a fact that has not received the note it deserves. In this paper I will discuss acts of listening and their meaning as described in the Kojiki.

Handout PDF
Additional materials PDF

Sasaki Ken'ichi: Political Organization in Kofun-age Japan

Thursday 12/5/2013,  12:45-1:20 PM, Doheny Library 233

Political Organization in Kofun-age Japan
Prof. SASAKI Ken’ichi, Meiji University

I will talk about various archeological perspectives on political organization across the Japanese archipelago during the Kofun Period. I was raised in Kyoto, to the north of Nara and Osaka, considered the center of the Kofun culture. And I once believed that studying the Kofun culture represented by the giant keyhole-shaped tumuli in the Nara-Osaka-Kyoto region would be enough to understand the history of the Kofun Period.  I also thought that the central polity of Yamato was so strong that it controlled many different regions of Japan from Iwate in the east to Kagoshima in the distant west, across which great expanse keyhole-shaped tumuli were constructed.  Professor TSUDE Hiroshi under whom I prepared my dissertation at Osaka University also argued that there was a strong central polity during the Kofun Period.  But in 1999 I was hired by the Department of Archaeology at Meiji University, and I was given charge of fieldwork in southern Ibaraki Prefecture (oldHitachi and Shimôsa provinces) and laboratory work for publication concerning excavations at the Ômuro Burial Mound and the Carin Cluster in Nagano Prefecture (old Shinano province).  These opportunities gave me a good opportunity to reconsider my view of Kofun Period political organization. The fact is, Kofun-period cultures in eastern Japan were so regionally distinctive that it seems to me we should recognize that local polities were relatively autonomous.  That is why I now argue that the central polity of Yamato was relatively weak, and that the nature of the Kofun Period political organization was a loose confederacy of regionally autonomous polities.

Handout PDF

Kawano Masanori: Craft Production in Kofun-age Japan from the Perspective of Agricultural Tools

Thursday 12/5,  12:00-12:45 PM,  Doheny Library 233

Craft Production in Kofun-age Japan from the Perspective of Agricultural Tools
KAWANO Masanori, Postdoctoral Scholar, Meiji University

The mid-Kofun Period (the fifth century) witnessed a drastic change in people’s daily life, owing to rapid technological innovation.  This technological innovation owed much to immigrants from the Korean peninsula who brought advanced technologies with them.  Among such innovations, changes in the morphologies of iron plowheads and iron sickles resulted in a marked increase in the rice productivity for the first time since the Yayoi Period.  What remains unclear however is to what extent Korean immigrants and native Japanese craftsmen were involved in the evolution of craft production.  In order to approach this difficult issue, I have focused on investigating the production ofvarious types of iron sickles in the fifth century.  My conclusion is that we can distinguish between lunar-shaped curved blade iron sickles produced with native Japanese technology and quite similar to Korean iron sickles.  While the former were produced by Japanese craftsmen, the latter was either imported from the Korean peninsula or produced either by Korean craftsmen in Japan or by Japanese craftsmen under the guidance of Korean craftsmen in Japan.  In the early fifth century, most iron sickles were of the former type, which suggests that Japanese craftsmen imitated Korean products without mastering the Korean technology.  In the late fifth century, however, most of the iron sickles were of the latter type, suggesting that Korean immigrants possessing advanced technology were actively involved in the production of agricultural tools.  This resulted in technological innovation, which is also resulted in the changing morphology of iron plowheads.  Analysis of iron agricultural tools can contribute substantially to our understanding of the craft production system during the Kofun Period.

Talk Handout PDF

Doi Shōhei: emporal Change in Mortuary Practices during the Transition from the Yayoi to Kofun Periods (Third Century C.E.) in Eastern Japan

Thursday 12/5/2013,  11:15 AM – 12:00 PM,  Doheny Library 233

Temporal Change in Mortuary Practices during the Transition from the Yayoi to Kofun Periods (Third Century C.E.) in Eastern Japan
DOI Shōhei, Graduate Student in Archaeology, Meiji University

Previous research into the transitional phase from the Yayoi to Kofun periods has been skewed toward mortuary practices because, while mortuary practices in the Yayoi Period were regionally very distinctive, mortuary practices during the Kofun Period seems to be uniform. This uniformity has also seemed to characterize people’s daily life during the Kofun Period.  Here I look into the case of the old province of Kamitsuke (the present Gumma Prefecture) in the northern Kanto, where archaeological excavations have revealed mortuary practices of both the late Yayoi and early Kofun periods. I have compiled information for all the burial mounds thus far excavated, paying special attention to the morphology of coffins and other facilities where dead bodies were placed, spatial arrangements of mounds, and ceramic offerings to the dead.  As a result I have discovered two epochs that mark temporal change in mortuary practices. In the late second century the late Yayoi Period, differences in coffins and other facilities where the dead bodies were placed became apparent, and in the early third century that saw the beginning of the Kofun Period, it is clear that various types of pottery that differed by region as well as morphologically different types of burial mounds were constructed.  This suggests to me that various regional cultures were introduced into the Kamitsuke region even as the process of standardization in keyhole-shaped tumuli construction was ongoing.

Handout and images from the presentation PDF

Conference Schedule: 5th Annual Meeting of the Meiji University-USC Exchange

Conference Program and Abstracts PDF

Conference Schedule: 4th Annual Meeting of the Meiji University-USC Exchange

4th Annual Meeting of the Meiji University-USC Exchange

Meiji-USC Research Exchange,  November 29 - December 1, 2012

Visitors from Meiji University, Tokyo, will join scholars and students from the University of Southern California and the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a research exchange meeting on November 29 and December 1 at the USC campus.  On November 30, participants will have the chance to attend a workshop on Japanese Buddhist nuns, also at USC.

Note: Some talks with be presented in Japanese, and some will be in English.

Thursday, November 29, 11-1 & 2:30-5:30   (Music Library, Doheny Library)

11:00 Welcome, Prof. Joan Piggott, Project for Premodern Japan Studies & Prof. William Deverell, Chair of the USC History Department

11:15Prof. Ujitaka Itô, Meiji U,  “Higuchi Ichiyô, Perspectives”

12:15Dr. Anri Yasuda, USC, “Gender in Japanese Literature in Translation: Discussing Differences in Different Contexts”

2:30Ms. Luman Wang, USC, “The Contingent Business Relationship that Soured: Shanxi Piaohao and the Qing Dyasty, 1850s-1911”

3:30Ms. Fumi Ishimura, Meiji U, “My Experience Studying American Archaeology in Japan”

4:30Prof. Ken’ichi Sasaki, Meiji U, “Archaeological Investigations into the Omuro Cairn and Burial Mound Group in the Central Highlands of Japan, 5-7th c.”

Saturday, December 1, 11-1 & 2:00-5:30(SOS 250)

11:00 Prof. Tokuharu Kamitaka, Meiji U, “On Kundoku”

12:00Dr. Janet Goodwin, USC, “A Report on the PPJS international conference, ‘Reassessing the Shôen System, Society and Economy in Medieval Japan’”

2:00Ms. Nadia Kanagawa, USC, “A Chronology and Glossary for Shôen Studies”

3:00Mr. Dan Sherer, USC, “Considering Evil Bands (Akutô) at Ôbe no shô”

3:45Mr. Travis Seifman, University of California Santa Barbara, “Ryukyuan Embassy Processions: A 1710 Edo-nobori Scroll”

4:30 Prof. Joan Piggott, USC, Moving Forward, a PPJS Report

Kato Tomoyasu: Approaches to Heian Historical Sources and Research and Courtier Journals and Heian Aristocratic Society

August 3 and August 10, 2012

Prof. Tomoyasu Kato (Meiji University)
Two Lectures
Approaches to Heian Historical Sources and Research and Courtier Journals and Heian Aristocratic Society
3:30 - 5:00 PM, Doheny East Asia Library Seminar Room

Sachiko Kawai: A Woman's Power of the Purse: Royal Lady Hachijô and Her Estates

A Woman's Power of the Purse: Royal Lady Hachijô and Her Estates

by Sachiko Kawai
Talk given at the Dec. 8-9, 2010 Conference

I will discuss three estates that belonged to the royal lady Hachijo In. I argued in my Master’s Thesis that this twelfth-century Japanese princess wielded significant political, economic, and politicalpower. Her case serves to correct previous scholarshipthat has underscored the power of royal consorts and mothers as Fujiwara daughters while failing to examine the roles and influence of royal daughters. In my thesis I pay particular attention to Hachijō In’s economic power derived from her estates (shōen). She inherited a number of properties and had a great control over them; she chose close followers as her estate custodians (azukaridokoro); she solved disputes by using her judicial powers; and she authorized expenditure of rents and dues from her estates. Hachijô In received the title of “retired queen-consort” and established alarge administrative headquarters that enhanced her control over her properties. Nevertheless the statement that “she was very powerful”oversimplifies a complex reality. In fact one of Hachijō In’s female attendants complained about the state of Hachijō In’s storehouse. According to the attendant, whenever the princess heldspecial ceremonies, she had to levy ad hoc taxes on her estates due to thelack of reserves in her storehouse. This puzzling situation―the contradiction between her enormous land holdings and her strained resources—is an unsolved question for my research. In this paper I will look at Tawara Estate, Arakawa Estate, and her Ippon Royal GrantFields to consider different types of challenges faced by Hachijō In as she tried to manage her landed properties.