Publishing Networks in Edo Japan

The publishing business in the Edo period (1603 – 1868) was very unique since it was divided into two genres: shomotsu mononohon and jihon kusazōshi. Publishers had their specialties and their business strategies varied. In this research paper, I examine the publishing strategies from the view of the network system. First, I state the definition of this network. Next, I study the publishing history of the Edo period to gain a general understanding. Lastly, I examine the network systems of the shomotsu publishers and the jihon kusazōshi publishers. I use examples from Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Suharaya Mohē, Tsuruya Kiemon, the Torii School and the Utagawa School. In the end, the readers will understand the various networks had the roles to energize the Edo community, and each network was indispensable among the whole big network system

Transcending Borders

These days, it seems that many people are concerned with borders, confines, and walls more than ever. We chose “transcending borders” as the theme and title of the volume, hinting at the concept of bridging boundaries, in any possible context and domain, metaphorical or concrete. By proposing this theme, we want to reflect on the opportunities that are to be gained through the overcoming of borders, on what can be accomplished by calling into question old norms, on the implementations of less familiar norms, and on the renegotiation of individual limits and horizons. This collection gathers seven articles on the theme of borders: the first four articles deal with Chinese presence in Italy today; the three articles in the field of Japanese Studies elaborate on the concept of borders in literary terms

Recontextualization of professional development: bureaucratization of lesson study in a junior secondary school in Java

Lesson study, a professional development approach originated in Japan 150 years ago, has been widely considered to be one of the best practices for collaborative professional development and practiced in over 40 countries. Since lesson study is considered an effective approach in improving student performances, it has been transferred as a remedy for shortcomings of schooling in foreign countries. There is an underlying assumption that when “the best practice” in Japan is transferred to another country, it will generate a similar effect and will improve the quality of schooling. However, there is a fundamental problem with such pedagogic transfer. This thesis discusses the problem of pedagogic transfer through examining the “recontextualization” of pedagogic practice or what happens when lesson study, which originated in Japan, was introduced into foreign contextual settings. Since pedagogic practice is socially constructed, the meaning of educational practice is always open to interpretation within the local setting of the receiving country. This is especially true for schools in developing countries which may operate differently from those of industrialized countries. This study provides a sociological analysis of recontextualization of lesson study based on the review of the literature and an ethnographic style study of its implementation in a Javanese school. Since professional accountabilities are negotiated and contested within existing social relations, the practice—lesson study—transforms as it moves between contexts, across sociocultural contexts and also between policy and practice. The purpose of this study is not on the applicability of findings themselves across contexts but to analyze conceptually how the sociocultural settings shape teachers’ practice and influence their choice of pedagogy. As explored in the thesis, due to the strong bureaucratic accountability, lesson study in the Javanese junior high school, SMP Sari, was implemented as a bureaucratic project

Sharebon and the Courtesans: A Phase of Edo Aesthetics as the Dispersal of Ideology.

The dissertation deals with one aspect of Edo aesthetics in 18th century Japan that is often described as the juxtaposition of refinement and vulgarity. I explore the system of this aesthetics through the examination of the literary genre of sharebon, whose subject matter is exclusively demimonde visits. The works designate a corpus of booklets produced almost anonymously in vernacular language, but with a cover that resembles a serious classical Chinese text. Sharebon content features caricatured characters, jokes, and anecdotes around a visit to the courtesans, and produces a form of literary entertainment designed for occasional consumption and performance. Its cover, including the preface and postscript, in contrast, assumes a lofty and universal appearance written in Chinese characters. The booklets present a contrast between the refined and the mundane or vulgar, and this juxtaposition generates an ironic beauty. This study views the courtesans and the demimonde from the cultural as well as socioeconomic perspective, paying particular attention to how they were articulated within contemporaneous public discourses. It analyzes the dual reception of Chinese culture and literature in Edo Japan. One layer is a solid function of the Tokugawa feudalism founded on Neo-Confucianism and the other culls from the Chinese literati tradition, while resonating with the Heian Japanese courtly tradition of poetry and eros. I argue that this literary genre was originally produced by the samurai military class, and not by the merchant class as asserted by the majority of the present scholarship in the U.S. I also examine the materiality of these sharebon texts, seeing the front page, preface and postscript as a kind of wrapping using Chinese classical texts in Japanese transcription in order for the authors to playfully parody their own status. Moreover, the multiple meanings generated by the reading of Chinese graphs in the Japanese pronunciation are meant to undermine or destabilize the Edo official culture of refinement. The mixing of literary levels of high and low culture suggests the Bakhtinian concept of the carnivalesque that in European culture served as a critique of the feudal class structure through the dispersal of stable social identities and proprieties.Ph.D.Comparative LiteratureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89808/1/naka_1.pd