Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan, 1600-1900

Whales are an enigma. It is difficult to pin them down because they straddle categories. Whales were difficult not just because of their extraordinary size, but rather because they were peculiar sorts of fish, with meat more like wild boar than tuna. In the same way that they existed at the intersection of classifications, with features of land and sea creatures, whales also were a nexus in a web of linkages between the ocean and the shore. By focusing on whales and the boundaries they straddle, this dissertation highlights the often surprising interconnections between coastal activities and inland life in early modern Japan (1600-1900).East Asian Languages and Civilization

Water, Culture, and Society in Global Historical Perspective II

This conference is the second of two, linked international conferences focused on the provision, management, use, and cultural meanings of water and its relationship to patterns of human culture, politics, technology, and socio-economic organization across geographies and chronologies. The conference will focus on two distinct themes: "Cultures of Water" and "The Effluent Society." The first conference will took place in mid-May 2016 and focused on the intersecting topics of Water and Power" and "Controlling Water." Through these four themes our program spans a broad range of vital and interconnected topics posed by "water." The conferences, held at the Mershon Center at the Ohio State University, will be run as workshops with papers distributed in advance to ensure the most productive discussions. Papers will be published either in edited volumes or special issues of environmental history journals."Water" constitutes a multi-faceted topic of overwhelming historical and contemporary significance. Water defines every aspect of life: from the ecological to the cultural, religious, social, economic, and political. Without the molecule H20, life as we understand it would cease to exist. Water remains at the center of human activity: in irrigation and agriculture; waste and sanitation; drinking and disease; floods and droughts; religious beliefs and practices; fishing and aquaculture; travel and discovery; scientific study; water pollution and conservation; multi-purpose dam building; in the setting of boundaries and borders; politics and economic life; and wars and diplomacy. Water also plays an important symbolic role in works of literature, art, music, and architecture, and it serves as a source of human beauty and spiritual tranquility.Mershon Center for International StudiesOhio State University College of Arts and HumanitiesEast Asian Studies Center, The Ohio State UniversityCenter for Slavic and East European Studies, The Ohio State UniversityThe Institute for Korean Studies, The Ohio State UniversityHistory Department, The Ohio State UniversityEnvironmental Studies Network, The Ohio State UniversityThe Sustainable and Resilient Economy Discovery Theme at Ohio StateRussian, East European, and Eurasian History Seminar, The Ohio State UniversityA Northeast Asia Council Japanese Studies Grant (Association for Asian Studies)Academia Sinica (Taipei)Shanghai Jiao Tong Universit

Meiji at 150 Podcast, Episode 047, Dr. Jakobina Arch (Whitman College)

In this episode, Dr. Arch recasts our perspective of the Meiji Restoration and of Japan out to sea by charting the history of Japanese whaling. We question the sustainability of premodern whaling, discuss changes in whaling practices during the Meiji Period, interrogate the lack of attention to the oceans and to whaling in Japanese history, and navigate debates over Japanese whaling today.Arts, Faculty ofHistory, Department ofNon UBCUnreviewedFacult