February 17, 24 & Mar 8

Series of Japanese History Lectures

“Japanese Traditional Arts as Cold War Culture”
Professor Nancy K. Stalker
Friday, February 17th
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.

Sakamaki Hall A-201

In 1970, shortly before his suicide after leading a failed military coup, iconic novelist Mishima Yukio declared, “I don’t like that Japanese culture is represented only by flower arrangement.”  Ikebana is indeed a powerful symbol of national identity that promotes conception of Japan as a feminized nation grounded in aesthetics and appreciation of nature.  Mishima was referring to the worldwide adulation for ikebana, which reached its peak in popularity in the late 1960s with over three thousand schools and an estimated ten million participants.  Premodern arts such as ikebana and tea ceremony occupy a central role in modern Japanese identity to a degree unparalleled among the world’s most powerful nations but historians have not adequately considered the dynamic forces exerted and absorbed by cultural institutions in Japan’s momentous twentieth century.

In this talk Nancy Stalker provides a brief overview of her book project on ikebana’s transformation and globalization over the course of that century, when it metamorphosed from an elite, male pastime based on classical forms to a female-centric, multinational mass industry that advocated avant-garde styles.

Nancy K. Stalker is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Asian Studies and History, University of Texas at Austin.

“The Making of ‘Japan Tea’: Green Tea Exports to the United States & the Formation of the Japanese Nation-State in the late 19th century”
Professor Robert Hellyer
Friday, February 24th
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Sakamaki Hall A-201

Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan emerged as a tea exporting nation, the first state to effectively challenge China’s centuries-old monopoly of the world tea market.  As the second largest export commodity after silk, tea not only boosted economic development in the push toward industrialization but also provided jobs for groups dislocated by post-Restoration reforms, notably ex-samurai who became tea farmers. Women in treaty ports also found employment in tea refining factories, which were often supervised by Chinese experts. Japanese merchants focused on creating a “Japan Tea” brand of green tea to meet the tastes of consumers in the United States, which since the early days of the republic had been a green-tea consuming nation.

This talk will explore the perspectives of the Japanese farmers, factory workers, and merchants (as well as the Chinese experts) involved in the trade, highlighting how their participation contributed to the successful formation of the Japanese nation-state. It will also examine US tea consumption to reveal ways in which US trends influenced Japan’s tea production and thus the livelihoods of those involved in the tea export trade.

Robert Hellyer is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Wake Forest University.

“Merchants, Priests, and Mongol Invaders: Rethinking Medieval Japanese Foreign Relations”
Professor Ethan Segal
Wednesday, March 8th
12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Sakamaki Hall A-201

In 1277, a Japanese merchant vessel received permission to trade in China. The incident might seem unremarkable, but it stands out for two reasons. First, Japan’s Kamakura warrior government (1185-1333) and the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) were at war. Khubilai Khan twice ordered invasions of Japan, and although his efforts were unsuccessful, tensions remained high for decades to follow. Second, most accounts of thirteenth-century foreign relations focus on war, with little mention of trade or other types of exchange.  Yet during these same years, merchants and Buddhist priests were regularly sailing between Yuan China and Kamakura Japan. Who were these figures, and what can they reveal about thirteenth-century foreign relations?

This paper attempts to answer such questions by focusing on non-military aspects of Yuan-Japan interactions. After reviewing the emphases on war and politics in existing scholarship, it provides a brief but detailed examination of the emerging economy, intra-regional trade, and religious exchanges. Whereas textbooks accounts often depict Japan as isolated during its Kamakura period, this paper highlights links between early medieval Japan and rest of Asia that laid the groundwork for the cultural and economic fluorescence of the subsequent Muromachi period (1336-1573).

Ethan Segal is Associate Professor of History and Chairperson of the Japan Council at Michigan State University.

Image Source: MET Museum of Art