Office: Department of History and Religious Studies, 211 Weaver Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Office Phone: (814) 863-0172
Office FAX: (814) 863-7840
University of Southern California,
Ph. D. (History)
Attended: 1989-1992
Fields: 1) Japanese intellectual history
2) Japanese
political & institutional history
3) Chinese
political & intellectual history
4) Religious
and cultural foundations of contemporary Japan
Dissertation: “Sai On (1682-1761) and Confucianism in the Early-Modern Ryukyu Kingdom”
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, M.A. (Asian Studies)
Attended: 1985-1987
Major Field: Japanese history
Minor Field: Japanese linguistics
University of Florida, B.A. (History)
Attended: 1979-1984 (B.A. 1983, Phi Beta Kappa)
Major: History
Minor: Asian Studies
Pennsylvania State University (1997-Present)
Associate Professor of East Asian History, 2002-present
Assistant Professor of East Asian History, 1997-2002
History Undergraduate Officer, 2001-2004
In Charge of East Asian Studies, 1998-present
Courses: 1) World History (HIST 10 Syllabus) 2) Surveys of East Asia (HIST 174 Syllabus) (HIST 175 Syllabus); 3) Medieval Japan (HIST 480 Syllabus); 4) Modern Japan (HIST 481 syllabus); 5) Nationalism and Cultural Identity in Modern Japan (HIST 302W); 6) Independent studies & supervision of senior theses and graduate fields.
University of Venice Ca' Foscari, Department of East Asian Studies, Guest Lecturer, May 2003 and May, 2004
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Centre de recherches sur le Japon, Invited Professor, May, 2000
Eastern Washington University, 1992-1997
Assistant Professor of History, 1992-1997
Graduate Program Director, 1995-1997
Courses: 1) Surveys of East Asia; 2) Early Japan; 3) Modern Japan; 4) Early-modern China; 5) Independent studies; 6) Specialized undergraduate seminars; 7) Graduate seminars in historiography, East Asian history, and pedagogy
Whitworth College
Guest Lecturer, Religion and Philosophy Department, fall semester,
1995
University of Southern California, 1989-1990
Teaching Assistant for a survey course in Korean history
Punahou School (Honolulu, Hawaii), 1986-1988
Teacher of Japanese language and Asian history
Textbook Series, 1992-present
I began creating a series of textbooks featuring extensive
graphical aids and unconventional topics. They began as printed volumes in the
early 1990s, and are now entirely based on the Web at:
http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks. Designed specifically for my classes, these textbooks
are also used by colleagues around the world (example
<> example)
as well as the general public.
Making Japanese (modern Japanese cultural & political history)
Monograph
Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics. University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. (Review by Ooms, Review by Roberts <423KB>, Review by Howell, Review by Wigen, Review by McCormak)
Journal Articles & Book Chapters in English
“The Sages’ Scale in Japan: Nakae Tōju (1608-48) and Situational Weighing.” The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Fourth Series, vol. 6 (1991): 1-25 (awarded the 1990 Asiatic Society of Japan Prize).
“The Intersection of Politics and Thought in Ryukyuan Confucianism: Sai On’s Uses of Quan.” <3.3MB> Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 56.2 (December, 1996): 443-477.
“Unspeakable Things: Ryukyuan Confucian Sai On’s Ambivalent Critique of Language and Buddhism.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 24.1-2 (Spring, 1997): 163-178.
“Ambiguous Boundaries: Redefining Royal Authority in the Kingdom of Ryukyu.” <5MB> Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 60.1 (June, 2000): 89-123.
“Ryukyuan Uses of Chinese Confucianism.” Josef Kreiner, ed., Ryukyu in World History. Bonn, Germany: Bier'sche Verlagsanstalt, 2001: 167-180.
"The Ryūkyū Shobun in East Asian and World History." Josef Kreiner, ed., Ryukyu in World History. Bonn, Germany: Bier'sche Verlagsanstalt, 2001: 279-304.
"Jahana Noboru: Okinawan Activist and Scholar." <1.6MB> Anne Walthall, ed., The Human Tradition in Modern Japan. Scholarly Resources, 2002: 99-113.
Gary Cross, co-author, "Japan, the U.S. and the Globalization of Children's Consumer Culture," Journal of Social History, 38.4 (Summer, 2005): 873-890.
"Shaking Up Japan: Edo Society and the 1855 Catfish Picture Prints," <1.3MB> Journal of Social History, 39.4 (Summer, 2006): 1045-1077.
"The Politics of Culture in Early Twentieth Century Okinawa." Josef Kreiner, ed., Japaneseness versus Ryūkyūanism, Bonn, Germany: Bier'sche Verlagsanstalt, 2006: 59-70.
"Autobiography as Didactic Rhetoric: Sai On’s Jijoden," <275KB> Early Modern Japan: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 14 (2006): 40-50.
Ruth Ludwin, co-author, "Folklore and Earthquakes: Native American Oral Traditions from Cascadia Compared with Written Traditions from Japan," in L. Piccardi and W. B. Masse, eds., Myth and Geology (London: Geological Society of London, 2007): 67-94.
"Recent Trends in Scholarship on the History of Ryukyu’s Relations with China and Japan." Hans Dieter Ölschleger, ed. Theories and Methods in Japanese Studies: Current State and Future Developments (Papers in Honor of Josef Kreiner). (Göttingen: Bonn University Press via V&R Unipress, 2007): 215-228.
"Money in the Kingdom of Ryukyu," forthcoming Bunka/Wenhua.
"Namazu-e: Catfish Picture Prints of 1855," forthcoming in Andon (Publication of the Society for Japanese Arts), October 2008.
"Responses to the Ansei Edo Earthquake of 1855" (submitted).
"Warding off Calamity in Japan: A Comparison of the 1855 Catfish Picture Prints and the 1862 Measles Prints" (submitted to East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine)
Journal and Newspaper Articles in Japanese
(Characters appear next to title--browser may require Japanese reading support for them to display correctly)
“Ajia jukyōshi ni okeru Sai On” <2.53MB> アジア儒教史における蔡温 [Sai On in East Asian Confucianism]. Ryūkyū shinpō, serialized in two parts, 8-17 / 8-19, 1988.
“Ryūkyū no iseisha Sai On ni tsuite” 琉球の為政者蔡温について [Sai On: statesman of Ryukyu]. Gyokuryu kiyō, no. 7 (Kagoshima, Japan 1989): 40-47.
“Sai On no Ryūkyū kokka ron” <4.82MB> 蔡温の琉球国家論 [Sai On’s theory of the Ryukyuan state]. Okinawa taimusu, serialized in three parts, 6-6 / 6-7 / 6-8, 1989.
“Ryūkyū ōkoku ni okeru jugaku no seiritsu: sono tokuchō to rekishiteki jijō” 琉球王国における儒学の成立―その特徴と歴史的事情 [The development of Confucianism in the Ryukyu Kingdom: its characteristics and historical circumstances]. Shibun, no. 102 (March, 1994): 56-76.
“Sai On no gakutō to shisō: toku ni bukkyō/shaka ron o chūshin to shite” 蔡温の学統と思想―特に仏教・釈迦論を中心として [Sai On’s intellectual lineage and thought from the standpoint of his writing on Buddhism and Sakyamuni]. Okinawa bunka kenkyū, no. 23 (March, 1997): 1-38.
“Sai On ni yoru jugaku riyō no sanmen: kagaku, ideorogii, retorikku” 蔡温による儒学利用の三面―科学・イデオロギー・レトリック [Three dimensions of Sai On’s uses of Confucianism: science, ideology, rhetoric], Okinawa bunka kenkyū, no. 25 (March, 1999): 25-32.
"Nijusseiki ni okeru bunka to seiji no retorikku: 1940-nen no Okinawa hōgen ronsō o chūshin to shite" <1.1MB> 二十世紀における文化と政治のレトリック：1940年の沖縄方言論争を中心として [The rhetoric of politics and culture in Okinawa from the standpoint of the 1940 language dispute], Dai-yonkai Okinawa kenkyū kokusai shinpōjiumu jikkō iinkai, eds., Sekai ni hiraku Okinawa Kenkyū 世界に拓く沖縄研究. Naha, Japan: Kinjō insatsu, 2003: 133-146.
"Okinawa aidentiti no rekishiteki hendō to sono jijō 沖縄アイデンティティの歴史的変動とその事情" [Changes in the nature and circumstances of Okinawan identity through history]. Hōsei daigaku kokusai Nihongaku kenkyū sentaa, ed., Okinawa no aidentitii 沖縄のアイデンティティー. Tokyo: Hōsei daigaku kokusai Nihongaku kenkyū sentaa, 2005: 38-46, 384-388.
"'Ryūkyū bijon' to Sai On" 「琉球ビジョン」と蔡温 (Visions of Ryukyu and Sai On). Shimatati しまたてぃ (島建て), No. 43 (October, 2007): 4-7.
Book Reviews and Other Publications
Review of Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism: The Life and Thought of Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714), by Mary Evalyn Tucker, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 18.1 (March, 1991): 85-88.
Review of Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712), by John S. Brownlee, Journal of Asian Studies, 51.3 (August, 1992): 666-7.
Review of Deep Words: Miura Baien’s System of Natural Philosophy, by Rosemary Mercer, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 19.4 (December, 1992): 401-4.
Review of Tokugawa Village Practice, by Herman Ooms, January 10, 1997 on H-Japan, a division of the Humanities Net internet discussion group.
Review of Interpreting Amida: History and Orientalism in the Study of Pure Land Buddhism <362KB>, by Galen Amstutz, Philosophy East and West, 49.3 (July, 1999): 284-6.
Review of Ghost of War: The Sinking of the Awa Maru and Japanese-American Relations <284KB>, 1945-1995, by Roger Dingman, Journal of Asian Studies, 58.4 (November, 1999): 1136-7.
Review of The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture <280KB>, by Wai-ming Ng, Journal of Asian Studies, 60.1 (February, 2001): 223-4.
"Shinto," The Oxford Companion to the Body, Colin Blakemore and Sheila Jennett, Editors-in Chief (Oxford University Press: 2001): 593-594.
Review of The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800, by Brett L. Walker, American Historical Review, 107.4 (October 2002): 1206-1207.
Review of Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in 17th-Century Japanese Diplomacy, by Reinier H. Hesselink, The Journal of Japanese Studies, 30.1 (2004): 159-163.
Review of The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori, by Mark Ravina, The Journal of Asian Studies, 65.1 (February, 2006): 198-199.
Review of Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture, by Eiko Ikegami, Journal of Social History, 40.1 (Fall, 2006): 251-253.
Review of Review of Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese, by Samuel Hideo Yamashita (forthcoming in the American Journal of Education).
Review of Friends, Acquaintances, Pupils and Patrons—Japanese Intellectual Life in the Late Eighteenth Century: A Prosopographical Approach, by Anna Beerens, Monumenta Nipponica 62.2 (Summer, 2007): 221-223
Review of Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930, by Gregory Clancey,The Journal of Japanese Studies, 34.1 (Winter, 2008): 103-106.
Current Research:
I conduct research in a variety of areas but focus mainly on two broad, unrelated topics: 1) the social and cultural history of earthquakes in Japan, especially the 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake; and 2) the politics of culture in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan 1870-1940. I am currently working on a book manuscript examining the social history, broadly defined, of the Ansei Edo Earthquake. My work on Okinawa examines the rhetoric of Okinawan and Japanese identities and the role of culture (real or imagined) in this discourse of identity. My investigation is framed by major events such as the annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom by Japan in 1879, the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, the collapse of the world sugar prices during the 1920s and the resulting "Sago Palm Hell" in Okinawa, and the start of the second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the related "Language Controversy" of 1940. I plan to continue work on Okinawa-related topics after the current book on the Ansei Edo Earthquake is finished.
“The Eighteenth-Century Ryukyu Kingdom: Confucianism and Statecraft” (40th annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco, March, 1988).
“Sai On to jūhasseiki no Ryūkyū ōkoku” [Sai On and the Eighteenth-Century Ryukyu Kingdom] (meeting of the Hayato Kenkyūkai, Kagoshima, Japan, May 5, 1988).
“Politics and History in Ryukyuan Confucianism: Sai On’s Use of Quan” (meeting of the Columbia University Seminar in Neo-Confucian Studies, April 2, 1993).
“The Kikoe Ōgimi: From Empowering Agent to Expedient Device” (2nd international symposium of the International Society for Ryukyuan Studies, March 24, 1994, Reischauer Institute, Harvard University).
“Between China and Japan: Ryukyuan Intellectual Responses to Japanese Domination, 1650-1750” (meeting of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Lewiston, ID, September 30, 1995).
“Incipient Nationalism?—Two Ryukyuan Responses to Japanese Domination” (48th annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Honolulu, April, 1996).
Discussant for the panel “Chinese Intellectual Expression” (meeting of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Ogden, UT, October 26, 1996).
“Comparative Anxieties: Words and Images, Europe and East Asia, Fifteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries” (112th annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Seattle, WA, January 10, 1998).
“Tentō Thought in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Japan” (meeting of the Columbia University Seminar in Neo-Confucian Studies, May 1, 1998).
“Ryūkyū no sho-bijon” [Visions of Ryukyu] (Symposium on Ryukyuan Studies in the United States, Ryukyu University, June 21, 1998) <more>.
“Ryukyuan Uses of Chinese Confucianism” (Symposium on “Ryukyu in the History of East Asia, Asia and the World,” Bonn University, September 30, 1998).
“Universality and Particularity in the Religious Praxis of Nakae Tōju” (conference of the American Academy of Religion/Society for Biblical Literature, 11-21-1998, Orlando, FL).
“Sai On ni yoru jugaku riyō no sanmen: kagaku, ideorogii, retorikku” [Three dimensions of Sai On’s uses of Confucianism: science, ideology, rhetoric] (International symposium in Ryukyuan studies sponsored by Hōsei University’s Center for Research in Okinawan Culture, Naha, Japan, November 29, 1998).
“Picturing Ōbei: Japanese Images of the West, 19th and 20th Centuries” (Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, 10-30-99, Pittsburgh).
“The Politics of Medicine in the Ryukyu Kingdom” (Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, March 2000, San Diego).
“The Politics of Culture in Early Twentieth-Century Okinawa” (4th International Conference on Okinawan Studies, March 26, 2002, Bonn, Germany).
"Okinawa aidentiti no rekishiteki hendō to sono jijō 沖縄アイデンティティの歴史的変動とその事情" (Changes in the nature and circumstances of Okinawan identity through history) (Okinawa Identity International Symposium, Hōsei University, Tama Campus, March 9, 2004).
"Autobiography as Allegory: Sai On’s Jijoden" (Meeting of the Early-Modern Japan Network in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, March 2005, Chicago).
"Responses to the Ansei Edo Earthquake of 1855" (Conference on Natural Disaster in Asian History, Culture, and Memory, National University of Singapore, August 26-27, 2005).
"Autobiography as Allegory: Sai On’s Jijoden" (11th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies; History, Politics and International Relations section, Vienna, Austria August 31 - September 3, 2005).
Discussant for the panel "Romantic Ryukyu in Okinawa Politics" (11th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies; History, Politics and International Relations section, Vienna, Austria August 31 - September 3, 2005).
"Recent Trends in Scholarship on the History of Ryukyu’s Relations with China and Japan," (Symposium: State, Current Developments and Future Tasks in Japanese Studies, Bonn University, Germany, 3 February 2006).
"Romantic Ryukyu in Okinawan Politics: The Myth of Ryukyuan Pacifism" (annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, April 2006, San Francisco).
Ruth Ludwin, co-author. Poster presentation: "Evolution of the catfish (namazu) as an earthquake symbol in Japan" <10MB PDF> (Seismological Society of America Conference, April 2006, San Francisco). (Printable handout <4MB PDF>)
"Money in the Kingdom of Ryukyu," Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia, 1600-1900, Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg, October 12-16, 2006.
"Ryukyu and Sino-Japanese Trade" (annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, March 2007, Boston).
"Bakufu Responses to the Ansei Edo Earthquake of 1855" (meeting of the Southern Japan Seminar, Florida International University, February, 2008)
"Depicting Upheaval: The 1855 Namazu-e and the 1862 Hashika-e" (annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, April 2008, Boston)
Administration
At Eastern Washington University: 1) History graduate program director, 1995-1997; 2) Advisor for Phi Alpha Theta honors society.
At Penn State University: 1) Undergraduate Officer, History Department, 2001-2004; 2) in charge of East Asian Studies major and minor, 1999-2004; 2005-present 3) East Asian Studies Honors Advisor, 1999-present; 4) History Honors Advisor, 2001-2; 5) Department Webmaster (History Department Website), 2001- 2004.
Public Lectures
Topics include: “Changing Gender Roles in Japan,” “Comparative Views of Nudity: Japan and the West,” “The Emperor’s New Subjects: Japan’s Annexation of Ryukyu,” “Interpreting Footbinding in China,” “Tales from the Larger World: Visions from Asian Literature,” “The Rhetoric of Japanese Politics in the Meiji Era,” "The 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake as a Political Event," "Royal Authority in the Kingdom of Ryukyu," and "Shaken and Rectified: The 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake"
Series of interactive tours of Japanese art at the Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, March 2008.
Past and Present Service on Committees
At Eastern Washington University: University Labs Steering Committee (university); General Undergraduate Requirements Committee (university); Graduate Affairs Council (university); Academic Computing Council (university); Graduate Committee (chair, department); Outside member of approximately a dozen MA committees (university); Gifted Program Advisory Committee, (Cheney School District).
At Penn State University: Administrative Committee (department); Early Modern Studies Group (department); Undergraduate Committee (department) Graduate Committee (department); Speakers Committee (department); Japanese Literature Search Committee (comparative literature department), Computer & Technology Committee (department); Administrative Committee (department); Policy Committee (department); Promotion and Tenure Committee (department) East Asian Studies Committee (college); several ad hoc committees (department).
Academic Volunteer Work
Member of faculty panel for new student orientation (Eastern WA Univ., 1993, 1994)
Graduate School representative on eight MA exams (Eastern WA Univ.)
Academic faculty representative, Professional Admissions Interview Committee, College of Education (Eastern WA Univ., 1994-1996)
Faculty volunteer for the mock interview session (112th annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Seattle, WA, January 9, 1998)
Judge in PSU’s annual Japanese language speech contest, April 1999
Workshop: “Constructing audiovisuals and employing other media in the classroom,” Civil War Era Center Institute for Public Teachers, July 2000
Judge for PSU's Annual Graduate Exhibition, March 30, 2003
Other Professional Activity and Service
Co-Organizer of and coordinator of communications for the second international symposium of the International Society for Ryukyuan Studies, March 24, 1994, Reischauer Institute, Harvard University
Manuscript reviewer for D.C. Heath and Company, Bedford/St. Martin's Press, the Journal of Asian Studies, The Historian, and the Journal of Japanese Studies.
Referee for Faculty Research Grant competition, Eastern Washington University, 1995
Referee for RGSO faculty research grant competition, Penn State University, 1998
Translator of Kurayoshi Takara, “King and High Priestess: Spiritual
and Political Power in Ancient Ryukyu.” The Ryukyuanist, no. 27
(winter, 1994-1995): 1-4
GRANTS, AWARDS, PRIZES, HONORS
Pacific-Asian Fellowship, Univ. of Hawaii, 1985-86
National Resource Fellowship, Univ. of Hawaii, 1986-87
Taraknath Das Prize, History Dept., Univ. of Hawaii, 1986-7
Haynes Foundation Fellowship, Univ. of Southern CA, 1990-91
Asiatic Society of Japan Prize, 1990
Haynes Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Univ. of Southern CA, 1991-92
Faculty Assessment Grant, Eastern Washington Univ., 1994
Faculty Research Grant, Eastern Washington Univ., 1995
RGSO Grant, Penn State University, 1998
Forster Award, Department of History, 2000 (Images of Modern Okinawan Identities in Popular Culture)
Institute for the Arts and Humanities Individual Grant, Penn State University, 2004
Florence Liu Macaulay Distinguished Lecturer, University of Hawai'i, April 2007
Personal computers: hardware repair and installation, image editing and presentation graphics, desktop publishing, web design
Old-time music (American rural instrumental and vocal music of the early twentieth century): mandolin, fiddle, guitar, autoharp, vocals, and knowledge of the history of this genre
