​Plenty on this week in Tokyo, beginning with Liberlit tomorrow at Tokyo Woman's Christian University, dedicated to "discussion and defense of the role of literary texts in the English curriculum".

Other lecture topics include: Elizabeth Bowen, clothing in the nineteenth century novel, Enlightenment political economy, autobiography, Inazo Nitobe, and Original Sin (fortunately these are all separate lectures...)

There's also a new exhibition at Tokyo Station Gallery on visual culture and parody in Japan in the 1970s (above is a cover from the legendary Shibuya subculture magazine, "Bikkuri House").


lectures

(** = in English / * = translation provided)

**20 Feb 2017 - 8th Annual Liberlit Conference (exploring English literature in Japanese university education) (http://www.liberlit.com/new/)

** 20 Feb 2017 "Mismatches between Signed and Spoken Languages", Professor Asli Goksel, TUFS 3pm (http://www.tufs.ac.jp/event/general/asl_gksel.html)

**20 Feb 2017 - "Between Istanbul and Gujarat: Descriptions of Mecca in the Sixteenth-Century Indian Ocean", Guy Burak (NYU), Toyo Bunko 5pm (https://sites.google.com/s…/tbkenkyubulecture/tokubetu-danwa)

**21 Feb 2017, "Kanun and Taxation in the Ottoman Empire", Toyo Bunko symposium with presentations by Dr Keiko Iwamoto (JSPS) and Professor Linda Darling (Arizona), 4pm (https://sites.google.com/s…/tbkenkyubulecture/tokubetu-danwa)

**22 Feb 2017 - Lecture by Professor George Hughes at Gakushuin, 2:30pm, on "Imagining a Ghost: On Elizabeth Bowen and 'The Back Drawing-Room'" (http://iasil.jp/…/George-and-Clair-Hughes-Schedule_english_…)

**22 Feb 2017 - Roger T Ames (Beijing), "Confucian Role Ethics: A Challenge to the Ideology of Individualism", UTCP 3pm (http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/…/confucian_role_e…/index_en.php)

**23 Feb 2017 - Seminar by Bradford Bow (Yonsei, South Korea), 'Lord Kames on the Political Economy of Enlightened Husbandry'. Respondent: Chikashi Sakashita (Tokyo Women's Christian University), Kojima Conference Room, Level 2, Kojima Hall, Hongo Campus, University of Tokyo. (https://politicaleconomyseminar.wordpress.com/)

**23 Feb 2017 - Lecture by Professor Clair Hughes at UTokyo (Hongo), on "Dressing for Success: Costume in the Nineteenth Century Novel", 5pm (http://iasil.jp/…/George-and-Clair-Hughes-Schedule_english_…)

**23 Feb 2017 - Kate Hodgkin, "Constructions of the self: memory, time and space in seventeenth-century English autobiography", Toyo University, 14:30 (http://www.toyo.ac.jp/site/ihs/314937.html)

24 Feb 2017 - "Nitobe Inazo and His Activities Seen from a Point of View of Public Diplomacy", Kazuma Ueshina (Waseda), Hosei University 18:30

24 Feb 2017 - Lecture by novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki at Gakushuin, "文学のチカラとは?" (The Power of Literature), 3pm (http://www.univ.gakushuin.ac.jp/…/3de235a1b8d1116ac63d467ec…)

**25 Feb 2017 - Kate Hodgkin, "Unofficial Histories: Raphael Samuel and the History Workshop movement", Toyo University, 13:30 (http://www.toyo.ac.jp/site/ihs/314937.html)

25 Feb 2017 - Farewell lectures of Professor Kubota and Professor Kawano, Otsuma Women's University English Department (http://www.otsuma.ac.jp/news/2016/20170208101452​)

26 Feb 2017 - Sophia University symposium on Women and Original Sin in Biblical interpretation (教父の聖書解釈から考える原罪と女性), 13:20pm


art exhibitions and drama


until 26 Feb 2017 - Exhibition on "Marie Antoinette, Queen at Versailles", Mori Arts Center Gallery Roppongi (http://www.ntv.co.jp/marie/outline/)

until 9 April 2017 - "Edo and Beijing: Cities and Urban Life in the 18th Century", Edo-Tokyo Museum

until 3 Mar 2017 - Exhibition on Christian icons and prayer aids (キリスト教信仰のかたち―祈りの道具にみる多様性―), Kokugakuin University Museum (http://museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/event/detail/2016_christ.html)

until 5 Mar 2017 - "World Book Design" exhibition at the Printing Museum, Tokyo (http://www.printing-museum.org/exhibi…/…/161203/img/zoom.pdf)

until 11 March 2017 - "Wisdom and Works of Tibetan Pastoralists", TUFS (http://www.tufs.ac.jp/english/2017/02/ilcaa-2017feb-mar-event.html)​

until 26 March 2017 - "Matisse et Rouault" exhibition, Shiodome Museum (http://panasonic.co.jp/…/museum/exh…/17/170114/index_en.html)

until 26 March 2017 - "Murmur and Tumult. Masterpieces of Nabis from the Musee d’Orsay", Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum

until 2 April 2017 - Special Exhibition on "Titian and the Renaissance in Venice", Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (http://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/h28_titian.html)

*until 9 April 2017 - Exhibit on "The Romanov Dynasty: Russia seen from Japan, Japan seen from Russia", Toyo Bunko (http://www.toyo-bunko.or.jp/museum/romanov.pdf)

until 16 April 2017 - "Parody and Intertextuality: Visual Culture in Japan around the 1970s", Tokyo Station Gallery

until 11 June 2017 - Indian contemporary artist N.S. Harsha, Mori Art Museum, http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/n_s_harsha/

Tokyo humanities events this week: post-war Japanese animation, Professor George Hughes on the English novel, space hippos, Yeats's "At the Hawk's Well", post-secularism, medieval papacy, sharia law, the identity theory of truth, foreign images of the Qing Dynasty, and Tibetan pastoralists. See below for a full list of lectures / symposia / art shows / drama.

(image: costume for Yeats's "At the Hawk's Well, 1916)

* = event partly in English, or translation provided
** = main language English


Lectures and Symposia


**13 Feb 2017 - Giovanna Miolli (U of Padova), "To Dress Up a Truism in High-flown Language": McDowell and the Identity Theory of Truth", UTokyo TFAP, 4pm (http://tf-ap.com/program/#124)

**13 Feb 2017 - Tomoya Kimura, "The process and factors for the domestic production of animation in Japan after World War II", University of Tokyo, 4pm (http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/events/2017/02/related_event_the_process_and/index_en.php) 

13 Feb 2017, Zhang Shiming (Renmin U of China), "Painting and Photography in Foreigners’ Construction of an Image of Qing Dynasty Law", UTokyo IASA (check time) (http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng/news/news.php?id=20170202133727) (in Chinese)

15 Feb 2017 - Rikkyo U. Symposium on "人文学の将来とは ― ＜ことば＞と＜ひと＞の原点へ ―" (The Future of Humanities - From the Starting Point of People and Words), 6.30pm (http://www.rikkyo.ac.jp/events/2017/02/18679/)

16 Feb 2017 - Noh production of Yeats's "At the Hawk's Well", Bunkamura Orchard Hall (https://www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp/en/events/12439/)

**17-19 Feb 2017 - International Symposium on "Medieval Papacy: Governance, Communication, Cultural Exchange", Rikkyo University (http://www.medievalstudies.jp/information/news20170104b/)

**17-18 Feb 2017  - International Workshop on "State and Sharia in Pre-20th Century Middle East", TUFS (http://earlymodernstate.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2017/01/state-and-shari.html)

**17 Feb 2017 - International Workshop: "Imagining an Alternative 'Post-Secular' State: Historicizing and Comparing National Struggles over Re-secularization", TUFS, 10am

**18 Feb 2017 - Lectures by Professor George Hughes on "Reading Novels: Misunderstandings over an 'English Style'" and Professor Clair Hughes on "Novel Hats", U Tokyo Komaba, 1pm (http://iasil.jp/…/George-and-Clair-Hughes-Schedule_english_…)


Exhibitions, Drama, Art Shows


​until 14 Feb 2017 - "Romeo & Juliette", TBS Akasaka Act Theatre (http://romeo-juliette.com/)

9 Feb - 19 Feb 2017 - 海外戯曲リーディング - International Drama reading festival, Sengawa Theatre (http://www.sengawa-gekijo.jp/kaigaigikyoku/)

13 Feb - 11 March 2017 - "Wisdom and Works of Tibetan Pastoralists", TUFS (http://www.tufs.ac.jp/english/2017/02/ilcaa-2017feb-mar-event.html)
​
17 Feb - 19 Feb 2017 - "Yes This Night" (Canadian fringe theatre double bill with Haley McGee and 'Space Hippo' Shadow Puppetry - World Peace Theatre, Kawasaki (http://ytg.jp/en/shows-en/upcoming-shows-en/500-yes-this-night-a-midwinter-double-bill​)

until 19 Feb 2017 - "Lascaux: The Cave Paintings of the Ice Age", National Museum of Nature and Science, Ueno (http://www.timeout.com/…/lascaux-the-cave-paintings-of-the-…)

until 26 Feb 2017 - Exhibition on "Marie Antoinette, Queen at Versailles", Mori Arts Center Gallery Roppongi (http://www.ntv.co.jp/marie/outline/)

until 3 Mar 2017 - Exhibition on Christian icons and prayer aids (キリスト教信仰のかたち―祈りの道具にみる多様性―), Kokugakuin University Museum (http://museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/event/detail/2016_christ.html)

until 5 Mar 2017 - "World Book Design" exhibition at the Printing Museum, Tokyo (http://www.printing-museum.org/exhibi…/…/161203/img/zoom.pdf)

until 26 March - "Matisse et Rouault" exhibition, Shiodome Museum (http://panasonic.co.jp/…/museum/exh…/17/170114/index_en.html)

until 26 March - "Murmur and Tumult. Masterpieces of Nabis from the Musee d’Orsay", Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum

until 2 April 2017 - Special Exhibition on "Titian and the Renaissance in Venice", Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (http://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/h28_titian.html)

*until 9 April 2017 - Exhibit on "The Romanov Dynasty: Russia seen from Japan, Japan seen from Russia", Toyo Bunko (http://www.toyo-bunko.or.jp/museum/romanov.pdf)

until 11 June 2017 - Indian contemporary artist N.S. Harsha, Mori Art Museum, http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/n_s_harsha/

A lecture by Dr Nancy Snow (Kyoto U of Foreign Studies) on Trump's "persuasion and propaganda expectations": "Snow is a former Department of State official and a Trump watcher for a quarter of a century. She will explain Trump’s American style and how it appeals and repels the American people. Is he destined for a mess as president or will he surprise, just as he did on Election Day 2016?" Temple University Japan (Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies), Thursday 9 March, 19:30pm. Registration details here.