2nd Research Meeting (Research Approach 1) of 2010

Date: 8th January 2011, 13:0-18:00

Venue: Hosei University Ichigaya Campus, ’58 Building 2F Research Center for International Japanese Studies Seminar Room

Speakers & Themes:

OGUCHI Masashi (Professor, Hosei University) / On the Origin and the Meaning of the Name “Nippon or Hinomoto”

SUZUMURA Yusuke (Visiting Academic Researcher, Research Center for International Japan-Studies, Hosei University) / Ishibashi Tanzan’s notion of Japan in the interwar period

TAKAHASHI Sumiko (Visiting Academic Researcher, Research Center for International Japan-Studies, Hosei University) / Rise and fall of different culture in the process of establishing “Modern Japanese Literature”: “Edo” vs. “Non-Edo”

Chair: TANAKA Yuko (Professor, Hosei University)

Summary of Meeting

We had three topics in this research meeting.

The first presenter, Prof. Oguchi examined the origin and the meaning of the name of Japan–“Nippon or Hinomoto”. Prof. Oguchi pointed out that Japanese who lived in the Ancient Ages and the Middle Ages accepted the name of “Nippon” which meant barbarians in East land.

Dr. Suzumura, the second presenter, surveyed the ideal situation of Japan advocated by Ishibashi Tanzan and concluded that Ishibashi mentioned Japan could not be the leader of the Orient and viewed a state as a company, which has to be managed by rational method.

And Dr. Takahashi, the third presenter, discussed a tide of the literature in the Meiji Era, the Edo-style literature, which is omitted from the modern Japanese literature. Dr. Takahashi mentioned that declination of the Edo-style literature related the modernization of Japan and we have to re-examine the history of the modern Japanese literature.

Reported by SUZUMURA Yusuke (Visiting Academic Researcher, Research Center for International Japanese Studies, Hosei University)