Course Descriptions
( Click on instructor's name to view academic profile.)
This course will introduce students to the major themes, issues, methods, and theories relevant to the study of things or material culture. We will look at the variety of ways in which scholars from diverse fields including anthropology, sociology, and history, have sought to infer meaning from things and apply these ideas to the study of Japanese culture and society. In addition to gaining familiarity with significant literature in material culture studies, students will engage in artifact analysis with particular focus on the ordinary objects that constitute the core of daily life in Japan, such as clothing, food, furniture, and housing. Instructor: Nomura
The Traditional Performing Arts in Japan:
Students in this course read scripts, listen to recordings and watch filmed material on genres from the pre-Edo period such as kagura, gagaku, noh and kyogen, discussing how they reflect the socio-economic situation of the society in which they were created, and how the social stance of the performers changed with the political situation in the first half of the term. In the second half we focus on the two main genres of popular entertainment of the Edo period, Joruri puppet drama and kabuki, reading selected famous plays, looking at recordings and discussing their enactment and how institutionalized theaters came to act as economic centers for the surrounding businesses. This term, we focus on plays which feature topics from the war epos Tale of Heike. Instructor: Bjoerk
Edo Culture and the “Bad Places”:
Beginning in the Muromachi Period (1336-1573) brothel districts and entertainment centers focusing on various stage arts developed hand in hand with the rise of the social strata of the urban townsmen in Kyoto. After Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to build-up the town of Edo, licenses were given to those managing prostitution and theaters. The areas of Yoshiwara (behind the Senso-ji temple in Asakusa) and Sakai-, Fukiya- and Kobiki (now Ningyo-cho and Ginza) where the theaters were, came to be called Akusho (“Bad Places”) because of their loose morals and inducement to overspending; however, they were at the same time social melting pots providing fertile ground for cultural, artistic and economic development. In this course we explore how the city of Edo developed and the role played by “Bad Places” in the development of what we know as “Edo culture.” Instructor: Bjoerk
Justice and the Vendetta Culture in Pre-modern Japan :
Justice and the Vendetta Culture in Pre-modern Japan: When the social structures centering on the imperial court broke down toward the end of the 12th century, the legal system broke down with it. The Kamakura shogunate soon established new legal courts, but did so at that same time that the Soga brothers killed their father`s enemy at the foot of Mt. Fuji in an illegal vendetta in which the brothers were also killed. This vendetta came to be a theme enacted frequently in both Noh and Kabuki. Six hundred years later, 47 retainers of Asano Naganori took revenge for their lord and were subsequently sentenced to commit seppuku. This vendetta, too, became fodder for fiction works such as the popular puppet play and Kabuki drama Chushingura: the Treasury of Loyal Retainers (film versions of which are still being made both in Japan and elsewhere) and what is considered to be the origin of Japanese horror fiction The Yotsuya Ghost Story. These were illegal vendettas, but vendettas as such were accepted forms of seeking individual justice and one could apply for a license to kill for a just cause. This course analyzes the differences between the legal and illegal vendettas and the popular fiction surrounding them in order to understand attitudes toward vendettas in medieval and early modern Japan. Instructor: Bjoerk
Seminar in Japanese Literature and Theatre Ⅰ- Ⅳ:
The Seminar in Japanese Literature and Theatre focuses on a different topic each term. Topics include tracing the character development of medieval heroes Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Benkei from the Tales of Heike over Gikei ki, noh plays to early modern Joruri puppet plays and Kabuki productions, analyzing the dramatic devices by Chikamatsu Monzaemon or considering the social implications of the popularity of the character of the outlaw in works of fictions of the late Edo period and early Meiji periods. Students are expected to conduct independent research during the course, and the seminar may include field trips. Instructor: Bjoerk
Studies in Premodern Japanese History:
A graduate-level seminar focusing on key issues in premodern Japan. The principal goal of the course is to prepare students for professional historical inquiry by developing their research and interpretive skills. Topics vary from semester to semester.
Seminar in Modern Japanese History:
This course will take the form of a directed readings seminar. It is designed to help students develop a broad understanding of “history” as a discipline and learn how to cultivate an original methodology for a research project related to the field of modern Japanese history. The course welcomes students interested in historiography and eager to explore a wide variety of analytical frameworks adopted in the subfields of modern Japanese history: transnational history, diplomatic history, intellectual history, political history, cultural history, gender history, history of social activism, and history of racism and minorities, for instance. As for course requirements, students are required to submit a research paper besides weekly reflection papers. Instructor: Inoue
Urban Geography of Japan:
In this course, students learn about the development and characteristics of cities in
Japan. It discusses their emergence and change from an historical perspective, while drawing on examples of several cities from all over Japan. The course starts with early urban settlements like the Heijō-kyō at the beginning of the 8th century. It follows the development of cities showing for instance the emerging of large urban centers during the Edo-period, or of the first complex urban planning system at the beginning of the 20th century, until reaching issues cities are confronted today. The focus lies, especially on institutions and policies that created and formed cities in Japan, providing a wide knowledge that enables to better understand urban issues and ongoing debates about their further development. Instructor: Kiener
Colloquium in Social Geography Ⅰ:
This course is concerned with social phenomena and their spatial conditions in Japanese cities. By focusing on inner city areas, inhabited by minorities like immigrants from the Korean peninsula, day laborers or outcasts (burakumin), processes of place-making are explored. Inner cities in Japan prove to be dynamic areas, which are shaped and reshaped by diverse actors, including the people inhabiting them, the government or the market. Through a wide reading of related literature, also the interpretation of these processes in academic research and major associated theories are investigated. In this course students get the possibility to deepen their knowledge about cities in Japan and learn to understand the forces that shape the disparities visible in the urban landscape from different viewpoints. Instructor:Kiener
Seminar in Contemporary Japanese Social Theory Ⅰ・Ⅱ:
This course approaches key issues of contemporary Japanese society from the perspective of human geography. It aims to develop and deepen the research and interpretive skills of students in preparation for writing their thesis. While the topic of the class is changing every semester, the course provides the students also a broad forum to develop their own ideas. Instructor:Kiener
Governance and Development in Asia and Africa:
This is an advanced course examining in a comparative manner how governance may relate with development. Poverty is one of the major issues in the world. To reduce poverty in developing countries, many actors (e.g. governments in developing countries, local people, NGOs, aid donor countries, international organisations, etc.) have engaged in various development policies. It is said that these stakeholders are required to democratically participate in public policy-process. Governance, beyond government, should be ‘good’ to promote development. Such a ‘good governance’ is argued as the precondition for achieving development. How and why governance may relate with development process? What policy is advocated for good governance? How has the international community been leading the discourse of governance? Could we find problems in good governance and alternatives? This course is designed for those who seek to understand the governance and development both in theoretical and empirical terms. Instructor:Kondoh
Economics of Development and Public Issues/Principles of Economics for Developing Countries:
This course introduces key theories and empirical issues in development economics, focusing on how socio-economic factors influence the development process in developing world. Students will learn to analyze key challenges such as poverty, inequality, population growth, education, health, and governance through lectures, presentations, and discussions. The course aims to enhance students' analytical skills essential for their research. Active participation, presentations, and discussions are expected. Instructor: Samreth
International Relations in East Asia:
In this course, we will conduct a reading seminar on existing research that analyzes international relations in East Asia. By emphasizing the understanding of research design and data analysis in this seminar, we will make this course a training ground in preparation for the master's thesis. Additionally, students will be required to design and present their own research prospectus, building upon what they have learned from the existing research. Instructor: Fujita
Contemporary Art & Media in the Asia-Pacific Region I:
This course aims to introduce key issues of contemporary art and media of countries of the Asia-Pacific region. By focusing on specific artists and art works in the genres of oil painting, mixed media, animation, performance, etc., we analyze the patterns of how modern and contemporary art and media developed in the Asia-Pacific region, with regards to specific traditional visual cultural influences. We will start with examining relevant media theory, art historical concepts and curatorial practices, and then move on to take a look at Asian influences in Western art (from the Silk Road to the Ottoman Empire), and, in return, Western influences in Asian art (colonialism, post-colonialism, Meiji Era). Then we examine the development pattern of modern art as well as trends in contemporary art and media in China, before we expand our view on East Asia, including the Koreas, Japan and Taiwan. Instructor: Zara-Papp
Contemporary Art & Media in the Asia-Pacific Region Ⅱ:
This course builds on the course Contemporary Art and Media in the Asia-Pacific Region I. In this course we further examine the development patterns of modern and contemporary art in the Asia-Pacific region. In this course, we expand our view to Central Asia (Mongolia in the Post-War years), South East Asia (mixed media art in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia), South Asia (building on heritage: India, Pakistan and the Himalaya borderlands), West Asia (the former Soviet states) and the Pacific Region (media productions and cultural identity in Aboriginal Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the French overseas territories and the independent Oceanic nations). Active class participation is expected. Instructor: Zara-Papp
MA Program: Japanese and Asian Culture
Core Faculty Members
BJOERK, Tove is a professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. She earned a doctorate in Japanese literature from Rikkyō University with a dissertation focusing on the diary of the Edo Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō II and the development of the early modern entertainment industry. Publications in Japanese include a monograph analyzing the management of mid- 18th century Kabuki theatres and their audiences on the basis of the diary of Ichikawa Danjūrō II (“Nidaime Ichikawa Danjūrō no nikki ni miru Kyōhō ki Edo Kabuki [Edo Kabuki of the Kyōhō Era as seen in the Diary of Ichikawa Danjūrō II]”, Bungaku Tsushin 2019), and several articles on the management and marketing strategies of the theatre teahouses, based on the diary of feudal lord and Kabuki fan Yangisawa Nobutoki (“An’ei ki Edo no Shibai Chaya to Mizu Chaya – Yanagisawa Nobutoki no nikki kara [The Edo Theatre and Water Teahouses of the An’ei Era as seen in the Diary of Yangisawa Nobutoki]”, in Kabuki – Kenkyū to Hihyō 67, 2022). In English she has published on various topic such as the most prominent scandal in the early modern world of Kabuki (“The Ejima-Ikushima Scandal” in Theatre Scandals, Brill Publishing House, 2020), the literacy of early modern kabuki actors (Reading and Acting in Early Modern Kabuki: Browsing the Library of Ichikawa Danjūrō II” The Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities Vol 53, 2022) and 1989 Super Kabuki production “Ryu-oh” (“Dragon King in a contentious sea: Sino-Japanese Intercultural theatre in 1989, co-authored with Josh Stenberg, in International Journal of Asian Studies, 2021).
INOUE, Fumi is an associate professor of modern Japanese history and the contemporary Okinawa-Japan-U.S. relationship in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. She earned a B.A. from Waseda University and a Ph.D. in history from Boston College with a dissertation entitled “The Politics of Extraterritoriality in Post-Occupation Japan and U.S.-Occupied Okinawa, 1952-1972” (2021). Her research interests include the contemporary Okinawa-Japan-U.S. relationship, base politics, historiography, studies on multi-layered systems of oppression and hierarchy (politics of race, gender, and minority in particular), and social movements (human rights activism in U.S.-occupied Okinawa, for instance). Her book manuscript, The Politics of Extraterritoriality in Post-Occupation Japan and U.S.-Occupied Okinawa, 1952-1972, explores how the politics surrounding the U.S. military’s policy of maximizing national jurisdiction over its service members’ cases committed on foreign soil unfolded in Japan as a former colonial empire and Okinawa as a borderland for both nations with imperial legacies. The book focuses on the formative period of the postwar Japan-U.S. security relationship, during which the two nations’ policy elites learned how to contain Japanese nationalism and sustain U.S. exceptionalism by embarking in 1972 on a joint spatial reordering of the uneven basing structure operated by U.S. policy elites before then. It is a project of transnational history, transimperial history, and what she calls a diplomatic history from below. She has taught at Boston College, Waseda University, Hosei University, and Tokyo University.
Johannes KIENER
KIENER, Johannes is an associate professor for contemporary Japanese social theory at the graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. He earned an M.A. from the University of Vienna in Japanese Studies, and a Ph.D. from Osaka City University in Human Geography. He has taught courses on geography at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Osaka City University and Osaka University for Economics and Law. Publications in Japanese include “Basho no jiba o umidasu rinobēshon: Ōsakashi Kitaku nakazakichō kaiwai no jirei kara (Creating a Place’s Magnetic Field through Renovation: From the Example of the Nakazaki Neighborhood in Osaka City, Kita Ward),” Shisei kenkyũ (Journal of Municipal Research) 186 (2015), pp. 54-65, and “Innāshiti ni okeru gaikokujin muke gesutohausu jigyō no jittai to chiiki e no inpakuto: Ōsakashi, Nishinariku hokubu no jirei ni (Guesthouses for Foreigners Businesses in the Inner City and their Neighborhood Impact’ The Case of North Nishinari, Osaka City)”, Jinbun chiri (Japanese Journal of Human Geography) 67(5) (2015), pp. 25-41. Publications in English include “Social Networks of Homeless People under the Influence of Homeless Self-sufficiency Support Centres in Japan,” Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies 5 (2014), pp. 77-109, “Homelessness and Homeless Policies in the Context of the Residual Japanese Welfare State,” in Faces of Homelessness in the Asia Pacific, edited by Carole Zufferey and Nilan Yu, Routledge (2017), pp. 9-27, and “Innovations in Gearing the Housing Market to Welfare Benefit Recipients in Osaka’s Inner City: A Resilient Strategy?” Housing, Theory and Society 35(4) (2018), pp. 410-431.
NAGASAWA, Makoto
NAGASAWA, Makoto is a Professor of Higher Education at the International Office and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University. He earned his M.S. in International and Intercultural Education from the University of Southern California in 2002 and served as a research assistant in Higher Education at the State University of New York at Albany until 2007. After working at the Institute of International Education, Meiji University, he joined Saitama University in 2013. His recent publications include “Structural Problems of the ‘American Model’ in the COVID-19 Era,” Studies in American Education, Vol. 34 (Toshindo, 2023), and Filback, R., Williamson, C., & Nagasawa, M. (in press, 2025). “Ensuring High-Quality Online Programming in a Shifting Higher Education Landscape,” in A. Craig & M. Barger (Eds.), The Future of Digital Higher Education: A Post-Pandemic Perspective. Charlotte, NC: IAP Press.
NOMURA, Nao is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University and specializes in the study of material culture. Before joining academia, she served as Collections Manager at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her publications include “The Development of Quiltmaking in Japan Since the 1970s,” Uncoverings 31 (2010): 105-130, 「ミュージアムにおける「ナラティヴ」の展示：日系人ミュージアムの展示比較からみる日系人表象のありかた」（2016年）山崎敬一他編 『日本人と日系人の物語 ― 会話分析 会話分析 ・ナラティヴ ナラティヴ・語られる歴史』世織書房、180-196. (“Exhibiting Narratives in Museums: Comparative Analysis of Japanese American Representation in Museums of Japanese Americans,” in Stories of Japanese and Japanese Americans, eds. Yamazaki Keiichi, et al. (Tokyo: Seori Shobō, 2016), 180-196.), With Marin Hanson. “Journey to Japan.” In Abstract Design in American Quilts at 50, 1971-2021, edited by Marin F. Hanson, 62-73. Lincoln, NE: International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021. and “Amish Vogue: Performing Fashion in the Plain World.” In Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America, 227–50. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023
Zilia ZARA-PAPP
ZARA-PAPP, Zilia is an associate professor of Media Studies at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. She earned her BDes and MDes degrees in visual communication design from Kyushu Institute of Design, Kyushu University, Japan, and received her PhD in Media and Communication Studies from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests include modern and contemporary art, and media and design of the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on sequential and animated art and design in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. She has been associate researcher at Waseda University, Japan, and assistant professor at Hosei University, Japan, before assuming her current position at Saitama University. Her publications include two academic books, Traditional Monster Imagery in Manga, Anime and Japanese Cinema (Brill, 2011) and Anime and Its Roots in Early Japanese Monster Art (Global Oriental, 2010), and several book chapters and academic journal articles. Prof. Zara-Papp has been contributing articles to several newspapers as well, including The Japan Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Yomiuri and The Age newspapers.
Supporting Faculty*
(*Supporting faculty do not serve as supervisors to MA program students as a rule.)
KONDOH Hisahiro
KONDOH, Hisahiro is a professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University. He holds a master degree in development studies from the University of East Anglia, and a Ph.D. from the University of Leeds, UK. He has published a number of articles on governance and development as well as on emerging donor issues, including papers published by such journals as the Pacific Review. Besides his academic career, he has experience working in the civil service at the local government level and in professional development consultancy.
SAMRETH, Sovannroeun
SAMRETH, Sovannroeun is a Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University, Japan. His primary research interests include dollarization, microfinance, and broader development issues in Cambodia and other developing countries. He has published in journals such as Applied Economics, Empirical Economics, Economics Letters, Economic Modelling, Journal of Asian Economics, and Review of Development Economics. He is also contributing to evidence-based economic policy discussions in Cambodia.
FUJITA, Taisuke
FUJITA, Taisuke is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Saitama University. His research interests include international relations, comparative politics, public opinion, and quantitative and qualitative research methods. His work has appeared in journals such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Behaviormetrika.