In the past, the study of Japanese culture focused on Japan’s uniqueness and peculiarities. These ideas of a “beautiful, traditional” Japan were fictions that formed in the course of Japan’s modernization and Westernization. However, the history, culture, and thought found in the stretch of land known as “Japan” should not be seen as standing in unique isolation or self-evident; instead, we need to go beyond national history narratives and homogeneous culture and embark on research grounded in fieldwork and comparisons which take into account the contexts of interaction and friction with heterogeneous cultures. The Methodology in Japanese Studies seminar aims to serve as an open, diverse forum that allows students to converse with many overseas students in ways that overcome and traverse culture, ethnicity, and gender.

Professor

UNODA, Shoya (Ph.D.)

Japanese Intellectual History

Associate Professors

KITAMURA, Tsuyoshi

Cultural Anthropology; Japanese Folklore Studies; Oral History; Okinawan Studies

YASUOKA, Kenichi

Japanese Modern History; Migration Studies; Rural Studies

NAKAJIMA, Izumi