Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture presents a

Workshop on Intellectual Networks in Early Modern Japan

The first workshop of the ICC research group "Network Studies" introduces recent trends in the field of Tokugawa history. We have three presenters who will share their recent research on networks in the Tokugawa period. In addition, as an understudied era in regards to network analysis, the workshop welcomes the audience to discuss methods and models for a network analysis.

Date: November 20, 2010
Location: Sophia University, Bldg. 10, 3F, Room 301
Time: 13:30 until 17:00
Coordinator: Bettina Gramlich-Oka (Sophia University)

The workshop will be conducted in English.
No prior registration required.
Free of charge

Anne Walthall (UC Irvine):
Seeking fame in Kyoto: Hirata Atsutane's use of social networks When sent into exile in 1841, Hirata Atsutane had to convince the Akita domain authorities that he was sufficiently established as a scholar for them to spare scarce resources in granting him rank, office, and stipend. To this end, he prepared a document describing how and by whom he achieved recognition for his scholarship. By focusing specifically on the individuals he used to get connections to the high and mighty, this talk will attempt to analyze this document in terms of how he used social networks to further his career.

Niels van Steenpaal (Kyoto University):
Social and Cultural Activity surrounding Filial Children in the Edo Period It is a well-known fact that from the end of the seventeenth century onwards bakuhan authorities, motivated by the intensely political and hierarchical narratives of "moral education" and "benevolent government", started to grant monetary rewards to people who displayed exceptional filial piety. Much less familiar however is the fact that there were also many private initiatives concerned with bestowing rewards and praise upon filial sons and daughters. Moreover, examination of these private activities seems to suggest that their motives were of intellectual, social and cultural nature and that they took place within a network of like-minded men of more or less equal status. In this presentation I will introduce and examine the case of Mankichi, a filial boy from the Ise province. Using a variety of sources, I will reconstruct the events that led up to Mankichi's official bakufu reward in 1787, and detail the private activities surrounding Mankichi before as well as after this reward. While doing so, I will rethink the context in which virtue was celebrated during the pre-modern period, and address some issues concerning the social networks that were involved.

Gideon Fujiwara (Hirosaki University):
Northern Link in the Hirata Network: Tsuruya Ariyo and
the Tsugaru Group
Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843)'s Nativist (Kokugaku)
academy, the Ibukinoya, is well documented for its
vigorous transactions of books and other objects, as
well as for its exchange of the latest information on
the socio-political scene in Edo (and later Tokyo) and
locales throughout nineteenth-century Japan. Atsutane's
adopted son Hirata Kanetane (1799-1880) and grandson
Hirata Nobutane (1828-72) are credited for their role
as administrators in expanding student enrolment and
building ties with these local communities through
meticulous letter-writing. Tsuruya Ariyo (1808-1871)
became the Hirata academy's first student from Hirosaki
(Tsugaru) domain and served as the Tsugaru Group's
contact and leader who kept regular correspondence with
Kanetane and Nobutane. In this presentation, I will
examine letters exchanged between Ariyo and the Hirata
Academy in order to examine the Tsugaru Group's
activities and consider their significance within the
Hirata network and in intellectual history from the
late-Tokugawa to early-Meiji period.

Visit the Network Studies Research group HP at
http://pweb.cc.sophia.ac.jp/bgo/net/Network_studies/hom
e.html

Access to Sophia University:
http://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/info/access/directions/acce
ss_yotsuya
Campus map:
http://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/info/access/map/map_yotsuya

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