We would like to invite you to our upcoming DIJ History
& Humanities Study Group on Wednesday, 21 March 2012,
18:30-20:00.

Julian Plenefisch (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

Russian-Japanese Borderlands and the Change of National
Consciousness in Japan around 1800

The Western historiography on Tokugawa Japan's
interaction with the world f ocuses on the "opening of
Japan" by the United States in 1853. In my talk I argue
that the impact of early Russian-Japanese engagements
at the end of the 18th century is still too much
neglected by Western historiography.
In my talk I will present first results of my PhD
research on the discourses among Japanese
intellectuals started by early Russian-Japanese
engagements.
Since the 18th century Russian ships pushed into the
Northern Pacific. In 1
771 letters by a Hungarian soldier of fortune, who
escaped his Russian impri sonment on Kamchatka and
landed in Japan, gave the starting point for the so
-called "coastal defence literature" among Japanese
intellectuals. The tal k focuses on this discourse and
the formation of borderlands among Russia an d Tokugawa
Japan in late 18th century as examples for the
development of a n ational consciousness by global
entanglements.
My main research question is if intellectual discourse
did develop into a new consciousness of a Japanese
nation because of Russian encounters around 1800? To
answer this question the thesis focuses on different
forms of representation of the global and the national
respectively the Self and the Other in Japanese
intellectual discourse.

Julian Plenefisch is Research Fellow at the Institute
of East Asian Studies at Freie Universitaet Berlin. He
studied History and Japanese Studies at Freie
Universitaet Berlin and received his MA in 2009. His
PhD project analyses a change in national consciousness
because of Russian-Japanese encounters in the Northern
Pacific about 1800. In 2010 he was a short-term Guest
Lecturer at SOAS, University of London. Currently he is
a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Social
Science, Tokyo University, on the Toshiba International
Foundation Scholarship.

The DIJ History & Humanities Study Group is a forum for
young scholars and Ph.D. candidates in the field of
history or the humanities organized by Kristina
Iwata-Weickgenannt and Susanne Klien. All are welcome
to attend, but registration (iwata[at]dijtokyo.org) is
appreciated.

German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Jochi
Kioizaka Bldg. 2F,
7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094, Phone:
03-3222-5077.

For a map please refer to www.dijtokyo.org