* Please note that this event will be at MITA HALL of TUJ campus.
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Paragons of Culture:
The Soft Power of the Japanese Emperors

Date: Thursday, September 26, 2013
Time: Door opens at 7:00pm, Program starts at 7:30pm
Venue: Temple University Japan Campus, Mita Hall 5F
(access: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html)
Speaker: Ben-Ami Shillony, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Moderator:Robert Dujarric, ICAS Director
Admission: Free. Open to public
Language: English
RSVP:icas@tuj.temple.edu

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Overview

The emperors of Japan, for at least the last 12 hundred
years, lacked
political, military, economic and judicial power.
Nevertheless, their
dynasty has never been toppled or challenged. The
enormous prestige of the
imperial family derived not only from the belief that
the emperors were
descendants of the Sun Goddess, but also from the soft
power which they
wielded as paragons of culture. Detached from the hard
power of other heads
of state, they engaged in performing religious rites,
composing poetry,
compiling anthologies, and pursuing arts. The imperial
court played a
crucial role in the cultural development of Japan. It
preserved Shinto,
patronized Buddhism, advanced Chinese civilization,
promoted Confucianism,
and championed Western culture. The Shōwa emperor
started a new tradition of
imperial family members engaging in science. During the
period between 1894
and 1945, when the emperors were used to sanction
Japan's wars of
aggression, their cultural activities continued
unabated. Today the imperial
family of Japan excels in science and poetry more than
any other royal
family in the world.


Speaker

Ben-Ami Shillony is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew
University of
Jerusalem, Israel, and member of the Israel Academy of
Sciences and
Humanities. He received his Ph.D. in 1971 from
Princeton University. In 2000
he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold
and Silver Star. In
October 2010 he received the Japan Foundation Award and
was granted an
audience with the emperor and empress. In 2012 he was
elected as the
honorary president of the Israeli Association of
Japanese Studies. His books
include: Revolt in Japan (1973), Politics and Culture
in Wartime Japan
(1981), The Jews and the Japanese (1991) and Enigma of
the Emperors (2005).
http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~shillony/


________________________________

Robert Dujarric, Director
Kyle Cleveland, Associate Director
Eriko Kawaguchi, Coordinator

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
Temple University, Japan Campus
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