ICC Lecture for Sophia Open Research Weeks 2018

Blood Runs Through It:

The Indeterminate World of Loyalty in Medieval Warrior Society

Hitomi Tonomura (Professor of History, LSA, University of Michigan)

Monday, November 19th, 2018

18：00-19：30

Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University

How did fighting men, high and low, cope with the reality of uncertainty, and especially with unpredictable human relations, in Sengoku Japan? By defining war to encompass matters beyond the battlefield as a more dynamic "war system," we can see how the human anatomy's most vital liquid, blood, became implicated in reorganizing the social and military landscape of the late medieval archipelago. The evolving practice of applying one's keppan, or "blood seal," near or on one's signature at the end of a document promoted a sense of order for the warriors, as did the increasingly gendered meaning that blood was acquiring.

Hitomi Tonomura is Professor of History and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her areas of study include premodern Japanese history, East Asian history, gender and sexuality, and premodern war and violence. She is currently examining the relationship between war, violence and gender, especially the making of the samurai-style masculinity, culture of blood, and the gendered meaning of Japan's warring age (15-16th century).

This event is coordinated by Professor Bettina Gramlich-Oka (FLA) for an ICC Research Unit "Network Studies"

No prior registration necessary/Language: English

http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/html/events/2018-2019/181119_Tonomura.pdf

Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture

7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554

Web：http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/index.html