Japan-U.S.Educational Commission

Fulbright Seminar

The "Fulbright Seminars" are held every two months. The seminars feature talks by American or Japanese Fulbrighters in areas of their professional expertise. The seminars are open to the general public and we invite everyone to these stimulating gatherings to hear about the eye-opening accomplishments of our grantees.

Date	Wednesday, April 14, 2010 2:00pm to 3:30pm 2:00 - 3:00 pm : Introduction and presentation 3:00 - 3:30 pm : Q&A 3:30 pm: Adjournment
Speaker:	Dr. Elizabeth A. Oyler Assistant Professor, Japanese East Asian Languages and Cultures University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 2009-10 Fulbright Researcher at the National Institute of Japanese Literature
Topic	"One Night's Lodging: Final Journeys Down the Tokaido in Tales of the Heike"
Place	Conference room, Japan-U.S. Educational Commission 207 Sanno Grand Building, 2-14-2 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0014
Fee	Free (up to the first 50 registered persons)
Language	English (no Japanese interpretation service available)

"One Night's Lodging: Final Journeys Down the Tokaido in Tales of the Heike"

Summary: The establishment of Japan's first shogunate in Kamakura following the Genpei War of 1180-1185 drastically altered the political and cultural shape of the realm and ushered in the age of the warriors, which would remain in place in one form or another until 1868. This change was culturally momentous enough to inspire Japan's most influential medieval war tale, Heike monogatari (Tales of the Heike). And Heike in turn provided material for narrative and drama throughout the medieval and modern periods as well. Much of its lasting cultural importance derives from its lyrical rendering of a moment of significant historical change, when paradigms of governance, cultural practice, and geography were altered indelibly.

This paper focuses on one moment within the Heike narrative in which the geo-political meaning of the new warrior capital is addressed. As Taira Shigehira, a leading general of the losing side in the war, is taken along the Tokaido to Kamakura for final judgment, he stops at Ikeda post station, where he spends the night and exchanges poems with a woman named Jiju. Through a discussion of this episode and its allusive relationship to a slightly earlier travel narrative, Kaidoki, I argue that their exchange represents a reinterpretation of the relationship between the capital and the provinces, old and the new, and home and dispossession, subtly framed in the form of a conventional poetry exchange between a man and a woman he meets on the road.


Fulbright Grant Program
The Japan-United States Educational Commission
207 Sanno Grand Building, 14-2 Nagata-cho 2cho-me, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0014
TEL: 03-3580-3233 (M-F 9:00am - 5:30pm)
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