ONLINE WORKSHOP

Water, Waterways and Seas in Modern Japan: Perspectives of Environmental History

Saturday, May 30th, 9:00 AM (Japan Time)
Prior registration is required →　efeo.kyoto@gmail.com
【New!!】We added the abstracts of each presentation below.


Focusing on Japan from the 19th century onwards, this workshop investigates some issues related to water in its various forms. Rivers, rainfalls and seas encompass their own changing ecologies. Depending on one’s perspective, water can either be seen as a hydrological threat or as a vital element for everyday life and a benefit for agriculture. Water can provide a way to move away the wastes produced by industry but it can also serve as a channel bringing in and spreading unwanted pollution. Waterways and oceans produce frontiers that can hinder or enhance the exchanges between societies. In the same way, natural currents shape the flows of goods and people. The Meiji period deeply changed the Japanese society, marked an increase in the exploitation of natural resources and strengthened the industrialization process. These dynamics went on during the Taishō and Shōwa eras, with their own specificity, as this timeframe saw the building, the expansion and the collapse of the Japanese empire. Through a few case studies, this workshop aims at providing a better understanding of the changes and continuities in Japanese history throughout the Modern period from the perspective of water.


Program

09:00    Opening Remarks　 --Cyrian Pitteloud (EFEO / University of Geneva)

Panel 1

09:10　 "Navigation and Sociology of Knowledge in Late Tokugawa Pelagic Voyages"  --Jonas Ruegg (Harvard University)

09:40 　"Contamination of Waterways in Meiji and Taishō Japan: Early Considerations"  --Cyrian Pitteloud (EFEO / University of Geneva)

10:10 　Panel Discussion

10:30 　Coffee Break

Panel 2

10:45　 "Governing Mountains and Waters: Flood Control, Forests, and Aboriginal Taiwanese under Japanese Colonialism"  --John Hayashi (Harvard University)

11:15　 "Vanishing Islands of Modern Japan: A Short History of Mujintō since 1945" --Paul Kreitman (Columbia University)

11:45 　 Panel Discussion

12:05    Lunch Break

Panel 3

13:00 　"Spatializing Intimacy: The Prefabrication and Personalization of Water in the Japanese Dwelling, 1955–1990"  --Michelle Hauk (Columbia University)

13:30 　"Hypercultivation: Rethinking Aquaculture's Ecological Limits in Ago Bay, 1950s-1970s"  --Kjell Ericson (Kyoto University)

14:00 　 Panel Discussion

14:20    Coffee Break

14:30 　 Concluding Remarks　-- Paul Kreitman (Columbia University)

We will hold this workshop on Zoom.

After your registration, we will send you the ID and password of this workshop.

Email us at:  efeo.kyoto@gmail.com

Download the program ↓

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZulZUjPm04hoM3BhhaO3slXy1NZMlnda


 Download the abstracts ↓【New!!】
https://drive.google.com/open?id=169cdR6bg27G2E3SZzIhw60sWHGlRSWhH

PLEASE NOTE THAT BOTH CENTRES WILL BE CLOSED ON THAT DAY

 workshop