
Kyoto Lectures 2019-04
18 AVRIL 19
Rule of (Cosmological) Law:
The Rhetoric of Authority in Japan’s Medieval Mirrors
Erin L. Brightwell (Université de Michigan)
Thursday, April 18 18:00~
@EFEO Kyoto
Scholarship has rarely, if ever, treated Japan’s seven medieval historiographic Mirrors as a set. The Great Mirror, The New Mirror, and The Clear Mirror have typically been talked about as “historical tales.” The Mirror of the East has been regarded as both a “chronicle” and a “war tale.” The Water Mirror, The China Mirror, and The Mirror of the Gods have scarcely been mentioned in any capacity. This talk will argue that these works should, however, be read together as a particular strategy for processing the past, one that flourished between the late Heian and early Muromachi periods. Each appeared in the wake of serious challenges to existing structures of authority—nearly always written out of the account—and all of the Mirrors share a commitment to representing historical events as subject to cosmological laws.
The talk will approach these seven texts from four interrelated angles—linguistic register, narrative setting, cosmological principle, and the purpose of narrating the past—to analyze the development of the proposed Mirror group. In so doing, it will shed light on the evolution and circulation of medieval ideas of authority, ideas that transcend modern notions of linguistic, genre, and disciplinary divides.
Erin L. Brightwell is Assistant Professor of Pre-modern Japanese Literature at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She holds a PhD in East Asian Studies (Classical Japanese Literature) from Princeton University and an MA in Chinese from the University of Washington. Her most recent publications have appeared in Nihon bungaku no tenbō o hiraku and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Website: https://lsa.umich.edu/asian/people/faculty/erin-brightwell.html
EFEO
ISEAS
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
kyoto lectures
The Rhetoric of Authority in Japan’s Medieval Mirrors
Erin L. Brightwell (Université de Michigan)
Thursday, April 18 18:00~
@EFEO Kyoto
Scholarship has rarely, if ever, treated Japan’s seven medieval historiographic Mirrors as a set. The Great Mirror, The New Mirror, and The Clear Mirror have typically been talked about as “historical tales.” The Mirror of the East has been regarded as both a “chronicle” and a “war tale.” The Water Mirror, The China Mirror, and The Mirror of the Gods have scarcely been mentioned in any capacity. This talk will argue that these works should, however, be read together as a particular strategy for processing the past, one that flourished between the late Heian and early Muromachi periods. Each appeared in the wake of serious challenges to existing structures of authority—nearly always written out of the account—and all of the Mirrors share a commitment to representing historical events as subject to cosmological laws.
The talk will approach these seven texts from four interrelated angles—linguistic register, narrative setting, cosmological principle, and the purpose of narrating the past—to analyze the development of the proposed Mirror group. In so doing, it will shed light on the evolution and circulation of medieval ideas of authority, ideas that transcend modern notions of linguistic, genre, and disciplinary divides.
Erin L. Brightwell is Assistant Professor of Pre-modern Japanese Literature at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She holds a PhD in East Asian Studies (Classical Japanese Literature) from Princeton University and an MA in Chinese from the University of Washington. Her most recent publications have appeared in Nihon bungaku no tenbō o hiraku and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Website: https://lsa.umich.edu/asian/people/faculty/erin-brightwell.html
EFEO
ISEAS
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
kyoto lectures
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
DÉCEMBRE NOVEMBRE OCTOBRE SEPTEMBRE AOÛT JUILLET JUIN MAI AVRIL MARS FÉVRIER JANVIER 2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
anna seidel memorial lectures
architecture
bibliothèque
cahiers d'extrême-asie
chantier
chercheurs
concours
conférence
conférences
construction
inauguration
jôtôshiki
kyoto lectures
kyoto lectures
kyoto lectures
la conservation et la rénovation de l’architecture au japon
la conservation et la rénovation de l’architecture au japon
lecture series
news
nouvelles
parutions
prix
publications
visites
workshop
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
DÉCEMBRE NOVEMBRE OCTOBRE SEPTEMBRE AOÛT JUILLET JUIN MAI AVRIL MARS FÉVRIER JANVIER 2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
anna seidel memorial lectures
architecture
bibliothèque
cahiers d'extrême-asie
chantier
chercheurs
concours
conférence
conférences
construction
inauguration
jôtôshiki
kyoto lectures
kyoto lectures
kyoto lectures
la conservation et la rénovation de l’architecture au japon
la conservation et la rénovation de l’architecture au japon
lecture series
news
nouvelles
parutions
prix
publications
visites
workshop