17. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag in Berlin 2018

On August 29-31, 2018, the TIMEJ team jointly attended the Japanologentag 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Four team members collaborated with international colleagues in a panel on „Time in medieval Japan“. The panel was moderated by Dr. Brigitte Steger  and Raji Steineck (link).

The panel investigated cultural practices of time in various spheres of medieval Japan, thus disclosing the complexity of notions and practices of time in medieval Japan.

Etienne Staehelin opened the first session with a consideration of the conceptualization of time and changes therein in early Zen Buddhism. After this insight into the religious sphere, the panel moved on to the economical sphere. Kohei Kataoka (link) analysed the notion of permanence in medieval sale contracts and the practice of debt cancellation. This investigation of the economical reckoning with time was extended into the Edo-period by Dr. Angelika Koch‘s study of time measuring practices in Edo-period amusement districts.

In the second session, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Daniel Schley reflected on historiographic practices of medieval Japan and the connection between time consciousness and textual culture. The last presenter, Daniela Tan, discussed the topic of menstruation, linking various temporal dimensions and fields of knowledge together: medicine, cosmological notions, and social norms surrounding bodily processes.

Dr. Brigitte Steger closed the panel by providing insightful comments and reflecting on the results gained. 

The panel‘s abstracts (in German) can be downloaded from the conference website: http://fu-berlin.japanologentag.org/index.php?id=1516114832623

Finally, the magazine EU GrantsAccess Science Stories interviewed the team at the event for an article on the TIMEJ project. You can read the article online or watch the video interview below.