Thema:

Reading the Tengu zōshi:

A Use of Narrative Picture Scrolls for the Study of Medieval Japanese History

            During the recent years, scholars of medieval Japanese history have been exploring various approaches to the use of art, employing visual materials such as portraits, pictorial maps, and illustrated narrative scrolls (emaki) as documents that must be critically “read” and analyzed within their historical and social contexts.  Critical reading of pictures allows us to better comprehend manners, behavior, and conduct reflecting social status and profession, to gain an understanding of “space” as revealed in the historical landscape, and to perceive general mentality and ways of thinking.  This paper will look at Tengu zōshi, a thirteenth-century emaki, to demonstrate the ways in which narrative scrolls can be used as primary sources to offer new insights into the period under study.  The paper will focus specifically on the nature of critique against Buddhism found in the scroll, and how it reflects some of the critical issues that were faced by the Buddhist establishments of the late thirteenth century.

Gastrednerin:

Frau Haruko Wakabayashi, PhD, Princeton University
Absolventin der renommierten Sophia Universität in Tokio (B.A.)

Promotion in Princeton:

Hauptfach: Mittelalterliche Geschichte Japans (bei Martin C. Collcutt)
Nebenfach: Frühneuzeitliche Geschichte Japans (bei Marius Jansen)
Nebenfach: Kunstgeschichte Japans (bei Yoshiaki Shimizu)