East Asian Colloquium Series: "A Harem without Eunuchs: Women's Lives and the Formation of The Tale of Genji"

Friday, Sep 14, 2007
Noon - 11:55 PM

Part of the East Asian Colloquium series. Talk presented by Professor Takahashi Toru, Professor of Japanese Literature, Nagoya University. Translation by Professor Emerita Sumie Jones. Harems were part of many traditional Asian and Near Eastern court cultures. Unlike the custom in China and Islamic countries, where women were often taken from conquered enemies and closely watched by a eunuch and guards, the harem at Japan’s imperial court was very small in scale and open to visitors, including men. Because high-class women were shielded by curtains and partitions, love relationships were complicated by secrecy and chance meetings. Such an environment necessitated much writing in the form of love poems, letters, diaries, and essays, not to mention fiction. The rise of great poets and writers among women who served at court had as much to do with these complex relationships as with the invention of the hiragana (phonetic) writing system, which afforded women, who were not expected to communicate in classical Chinese, a method with which they could address issues of concern. Professor Takahashi will illustrate his talk with picture scrolls and other materials from his own collection.

Location: Ballantine Hall, Room 004
Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~easc/eaq/index.htm