Prince Takamado Japan Centre Presents: 2016-2017 Japan Foundation / Japan Studies Association of Canada Lecture Series II
"A Glimpse into Women's Education in Modern Japan" By Masahiro Hamashita, Professor Emeritus, Kobe College, Nishinomiya, Japan
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2017
Time: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Telus Centre 134
His lecture will be followed by a casual luncheon/discussion with the speaker. Please register at ptjc@ualberta.ca by January 26, 2017.
About the Speaker:
Professor Hamashita is a specialist in Japanese Aesthetics and Art history. He is author of more than 10 books (single-authored and co-authored) and a very well-known scholar in the field of arts and gender. He taught at one of Japan's recognized women's universities for many years. In past, he also taught at Italy, China, Australia, and Scotland as a visiting scholar.
Outline:
Until the Meiji Restoration, though biased by Asian or Confucian prejudices of placing predominance of man over woman, Japanese women seem to have enjoyed and exerted their cultural accomplishments. From the goddess Amaterasu-Ohmikami to Lady Murasaki of the early 11th century and from reading women in Ukiyoe of the Edo period, women have played an important role socially and culturally in Japan. The task of male leaders of modern Japan under the Tenno system was how to educate women as innovative and obedient housekeepers and wives as well as citizens in the nation-state. From the Meiji era to 1945, when Japan was defeated and occupied by the allied nations under the initiative of the USA, Japanese women were at any time after and under men's control. Then, for the postwar generation, sexual equality, improvement of women's position in society, women's personal development as a professional worker or a learned person, etc. has been the ideals for women's education, of course with a governmental policy of women's education always based on the prospect of Japan's future as a state. However, historically Japanese women have always shown intelligence in adapting themselves to the male dominant society and managing their wisdom for life skillfully through implementation of 'cultural superiority' over men.