Each New Year\, Japan’s imperial court hosts a ceremony for members of the imperial family and general public to read waka poems they had composed on a preann ounced theme. The Utakai hajime ceremony which had previously been conducted exclusively within the court began in the Meiji Period (1868-191 2) to accept poems from the general populace\, thereby making this elite cu ltural practice accessible to the common people. Such changes reflect large r social developments\, as well as efforts to make the modern emperor and e mpress visible to the public and build a nation of subjects who would parta ke in the tradition of waka composition passed on for over a millennium.
This presentation chronicles the history of the Utakai hajime and the work of kokugaku (nativist) scholars in early Meiji to pe tition for public participation in this event. I will consider the history of waka composition by the emperor\, among kokugaku scholars\, and within early modern to modern local literary circles. I will introduce poe ms featured in the ceremony\, and show the trajectory of this ceremony’s de velopment through the Meiji period.
Gideon Fujiwara is an assistant professor in the History Department an d Coordinator of Asian Studies at the University of Lethbridge. He teaches courses on the histories of the world\, East Asia\, China\, Japan\, Nations and Nationalism\, and Modernity\, as well as Asian Studies. Recent publica tions include: “Channeling the Undercurrents: Fūsetsudome\, Inform ation Access\, and National Political Awareness in Nineteenth-Century Japan \,” The Journal of Japanese Studies(summer 2017 issue) an d “Rebirth of a Hirata School Nativist: Tsuruya Ariyo and His Kaganabe< /em> Journal\,” Values\, Identity and Equality in Eighteenth a nd Nineteenth-Century Japan. Eds. Peter Nosco\, James Ketelaar\, and Y asunori Kojima (Leiden: Brill\, 2015). Gideon is completing a book on ethno graphy\, kokugaku\, and the experience of community in nineteenth- century Japan. Current projects include a history of Tohoku region and stud ies of waka composition from Meiji times. Gideon holds a PhD in Asian Studi es from UBC and an MA in Japanese Intellectual History from Tohoku Universi ty.
LOCATION:Room 122\, Allard Hall GEO:49.269898;-123.253177 URL;VALUE=URI:https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/the-emperor-and-his-poetic- subjects-the-utakai-hajime-ceremony-and-meiji-japan/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sppga.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/11/gideon-1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20171105T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR
