I'm a bit late to this announcement but wanted to share that the newest issue of the JJS is now out! Very proud of the essays and book reviews inside. My coeditor Sabine Frühstück, the book review editor Jessamyn Abel, and our managing editors David and now Athena all did incredible work.

The Journal of Japanese Studies@jjs-jrnl.bsky.social · 6mo ago

JJS Winter 2026 analyzes an imperial palace reconstruction, an art installation, rōnin significance, the Port Arthur Massacre, and tackling exam hell, and it reviews 29 new books on Japan. online.ucpress.edu/jjs

New issue of the Journal of Japanese Studies is out! Highlights include articles on kanpu masatsu, war photography, empire paranoia, Italian-Japanese children's lit, Seidensticker’s style, and a bonus piece on Black Rain and ritual. Don’t miss it!

I was thrilled to work with Archaeology Magazine to help bring this story about Ichijōdani, the palace city from 16th-century Japan that I wrote about in _Reading Medieval Ruins_, come to life for their readers. Check it out! #archaeology #japan

Features - Lost City of the Samurai - Archaeology Magazine - May/June 2025

Archaeologists rediscover Ichijodani, a formidable stronghold that flourished amid medieval Japan’s brutal power struggles

archaeology.org

Alexander Murphy won the 2024 Pyle Prize for his essay on rumor and radio in interwar Japan, praised for its innovative approach and concept of "paranoid listening." Keisuke Yamada and Andrew Niess received an honorable mention for their essay on factory music and labor management in Japan.

Excited for the Centennial Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, starting tomorrow! I present on the archeology of late medieval Kyoto on a panel titled "Moving Earth, Rivers, & Waves: Medieval Archaeology in Japan." Thanks to Jon Thumas, our organizer, & fellow presenter Michelle Damian!

For no particular reason, re-reading this article by Andrew Gordon and Michael Reich, "The Puzzle of Vaccine Hesitancy in Japan," from @jjs-jrnl.bsky.social (2021) 47 (2): 411–436: online.ucpress.edu/jjs/article-... (this is paywalled, so access through your university library if that's an option)

CFP for an edited collection: “Japanese Video Games and Critiques of the Western Aesthetic Tradition.” call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/02/... If interested, send abstract (300 words) & CV to DA Hall & Austin Anderson (japanesegamestudies@gmail.com) by 31 March 2025. Please share!

The newest issue of @jjs-jrnl.bsky.social is live, w/ amazing articles on Zen violence & calligraphy, transnational Japanese cuisine, Genroku commercial fiction, pan-Asianism & imperialism in pop culture, fascism in Kimi no na wa, & hospitality in imperial Japan. Plus must-read book reviews!

Hey Japanese studies friends: please follow the JJS here on BlueSky. Our new issue is now live!

The Journal of Japanese Studies@jjs-jrnl.bsky.social · last yr.

The Journal of Japanese Studies’ Winter 2025 volume is now live! In addition to new-book reviews, find essays by Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Samuel Yamashita, David Atherton, Christopher Smith, Andrea Germer, and Andrew Elliott. Visit online.ucpress.edu/jjs for more information.

Here at UNC-Chapel Hill, I have recently joined the Curriculum in Archaeology, which means I am affiliated with three different academic units. (Uh oh.) I'm excited to work with my new colleagues and students on global material culture, the history of ceramics, and medieval/historical archaeology.

Grateful for the MIT News covering the ongoing exhibit I’ve had the pleasure of curating: news.mit.edu/2024/from-sa...

Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT

A new exhibit at MIT, “From Samurai into Engineers,” explores the Institute’s first Japanese students, who arrived as MIT was taking flight and their own country was opening up.

news.mit.edu

I implore historians #skystorians, if you’re making starter packs for historical topics or time periods, remember that most of the world exists outside of the US and Western Europe, and they don’t only exist in relation to or intersection with “the West.”

My book _Reading Medieval Ruins_ uses archaeological and archival materials to tell the story of daily life and destruction in a late medieval palace city. In Japan! I had hoped it would get more attention from European medievalists but it’s hard to reach beyond the Asian studies bubble.

The Journal of Japanese Studies is excited to announce that Coeditors Sabine Frühstück and Morgan Pitelka are now joined by Book Review Editor Jessamyn Abel from Penn State. The JJS is now published by UC Press; our new Managing Editor is David Staloch. Our new website is online.ucpress.edu/jjs/

The Journal of Japanese Studies | University of California Press

online.ucpress.edu

I had the chance to talk to Marco Werman on The World about the historical accuracy of Shōgun in the wake of the show’s many Emmy awards: theworld.org/segments/202...

'Shogun' TV series wins 18 Emmys - The World from PRX

The series “Shogun” has been a shocking success. The show, already popular with audiences, has now won a record-breaking number of Emmy’s. It’s also unique as the main characters speak in Japanese the...

theworld.org

ok new list is here! go.bsky.app/6TE7o75

My lab had the wonderful opportunity to examine and study a late Edo-period handscroll in the collection of @AcklandArt over the past year. Our team included undergrads, PhD students, and scholars from Japan. Check out the video about our research! youtu.be/8Tq9WkyhNuA?...

Finally joining this side of social media! 👋 Special greetings to any fellow scholars in digital anthropology, Black Studies, and Japanese Studies!

My friend Hiromu Nagahara has curated a wonderful online exhibition about the first Japanese students at MIT. Check it out:

Introduction

digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu

My book _Reading Medieval Ruins_ uses archaeological and archival materials to tell the story of daily life and destruction in a late medieval palace city. In Japan! I had hoped it would get more attention from European medievalists but it’s hard to reach beyond the Asian studies bubble.

I had the chance to talk to Marco Werman on The World about the historical accuracy of Shōgun in the wake of the show’s many Emmy awards: theworld.org/segments/202...

'Shogun' TV series wins 18 Emmys - The World from PRX

The series “Shogun” has been a shocking success. The show, already popular with audiences, has now won a record-breaking number of Emmy’s. It’s also unique as the main characters speak in Japanese the...

theworld.org

The Journal of Japanese Studies is excited to announce that Coeditors Sabine Frühstück and Morgan Pitelka are now joined by Book Review Editor Jessamyn Abel from Penn State. The JJS is now published by UC Press; our new Managing Editor is David Staloch. Our new website is online.ucpress.edu/jjs/

The Journal of Japanese Studies | University of California Press

online.ucpress.edu

The Journal of Japanese Studies is pleased to announce the publication of our Summer 2024 volume with articles by Keisuke Yamada & Andrew Niess, Jonathan E. Abel, Masami Kimura, Noriko Murai, and Reinier H. Hesselink. New book reviews are also included. t.co/nEJgkLJvdu

Japan does not exist: www.medievalists.net/2024/06/sign...

The 50 Most Significant Events of the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

Discover the 50 most significant events of the Middle Ages, spanning the years 500 to 1500.

medievalists.net

I'll be giving an online talk, sponsored by the Japan Foundation Toronto office, titled "Living with Ceramics in Japan: From Edo (1603-1868) to Meiji (1868-1912)" at 6 PM Eastern today (June 13): www.youtube.com/live/l59rRiE...

Living with Ceramics in Japan: From Edo (1603-1868) to Meiji (1868-1912)

This online talk will explore how people in Japan used ceramics during the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate ruled the archipelago and the samurai held...

youtube.com

Call for proposals: 30th Annual Columbia Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, October 18-19 in New York. Submit paper and panel abstracts for consideration by June 16. ealac.columbia.edu/program/grad...

Love to see that the @aasasianstudies.bsky.social member newsletter is featuring recent degrees in Asian Studies, especially those by BA and MA students who, as our students and mentees, are the next generation of the field taking it in new and exciting directions!

By brilliant colleague Robin Visser was interviewed on @NewBooksNetwork by Li-Ping Chen about her new book Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan. Check it out: newbooksnetwork.com/questioning-...

Robin Visser, "Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan" (Columbia UP, 2023) - New Books Network

newbooksnetwork.com

For anyone who is interested, a video recording of the recent Modern Japan History Association roundtable discussion on "Shōgun" is now available on the MJHA YouTube channel! Here is the link: youtu.be/w9s3D4HXlU8

MJHA Roundtable "Remaking Shōgun: Historians Assess"

In the wake of the latest television remake of James Clavell's celebrated novel Shōgun, a panel of distinguished historians of early modern Japan and England...

youtu.be

I was interviewed for this article, "How real is shōgun," which appeared a couple of weeks ago in Vox. Take a look: www.vox.com/culture/2411...

How real is Shōgun?

The FX and Hulu hit depicts a bloody, brutal, mostly thwarted colonial history of Japan. It’s based in the truth.

vox.com