With Kate Wildman Nakai and Umezawa Fumiko

Date: May 11, 2014 (Sunday)

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:00 for visiting)

Place: International House of Japan, Room 404 (Map)

Fee: 1,000 yen for SWET members; 1,500 yen for non-members

Sophia University professor emerita Kate Wildman Nakai and Keisen University professor Miyazaki Fumiko will talk about the six-year project by a team of researchers that culminated in the recent publication of Lust, Commerce, and Corruption: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard, by an Edo Samurai (Columbia University Press). A full, annotated translation of Seji Kenbunroku, written in 1816 by the pseudonymous Buyō Inshi, the book makes available in English Buyō’s top-to-bottom critical survey of Edo society, often cited for the vivid, knowledgeable picture it provides of everything from the decay and corruption of the warrior class to the moneylending activities of Buddhist temples and the blind guild to the actualities of brothel life. The speakers will share some of the challenges and rewards of working with an unannotated and at times irregular Japanese text and of long-distance collaboration extending across three continents and multiple time zones.