Speaker: Prof. Joshua Mostow, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

October 23, 2024, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Kane Hall 210

Join us on a journey exploring how knowledge of the Hyakunin isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each) collection spread among the commoner class in Japan’s early modern Edo period (1600-1868) to become the foundation of popular literary literacy through the booming print culture, especially by means of illustrated commentaries in books and popular prints. A distinctly vernacular interpretativetradition will be revealed, one that heavily influenced the earliest English translations of these poems.

Joshua Mostow is Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He has written widely on premodern Japanese literature and its relations to visual arts. His most recent publication is Hyakunin’shu: Reading the Hundred Poets in Late Edo Japan (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2024).

The lecture will be held from 6:00pm to 7:30pm in Kane Hall 210. A reception will follow the lecture from 7:30pm to 8:30pm in Kane Hall 225. Registration links to come. 

This is a hybrid event. Attendees may come in-person and join the reception to follow the lecture, or if unable to attend in person may join us via a Zoom webinar where they will be able to ask questions post-presentation.