Japan in East Asia

Mongol Invasion Scroll, details needed here.

How can we understand the Japan’s relationship with its neighbors?

To better imagine premodern Japan’s place in the wider world, project scholars have analyzed various facets of intraregional connection, from the diplomacy, trade, migration, and warfare. Dr. Nadia Kanagawa’s research considers how migrates from the continent to Japan integrated into classical society, bringing with them skills and perspectives that were valued by the early rulers. Professor Michelle Damian approaches understanding Japan’s position from the sea: its trade routes, exchanges, and the flow of ships in and out from the Inland Sea. Lina Nie’s work challenges boundaries by analyzing diplomatic exchanges between countries at points of crisis and contention, like the Mongol Invasions. In addition, the Project has hosted presentations on maritime history, mapping, and piracy.

Most recently, the Project hosted a series of lectures by Professor Yoshie Akiko that considered the rulership of Himiko and Suiko, early Japanese female rulers. Yoshie’s work considers how the differing cultural context of the Chinese record-keepers affected their depictions of Himiko’s reign, a depiction that has in-turn shaped scholarly depictions of this important figure and conceptions of gendered rule. By understanding Japan’s place in East Asia vis-à-vis its neighbors on the Korean Peninsula and China, we can innovate not only Japanese history, but themes in world history as well.

To facilitate comparative scholarship, the Project has compiled research materials and past lecture records on Japan in East Asia. For materials that are not published by the Project or hosted on the website, please contact the listed authors.

 
 

Research Materials

Yoshie Akiko. “What to Make of Himiko?” A Talk Presented for the USC Project for Premodern Japan Studies, 2024. Sachiko Kawai, trans. Joan Piggott’s response comments are also available here.

Kanagawa, Nadia. “Immigrants, Outsiders, And The Outside World In The Yôrô Administrative Code.” The USC Project for Premodern Japan Studies, 2017.

"East Asia's First World War," East Asia in the World, ed. Stephan Haggard and David C. Kang. Cambridge University Press, 2020.