UBC Japanese Library Resources Blog

Print by Toyohara Kunichika (Private Collection)

We are currently hosting an exhibition entitled “Kabuki in Print” as part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations. The exhibition is presented by the Canadian Society for the Asian Arts and is in anticipation of the TomoeArts’ production of “Odori: The World of Kabuki Dance”, which will be performed this weekend (April 10 & 11) at UBC’s Frederic Wood Theatre. Included in the exhibition are woodblock prints from private collections, as well as books from the UBC Library collection. Highlights include several original Japanese woodblock prints from the 18th to 20th centuries by popular artists Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825), Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), and Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900).

The Asia Voilà festivities will also be taking place on April 10, so please drop by the library and enjoy all the activities taking place 12-4pm at the Asian Centre, the Nitobe Gardens and the C.K. Choi Building.

Today the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited UBC Asian Centre, and we had the opportunity to show them three items from UBC Library’s collection. I have listed the works below, for those who are interested.

Ise monogatari utakaruta, a set of late-Edo uta-garuta (poem cards) that we acquired for the Asian Library just this year.

The following two maps, both from Rare Books and Special Collections’ Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era collection.

Bankoku Sozu (萬國総図), part a and part b

Kanagawa ko oezu (神奈川港大絵図)

Ise Monogatari Utakaruta

Maps

TomoeArts will be staging a performance entitled Ten Nights of Dream, based on the 1908 Natsume Sôseki work (夢十夜). The show will feature performer and UBC instructor Colleen Lanki, and the May 22 event will include a talk on Natsume Sôseki by UBC Asian Studies Professor Sharalyn Orbaugh.

Event details:
May 21, 22 & 23
8:30pm (note: Dr. Orbaugh’s lecture @ 7pm, Fri May 22)
Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

For more on the events, including ticketing information, check out the TomoeArts performances page.

Featuring Alcvin Takegawa Ramos on biwa and shakuhachi and Satomi Saeki on koto
With commentary by Dr. Jan Walls, Professor Emeritus, SFU
Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 2:00 pm
at the National Nikkei Heritage Centre, Ellipse Lobby

Alcvin Takegawa Ramos and Satomi Saeki will offer moving new musical interpretations of the classic poetry of The Tale of Genji. Recitations of selected poems from the tale in both English and the original Japanese will provide links between their renderings of the themes of love, the seasons, solitude, and impermanence perfectly suited to the haunting sounds of shakuhachi, biwa, and koto.

For more information about this event, check the event poster.

Lecture by UBC Asian Studies Professor Joshua Mostow
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 2:00 pm
at the Royal Bank Cinema, Chan Centre for Performing Arts, UBC
Followed by a special reception with the speaker.

This talk will explore how women were exposed to the Tale of Genji in the early modern period, especially through manuals of feminine etiquette. It will trace how this continued into the 20th century, despite the radical changes that transformed Japan, and the place of Genji in such pop culture genres as manga and anime.

Professor Mostow is an internationally acclaimed specialist of classical Japanese literature and visual culture, with a particular focus on the interplay of text and image in pre-modern Japan.

For more information about this event, check the event poster.

Vancouver Art Gallery will be holding an exhibition entitled KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art from May 17 to September 7, 2008.

UBC Asian Studies Associate Professor Sharalyn Orbaugh and UBC Okanagan Assistant Professor of Creative and Critical Studies Alwyn Spies will be presenting public talks as part of the showing.

Pomona College Professor Lynne Miyake will be presenting a free lecture entitled The Six Faces of Genji: Manga Versions of The Tale of Genji at the UBC Asian Centre Auditorium on June 10, 2:30 – 4:00pm.

Check the Asian Studies Department website or the event poster for more details.

A manga version of The Tale of Genji is available at the library. Click here for the catalogue record.

Come join us for our annual Asian Library Open House, which will take place on Saturday, April 26.
Check the Open House page for details.