PMJS Publication Announcement: November 2025
Abigail MacBain
Dear colleagues,
Below please find our monthly bulletin compiling information on publications by and recommendations from PMJS members. There were no submissions for the October newsletter. As such, we moved right to November. All details below were submitted through the PMJS Publication Announcements online form.
Publication type: Article
Title: Dreaming One's Way to Good Health: A Translation of Jippensha Ikku's Hara no Uchi Yōjō Shuron
Author: Angelika Koch
Affiliation: Leiden University
Citation: Monumenta Nipponica 80:1, pp. 49-101
Summary: This article presents a fully annotated English translation of Jippensha Ikku's "yellow-cover book" (kibyōshi) Hara no uchi yōjō shuron, one of a number of late-Edo works of popular fiction and prints that used the inner workings of the human body as their subject matter. A close reading of the work shows how it relies heavily on Sino-Japanese medical concepts—particularly those propounded in Kaibara Ekiken's Confucian-inflected health cultivation text Yōjōkun—and how it draws on the moral teachings of Shingaku ("Mind-Learning"); thus the present article reveals the flow of knowledge between medical, moral, and literary discourses. It demonstrates, moreover, the interest that Hara no uchi yōjō shuron holds not only for literary scholars as an example of popular fiction's turn toward more serious subject matter in the wake of the Kansei Reforms but also for scholars of medical history as a text that incorporates notions of health cultivation and the medical body that were current in Ikku's day.
Release Date: 9/2025
Website: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/59/article/969405
DOI: 10.1353/mni.2025.a969405
Contact: Angelika Koch, a.c....@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Publication type: Book
Title: Nihon shoki: the Chronicles of Japan
Author: John R Bentley
Affiliation: Northern Illinois University, Professor of Japanese
Summary: Nihon shoki (also known as The Chronicles of Japan) is one of the most important texts in the early corpus of Japanese literature and historiography. Completed in 720 CE under the supervision of Prince Toneri and compiled by an unknown committee of several native and continental scribes, Nihon shoki is the second-oldest extant Japanese historical text after Kojiki (712). Yet it is far more comprehensive, systematic, and politically ambitious. It offers an expansive and structured narrative of the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the divine ancestry of the imperial family, and the reigns of kings (labeled tennō or divine sovereigns) from mythical antiquity to 697. Its thirty books or chapters provide a sweeping account of cosmology, politics, diplomacy, military campaigns, court customs, and inter-regional relations, particularly with China, and the kingdoms of the Korean peninsula (Paekche, Silla, Koguryo, and Kara).
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Contact: jben...@niu.edu
Publication type: Book
Title: Complete Japanese Traditional (Kampo) Medicine
Author: Kampo Medical Literature Editorial Committee
Affiliation: The Japan Society for Oriental Medicine
Summary: This book is a complete guide and provides facts about Japanese Traditional (Kampo) medicine, which is the study of traditional Chinese medicine in Japan, adapted and modified to suit its culture and traditions. The volume explains the long history and uniqueness of Kampo medicine, clarifying the differences from other traditional Asian medicines, such as Chinese medicine and Korean medicine. It is structured into seven themed parts, each devoted to Kampo medicines and acupuncture/moxibustion. Starting with the introduction and basic theory, it covers diagnosis, treatment, pharmacognosy and pharmacopeia, symptoms, and techniques of acupuncture and moxibustion. The chapters are written by the pioneering modern Kampo physicians and basic researchers, offering refreshing alternative treatment strategies.
Release Date: 27 September 2025
Website: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-7143-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-7143-4
Contact: Leonardo Wolfe (leonardo...@gmail.com)
Note: The code HAL30 offers a 30% discount.
Publication type: Article
Title: Prayer for the Devil: Religion and the Regime of Oda Nobunaga
Author: Dan Sherer
Affiliation:Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Citation: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 52: 1–32
Summary: A common theme in the historiography related to Oda Nobunaga is his strong opposition to religious institutions. While Nobunaga’s conflicts with several temples were brutal, this article argues that the image of Nobunaga as broadly anti-Buddhist is a result of an overreliance on the writings of the Jesuit Luís Fróis. Indeed, an analysis centered on documents issued by Nobunaga and his regime reveal that religious institutions served important roles in Nobunaga’s regime, and that Nobunaga tended toward maintaining precedent in his relationship with religious institutions. This article provides a framework of the Oda regime’s religious policies and the main aspects of it.
Release Date: Fall 2025
Website:https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/355/article/2433
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.18874/jjrs.52.2025.1-32
Contact:Dan Sherer Danshe...@gmail.com
To recommend a title for the December announcement, please fill out the online form no later than November 30. Submissions can be submitted by authors themselves or by PMJS members who are eager to share other scholars’ recent publications.
For any questions or comments on the submission format, please contact Abigail MacBain (abigail...@ed.ac.uk). Note: Please do not email requesting a publication to be posted; only those submitted through the above form will be listed.