Fwd: [alc_grad] Professor Michael Marra in the Bruin

[janine.beichman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Schaberg <scha...@humnet.ucla.edu>
Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 2:06 PM
Subject: [alc_grad] Professor Michael Marra in the Bruin
To: "ALC Faculty (BOL)" <alc...@lists.ucla.edu>, "ALC Lecturers
((BOL))" <alc...@lists.ucla.edu>, alc_...@lists.ucla.edu, "ALC Staff
(BOL)" <alc_...@lists.ucla.edu>

Dear colleagues, students, and friends:
If you have not had a chance to read the moving article about
Professor Marra in today's Bruin, I hope that you will take a moment
to do so now:
http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/02/professor_michael_marra_is_determined_to_continue_lecturing_despite_battling_the_last_stage_of_cance
As the article notes, illness threatens to take Professor Marra's life
before many more months have passed.  Now is the time for each of us
to congratulate our colleague--our friend, our mentor, and model for
many of us--for his lasting achievements as a scholar, for his years
of devotion to UCLA and his students, and for his ever uncompromising
standards of excellence in academic life.
With sorrow,
David
David Schaberg 史嘉柏
Professor and Chair, Asian Languages & Cultures
Co-director, Center for Chinese Studies
(http://www.international.ucla.edu/china/)

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[wang jun]

Just read the article,   Professor Marra  seems  very kind and knowledgeable .  Remember me some old professors in my University . 

Because of their exist,University is a University. Wish he will have a peaceful life 

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[Rein Raud]

Dear colleagues,

I remember vaguely that there is a custom that emperors have to
"oversee the realm" from a high place, thus ritually placing it under
their control by visual domination. But I've completely forgotten
where I read about this. Could anyone suggest any references?

Grateful in advance,

Rein Raud

[Bryan Lowe]

Dear Dr. Raud,

Perhaps you are referring to "Land-viewing poems" (kunimi-uta).  I'm sure there is more recent scholarship, but the topic is discussed in Gary Ebersole, Ritual Poetry and the Politics of Death in Early Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 23-29.

Sincerely,
Bryan Lowe

Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Religion
Princeton University

[guel...@waseda.jp]

Dear Rein,

there is a short passage in Oe no Masafusa's "Gendanshou", section 32
of Yamazaki Makoto's edition (Hiroshima joshidai kokubun No. 2, 1985/08),
saying that in ancient times it was performed in the mountains of
Yoshino, but recently (that is, in the 10th or 11th century) at mount
Kashou or Fushimi.

I worked out a complete (German) translation of the Gendanshou 20 years
ago but didn't published it except a paper in Kokugo to Kokubungaku
(1989/10) which only discusses Masafusa as the author, not the section 32.

Recently, historians like Gomi Fumihiko, Tajima Isao and Shimura Kanako
have published new papers on the "Gendanshou", especially in the context
with their researches in the Higashiyama gobunko.

Niels

[Evgeny Steiner]

Dear Rein,

There are some kunimi songs in Man'yoshu, beginning Emp. Jomei's (MYS, I-2).
Beyond a typical pool of references I can mention an article about kunimi and the archaic notion of vision (don't remember it's exact title) by L.Ermakova in The Garden of One Flower (Sad Odnogo Tsvetka) - M.:Nauka, 1991.

Regards,

ES
--
Professor Evgeny Steiner
Professorial Research Associate
Japan Research Centre
SOAS, University of London
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

[rptoby]

I think you're looking for the practice of kunimi (国見・覧国・望国), which I first learned of in a conversation many years ago with our late friend, Herbert Plutschow.

The oldest citation in the Shogakukan Nihon kokuto daijiten (2nd ed), is the Harima fudoki:

「品太〈ほむた〉の天皇。此の〈おか〉に登りて覧国をしたまひき」,

followed by MYS, 1: 2　（text below is from http://www.furutasigaku.jp/jfuruta/jbeppu/jbeppu2.html; NKD quotes only the underlined couplet)

「大和には 群山あれど とろよふ　天の香具山 登り立ち 国見をすれば　国原は 煙立ち立つ 海原は 鴎立ち立つ うまし国ぞ 蜻蛉島　大和の国は」.

高市岡本宮御宇天皇代 [息長足日廣額天皇]
天皇登香具山望國之時御製歌
山常庭 村山有等　 取與呂布 天乃香具山 騰立 國見乎為者 國原波 煙立龍 海原波 加萬目立多都 怜Ａ國曽 蜻嶋 八間跡能國者

There's a useful kunimi entry by Yoshida Yoshitaka in the Iwanami 日本古典文学大事典 (2: 292). Yoshida also cites Hitomaro's 吉野従駕の歌 (MYS, 1.36-39, and Akahito's 不尽山を望〈みさ〉くる歌 (MYS, 12.317-8).

Thanks for reminding me of Herbert.

Ron Toby

[Lewis Cook]

Hello, Rein

In addition to Ron Toby and others' replies, let me add a citation - abstract of a presentation by Torquil Duthie at the 2009 AAS conference (googleable):

Envisioning the Realm: Kunimi in Early Japan 
Torquil Duthie, UCLA
Kunimi, according to standard descriptions, was an ancient Japanese ritual in which the ruler climbed a mountain or high place and gazed down upon the land. That such a ritual existed is an undisputed fact, as the numerous references to it across academic disciplines testify. It is therefore surprising that evidence for its existence is so extraordinarily scarce. In this paper, I will argue that the highly diverse references to land-viewing in the extant texts of the Nara period (Man’yoshu, Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Fudoki) are not evidence of a single specific ritual called “kunimi,” but of a diffuse rhetoric of “envisioning the realm” that drew from a variety of disparate sources and models. Rather than being a reference to a specific ritual with a fixed significance, the power of this “land-viewing” metaphor lay in its multi-faceted nature and potential for multiple interpretations. Depending on the context, the ruler’s gaze could be portrayed or interpreted as that of a compassionate Confucian sage, administrative overlord, magical priest-king, or charismatic sexual conqueror. I will also show how the idea of a specific “kunimi ritual” came into being, first in the work of kokugaku scholars in the eighteenth century, and then in the work of ethnologists and literary scholars in the pre and post-war twentieth century.

Two terse comments: 

There is ongoing dispute among Japanese historians about whether the kunimi ritual was in fact (as Ebersole, e.g. -  cited earlier in this thread, _Ritual Poetry and the Pollitics of Death_ - cf. Google Books p. 24 - asserts) derived from Chinese precedent, or was on the contrary spontaneously Japanese ('native'). 

Jeremy Bentham's "Panopticon" (and more to the point M. Foucault's extensive inventory thereof) inevitably comes to mind. 

Lewis

[Eason, David A.]

Dear All,

   This is a fascinating discussion and I want to thank, in particular, both Rein Raud for raising the issue and Lewis Cook for pointing out the talk given by Torquil Duthie on this very subject a few years back.  I had heard mention that there was someone at work on this subject but was not able to attend the AAS that particular year, nor had I come across the abstract.  

All of this scholarship on kunimi makes me more determined than ever that I will have to figure out some way of incorporating this issue and some of the surrounding debates into the first part of my Japanese history survey when I teach it again next fall – perhaps by having students read over the Manyōshū verse cited by Gary Ebersole on p. 24 of his study that includes the key lines – ama no Kagu-yama / noboritachi / kunimi o sureba / kunihara wa / keburi tachitatsu.  

That, and as it will come on the heels of the usual discussion of dōtaku (銅鐸) and dōkyō (銅鏡), I am now sorely tempted to re-title this section of the class “Smoke and Mirrors”...


Best,

David Eason

--
Dr. David A. Eason
Assistant Professor of Japanese
Department of East Asian Studies
University at Albany
(518) 442-4579
dea...@uamail.albany.edu

[Ross Bender]

David Eason's suggestion of the label of "Smoke and Mirrors" for the discussion of kunimi and the like is IMHO highly appropriate. Gary Ebersole's method of "imaginative reconstruction" of ancient rituals, like David Bialock's project of "Recovering the Daoist Text" and other recent attempts to reimagine the "imaginary" of ancient Japan all seem to be redolent of the "Smoke and Mirrors" technique. In other words, there may be even less there than meets the eye.

I like the way Dr. Duthie puts it in his abstract:

"That such a ritual existed is an undisputed fact, as the numerous references to it across academic disciplines testify. It is therefore surprising that evidence for its existence is so extraordinarily scarce."

When evidence is so scarce, the temptation of course is to write large books imaginatively reconstructing the evidence.

Although I haven't had the opportunity to read Duthie's paper, the abstract suggests that the notion of kunimi as a specific ancient ritual was the work of first the kokugakusha and later 20th century ethnologists and literary scholars. This makes perfect sense.

At the risk of tooting my own horn, may I suggest my two recent articles, which critique the methodology of Ebersole and Bialock in particular, and provide very concrete evidence of imperial ritual which actually happened in the eighth century, as described in the Shoku Nihongi.

"Performative Loci of the Imperial Edicts in Nara Japan, 749-70" in Oral Tradition 24/1 (2009): 249-268

http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/24i/bender

"Changing the Calendar: Royal Political Theology and the Suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro Conspiracy of 757" in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 37/2 (2010): 223-245

http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/jjrs/pdf/846.pdf

Ross Bender

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 5:43 PM, Eason, David A. <dea...@albany.edu> wrote:

Dear All,

   This is a fascinating discussion and I want to thank, in particular, both Rein Raud for raising the issue and Lewis Cook for pointing out the talk given by Torquil Duthie on this very subject a few years back.  I had heard mention that there was someone at work on this subject but was not able to attend the AAS that particular year, nor had I come across the abstract.  

All of this scholarship on kunimi makes me more determined than ever that I will have to figure out some way of incorporating this issue and some of the surrounding debates into the first part of my Japanese history survey when I teach it again next fall – perhaps by having students read over the Manyōshū verse cited by Gary Ebersole on p. 24 of his study that includes the key lines – ama no Kagu-yama / noboritachi / kunimi o sureba / kunihara wa / keburi tachitatsu.  

That, and as it will come on the heels of the usual discussion of dōtaku (銅鐸) and dōkyō (銅鏡), I am now sorely tempted to re-title this section of the class “Smoke and Mirrors”...


Best,

David Eason

--
Dr. David A. Eason
Assistant Professor of Japanese
Department of East Asian Studies
University at Albany
(518) 442-4579
dea...@uamail.albany.edu

--
Ross Bender
http://rossbender.org

[Radu Leca]

  Dear all,

  I am deeply saddened to hear about Professor Marra's situation. It has been hard to find my words, and I apologise for the clumsiness of my account. Professor Marra's writings taught and inspired me. I met him once in the UCLA campus, and again in Kyoto while he was a visiting professor in Kyodai. He fondly remembered his times in Osaka Gaidai, where he fatefully met his Italian professor and, one can argue, found his way. His thoughtful advice and encouragement are among the reasons why I am pursuing a career in Japanese studies. Through these encounters, he set an example for me, a soft and humble example, but all the more forceful. He introduced me to the "soft thought" of Gianni Vattimo, and the work and life of Professor Marra can be seen as an attempt to infuse Western academia with the soft approach of Asian thought. His attitude towards his current situation is a continuation of this approach. I feel that what would make him the happiest would not be accolades or encomiums, but his example being taken up by his students. Brief as our contact may have been, I humbly ascribe myself as one of his pupils. 

   Thank you, Professor Marra.

   Radu Leca

[Jos Vos]

One thing which fascinates me is that 'heavenly' Kaguyama 天香具山 is no more than 152 meters high:
 
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/shiga/home/History/8429amanokaguyama1.jpg
 
It's true the surroundings are (mostly) idyllic, but it makes you wonder what kind of 'overseeing' could have taken place there.
 
Best wishes,
Jos

---

From: dea...@albany.edu
To: pm...@googlegroups.com
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:43:28 -0500
Subject: Re: [PMJS] "Overseeing the realm"

[guel...@waseda.jp]

Dear All,

It is true that we don't know much about "kunimi" rituals but not all of it is
faked tradition. If the Tenno himself climbs the mountain there would be
some reference in historical sources, not, if he delegates it to one of
his subordinates such as a divination master.

I mentioned earlier Oe no Masafusa's "Gendanshou", section 32; here is the text
(as I published in my 1989 paper, Yamazaki miscounted the sections, it should be
correctly the 33rd one):
南方高山登はふるく吉野山にて奉仕しけり。
近代は嘉祥山・伏見山にて奉仕。
東方清流登又北白河にて奉仕云々。
The "Gendanshou" is a collection of extracts from Masafusa's now lost diary,
so we can suppose that the subject who does the work for the Tenno
(as the "houshi su" 奉仕 indicates) is Masafusa himself.

Looking down on the city from the south and searching clear wells in the east
sounds very much like Chinese cosmological thinking.
Mount Kashou is perhaps the grave hill of Ninmyou tenno and Fushimi is of
course the hill where Hideyoshi built his castle; not very high but
high enough for looking through the Heiankyou plain.

Niels

>One thing which fascinates me is that 'heavenly' Kaguyama 天香具山 is no more than 152 meters high:
>
>http://www.ne.jp/asahi/shiga/home/History/8429amanokaguyama1.jpg
>
>It's true the surroundings are (mostly) idyllic, but it makes you wonder what kind of 'overseeing' could have taken place there.
>
>Best wishes,
>Jos
>
>
>

>From: dea...@albany.edu
>To: pm...@googlegroups.com
>Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:43:28 -0500
>Subject: Re: [PMJS] "Overseeing the realm"
>
>Dear All,
>
> This is a fascinating discussion and I want to thank, in particular, both Rein Raud for raising the issue and Lewis Cook for pointing out the talk given by Torquil Duthie on this very subject a few years back. I had heard mention that there was someone at work on this subject but was not able to attend the AAS that particular year, nor had I come across the abstract.
>

>All of this scholarship on kunimi makes me more determined than ever that I will have to figure out some way of incorporating this issue and some of the surrounding debates into the first part of my Japanese history survey when I teach it again next fall &#8211 perhaps by having students read over the Many&#333sh&#363 verse cited by Gary Ebersole on p. 24 of his study that includes the key lines &#8211 ama no Kagu-yama / noboritachi / kunimi o sureba / kunihara wa / keburi tachitatsu.
>
>That, and as it will come on the heels of the usual discussion of d&#333taku (銅鐸) and d&#333ky&#333 (銅鏡), I am now sorely tempted to re-title this section of the class “Smoke and Mirrors”...

[Jacqueline I. Stone]

Dear colleagues,

 

I think many of us were deeply saddened by recent news about Prof. Michael Marra’s health in an article from the UCLA Daily Bruin. However, it seems he doesn’t want us to grieve prematurely.  I am posting the following at his request.

 

Sincerely,

Jacqueline Stone

 

 

 

2/13/2011

 

Dear Colleagues and Students,

 

            A recent article on the Daily Bruin seems to have created some concern about the immediate state of my health. This is producing unduly worries. The interviews I gave to the Daily Bruin over a two-day period were meant as a reflection on teaching while faced with a terminal disease. As the article indicates, it was about the joy of transmitting knowledge to students under challenging circumstances which can actually improve the teacher’s ability to communicate with them. The framework of the article seems to have favored the alleged imminence of a demise which must have surprised my own doctors. I want to assure you that business continues as usual; classes continue as planned; and the book for the celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies in 2012 proceeds as planned. I want to thank the staff of the Daily Bruin, particularly the talented Andra Lim, for getting the story out, and thank you all for the warm messages I am receiving from all over the country. My only suggestion to the Daily Bruin is that they allow access to the final draft prior to publication. The sorrow is definitely premature.

 

            Yours,

            Michael F. Marra