Japan
Bunraku, Japanese puppet theater, is an unusually complex dramatic form, a collaborative effort among puppeteers, narrators, and musicians. Columbia University Libraries' Bunraku collection is one the most extensive in the world, documenting its rich performance tradition, which has been recognized by UNESCO as a "masterpiece" of humanity.
The Bunraku gallery is divided into plays, productions, authors, backstage subjects, kashira, and characters. It documents the form's revival in the second half of the 20th century, through more than 12,500 slides and nearly 7,000 black-and-white photographs of rehearsals and performances.
Joseph Berry Keenan Digital Collection The Joseph Berry Keenan Digital Collection—comprising manuscript materials and photographs—offers researchers invaluable insight into the Japanese War Crimes Trial—one of the most important trials of the twentieth century. The struggles of World War II did not end after the Japanese and German surrender to the Allied Powers; they merely shifted from land, air and sea battlefields to court rooms around the world. Thousands of defendants would be tried on various charges of conventional – and non-conventional - war crimes. The most famous of these trials were those held in Nuremberg and Tokyo. It was at these two trials, more than at any other, that a new chapter in international law would be written.
Center for Japanese Studies Publications The Center for Japanese Studies Publications Program published its first book in 1950. Today, works in print appear in three series (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies, and Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies), and as non-series publications. Center titles are used in teaching and research in a wide variety of universities and colleges and as resources for private industry and government. CJS also offers a wide variety of online materials in searchable, downloadable formats. These offerings include out-of-print books, the peer-reviewed Michigan Classics Online, and the Faculty Series, which contains online books and archival material edited by Center Faculty.
Center for Japanese Studies: Motion Pictures Reprint Series The University of Michigan has one of the largest faculties for Japanese in the United States. As part of its charter to disseminate advanced research and foster new possibilities for pedagogy, the Publications Program has inaugurated a unique reprint series on Japanese cinema. The site includes monographs, essay collections, journals, billets, and even digitized films. Abé Mark Nornes, Editor
ABOUT e-ASIA The e-Asia project is funded by the University of Oregon Library through the generosity of Nissho Iwai.yella By building a collection of digitized e-books and a database of full text web resources, e-Asia strives to contribute to the research and scholarship of East Asia. While the e-Asia project is based largely on resources held at the University of Oregon Library, its purpose is neither to duplicate nor displace printed traditonal materials. Rather, by providing searchable full text, the digitalization efforts of e-Asia represent a new tool aimed at facilitating the information-gathering process.
About The Cornell East Asia Book Series (CEAS), published by the East Asia Program, is well known within the scholarly community for publishing quality books at affordable prices. We have a well-maintained website , and distribute our own books to the academic community and the public at large via mail-order and a secure online bookstore. We have published many books of lasting historical and literary value since the series was founded in 1972, when the publication was called the Cornell University East Asia Papers and the program was called the China-Japan Program. Some of these titles have gone out of print, mostly due to financial limitations. Here we are making available the best of our out-of-print collection. Most books are text-only, some include pictures and maps.
Kabuki is a performing art that combines music, dance, pantomime, song, drama and comedy. In the early 1600s kabuki emerged from traditional Japanese classical theatre and puppet show traditions, incorporating elements of both.
While classical plays are quiet, refined and slow-paced, kabuki is full of spirited action and outsized emotions. Kabuki plays portray characters from Japanese history, legend and folk tales. Great heroes, beautiful princesses, evil spirits, loyal retainers, vengeful warriers and benevolent lords populate the stage. These stories have continued to grip the Japanese imagination, embodying as they do the much-valued ideals of loyalty, courage and strength.
The Institute's collection of Asian art represents seventeen Asian cultures spanning over 5,000 years. The Department of Asian Arts has benefited greatly from generous gifts from knowledgeable collectors. Augustus L. Searle, Alfred F. Pillsbury, Richard P. Gale, Louis W. Hill, Jr., and Ruth and Bruce Dayton have donated specialized collections of international reputation, including ancient Chinese bronzes, ancient and post-Sung jade, Chinese monochrome ceramics, Ukiyo-e paintings, Japanese prints, and classical Chinese furniture. In addition, highly regarded specialized collections of Ch'ing dynasty silk textiles, Miao textiles, and surimono prints have been built over the years. The curatorial department's goal is to provide the public with a broad overview of Asian art.
