{"id":5159,"date":"2025-09-11T09:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2025-09-11T10:38:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:38:28","slug":"event-report%ef%bc%9a-rediscovering-nanto-layers-of-history-art-and-culture-and-their-manifestations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/news-en\/5159","title":{"rendered":"Event Report\uff1a Rediscovering Nanto: Layers of History, Art, and Culture and Their Manifestations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rediscovering Nanto: Layers of History, Art, and Culture and Their Manifestations<\/h1>\n

Landscapes scarred by recurring natural disasters and wars bear layered memories, not only of human folly but also of resilience. The Haikyo Kenky\u016bkai (Ruins Research Group) explores the motif of \u201cruins\u201d as it appears in Japanese literature, art, and performance, seeking to reconceptualize a \u201ccultural history of ruins\u201d through the actions of those who, standing upon the remains of lost cities, temples, and shrines, recall the past even as they channel their hopes toward the future. This public seminar set out to bring into relief the many-sided form of Nanto (historical name for Nara, the \u201cSouthern Capital\u201d), conceived as a polyhedron woven from \u201cpoints\u201d (temples, shrines, palaces) and \u201clines\u201d (roads, humans), by unearthing, surfacing, and unraveling the stratified layers of time embedded throughout the region. How, then, has the image of Nara\u2014as the source of Japan\u2019s history, art, and culture\u2014been formed, and what layers has it left within history?<\/p>\n

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Public seminar (Nara Prefecture Historical and Artistic Culture Complex Hall)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From the field of history, Professor YOSHIKAWA Satoshi (Director, Department of Cultural Heritage at the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties) discussed the Meiji-era haibutsu kishaku (anti-Buddhist movement) that led to the contraction and abolition of temples like K\u014dfukuji Temple and Uchiyama Eiky\u016bji Temple, as well as the loss of temple lands. He also described the state of the Heij\u014d Palace ruins before it was recognized as a site of cultural heritage, when it was still farmland, drawing on a wealth of documents and illustrations.\u00a0Meanwhile, Professor TAKADA Tomoki (Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences, University of Hyogo\/Principal Researcher of the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo), who specializes in the field of civil engineering and consensus-building studies, introduced his current research focused on a community-building project centered on Wanishita Shrine in Tenri. He emphasized the importance of perceiving a given environment in all its three-dimensional complexity, as being woven from space, time, people, and things, and argued that such an approach can uncover richer understandings of landscape and society.<\/p>\n

Following these two lectures, Professor UMEZAWA Megumi (Kyoritsu Women\u2019s University) provided commentary, noting the frequent representations of ruins in medieval painting, such as the Ippen Hijiri-e (held at Sh\u014dj\u014dk\u014dji Temple). She also raised the example of Kakinomoto-no-miya Mandala (Yamato Bunkakan), which depicts the inside of Wanishita Shrine and the Hitomaro Tomb. Professor WATANABE Yumiko (Rissho University) also gave feedback, pointing out that the repeated cycles of admiration for Hitomaro in the medieval period can be understood as part of the broader movements of classical revival that arose in times of unrest, such as in the aftermath of the Jish\u014d-Juei Disturbances. Together, these discussions revealed the parallels between modern community heritage projects and town revitalization efforts on the one hand, and medieval pilgrimages to ancient temples and ruins on the other. In doing so, the seminar provided an opportunity to open up new perspectives on the theme of ruins. The event drew about 50 participants in total (both in-person and online). Among those who attended in person were residents and natives of Tenri, whose comments during the Q&A, grounded in memories and experiences passed down within the community, proved especially valuable.<\/p>\n

The following day, a group of participants joined a field excursion to sites including Wanishita Shrine, Arihara Shrine (Ruins of Arihara-dera Temple), Itsukushima Shrine (Ruins of Ry\u014dinji Temple), Isonokami Shrine, Uchiyama Eiky\u016bji Temple Ruins, and Ch\u014dgakuji Temple. Standing in the very places discussed during the seminar, participants deepened their exploration of the interconnections between literature, art, and the local landscape.<\/p>\n

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Wanishita Shrine<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Uchiyama Eiky\u016bji Temple Ruins<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Event Overview<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Date and time\uff1aJune, 28 14:00\u301c16:30<\/li>\n
  • Venue\uff1a Nara History, Art and Culture Village Arts and Culture Experience Building 1F Hall<\/li>\n
  • Format\uff1aFace to face\/ Online streaming<\/li>\n
  • Organized by\uff1a\u5ec3\u589f\u7814\u7a76\u4f1a(Megumi Umezawa, Hanako Kinoshita, Hidenori Jinno, Takashi Horikawa, Reiko Yamanaka, Satomi Yamamoto and Yumiko Watanabe)<\/li>\n
  • Co-Organized by\uff1aRyusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture, Waseda University\uff0fGlobal Japanese Studies Model Unit, Waseda University Top Global University Project, Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences\uff0fWaseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) \u201cHumanities in the Anthropocene\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Subsidized by\uff1aSUNTORY FOUNDATION Grant for Collaborative Research in Humanities and Social Sciences(Yumiko Watanabe)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rediscovering Nanto: Layers of History, Art, and Culture and Their Manifestations Landscapes scarred by recurr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-5159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-event_report-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5166,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions\/5166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/gjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}