Modern Japan History Workshop: “Traversing the Social Landscape of Intellectual Life: Intellectual Networks in Early Twentieth-Century Japan”

Speaker: Andrew Kamei-Dyche (Saitama University)

Date: Friday June 14th, 2019 at 6pm

Location: Komaba Campus, University of Tokyo, Komaba International Building for Education and Research (KIBER), Room 110

Early twentieth-century Japan brimmed with a great variety of intellectual networks: groups of writers and artists, salons based in bookstores, student literature circles, and even gatherings of intellectuals sponsored by leading political figures. Many networks were based around a prominent intellectual, an axis who represented a voice of authority as well as a potential avenue to fame for younger members who were often apprentices of the established figure. Because they linked members to colleagues, publishers, and other figures, these networks played a substantial role in shaping careers and reputations. Such networks formed an essential component of the social landscape of early twentieth-century intellectuals in Japan. Drawing on letters, diaries, and other personal writings, this presentation traces the contours of this landscape by considering how intellectual networks were formed, how they functioned, and what role they served for participating intellectuals, in terms of both concrete benefits tied to their careers and social benefits pertaining to involvement in the intellectual community. It therefore sheds light on an essential context informing the exchange of ideas and the production of literary, philosophical and artistic work in modern Japan.