The following schedule and the readings are subject to change, depending on the size of the class, the interest of the participants, and the form of the classes (face-to-face or Hyflex etc.)
1. [Apr. 19] Introduction: the emperor’s red trousers (Zoom)
2. [Apr. 26] Modernizing the emperor’s outfit (Zoom)
> Hirayama, Mikiko. “The Emperor’s New Clothes: Japanese Visuality and Imperial Portrait Photography.” History of Photography, vol. 33, no. 2 (2009): 165-184.
3. [May 3] Imperialism and clothing (Zoom)
> Ross, Robert. “The Rules of Dress” & “Redressing the Old World,” In Clothing: A Global History: Or, the Imperialists’ New Clothes, 12-37. Polity, 2008.
4. [May 10] Gender and trousers (hereafter Hyflex)
> Ford, Richard Thompson. "Recoding Gender," In Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History, 261-272. Simon and Schuster, 2022.
> Brainstorming & grouping for comparative study of trousers
5. [May 17] Trousers in ancient Japan
> Takeda, Sachiko. “Trousers, Status, and Gender in Ancient Dress Codes.” In Women and Class in Japanese History, edited by Hitomi Tonomura, et.al., 53-65. Center for Japanese Studies the University of Michigan, 1999.
> Group work for comparative study of trousers
6. [May 24] Comparative study of trousers
> Students' presentations on comparative study of trousers
7. [May 31] Red in Europe
> Pastoureau, Michel. Red: The History of a Color, tr. by Jody Gladding. Princeton University Press, 2017 (excerpts).
8. [Jun. 7] Red in East Asia
>Lai, Guolong. “Colors and Color Symbolism in Early Chinese Ritual Art: Red and Black and the Formation of the Five Colors System.” In Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia, edited by Mary Dusenbury. Spencer Museum of Art, the University of Kansas, 2015.
> Brainstorming & grouping for comparative study of red
9. [Jun. 14] Color at the Japanese court
> Dusenbury, Mary M. “Color at the Court of Japan in the Heian Period.” In Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia.
> Group work for comparative study of red
10. [Jun. 21] Comparative study of red
> Students' presentations on comparative study of red
11. [Jun. 28] The system of Japanese court robes
> Hurst, G. Cameron. “The Heian Period.” In A Companion to Japanese History, 30–46. Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
12. [Jul. 5] Women and red trousers in medieval Japan
> Pandey, Rajyashree. “Performing the Body in Medieval Japanese Narratives: Izumi Shikibu in Shasekishū.” Japan Forum 19, no. 1 (2007): 111–30 (excerpts).
> Submission of an annotated bibliography for the term paper
13. [Jul. 12] The emperor’s red trousers
> Visual materials to be “read” will be provided.
> Submission of an outline for the term paper
Jul. 19: the term paper due