Events for Jun. 2021

Dr. Shimazaki’s areas of research include early modern Japanese theater and popular literature; the modern history of kabuki; gender representation on the kabuki stage; sound and visual media; and the interaction of performance, print, and text. Dr. Shimazaki was a contributor to the Museum of International Folk Art’s publication, Yokai: Ghosts, Demons, & Monsters of Japan (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2019). Her first book, Edo Kabuki in Transition: From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost (Columbia University Press, 2016), was awarded the John Whitney Hall Book Award.

Articles and book chapters nclude:

“Ghosts & Demons in Japanese Theatrical Performance” In Yokai: Ghosts, Demons, & Monsters of Japan, edited by F. Katz-Harris, 105-132. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2019.

“The End of the ‘World’: Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s Female Ghosts and Late Tokugawa Kabuki,” Monumenta Nipponica 66, no. 2 (2011).

“The Ghost of Oiwa in Actor Prints: Confronting Disfigurement,” Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society

Photo credit: Modern Hyakki yagyo ("Night Parade of One Hundred Demons") book by Sakyu. Kyoto, Japan, 2018. International Folk Art Foundation, Museum of International Folk Art [P.2019.14.14-16]

Orihon are accordion-style books, composed of a continuous folded sheet of paper enclosed between two covers, which were used for Buddhist texts, journaling, poetry, and even yokai illustrations. Yokai is a catchall Japanese word for ghosts, demons, monsters, shapeshifters, tricksters, and other kinds of supernatural beings and mysterious phenomena. Make your own accordion book and draw your favorite ghost, monster, or demon.

Photo credit: Modern Hyakki yagyo ("Night Parade of One Hundred Demons") book by Sakyu. Kyoto, Japan, 2018. International Folk Art Foundation, Museum of International Folk Art [P.2019.14.14-16]

Orihon are accordion-style books, composed of a continuous folded sheet of paper enclosed between two covers. In comparison to scrolls these accordion books were more practical and allow enough space for writing similar to a scroll but in a compact form. They were used for Buddhist texts, journaling, poetry, and even yokai illustrations. Yokai is a catchall Japanese word for ghosts, demons, monsters, shapeshifters, tricksters, and other kinds of supernatural beings and mysterious phenomena.