SAM Talks

Saturday University—Asia Crossings: Travel Accounts Through Asia’s History Women on the Road: Pilgrims, Puppeteers, and Prostitutes from 11th to 14th Century Japan, Christina Laffin March 30, 2013 9:30–11 am Stimson Auditorium

Christina Laffin, Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, University of British Columbia

Diaries authored by Japanese women of the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1336) periods offer rich descriptions of journeys to sites in and around the capital. Drawing from literary and visual resources, this presentation will consider where and why women traveled, the logistics of undertaking a journey, and what they encountered on the road.

Other lectures in this series:
Feb. 16: China and India are One: An Indian Soldier's Travelogue of Beijing in 1890–1901
Feb 23: The Politics of Pilgrimage: Xuanzang and His Meetings with Indian Kings
March 2: How and Why did Mount Emei in China Become a “Buddhist Mountain?”
March 9: Ibn-Sina and the Flow of Medical Information Across Asia
March 16: Ming China Goes Abroad: The Zheng He Voyages of the 15th Century
March 23: Morocco to Mecca, Malaya and More: The Fourteenth Century Travels of Ibn Battuta
March 30: Women on the Road: Pilgrims, Puppeteers, and Prostitutes from 11th to 14th Century Japan
April 6: Pathways to Bliss: Reinventing Buddhist Pilgrimage in Andhra Pradesh
April 13: Gentility on the Move: Travelogues and Fictions of Foreign Travel by Chinese Women, Circa 1900

Members: $5.00
Adults: $10.00

SAM member series: $43
Nonmember series: $86