Dr Alison Tokita, Associate Professor
Biography
Qualifications
Contact Details
Subjects Taught
Supervision
Research Interests
Membership of Academic
and Learned Societies
Fellowships,
Prizes and Awards
Publications
Biography
I earn my living as a Lecturer (Level D) in Japanese Studies within the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia. Since 1995, I have also been Director of the Japanese Studies Centre, which is located at the Clayton campus of Monash University, and is a research network linking researchers in Japanese studies from institutions in the state of Victoria.
I did my first degree in French, German and English literature at the University of Melbourne (1965-68), followed by a Diploma of Education and a few years secondary school teaching. I developed my interest in Japanese language and culture (music in particular) while pursuing my interest in French. In fact, I studied Japanese language, music, literature etc. full-time for a year at the University of Paris (Universite de Paris XIIIe, Ecole de Langues Orientales). After spending a year studying and working in Paris, I returned to Melbourne in 1974 and commenced studying Japanese at Monash, eventually taking out a PhD in 1989.
I have been employed full-time in Japanese studies at Monash since 1988. I did the Monash Honours Program as an MA Prelim. (now called M Qual) in 1976 with the first 6 months in Tokyo. That was when I started learning kiyomoto narrative from Kiyomoto Eizaburo, since designated a Living National Treasure (Ningen Kokuhoo). Since then I took lessons from him on subsequent trips to Japan till 1995. In 1998, I learnt tokiwazu narrative from Tokiwazu Tokizoo in Kyoto. I was awarded a Monbushoo scholarship to study at Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Geidai) in 1978-9 when I intensively studied Japanese music history and practice.
Other interests include singing, cooking, reading, church, family, gardening and sewing.
Qualifications
PhD, Monash, 1989. BA, Melbourne, 1968, DipEd, Melbourne, 1969
Contact details
|
Room: |
425 Menzies Building (Building 11), Clayton Campus |
|
Phone: |
(03) 9905 2275 (international: 61 3 9905 2275) |
|
Fax: |
(03) 9905 5437 (international: 61 3 9905 5437) |
|
Mailing Address: |
Associate Professor A. Tokita |
Subjects Taught
I have taught all levels of Japanese language, and Japanese studies subjects including traditional culture, popular culture, performing arts, society, modern literature, gender. I introduced the subject Japanese popular culture in 1993, and in 2001 developed it as an advanced Japanese language subject.
I starting creating home pages for the subjects I teach with the help of a Faculty of Arts grant in 1997 and use on-line components in most subjects I teach.
JPS2150/3150 Japanese culture: identity and tradition
Japan has a rich cultural heritage in literature, in performing arts, and visual arts. In this subject we look at all these artistic domains, and the social contexts in which they developed. Central topics include the Heian period literary classic, The Tale of Genji, the warrior epic, The Tale of the Heike, noh, kabuki and bunraku theatre, emakimono narrative picture scrolls, ukiyo-e and so on. We also look at the modernization of many cultural forms with the impact of westernization. We consider in particular how "traditional culture" has been constructed in the process of modern state formation, and the way it has contributed to a sense of cultural uniqueness in contemporary Japanese identity.
JPS1090 Understanding contemporary Japan
For students who have a keen interest in Japan, whether studying Japanese language or not, this subject can form part of the first year sequence of a major or a minor in Japanese studies, or Asian studies. It takes a close look at Japan since the defeat and surrender in 1945, during the Occupation, the period of high economic growth, and up to the Asian economic crisis. Still the second largest economy in the world, Japan, with its vibrant contemporary culture, is increasingly making an impact on the world, not only in the economic sphere, but also the political and the cultural. In this subject major social, economic and political institutions are surveyed, and changing perceptions and images of Japan are studied.
JPL2510/3510/4510/JLG4511/5511 Advanced Japanese language: popular culture (with Ms Jun Yano).
This is a new subject taught in Japanese to advanced language students (equivalent to Level E and F). The subject offers an advanced level of spoken and written Japanese which is designed to bring the student close to semi-native competence in the language while studying a variety of Japanese popular cultural forms in the print and electronic media. These include television, manga, magazines, cinema, music, advertising, fashion and the Internet. The nature of the diffusion of Japanese popular culture outside Japan is explored. The classes are taught in Japanese using Japanese language source material. Background reading will include materials relating to popular culture theory in Japanese and English.
JPL2560/3560/4560 JLG4560/5560 Advanced Japanese Language: Japan and the Asia-Pacific Region
This advanced Japanese language unit, conducted entirely in Japanese is designed to bring students close to semi-native competence in Japanese, while enriching their knowledge of Japan-Asia-Pacific relations. Reading, translating and summarizing skills will be developed. It will further develop oral and written skills in Japanese, critical thinking, library research skills, debating and discussion skills, the use of a variety of Japanese media, including the Internet. Give a summary of up to half a page; this should be descriptive and not simply a list of the topics to be taught.
Indicate how the subject/unit will address the University commitment to flexible and student-centred learning: refer to the Support Document for Course and Subject Approval Proformas (available at http://www.adm.monash.edu.au/unisec/com/ec/ecx/ proformasupport.doc).
The content focusses on a spectrum of issues facing Japan in its relations with the Asia-Pacific region, past and present. Topics will relate to Australia-Japan relations and Japan-Asia relations, and the role of both Australia and Japan in regional groupings such as APEC. A historical perspective on these issues will be included. The study of contemporary relations between Japan and the region will include cultural, diplomatic and economic spheres.
JPS2/3140 Touring Japanese Culture
This subject takes the form of a 3 week intensive study tour gives the student direct experience of a number of Japanese cultural events and phenomena, in addition to library based study before travelling to Japan and on return to Australia. It treats Japanese culture primarily in the sense of the arts: verbal, visual and performing. It offers a broad perspective of Japanese cultural and artistic forms, allowing students to focus on areas of individual interest. It covers Japanese cultural history from prehistoric times to the contemporary, particularly looking at the relations between Chinese, Korean and indigenous Japanese culture.
JPS2/3710 Australia-Japan Relations
Did you know:
- that Japanese were coming to Australia since before the Meiji Restoration (1868) to seek their fortunes? (Whether this was really fortunate or not for those adventurers is a question which will be considered in this subject.)
- that Australians were travelling to and working in Japan from the 1880s?
- that there was a professional Australian rakugo artist called Henry Kairakutei Black active in Yokohama from 1879 to 1920?
These are just a few of the little-known, fascinating aspects of the Australia-Japan relationship, which has grown into one of crucial importance to Australia. But how important is this relationship to Japan? The subject will endeavour to scrutinize this question from a variety of points of view. Offered in second semester, 2001, this subject examines economic, political, social and cultural aspects of the Australia-Japan relationship in historical context, and treat a variety of contemporary issues such as education, tourism and intercultural communication.
INT2060/3060 Global Cultures, Local Traditions: the production and consumption of (popular) culture
This unit looks at the implications of globalization for a variety of cultural phenomena. While nation states routinely practise cultural nationalism and the invention of (national) traditions, the mass media of cinema, television, and the Internet have speeded up the transnational flow of images of modernity and created local desires to consume cultures which originate in distant places. The unit traces some transitions from local to global cultural practices, and looks at changing sources of cultural hegemony, including Western forms of "high culture" (such as classical music), (Afro-) American popular culture, and Japanese popular culture. It deals with case studies of sites of local consumption of global cultures, including television, video games, popular music, fiction and comics. The role of the Internet in creating virtual communities and new cultural identities will be examined.
- Ownership of cultural products and processes, as epitomized in copyright law, and appropriation of othersculture. Case study: Napster and music copyright.
- Mass culture and individual identity. Case study: jazz and rap as the musical expression of Afro-Americans, and their transnational reception. Cultural homogeneity (Macworld) or differentiation? The creation of meaning for the individual in the reception of global culture.
- High culture as mass culture. Case study: piano, violin and guitar as status symbols and as cultural commodities
- Oral literature, canonic texts, and the modern novel. Local to global genres.
- Popular fiction and comics. Case study: Japanese manga and anime as transnational popular culture.
- Cinema, television and the Internet: convergence of media. Hollywood versus Bollywood. Television and Internet usage as play. Internet cafes in different cultures.
- Virtual communities. The movement of ideas and political strategies through the Internet. Ad hoc assemblages of people. New cultural identities.
ASN2170/3170 Women in Asia: gender, tradition and modernity
Taught jointly with Dr Penny Graham of Anthropology
Supervision
I have supervised a variety of topics from Honours through to PhD in all areas of Japanese culture.
Recently, I have been co-supervising PhD reseach on the Japanese authors Natsume Soseki and Murakami Haruki as examples of modern Japanese authors whose writing explores intercultural conflicts, on Tsugaru lacquerware and regional development issues, and on Ainu language maintenance.
Research interests
My research interests lie in the Japanese performing arts, especially music and sung story-telling (katarimono). Subsidiary interests are the influence of Japanese music on contemporary Australian composition; contemporary Japanese musical composition and composers; koto music; international marriage; Japanese popular culture. From April 1998 to March 1999, I developed and led a Team Research Project at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto on the topic "Musical narratives in Japan: orality, structures and meanings".
I am working at present on these major research projects:
- Editing a book on Japanese music with David Hughes (SOAS, University of London) with 16 Japanese and non-Japanese contriubutors
- An anthology of papers in Japanese resulting from the team research project on musical narratives in Japan
- A monograph tentatively entitled "Minstrels, bards and shamans: musical narratives of Japan"
- Naniwa-bushi (rookyoku) and Japanese modernity
- Folk narratives in Japan, focusing on "saimon" genres
Japanese Music activity:
Since 1988, I have been the inaugural director of the Japanese Music Archive, a collection of books, recordings, instruments and scores at Monash University. I produced a printed catalogue of the holdings in 1994. I have organized a number of concerts of Japanese music, and have been responsible for bringing Ms Satsuki Odamura of the Sawai International Koto School down from Sydney every month to teach koto at Monash since 1991.
Forthcoming concerts which I am organizing:
Japanese Musical Narratives past and present: heike narrative and naniwa-bushi
Thursday July 19, Melba Hall, University of Melbourne, 8 pm..
Other activities:
Monash University Women and Leadership Programme. I was a participant in 1993, and in 1997 was a facilitator.
JSAA conference 1997: The Japanese Studies Centre under my direction hosted the 10th biennial conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, July 6 - 10, 1997. Four books have been published from the papers delivered at the conference, and two volumes of working papers.
I led the first JSC Japanese Culture Tour in January 1998. Students who do this tour, can take out a second or third year subject, JPS2140/3140 Touring Japanese culture. If numbers are sufficient it will next be offered in January 2002, for three weeks.
I have been active in initiating cooperation with Australian studies. I am keen to inaugurate a translation series from English to Japanese of materials about Australia, and about Japan produced by Australians. The history of Australia-Japan relations has become an ongoing research activity of the JSC, with the fifth symposium having been held in 2002. Two books have been published: Changing Histories (MAI Press, 2001), Linguistics in Uniform (JSC, 2003)
Membership of Academic and Learned Societies
- Musicological Society of Australia
- Asian Studies Association of Australia
- Japanese Studies Association of Australia (Secretary-Treasurer 1995-7)
- Association for Asian Studies
- Association for Research in East Asian Music ()
- Australia-Japan Society of Victoria
- The International House of Japan
- East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia
- Musicological Society of Japan
- Society for Research in Musical Drama ()
- Popular Music Society of Japan
- Japanese Studies Centre, Melbourne
- British Association for Japanese Studies
- Japan Anthropology Workshop
- European Association for Japanese Studies
- Korean Studies Association of Australia
Fellowships, Prizes and Awards
November-December 2000 JSPS Visiting Researcher at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto.
2000 Australian Research Council Small Grant of $9,000 for the research project "Back to the source: testing the relevance to Japanese sung narratives of the Parry-Lord theory of oral narrative"
1998-99 Leader of Team Research Project at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto for the project "Musical narratives in Japan: orality, structures and meanings".
1997 Australian Research Council Small Grant of $5,600 for the research project "Origins and orality: The Heike Monogatari as a performed narrative"
1996 Australian Research Council Small Grant of $5,300 for the research project "The Musical Narrative of the Japanese Puppet Theatre: a Study of the Nexus between Orality and Literacy".
January to June, 1995, Visiting Associate Professor at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
1995 Australian Research Council Small Grant of $5,000 for the research project "Computer Database for Shamisen Melodic Patterns".
February 1-9, 1994, Guest Researcher at the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, participating in a joint research project on the Japanese performing arts
1993 Annual Prize of \300,000 by the Seieikai organization to researchers in shamisen music for contribution to the understanding of kiyomoto narrative, on the basis of a substantial article published in Japanese in 1992. (This is one of only three prizes which exist in Japan for research in traditional Japanese music.)
Australian Academy for the Humanities Travel Grant of $1,000, July 1991
August 1991 to January 1992, Guest Researcher at the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties
1991 Australian Research Council Small Grant of $5,000 for the research project "The Influence of Japanese Music on Four Contemporary Australian Composers".
Publications
Book
1999 Kiyomoto-bushi: Narrative Music of the Kabuki Theatre. Kassel: Baerenreiter. (Studien zur traditionellen Musik Japans, Volume 8.) ISBN 3-7618-1469-0. 400 pages.
Edited Books and Journal Editorships
2003 (In press) Japanese Music: History, Performance, Research, co-edited and David Hughes.
A volume of 16 specialist essays on the major genres of Japanese music by indigenous and foreign scholars. I am co-author of one chapter ("Japanese music: change and context", with David Hughes), sole author of a second ("Music of the kabuki theatre: more than meets the eye"), translated three of the chapters from Japanese, and was responsible for the overall moulding to get the chapters to flow and complement each other. Contracted to Cambridge University Press, this will be a major contribution to the scholarly literature on Japanese music, much of it hitherto unavailable in English. Publication assistance for this project of $6543 was obtained from the Japan Foundation, a similar grant of $3,000 from the Monash Publications Committee, and a Faculty of Arts Project Completion Grant of $5,604 in 2001. ISBN 0 521816 94 7
2002 Nihon no katarimono: kotosei, kozo, igi (Japanese musical narratives: orality, structures, meanings).
An edited volume of papers in Japanese, including two chapters authored by myself, from the team research project at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies (1998-99). The date of publication is October 2002. Co-edited with Haruko Komoda, it is no. 26 of the series Nichibunken Sosho (ISSN1346-6585). ISBN 4-901558-07-02. This multi-authored volume is the culmination of a number of years of work on Japanese musical narratives.
2000 Editor-in-chief of six refereed volumes of papers under the general title Japanese Studies: Communities, Cultures, Critiques. Volumes one to four consist of fully refereed chapters, including the contributions of leaders in the field of Japanese Studies, such as Masao Miyoshi, Norma Field, Yoshio Sugimoto, Gavan McCormack, and Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Volumes five and six are working papers.
1995-98 Book review editor (Japan region) for the Asian Studies Review.
1995 Editor of Representations of Women in Japanese Cultural Forms. Japanese Studies Centre, Melbourne. Introduction, i-iv. ISBN 0 7326 0834 1
1994 Japanese Studies (Bulletin of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia), Vol. 14, no. 3. Special Issue on Japanese literature. Contains articles on The Tale of Genji, classical and modern poetry, contemporary fiction.
Book chapters
In Press (2003) "Japanese music: change and context" (co-authored with David Hughes). In Japanese Music: History, Performance, Research, edited by Alison Tokita and David Hughes, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
2003 "Music of the kabuki theatre: more than meets the eye" (sole author). In Japanese Music: History, Performance, Research, edited by Alison Tokita and David Hughes, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
2002 "Australia as Takemitsu's Other", in A way a lone: on the music of Takemitsu Toru, edited by Hugh de Ferranti and Yoko Narazaki, Academica Musicae, Tokyo, pages 11-19. ISBN 4-87017-071-X.
2002 "Katarimono no gainenka ni mukete" (Towards a conceptualization of performed narratives), in Nihon no katarimono: kotosei, kozo, igi (Japanese musical narratives: orality, structures, meanings), edited by Alison Tokita and Haruko Komoda, International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, 7-23. Nichibunken Sosho series no. 26 (ISSN1346-6585). ISBN 4-901558-07-02. The date of publication is October 2002.
2002 "Katarimono no kozo moderu" (Structural models of Japanese musical narratives), in Nihon no katarimono: kotosei, kozo, igi (Japanese musical narratives: orality, structures, meanings), edited by Alison Tokita and Haruko Komoda, International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, 42-54. Nichibunken Sosho series no. 26 (ISSN1346-6585). ISBN 4-901558-07-02. The date of publication is October 2002.
2000 "Introduction", Re-mapping Japanese culture (Japanese Studies: Communities, Cultures, Critiques, Vol. 1), edited by Alison Tokita et al., MAI Press, Melbourne, 1-10. ISBN 0 7326 1184 9
2000 "Introduction", Identity Politics and Critiques in Contemporary Japan (Japanese Studies: Communities, Cultures, Critiques, Vol. 2), edited by Alison Tokita et al., MAI Press, Melbourne, 1-6. ISBN 0 7326 118 7
1997 "Katarimono no Ongaku Bunseki" (Musical Analysis of Performed Narratives), Iwanami Koza: Nihon Bungakushi (The Iwanami Japanese Literary History), Vol. 16. Edited by J Kubota et al., Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 299-321. (Second edition, 2001) ISBN 4 00 010686 4
1996 "The Influence of Japan on the Music of Barry Conyngham" in Language and Cultural Contact with Japan, edited by Helen Marriott and Morris Low. Occasional Paper of the Japanese Studies Centre, MAI Press, Melbourne, 101-120 ISBN 0 7326 1131 8
1995 "The image of the yujo in Japanese musical narratives in the Edo period (1600-1867)" in Representations of Women in Japanese Cultural Forms. Edited by Alison Tokita, Japanese Studies Centre, Melbourne, 1-20 ISBN 0 7326 0834 1
Refereed Journal Articles
2003 "The Reception of the Heike Monogatari as Performed Narrative: the Atsumori episode in heikyoku, zato biwa and satsuma biwa". Japanese Studies Vol. 23, No. 1, 59-85.
2000 "The Nature of Patterning in Japanese Narrative Music: Formulaic Musical Material in Heikyoku, Gidayu-bushi and Kiyomoto-bushi ".Musicology Australia, Vol. XXIII, 2000, 99-122.
1999 "Itchu-bushi kara tokiwazu-bushi e: katarimono no ongakuteki heno to renzokusei (From itchu to tokiwazu: musical change and continuity in Japanese performed narratives)". Nihon Kenkyu (Japanese Studies), no. 19, 53-78.
1996 "Mode and Scale, Modulation and Tuning in Japanese Shamisen Music: The Case of Kiyomoto Narrative". Ethnomusicology (Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, USA) 40, 1, 1-33.
1996 "Anne Boyd and Asian music: the formation of a composer". Japan Review, no. 7, 1996, 185-198.
1992 "Kiyomoto-bushi no ongaku bunseki: katari no shodan o chushin ni shite"(A musical analysis of kiyomoto-bushi, focussing on narrative sections).Geino no Kagaku (Studies in the Performing Arts, Journal of the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties), no. 20 (143-206).
Non-refereed articles
1995 "Katarimono no sekai" (The World of Narrative Music).Nichibunken, no. 13, International Research Center for Japanese Studies 1995, 31-33.
1994 "The place of literature in Japanese Studies today", Japanese Studies (Bulletin of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia), Vol. 14, no. 3, 1-8
Full Published Conference Papers
2002 "Katarimono ni okeru michiyuki: sekkyo-bushi 'Oguri Hangan' o chushin ni (The mitiyuki in Japanese performed narratives: focussing on the sekkyo-bushi narrative Oguri Hangan)", Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Global Perspectives in Japanese Studies , Ochanomizu University Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, 2-29 2-35
2001 "Crossing cultural boundaries in the context of marriage: Australian-Japanese marriages and the profession of Japanese studies" in Crossing Cultural Borders: Towards an Ethics of Intercultural Communication , edited by Shigemi Inaga and Kenneth L. Richard, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, 237-249
1999 "Ikita bunka koryu o mezashite: Osutoraria Nihoin kenkyu (Intercultural communication and Japanese Studies in Australia)". Report of the Osaka University of Education Education Research Centre, no. 34, 81-94
1996 "Towards a history of Japanese narrative music". Kyoto Conference on Japanese Studies, October, 1994, Vol. 3, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto and The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 233-244.
1995 "The application of Western narrative theory to Japanese musical narratives" in The Force of Vision (Proceedings of the Thirteenth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Assocciation, Tokyo 1991). Volume 3, Section IV Powers of Narration, 60-67.
1994 "Tokiwazu-bushi no ongaku bunseki: itchu-bushi to no hikaku o chushin ni" in Okinawa Ongaku no Shinso to Hyoso) The Deep and Surface Strata of Okinawan Music): Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Society of Research in Asiatic Music. Toyo Ongaku Gakkai Okinawa Shibu, Naha, 53-56
1991 "Japanese influence on contemporary Australian composers" in Tradition and its Future in Music: Report of the SIMS 1990 Osaka, edited by Y. Tokumaru et al. Mita Press, Tokyo and Osaka, 465-473
1991 "Kabuki dance form and its relation to the structure of narrative music", edited by Australia-Japan Research Centre, Australian National University. Papers of the Seventh Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia.
Encyclopedia entries
2003 "Japanese traditions" for Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia .
2002 "Tokiwazu, Kiyomoto and other Narratives", a chapter in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 7: East Asia: China, Japan and Korea (edited by Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru and J. Lawrence Witzleben), Routledge, London, 679-682.
Booklets and Pamphlets
2000 Orality, Structures and Meanings: Japanese Musical Narratives, Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur (25 pages)
1999 Michiyuki to Nihon Bunka: Geino o chushin ni (The Michiyuki in Japanese Performing Arts) Nichibunken Forum Pamphlet. International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto (21 pages)
1996 Nihon dento ongaku ni okeru katarimono no keifu - senritsukei o chushin ni (The Narrative Tradition in Japanese Music: The Changing Role of Melodic Patterns). Nichibunken Forum Pamphlet. International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto (42 pages)
1994 Japanese Music Archive: Catalogue. Japanese Studies Centre, Melbourne (51 pages) ISBN 0 7326 0557 1
Review Articles
1995 Review Gamo Satoaki et al. (eds.) Nihon no ongaku, Ajia no ongaku in Toyo Ongaku Kenkyu (Journal of the Society for Research in Asiatic Music), no. LX August 1995, 96-100
1994 "Kaigai ni okeru Nihon ongaku kenkyu: eigo-ken" (A report on Japanese music research in English-speaking countries). In Toyo Ongaku Kenkyu (Journal of the Society for Research in Asiatic Music), no. LIX August 1994, 112-115
Teaching Materials
1994 "Week 8: Japan". In Open Learning Study Guide: Popular Music of Australia and Asia. Edited by M. Kartomi and P. Heyward.
Other relevant publications
1989 The Narrative Tradition in Japanese Music: Kiyomoto-bushi as an accompaniment of Kabuki Dance . Ph.D. Thesis submitted to Department of Japanese Studies at Monash University.
Conference papers and other lectures
November 29, 2002, "Cultural Dimensions of the Internet in Asia",Cultural Flows in a Globalizing Asia conference, Monash University
August 16, 2002, "The Internet cafand comic culture in Japan", Internet in Asia mini-symposium (RUCTA project), Monash University
April 3, 2002, "Romance in Japanese manga", Plural Romance conference, Monash University
July 19, 2001, "Whither the singer of tales? The narrator and individual performer in Japanese musical narratives", International Society for Folk Narrative Research Congress, University of Melbourne
July 14, 2001, "Nihon no geinou ni okeru michiyuki: sekkyou Oguri Hangan o chushin ni" (The poetic journey michiyuki in the Japanese performing arts: the sekkyo-bushi tale of Oguri Hangan). Invited paper for Ochanomizu Women's University, Tokyo.
22-25 March, 2001, "Naniwa-bushi: Modernity or Tradition?". Association for Asian Studies, Chicago
February 14, 2001, Australia-Japan Modernism Study Group, University of Melbourne
January 25, 2001, (Whither the narrator? Issues concerning narrative voice and the individual performer in Japanese musical narratives). International Research Center for Japanese Studies
October 2, 2000,Hoosei University, University of Missouri
December 4, 1999, "The role of Naniwa-bushi (rokyoku) in maintaining Japanese identity as a counter-value to modernity". Eleventh Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton
November 12, 1999, "Crossing cultural boundaries in the context of marriage: Australian-Japanese marriages and the profession of Japanese studies". Symposium "Crossing Cultural Boundaries", International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
October 2, 1999, "Intercultural communication through international marriage". Conference on "Re-imagining Multiculturalism", Monash University Centre for Intercultural Studies
February 1999. Intensive four day course on Japanese Popular Culture in "Japan in the World" program, Kyushu University
January 21 1999. "Issues in the research of Japanese traditional music outside Japan". Nagoya University of Fine Arts and Music
December 17 1998. "Intercultural communication and Japanese studies in Australia". Osaka University of Education
November 13 1998. "Structural analysis of musical narratives". Nichibunken, Kyoto
October 5 1998. "Japanese musical narratives from the beginnings to Naniwa-bushi" Katsurazaka Primary School
October 1998. "Orality, Structures and Meanings: Japanese Musical Narratives". Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur
September 30 1998. "Buddhist popular preaching and the development of secular musical narratives in Japan". Asian Studies Association of Australia, University of New South Wales
June 13 1998. "Japanese musical narratives and Shotoku Taishi". Hakuho Women's College
May 15, 1998. "Opening address for Research Project on Japanese musical narratives: theoretical frameworks and methodologies". Nichibunken, Kyoto.
February 22, 1998. "Takemitsu and Australia: Australia as Takemitsu's Other". Takemitsu Memorial Symposium, University of Sydney.
August 28, 1997. "Variation and improvisation in gidayu-bushi: a detailed analysis of Goten no dan". 8th Conference of European Association for Japanese Studies, College for Foreign Trade, Budapest.
July 9, 1997. "Gidayu-bushi and orality". Tenth Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Conference of Australia, University of Melbourne.
July 10, 1996. "The Atsumori incident in three performance genres" AAS, La Trobe University.
May 4, 1996. "The michiyuki in Japanese performing arts" JAWS, Santiago di Copmpostela.
April 11, 1996. "Reception of the Heike Monogatari as performed narrative" on panel "The Heike Monogatari and its Reception". Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies,Inc., Hawaii. April 11-14, 1996.
October 27, 1995. Second World Conference on Oral Literature ("Oral Literature and the Academy"), University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. "The Legacy of Japanese Musical Narratives".
June 15, 1995. Thursday Seminar, International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Kiyomoto-bushi "Sanja Matsuri": katarimono no koto-sei to bungaku-sei (Kiyomoto Sanja Matsuri: oral and literary characteristics of a musical narrative).
April 19, 1995. British Association for Japanese Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, England. "Relations between text and music in the musical recitation of the Heike story, in the light of theories of oral composition."
April 15, 1995. Joint presentation to Gakugeki Gakkai and Heike Biwa Kenkyukai, Waseda University, Tokyo. "Chuseiteki katarimono (heikyoku) to kinseiteki katarimono (gidayu-bushi) no kasanaru tokoro to kotonaru tokoro ni tuite: rekishiteki kenkyu no kokoromi to shite" (A comparison of a medieval musical narrative (heikyoku) and a early modern musical narrative (gidayu-bushi: historical perspectives in musical analysis).
April 11, 1995. Nichibunken Forum, Japan Foundation, Kyoto. "Nihon dento ongaku ni okeru katarimono no keifu: senritsukei o chushin ni" (The narrative tradition in Japanese music: the changing role of melodic patterns).
October 18, 1994. Kyoto International Conference on Japanese Studies."Towards a history of Japanese narrative music: Practical and Methodological Problems".
September 1, 1994 Department of Music , Monash University, "Historical change in Japanese musical narratives through analysis of the extant repertoires: from Itchu to Tokiwazu"
December 1993 Annual Conference of the Tooyoo Ongaku Gakkai (Society for Research in Asiatic Music), Naha, Japan, "Tokiwazu-bushi no ongaku bunseki - itchu-bushi to no hikaku o chushin ni" (The Musical Analysis of Tokiwazu musical narrative: a Comparison with Itchu musical narrative)
October 1993 Fourth Women in Asia Conference, University of Melbourne, 1-3 "The Image of the 'playgirl' in Japanese musical narratives in the Edo period (1600-1867)"
July 1993 Japanese Studies Association of Australia, University of Newcastle "Patterning in Japanese Culture: the Dynamics of Melodic Patterns"
July 1993 Musicological Society of Australia, University of Queensland "The Logic and Anti-logic of Notation Systems in Japanese Music"
July 1992 "Anne Boyd's Encounter with Asian music: the formation of an Australian composer" Ninth Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, University of New England, Armidale
January 1992 "The Importance of Japanese Music in the Development of Four Australian Composers" (in Japanese) at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.
December 1991 "The Current State of Japanese Music Research and Teaching in Australia" (in Japanese) at Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, Department of Japanese Music.
August 1991 "The Application of Western Narrative Theory to Japanese Musical Narratives." The Thirteenth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA), Tokyo.
July 1991 "Kabuki Dance Form and its relation to the structure of narrative music" Seventh Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, ANU Canberra.
January 1991 "Japanese Culture and Australian Music" (in Japanese) in the Department of Japanese Studies Public Lecture Series (Bunka Koenkai).