Publications

Academic Journal Articles + Book Chapters

• “Embassies from the Ryūkyū Kingdom: Tokugawa Japan and Diplomatic East Asia,” in Timon Screech, Mai Kataoka, Oliver White (eds.), Japan De-Isolated: Essays on Global Culture and Society, Prehistory to the Present (forthcoming)

• “Displaying Foreignness for Prestige: Lūchūan Embassy Processions in Early Modern Japan, 1644-1850,” in Richard Morris (ed.), Crossing Boundaries: Festival and Diplomatic Encounters in the Early Modern World, Brepols Publishing (forthcoming)

• “Ugui Royal Portraits not seen since Battle of Okinawa, Recovered and Returned,” Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Volume 22, Issue 8, Number 3. August 23, 2024.

• “A Real Thing that Exists Only in Shuri: Ryukyuan Arts Traditions & Memory at Shurijo Castle Park,” in Alison Miller and Eunyoung Park, (eds.), Transposed Memory: Visual Sites of National Recollection in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century East Asia, Brill (Feb 2024).

• Exhibition Review: “Portraits of Ryukyu” (Ryūkyū no yokogao) contemporary art exhibition, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum (Nov 2021-Jan 2022). Critical Asian Studies 54:4 Special issue: Okinawa Fifty Years after Reversion (Dec 2022), 574-593.

• “Nihonmachi in Southeast Asia in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,” in Gary Leupp and Tao Demin (eds.), The Tokugawa World, Routledge (Sept 2021), 350-369.

• “Islands of the imagination: Hokusai's Eight views of Ryūkyū,” Andon 106 (Dec 2018), 26-40.

• “Seals of Red and Letters of Gold: Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century,” Explorations (UH Graduate Student Journal of Southeast Asian Studies), Spring 2010, 5-22.

Dissertation and Theses

Book Reviews

Review of Gregory Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650 (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019), Japanese Studies 40:3 (Sept 2020)

Translations

Kyan Chie and Taira Yūki, “Research Report on the Current Status and Prospects for Nineteenth-Century Ryukyuan Paintings on Wooden Doors in the Historic Miyara dunchi House," Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University (JAH-Q) vol. 6 (2021), 113-127.

Other Academic Writing, Reviews, etc.

ARCイベントレビューReview of the 126th International ARC Seminar: New Light on Nikkō: Thoughts on the Dutch Lanterns at the Shrine-Mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by Prof. Timon Screech. ART RESEARCH 25-1 (August 2024), pp. 25-27.

国際ARCセミナー報告「江戸城お目見え儀礼における琉球国使者の朝貢使や家臣としてのアイデンティティーパフォーマンス」,
ART RESEARCH 24-3 (Mar 2024), pp. 201-202. (Short summary of my own research talk given at International ARC Seminar, 26 July 2023.)

Selected Conference Presentations

2024

• “Japan is Not Our Fatherland: Yamazato Eikichi Resisting Reversion from within the Ryukyu Government,” ‘Re–examining Japan’s Cold War’ symposium, University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK), 13-14 August 2024.

• “Communication and Cooperation: Logistical Coordination between Seto Inland Sea Towns for the Passage of the Ryukyu Kingdom’s 17th-19th century Embassies to Edo,” Association for Asian Studies (AAS) annual conference, Seattle WA, 16 Mar 2024.

2023

• “The Value of Visual Sources in Digital Archives for Researching the Ryukyu Kingdom's Embassies to Edo,” Theory and Methods in the Japanese Humanities: Research Using Visual Sources and Archives, UC Berkeley CJS / ARC Ritsumeikan University joint colloquium. Held at University of California, Berkeley, 15 Sept 2023.

• 「近世琉球使節のビジュアル・マテリアル・パーフォーマンス文化における数点」("Visual, Material, and Performance Culture Aspects of the Ryukyu Kingdom's Embassies to Edo"), International ARC Seminar 国際ARCセミナー, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University. 26 July 2023.

• “ The History of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Kingdom,” Yokosuka Council on Asia Pacific Studies (YCAPS) Getting to Know Japan webinar series. Online. 22 June 2023.

• “Arms for Display: A Ryukyuan Lacquerware Halberd,” Archival Kismet 2023: Stuff: Thinking About Things. Online conference. 15 April 2023.

2022

• “Welcoming the Envoys from Abroad: Local Receptions Provided to Lūchūan Embassies,“ Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ), Sophia University (Tokyo). Held online. 2 July 2022.

• “Reaffirming Relations: Ritually Incorporating the Lūchū Kingdom into Imperial Japan,” Association for Asian Studies annual conference, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, 26 Mar 2022.

• “The Ryukyu Kingdom’s Embassies to Edo as seen in Samurai Diaries,” Historians at Work Series, public lecture, IMAP/IDOC program, Kyushu University. Zoom. 20 Jan 2022.

• “Introduction to the Ishin Shiryo Koyo Database, a Chronology of Events Leading up to the Meiji Revolution,” Historians at Work Series, student session, IMAP/IDOC program, Kyushu University. Zoom. 13 Jan 2022.

2021

• “Translation Cannot Express Everything in the Original: Examples from the Ishin Shiryō Kōyō”『翻訳は原文のすべては表現できない』：維新史料綱要データベースの原文と英訳におけるギャップの数事例について, Ishin Shiryо̄ Research and International Transmission International Research Meeting, 維新史料研究と国際発信国際研究集会, University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute. Zoom. Dec 11, 2021.

• Discussant, responding to Lennart Bes, “Embassies, etiquette, and embarrassments. Dutch reports on court protocol and diplomatic insult in early-modern South India,“ The Indian Ocean, 1600-1800 : Exploring the Frontier of Maritime History in Japan workshop, University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute (Online). 26 Nov 2021.

• “Ryukyuan Uzagaku Court Music: High Ritual Traditions from Ming/Qing Entertainment Culture,” International Musicological Society (IMS) Conference of the Study Group on the Global History of Music (Music in the Pacific World). Zoom. 16 October 2021.

• “Performing ‘Luchu’: Identity Performance and Foreign Relations in Early Modern Japan” Dissertation/Book Pitch talk, International Convention of Asia Scholars 12 (ICAS). Held online. Aug 28, 2021.

• “The Ryukyu Kingdom's Embassies to Edo and Imperial Tokyo: Political Continuity and Change Enacted in Ritual,” International Convention of Asia Scholars 12 (ICAS). Held online. Aug 26, 2021.

• “Ryukyuan Envoys and Samurai Ritual: The Reception of Ryukyuan Envoys as Shimazu & Tokugawa Vassals,” European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) triannual conference. Online. Aug 26, 2021.

• “Uzagaku: Ryukyuan Musical Tradition, or “Mere” Imitation and Appropriation?,” Imitation or Appropriation? Intermediality in Qing Imperial Art and Culture virtual conference, East Asia Research Seminar, SOAS, University of London. Zoom. May 13-15, 2021.

• 「維新史料綱要と英語圏での利用」(“Ishin Shiryо̄ Kо̄yо̄ and its use in Anglophone scholarship”)＋「英語圏におけるペリーの琉球訪問研究：　阿部正弘「琉球の儀に付応接方大意」の英訳から」(“Research on Perry’s visit to Ryūkyū in Anglophone scholarship: focusing on the translation into English of Abe Masahiro’s ‘Thoughts on the Matter of Ryūkyū.’”) 日本史史料英訳ワークショップ第五回「琉球外国関係文書の回」(Translation Workshop on Japanese Historical Materials, vol. 5). Historians’ Workshop, University of Tokyo. Zoom. Mar 11, 2021.

• Roundtable participant, “Historical and Regional Perspectives,” Heritage from the Margins? Shuri Castle and the Politics of Memory, Kyushu University. Zoom. Mar 5-6, 2021.

2020

• 「日本史史料用語・概念の英訳をめぐる困難と工夫―維新史料綱要DBの英訳化作業から―」(“Difficulties and Techniques in the English Translation of Terminology and Concepts in Japanese Historical Documents: From the Ishin Shiryо̄ Kо̄yо̄ Database English Translation Project“), 維新史料研究と国際発信国際研究集会 (Ishin Shiryо̄ Research and International Transmission International Research Meeting), University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute. Zoom. Dec 11, 2020.

• “Heavenly Music or Barbaric Noise? Ryukyuan Ming/Qing-style Court Music Performed Before the Tokugawa Shoguns,” Association for Cultural Typhoon (ACT) 2020 Online Conference. Zoom. 28 Nov, 2020.

• “Shuri castle: Museum of the Past or Revived Ryukyuan Palace of the Present and Future?,” The Conference at the End of the World: An Online Event. alt-ac.uk. Zoom. July 14, 2020.

• 「首里城：ウフグシクの復元（1992年）から火災（2019年）までの意味と意義」(“Shuri Castle: Its Character and Significance from its 1992 Restoration to its 2019 Destruction”), Global Japan Studies at the University of Tokyo seminar series, Zoom. June 16, 2020.

• “Restoring Shuri Castle: A Refuge for the Heart of the Okinawan People,” #Academics In Quarantine online conference series, Zoom. May 30, 2020.

2019

• “The Ryukyuan Embassies to Edo in Japanese Procession Scrolls,” Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, Oct 10-11, 2019. Proceedings avail. online.

• “Emulating the Central Flowering: Confucian Civilizational Rhetoric and Practice in Lūchūan Embassies to Edo,” Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference. Denver, CO, Mar 24, 2019

2018

• “Not Simply Tributary: The Character of Ritual Diplomacy in Tokugawa-Ryūkyū Relations,” Sixth International Conference of the Japan Studies Association in Southeast Asia, Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec 5-7, 2018.

• “Displaying foreignness for prestige: Luchuan embassy processions in Edo, 1644-1850” Perceiving Processions, Early Modern Postgraduate Symposium, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Nov 24, 2018.

• “Music and Ritual Diplomacy: Ryukyuans at the Shogun's Court,” The Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawaii Chapter (SEMSCHC) Annual Conference, Pomona College, Claremont CA, Feb 24-25, 2018.

• 「『中華』を演じる：琉球使節の江戸・北京での謁見儀礼」("Performing the "Central Flowering": Protocols for the Ryukyu Ambassador’s Ceremonial Audiences in Edo and Beijing"), USC/Meiji University Exchange, University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA, Feb 8, 2018.

2011-2017

• “Okinawan Art Today,” Love, Peace, Dreams, and Bombs event, University of California, Santa Barbara, Mar 1, 2017.

• “New Views of Ryūkyū: Yamamoto Hōsui in Okinawa, 1887,” Japan Arts & Globalizations conference, University of California, Irvine, Jan 31, 2014.

• “Pictures of an Island Kingdom: Ryūkyū in Edo Period Popular Publications,” Histories of the Japanese Book, University of California at Santa Barbara
  May 31, 2013.

• “Ryukyuan Embassy Processions: A 1710 Edo Nobori Scroll from the Sakamaki/Hawley Collection,” Interpreting Parades and Processions of Edo Japan
  University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Feb 11, 2013.

• “Hokusai Ryūkyū Hakkei: Imagined Ryukyuan Landscapes,” Terasaki Center Graduate Student Symposium on Japanese Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Oct 22, 2011.

• “The Okinawa Prefectural Museum: Native Voices or National Narrative?,” Western Museums Association Conference, Honolulu, Sept 2011.

Language Study and other Experience

Language (incl. Paleography, Classical + Early Modern Grammar)

• Received tutoring and seminars in kuzushiji paleography and sо̄rо̄bun grammar with Prof. Luke Roberts, UC Santa Barbara, 2014-2019

• Graduate Summer School in Japanese Early-modern Palaeography, University of Cambridge, summer 2015
  ——including training in kuzushiji paleography, kanbun and kanbun kundoku (Japanese forms of classical Chinese), sо̄rо̄bun, and book history

• Elementary Modern Chinese (Mandarin), UC Santa Barbara, Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

• Summer Intensive Kanbun Program, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama, summer 2013

• Summer Program in Classical Japanese, Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, summer 2010

• 10-month intensive program in modern Japanese, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama, 2007-2008

Curatorial

• Co-curator (with Prof. John Szostak), “Picturing the Ryukyus: Images of Okinawa in Japanese Artworks from the UH Sakamaki/Hawley Collection,”
  ——-University of Hawaiʻi Art Gallery, February 2013

• Gallery Intern, Japan Society Gallery, New York, Sept 2008 - August 2009

• Curatorial Intern, Arts of Japan, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Dec 2005 - Aug 2006

Handling Museum Objects

• In the course of my research and other activities as an MA and PhD student, and as a postdoctoral researcher, I have handled numerous handscroll paintings, woodblock-printed and manuscript books, and other materials of varying age, format, materials, and conservation status at institutions in Tokyo, Okinawa, and elsewhere in Japan, as well as in New York, London, Honolulu, and elsewhere.

• Intern, Gerhard Pulverer Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books, Freer|Sackler Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Summer 2011
  ——-Member of a team who together handled and photographed some 2,000 Japanese woodblock-printed and other illustrated books from the 17th-20th centuries, printed on various materials and of various conservation status.
  

Professional Memberships

• Association for Asian Studies (AAS)

• Early Modern Japan Network (EMJNet)

• Japan Art History Forum (JAHF)

• Premodern Japanese Studies (PMJS)

• Modern Japan History Association (MJHA)

• 沖縄文化協会 (Okinawa Bunka Kyōkai; Assoc. of Okinawan Culture)

• 琉球沖縄歴史学会 (Ryūkyū Okinawa Rekishi Gakkai; Ryukyu Okinawa History Assoc.)

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0959-6675

Google Scholar Profile