As in medieval times when European elites wrote their official documents in Latin, Japanese elites up to the modern era utilized Chinese as their official written language. This written language is called Sino-Japanese, or "kambun." Specialists in Japanese studies have come to Cornell to study this language each summer since 1997, when the university's East Asia Program began its kambun workshops under the direction of Joan Piggott, associate professor of history.
Again this summer, 14 graduate students and faculty members from around the United States and from European universities have gathered for the third annual Kambun Workshop, which focuses on documentary materials dating from the Muromachi age (1336 to 1600). The workshop began July 19 and continues through Aug. 13.
Participants include specialists in history, literature, religious studies and art history. Professor Noriko Kurushima of the University of Tokyo's Historiographical Institute, a specialist in Muromachi history, leads the workshop. Sessions, held in Japanese, take place at the Center for International Studies and in Kroch Library.
These kambun workshops, unique in the world, have contributed substantially to Cornell's visibility as a center for premodern Japanese studies. There are plans to continue them in the future. A fourth workshop dedicated to reading and translation of Heian period (794-1185) courtier journals is being planned for the summer of 2000.
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