Full Description
Carmen Blacker was an outstanding scholar of Japanese culture, known internationally for her writings on religion, myth and folklore - her most notable work being The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. Importantly, a third of the volume comprises significant extracts from the author's diaries covering a period of more than forty years, together with a plate section drawn from her extensive photographic archive, thus providing a rare opportunity to gain a personal insight into the author's life and work. The volume includes a wide selection of writings from distinguished scholars such as Donald Keene and her former pupil Peter Kornicki in celebration of her work and legacy, together with various essays and papers by Carmen Blacker herself that have hitherto not been widely available. In addition to her scholarship, Carmen Blacker was also highly regarded for her work in promoting Japanese Studies at Cambridge and played a vital role in helping to re-establish The Japan Society, London, post-war.
Contents
Foreword, Preface, Introduction: Carmen Blacker - 'Friend, Scholar and Wife', List of Contributors, List of Plates, Map of Japan, Japan's Prefectures, PART I: CARMEN BLACKER AS SEEN BY HER FRIENDS, 1. Carmen Elizabeth Blacker, 1924-2009: A Biographical Memoir by James McMullen, 2. Biographical Portrait by Peter Kornicki, 3. Memories of Carmen Blacker by Yokoyama Toshio, 4. Words from Hugh Cortazzi at Carmen Blacker's Memorial Meeting, PART II: SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM CARMEN BLACKER'S DIARIES AND OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS, Carmen Blacker's 'Introduction' to her Collected Writings, Introducing Carmen Blacker's Diaries, Plate section, Extracts from the Diaries, PART III: SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITS BY CARMEN BLACKER, 5. Three Great Japanologists: Chamberlain, Aston and Satow, 6. Marie Stopes, 7. Arthur Wale, 8. Minakata Kumagusu, 9. Yoshio Markino, 10. Christmas Humphreys, 11. Cambridge Women, PART IV: SELECTED Academic Writings, 12. The Shinza or God-seat in the Daijsai: Throne Bed, or Incubation Couch?, 13. Divination and Oracles in Japan, 14. The Goddess Emerges from her Cave: Fujita Himiko and her Dragon Palace Family, 15. 'The Exiled Warrior and the Hidden Village': A Possible Solution to the Enigma of the Heike-densetsu., 16. Extracts from Legends of Heike Villages: The Fugitive Warrior as Ancestor, 17. The Language of Birds, 18. The Angry Ghost in Japan, PART V: SELECTED CARMEN BLACKER LECTURES, 19. Remembering Carmen Blacker, 20. A Glimpse of the Modestly Literate Picnic Lovers of Old Japan, 21. Tsushima: Japan Viewed from the Margins, 22. Amaterasu's Progress: The Ise Shrines and the Public Sphere of Post-war Japan, 23. Unofficial and Commoner Worship of Confucius in Tokugawa Japan, PART VI: A CELEBRATORY ESSAY, 24. The Search for the Numinous in Wordsworth and Coleridge: Some Hints from The Catalpa Bow, APPENDIX: Carmen's Literary Gift, Bibliography, Index
