The National Museum of Japanese History recently published an article by Constantine Vaporis in its bi-monthly magazine “REKIHAKU.” Vaporis, who is the Asian studies program director and professor of history, was the lead article in the magazine’s special edition on processions.
The article, titled “Alternate Attendance as Performance,” examines Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) and the system of alternate attendance when the daimyo were required by the shogun to alternate their residences between their domains and Edo. The article studies alternate attendance from two perspectives: as a symbol of authority and as performance or theater. It does so by analyzing the form in which alternate attendance movements were made as depicted in oral literature, popular culture forms, and contemporary accounts of Japanese and foreigners.
The article is published in the latest edition of “REKIHAKU.” For more information on the National Museum of Japanese History and “REKIHAKU,” click here.
Tags: AsianStudies, CAHSS
