Co-sponsored by the Donald Keene Center, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College, and the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia

Chair: Haruo Shirane (Columbia University)

Organizers: Stefania Burk (UBC), Christina Laffin (UBC), Wiebke Denecke (Barnard), David Lurie (Columbia)

The Third Waka Workshop will be held at Columbia University March 28-29, 2008. The workshop will take up Horikawa hyakushu (1105) and Roppyakuban utaawase (1193), two of the most notable works in terms of fixed topics (dai), poetry contests (utaawase), and their influence over subsequent poetic production. For the workshop, our primary focus will be the issue of dai, particularly seasonal topics.

This workshop will follow the format of the previous two held at the University of British Columbia in combining close readings and open discussion of selected excerpts (distributed in advance) as well as paper presentations on relevant issues. The March workshop will conclude with two mini-workshops on the practice of writing and reciting waka led by Kanechiku Nobuyuki (Waseda University) and Sakamoto Kiyoe (Japan Women's University).

In a slight departure from the previous two Waka Workshops, which examined late Kamakura-period texts, we are now moving back in time to take up two canonical works. The selected readings, available here, take up dai and seasonality. Some discussion questions have been provided to kick off our conversation. Presentations and workshop components will focus on larger issues such as genre, canonization, stylistic schisms and factions, materiality and visuality, performance and performativity. Click here for the workshop program and here for a list of participants.

This workshop has been made possible by the generous support of the Donald Keene Center, Barnard College, and Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.