I wanted to post a plug for a project that I have been involved with recently:

Announcing the relaunch of Sino-Japanese Studies online

For fifteen years Sino-Japanese Studies (1988-2003) was published in hard form and distributed throughout the world. It was the only journal of its kind in content, bringing together Chinese and Japanese studies—irrespective of discipline or time period. The relaunched journal will be available open access online and will continue to be the only journal of its kind. It will contain original, refereed articles, translations, reviews, and news from the field. Interested readers and contributors may find further details on making submissions to the journal as well as access the full online archive of back-issues at:

http://chinajapan.org/

They may also contact the editor directly.

Joshua Fogel (fogel at yorku.ca), editor (傅佛果, ジョシュア・フォーゲル)
Konrad M. Lawson (konrad at lawson.net), web technician (林蜀道, コンラッド・ローソン)

Note: I have announced the availability of the full archive of back-issues here before, but now we are restarting the journal and accepting new submissions.

Walter Edwards of Tenri University reported in a message to H-Japan that the newest issue of “Noteworthy Archaeological Sites” is online. The report consists of a selection of items from 『発掘された日本列島２００８』, translated into English. The members of the Committee for International Relations of the Japanese Archaeological Association (JAA), who translate these and other materials on the JAA website, have carefully chosen at least one site from each major period in Japanese archaeological studies: paleolithic, Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun, antiquity, medieval, and “modern” (which seems to begin in the 16th century).

Ginzan Silver Mine

One site introduced in this issue is Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, which was incribed on the UNESCO role of World Heritage Sites in 2007. Anyone who has followed the literature in Japanese on 16th- and 17th-century silver production, or for that matter the discussion of the role of Japanese silver in the Asian-centered global trade before the 18th century (Andre Gunder Frank’s ReORIENT has a whole chapter on the subject), will find this brief summary–which includes historical and contemporary maps, photos of the mine, and photos of excavatated objects–to be an extremely useful source.

As a historian of the 16th century who is particularly interested in material culture, I was also excited to read about the excavation of a refuse pit in the Osaka Castle site, one of the most important active sites for this period. I visited the site and saw some materials related to my previous research project, Raku ceramics, in 1997, but haven’t kept up with excavation reports. This particular pit has yielded a range of food remains, including abalone, deer, chicken, fowl, sea bream, cod, clam, oysters, and many others. What a meal! The discovery of pufferfish remains made me wonder; maybe it was badly cut Tetraodontidae sushi that killed Hideyoshi?

Excavated Osaka Castle Chopsticks

Anyway, the pit even included chopsticks and ceramic vessles from Karatsu, Mino, and Tamba. This brief discussion only skims the surface of the sites described in this and the previous four issues.

A recent exchange on H-Asia mentioned the Asian Studies Toolbar, which I first read about in March of last year when the maker, John Noyce (“a librarian turned writer/historian”), wrote about it on the same list. At the time I was very disappointed to read that it only worked on Windows. However I just successfully downloaded and installed it on Firefox running on my iMac, and it is AMAZING. It allows instant searches of a variety of Asian engines and blog aggreggators, it lists hundreds of Asian academic and popular journals, newspapers, and other sources as live RSS feeds, and it even includes blogs related to Asia – including the three flavors of Frog in a Well. Links to online atlases, image banks, and other sources really make this a useful tool.

Below is the table of contents of the new issue of this journal:

European Journal Of East Asian Studies
2007 ; VOL 6 ; PART 2   (2007/12/01) 
EALA Wiki Entry for this journal

Article Title: N . F . S . Grundtvig , Niels Bukh and Other ‘Japanese’ Heroes . The Educators Obara Kuniyoshi and Matsumae Shigeyoshi and Their Lessons from the Past of a Foreign Country
Author(s): Margaret Meh
Page: 155 – 184

Article Title: When the Medium Is the Message : The Ideological Role of Yoshino Sakuzô ; Yoshino’s Minponshugi in Mobilising the Japanese Public
Author(s): Brett McCormic
Page: 185 – 215

Article Title: Regional Integration and Business Interests : A Comparative Study of Europe and Southeast Asia
Author(s): Hidetaka Yoshimatsu
Page: 217 – 243

Article Title: Constructing Relations with Hong Kong under ‘One Country , Two Systems’ . Prospects for the European Union
Author(s): Kenneth Ka – Lok Cha
Page: 245 – 273

Article Title: China Through Western Eyes . A Case Study of the BBC Television Documentary Roads to Xanadu
Author(s): Qing Ca
Page: 275 – 297

Below is the table of contents of the new issue of this journal:

East Asia – An International Quarterly
2008; Vol 24; PART 4 (2008-January)
EALA Wiki Entry for this journal

Article Title: Japan’s Quest for “Soft Power” : Attraction and Limitation
Author(s): Peng Lam
Page: 349 – 363

Article Title: Policy Response to Declining Birth Rate in Japan : Formation of a “Gender – Equal” Society
Author(s): Yuki Huen
Page: 365 – 379

Article Title: Is Taipei an Innovative City ? An Institutionalist Analysis
Author(s): Chia – Huang Wang
Page: 381 – 398

Article Title: China’s Oil Venture in Africa
Author(s): Hong Zhao
Page: 399 – 415

Article Title: Edmund Terence Gomez ( ed ) , Politics in Malaysia : The Malay Dimension
Author(s): Clive Kessler
Page: 417 – 419

Article Title: David Scott , China Stands Up : The PRC and the International System
Author(s): Justin Orenstein
Page: 421 – 424

Article Title: Steve Chan , China , the U . S . , and the Power – Transition Theory : A Critique
Author(s): Robert Sutter
Page: 425 – 427