Book Circulation and the Making of Imperial Knowledge with Yoshitaka Hibi

The Kim-Park Program for the Study of the Book is pleased to present Book Circulation and the Making of Imperial Knowledge: Japanese Print Networks across East Asia and Beyond with Professor Yoshitaka Hibi (Nagoya University).

Presentation Abstract:

In the first half of the twentieth century, how—and on what scale—did Japanese-language books travel across the seas in East Asia and the broader Pacific world? How did these circulating texts shape the formation of knowledge among the diverse populations living within the expanding sphere of the Japanese Empire?

This lecture offers a synoptic view of book circulation and the establishment of bookstores across migrant and colonial settings throughout the Pacific Rim, including colonies, settlements, and leased territories. It also traces the transformation of distribution systems from the Meiji period through the wartime era.

Key topics include the relationship between the control of knowledge and spatial governance; bookstores as contact zones where different ethnic and linguistic communities encountered one another; and the extended “life” of books as material objects that move across both time and space.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS). Professor Hibi will also be presenting on Bridging Distant and Close Reading in Modern Japanese Literary Studies with CEAS on Thursday, May 7th at 5:00 PM.

This event is open to all with registration and will be held in Regenstein Library, room JRL-568 (5th Floor).

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