Team Research2022

Formation and Changes of Correspondence-Texts as　Seen in the Principle of 'As If'-Transpositions: The Term Monjo, Its Styles, Signs, Representations, and Intentions

Unit

Perspectives on Nature/Perspectives on Humanity

Our team aims to examine the meaning of the term monjo (lit., “texts and notes,” often translated as documents). Besides the term itself, the content and gestalt of these texts transmit meaning, signs, and mentalities in mediaspecific ways as reflected in primary artefacts as well as in essays, literature, copies, encyclopaedias, records, paragons school booklets, drawings and pictures, and rituals. The study group will try to apply the “as if”—or “transposition”—principle to an interdisciplinary semiotic precis of these specifics in “texts and notes” written or read in Japanese, deriving from the China-Korea Sino-logographic communication sphere. The description by some scholars of monjo as “addressed correspondence,” suggests a fruitful perspective. My colleagues and I will compare texts functioning as or styled in the manner of correspondence and handed down to us in European and Asian cultures in order to find comparable communicative ground on which to examine etiquette and mentalities, media, and communication developed over the past five thousand years. The principles of information and mutual understanding are also part of our concern. From the standpoint of the theory of knowledge or phenomenology, the mutual relativity of Self and the Other is to be an object of observation. The literature of written correspondence thus associates problems of intention (reading and misreading) and behaviour. We will also transcend the boundaries between natural and social science on the one hand and cultural studies on the other. Cooperation among philology, philosophy, informatics, behavioural studies, and other fields of interest appears to be fundamental to our understanding of mentalities of communication. Finally, we hope to expand our awareness to differences and similarities in the behaviour of humankind and other animals, learning and culture, acts of mutual mind reading, the term of freedom, and other important issues that are mirrored in our source materials.

センター研究者等	Markus　RÜTTERMANN	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
〃	荒木　浩	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
〃	榎本　渉	国際日本文化研究センター・准教授
〃	磯前　順一	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
〃	金　泰虎	甲南大学国際言語文化センター・教授、国際日本文化研究センター・客員教授
共同研究員	廣田　浩治	公益財団法人静岡市文化振興財団・学芸員
〃	梶谷　真司	東京大学大学院総合文化研究科・教授
〃	小島　道裕	国立歴史民俗博物館名誉教授
〃	森　洋久	東京大学総合研究博物館・准教授
〃	小口　雅史	法政大学大学院人文科学研究科・教授
〃	岡崎　敦	九州大学大学院人文科学研究院・教授
〃	高橋　一樹	明治大学文学部史学地理学科・教授
〃	Christian　WITTERN	京都大学人文科学研究所東アジア人文情報学研究センター・教授
海外共同研究員	Michael　KINSKI	Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften, Japanologie・教授
〃	Joerg　B.　QUENZER	Universität Hamburg, Asien-Afrika- Institut, Abteilung Sprache und Kultur Japans・教授