On January 13 and 14, 2016, the Josai University Educational Corporation (Chancellor Noriko Mizuta) hosted an international symposium on pre-modern Japanese culture with the theme of “sounds and voices.” .The event, titled “TEXTURES of SOUND,” was held in the 1st Building Hall at the Tokyo Kioicho Campus. The symposium was organized by the JIU Japan Studies Center and European Center in honor of Josai University Educational Corporation’s 50th anniversary. The Faculty of International Humanities and the Josai International Center for the Promotion of Art and Science (JICPAS) cosponsored the event. Leading scholars of Japanese studies from various countries presented the findings of their latest research. Participants also engaged in an enthusiastic discussion about the roles of orality (the culture of voices) and music in the transformation of Japanese studies.

Chancellor Mizuta offered a few remarks at the symposium’s opening ceremony on January 13, saying, “We have been holding a lecture course called ‘Japan in the World.’ Today’s symposium was planned as a culmination of that course. I would like for us to take up this trending theme as a new cultural topic, that it may provide us with hints for how to better study all humanities. Let us listen carefully to the results of this new research.” JU and JIU Vice President Kenji Sugibayashi went on, expressing gratitude to the participating scholars. “We thank you for coming here to discuss the art, music, and literature of premodern Japan. We are truly privileged to be a part of the research on such a revolutionary theme and content.”

After that, Columbia University Professor Haruo Shirane gave a keynote speech titled “Voice, Body, and Music in the Construction of Communal Memory: Reconsidering Media in Medieval Japanese Popular Tales.” To commemorate the occasion, biwa player Nobuko Kawashima performed three songs from The Tale of Heike. Those songs were “The Gion Shoja,” “The Flight from Fukuhara,” and “Dannoura.”
　 Many distinguished guests, such as Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Masanori Aoyagi, were present at the event that day. Other attendees included Irish Ambassador Anne Barrington, Hungarian Ambassador Dr. István Szerdahelyi, and Swedish Ambassador Magnus Robach. Scholars, as well as faculty members and students from both universities, also participated in the ceremony.

The research presentations, discussion, and Q&A session with the audience all happened on the second day of the symposium. The program was as follows:
　 [Morning]
 ・ Eugene Wang (Harvard University) - “The Shoso-in Zither: To What Tunes Does It Play?”
 ・ Ashton Lazarus (University of Chicago) - “Folk Performance and the Soundscape of Early Medieval Japan”
 ・ Fumi Ouchi (Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University) - “What Cannot Be Noted: The Notation of Buddhist Vocal Music”
▽ Discussion and Audience Q&A
　 Commentator: Didier Davin (École française d’Extrême-Orient, Tokyo)

[Afternoon]
 ・ Melissa McCormick (Harvard University) - “Seeing Voices: Pictured Dialogue and Metanarrative in Japanese Emaki”
 ・ Miyako Okada (Josai International University) - “Listening to the Zither Playing Woman: Sound and Image in Medieval Setsuwa”
▽ Discussion and Audience Q&A
　 Commentator: Haruo Shirane (Columbia University)
 ・ Judit Árokay (Universität Heidelberg) - “Late Edo Approaches to the Orality of Japanese Poetry:
    In Search of the Immediacy of Poetic Language”
 ・ Timon Screech (University of London) - “Performing Painting in the Early-modern Period East and West”
▽ Discussion and Audience Q&A
　 Commentator: Yukio Lippit (Harvard University)

Dr. Melissa McCormick, who assisted with the symposium’s planning and program framework, gave the closing remarks for the event. “I would like to thank Josai University for its effort in organizing this symposium. I’m grateful to all the scholars for engaging in this difficult, new discussion.”
　 A reception was held on both days after the symposium’s presentations, offering guests the chance to talk freely with renowned scholars.