Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction: Carmen Placker — Friend, Scholar and Wife
- List of Contributors
- List of Plates
- Map of Japan
- Japan's Prefectures
- PART I CARMEN BLACKER AS SEEN BY HER FRIENDS
- PART II SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM CARMEN BLACKER’S DIARIES AND OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS
- PART III SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITS BY CARMEN BLACKER
- PART IV SELECTED ACADEMIC WRITINGS
- PART V SELECTED CARMEN BLACKER LECTURES
- PART VI A CELEBRATORY ESSAY
- APPENDIX Carmen’s Literary Gift. Compiled
- Bibliography
- Index
Foreword
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction: Carmen Placker — Friend, Scholar and Wife
- List of Contributors
- List of Plates
- Map of Japan
- Japan's Prefectures
- PART I CARMEN BLACKER AS SEEN BY HER FRIENDS
- PART II SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM CARMEN BLACKER’S DIARIES AND OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS
- PART III SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITS BY CARMEN BLACKER
- PART IV SELECTED ACADEMIC WRITINGS
- PART V SELECTED CARMEN BLACKER LECTURES
- PART VI A CELEBRATORY ESSAY
- APPENDIX Carmen’s Literary Gift. Compiled
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION made by Dr Carmen Blacker for the advancement of Japanese studies in the UK and Europe is well documented. Equally, she remains an iconic figure among those in Japan who not only research but also are themselves practitioners and live their lives connected to the country's indigenous religions and folklore — her mam areas of research.
Less well known is the bond that was forged between Dr Blacker and her husband Dr Michael Loewe with the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). In 2001, two years after the Institute was established in the Norwich Cathedral Close, a symposium entitled Shinto: Art andSdtual was organised. Dr Blacker was one of the distinguished participants at this event, which marked the birth of the Institute. Sadly, her last public lecture was held just two years later in 2003, also in Norwich. At this final talk, she had been invited to deliver a Third Thursday Lecture at the Assembly Hall in the centre of the city. Her lecture was on Japanese Ghosts, and just as Dr Blacker began her talk, the curtains behind the podium started to swirl, and this in a room where there was apparently no draught or air current. To this day, we believe that on this special occasion friendly ghosts from Japan visited Norwich to thank and perhaps bid a long farewell to her.
In due course, these friendly encounters led to Dr Blacker's decision to leave an endowment to the Institute, and that is how the Carmen Blacker Memorial Lecture senes held on the Third Thursday of every July started. July is the month of Dr Blacker's birth and death so the date is well chosen. The lectures are also delivered in London, hosted by The Japan Society, co-organiser of the events. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Dr Blacker in person, from my experience of listening every year to the lectures related to the themes to which she devoted her life-long research efforts, I feel emboldened to say that I have come to understand a little of what mattered to Dr Blacker both professionally and personally in her life. The Carmen Blacker Memorial Lecture senes is now considered one of the Institute's main outreach activities. Our loyal audience, largely from the Norwich local community, look forward to it every year.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Carmen BlackerScholar of Japanese Religion, Myth and Folklore: Writings and Reflections, pp. ix - xPublisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2017