Lecture Title: The So-called "Kingdom of God" and "Beauty" -- A Critical Analysis of Takamyra Koutarou's Perception of the Wartime Nation

Speaker: Sun Jingjing

Sep. 2004-Jul. 2008 Undergraduate of School of Foreign Studies, Jilin University

Sep. 2008-Jun. 2011 Master of School of Foreign Studies, Jilin University

Sep. 2009-Aug. 2010 (Japan) Nagasaki University as an exchange student

Jul. 2011-present Teacher of Department of Japanese, School of Foreign Studies, Jilin University

Oct. 2014-Mar. 2016(Japan) visiting scholar in Nagoya University

She has participated in 2 projects supported by National Social Science Fund, one sub-project of a major project commissioned by Ministry of Education, published 1 monograph (jointly) and 7 journal articles since July 2011.

Date of Entry: July 2011

Lecture time: 18:00, April 28, 2021

Target Audience: Sophomores and Juniors of the Japanese Department；

The First- and Second- year postgraduates in the Japanese Language and Literature Program.

Content of the Lecture:

Takamyra Koutarou (1883-1956) was a famous Japanese sculptor, painter and poet. During the War of Aggression against China and the Pacific War, he created a large number of poems praising the war and uplifting the will for war. In these poems, the war was recited as the mission of Japan and the "divine intention", showing a clear and conscious will to advocate the war based on the concept of the divine kingdom. As a sculptor, Koutarou believed that Japanese artists had the mission to promote national greatness through art, and also needed to raise national morale through art during wartime. Unlike other writers and poets, he connected the "divine kingdom" with the "beauty" he had always pursued. In this lecture, we will make a critical analysis of Takamyra Koutarou's perception of the wartime nation through reading and analyzing some typical poems of his.