Contact Information
Office: Itō Campus, East Zone Building 1, room B-504
weiss@lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Profile
David Weiss’s research focuses on the history of ideas, with a special focus on perceptions and uses of the past. His recent book, The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory (Bloomsbury, 2022), examines the role of ancient mythology in Japan’s cultural memory, including its utilization in processes of modern nation-building and colonialism. It traces the function of the god Susanoo and Korea in discourses on Japanese identity from the eighth through the twentieth century.
His current research project, “Japanese Ethnogenesis: Oka Masao's Theory of Cultural Strata as a Hybrid Outcome of Scholarly Exchange between Austria and Japan” (supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) investigates how anthropologist Oka Masao (1898–1982) combined elements from European and Japanese research traditions in his theory of Japanese ethnogenesis, thereby situating the emergence of ethnology as an academic discipline in Japan in its global historical context.
More broadly, Weiss is interested in the history of Japanese-Korean relations (especially Japanese perceptions of Korea) and the interplay of cultural memory and collective identity. He has taught in Germany (Tübingen University) and Japan (Rikkyo and Meiji Gakuin universities). At Kyushu University he teaches courses in premodern Japanese literature and intellectual history as well as in cultural memory studies.
Publications
Monograph
The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory: Ancient Myths and Modern Empire. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.
Edited Volumes
(co-edited with Juljan Biontino and Bernhard Scheid) Korea, Japan, and the Vienna School of Ethnology (Korea Europe Review 6), 2024.
(co-edited with Michael Mandelartz) Religionspolitik und politische Religion in Japan und Europa: Debatten um Polytheismus, Nationalismus und Kolonialismus [Religious Policies and Political Religion in Japan and Europe: Debates on Polytheism, Nationalism, and Colonialism]. Berlin, Heidelberg: J.B. Metzler, 2024.
(co-edited with Klaus Antoni) Sources of Mythology: Ancient and Contemporary Myths. Zürich: Lit, 2014.
Articles and Chapters (select)
“Korea’s Role in Japan’s Ethnogenesis: Oka Masao’s Model of Cultural Strata and Tan’gun.” Korea Europe Review 6 (2024), pp. 1–19.
“Sind die kami übersetzbar? Überlegungen zu Jan Assmanns ‚Kosmotheismus‘ und dem politischen Shintō der Neuzeit und Moderne [Are the kami Translatable? Thoughts on Jan Assmann's 'Cosmotheism' and Early Modern and Modern Political Shintō].” In Religionspolitik und politische Religion in Japan und Europa: Debatten um Polytheismus, Nationalismus und Kolonialismus [Religious Policies and Political Religion in Japan and Europe: Debates on Polytheism, Nationalism, and Colonialism], edited by Michael Mandelartz and David Weiss, pp. 87–103. Berlin, Heidelberg: J.B. Metzler, 2024.
“Nihon kokka no tame no jugakuteki kenkoku shinwa: Go Taihaku setsuwa” 日本国家のための儒学的建国神話: 呉泰伯説話. In Hōkō suru shūkyōsei to kokumin sho bunka: Kindaika suru nichidoku shakai ni okeru shinwa, shūkyō no shozō 彷徨する宗教性と国民諸文化：近代化する日独社会における神話・宗教の諸相, edited by Maeda Ryōzō 前田良三, pp. 13–29. Benseisha, 2024.
“Oka Masao in Wien: Ein japanisch-österreichischer Kulturkontakt mit Auswirkungen auf die japanische Ethnologie und die deutschsprachige Japanologie [Oka Masao in Vienna: A Japanese-Austrian Culture Contact with Repercussions on Japanese Ethnology and Germanophone Japanese Studies].” In Wissen über Wissenschaft: Felder – Formation – Mutation [Knowledge about Science: Fields – Formation – Mutation], edited by Manshu Ide, Haruyo Yoshida, and Shizue Hayashi, pp. 71–86. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 2021.
“Shinkoku no kyōkai: Susanoo to Nissen dōsoron ni tsuite” 神国の境界：スサノオと日鮮同祖論について. Aspekt (Rikkyō daigaku doitsu bungaku ronbunshū 立教大学ドイツ文学論文集), vol. 54 (2021), pp. 3–11.
“Founding Myths of the Japanese State: The Changing Perception of China and its Influence on Early Modern Japanese Identity.” In Religious Cultures in Asia: Mutual Transformations through Multiple Modernities. Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin University (2020), pp. 5–16.
[Translation of ]Taniguchi Masahiro 谷口雅博. “The Kojiki’s Worldview: Entangled Worlds of Gods and Humans” = 『古事記』の世界認識：交錯する神の世界と人の世界. Kokugakuin Japan Studies, vol. 1 (2020), pp. 5–24.
“Slaying the Serpent: Comparative Mythological Perspectives on Susanoo’s Dragon Fight.” Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University, vol. 3 (2018), pp. 1–20.
“Die politische Dimension der japanischen Mythologie: Forschung und Ideologie [The Political Dimension of Japanese Mythology: Scholarship and Ideology].” In Religion, Politik und Ideologie: Beiträge zu einer kritischen Kulturwissenschaft [Religion, Politics, and Ideology: Contributions to Critical Humanities], edited by Michael Wachutka, Monika Schrimpf, and Birgit Staemmler, pp. 338–349. Munich: Iudicium, 2018.
“How Quantitative Methods Can Shed Light on a Problem of Comparative Mythology: The Myth of the Struggle for Supremacy Between Two Groups of Deities Reconsidered.” In Maths Meets Myths: Quantitative Approaches to Ancient Narratives, edited by Ralph Kenna, Máirín Mac Carron and Pádraig Mac Carron, pp. 213–228. Cham: Springer, 2017.
Workshops and Panels Organized
International Workshop “Monotheism and Polytheism: Political Religion in Japan and Europe, 1600–1925” (together with Michael Mandelartz and Tsuji Tomoki). Meiji University, Tokyo, 15–16 October 2022.
Panel “Selektion, Übersetzung, Hybridisierung – japanisch-deutsche Wissenschaftskontakte, 1894–1935” [Selection, Translation, Hybridisation – Scholarly Exchange between Japan and Germany, 1894–1935]. 18. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag [18th Convention of German-speaking Japanologists]; University of Düsseldorf (online), August 26, 2022.
Panel “State Shintō in Korea: Discourse, Identity, Practice, and Landscape” (together with Juljan Biontino). Third EAJS Conference in Japan; University of Tsukuba, September 14, 2019.
International Workshop “Perceptions of the Cultural Other: Japanese Images of Korea—Korean Images of Japan”; University of Tübingen, February 16–17, 2018. Funded by Tübingen University’s Program for the Promotion of Junior Researchers (German Research Foundation, ZUK 63).
Invited Lectures
“Die Grenzen japanischer Identität – Susanoos Rolle in der politischen Mythologie Japans [Boundaries of Japanese Identity – Susanoo’s Role in the Political Mythology of Japan].” Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens [German East Asiatic Society], Tokyo, October 17, 2018.
“Kulturelle Wiege oder Kolonie? Koreabilder im Japan der Edo-Zeit [Cultural Cradle or Colony? Images of Korea in Tokugawa Japan].” Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, November 10, 2016.
Media
Interview (podcast): New Books Network, a discussion on The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory: Ancient Myths and Modern Empire (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Links: