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Toru Kiuchi

Nihon University

Tokyo, Japan

Japan Black Studies Association at Sixty: Recent Thirty Years, 1984-2014

I

In 1954, a group of leftist critics, led by Yoshitaka Nukina, formed the Association of

Negro Studies (Japan Black Studies Association [JBSA] since 1983) and began issuing a

journal, Negro Studies [Kokujin Kenkyu] (Black Studies since 1983). The association

played a leading role in African American studies in Japan since its foundation. Because

almost all of the members of the Association of Negro Studies lived in the Western part

of Japan, the monthly meeting began to be held in Kobe in June 1954. Tsunehiko Kato

provides various five “factors [which] converged to motivate Nukina to establish JBSA”1

as well as, in his essay, the association’s initial development in the 1960s and 1970s and

rough description of advancement in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. This article

consequently supplements Kato’s, focusing especially on the last thirty years of history

from 1984 to 2014.

II

The activities of JBSA had a sort of lull period from the late 1970s until the early part of

1980s, but the emergence of black women writers overcame it and opened a new stage

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for black literary studies. In 1983, for example, there was a sudden increase of

presentations on the works of African American and other minority women writers as

well as African women writers at the JBSA monthly meetings. In 1982 Maxine Hong

Kingston came to Kyoto to give a talk, entitled “The Perspective of Asian American

literature,” whose summary was published for the first time in the 1982 issue of Negro

Studies, 2 an Asian American literature studies group emerged among JBSA members.

In response to this, a symposium was held, focusing on the works of Toni Morrison, Alice

Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston at the 30th anniversary conference of JBSA in 1984.

It was the first attempt in Japan to highlight the emerging women writers, followed then

by a similar one at the American Literature Association conference in 1987 in Japan and

there appeared in Japan some English departments which would look for teachers who

could teach the works of black women writers.

During the 1980s, as Japanese women writers grew more conspicuous in

Japanese literature, the Japanese interest in African American literature drifted further

from Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Amiri Baraka into African

American women writers such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. The 1980s was an

important time for women writers both in Japan and America as well. In Japan, a great

many Japanese women writers were gaining prominence: Kunie Iwahashi (also a

reviewer of Morrison’s Tar Baby),3 Yoko Ogawa, Mieko Kanai, Satoko Kizaki, Fumiko

Kometani, Kazuko Saegusa,4 Nobuko Takagi, Machi Tawara (a Tanka poet), Yoko

Tawada, Kyoko Hayashi, Rieko Matsuura, Kiyoko Murata, Amy Yamada, and Banana

Yoshimoto (an author of the bestseller Kitchen). In the same way, Paule Marshall,

Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison were also receiving

much attention in the United States. In Japan, not only black fiction writers, but also

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African American women poets and juvenile literature novelists such as Audre Lorde and

Virginia Hamilton began to be closely discussed in several essays of the academic world.

In the 1980s a series of other Japanese translations of works by African American women

writers appeared: Maya Angelou’s Gather Together in My Name, in 1980; Nikki

Giovanni’s The Women and the Men, in 1980; Rosa Guy’s Ruby, in 1980, Edith Jackson,

in 1981, My Love, My Love or the Peasant Girl, in 1989; Virginia Hamilton’s M.C.

Higgins, the Great, in 1980, Arilla Sun Down, in 1985, The Planet of Junior Brown, in

1988; Alexis De Veaux’s Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday, in 1986, Remember

Him a[sic.] Outlaw, in 1982, and The Riddles of Egypt Brownstone, in 1982; Toni

Morrison’s Song of Solomon, in 1980 and Tar Baby, in 1985; Alice Walker’s The Color

Purple, in 1985, In Love & Trouble, in 1985, Meridian, in 1982, and You Can’t Keep a

Good Woman Down, in 1986.

One of the most important literary events in the early 1980s was the timely

publication of The Same Generation of Women Writers: The Collection of Black Women

Writers in America,5 a series of Japanese translations of works by African American

women from Asahi Shinbunsha Press, edited and translated by Kazuko Fujimoto. It

includes Alice Walker’s Meridian (1981), Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have

considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1981), Ellease Southerland’s Let the Lion

Eat Straw (1981), Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1981), Lucille Clifton’s essay

“Generations: A Memoir” and Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men (1981), Mary Helen

Washington’s Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds (1982), and Michele Wallace’s

Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1982). It was widely received by

Japanese women readers who, as gender minorities in Japan, needed to know what

happened to black women as an American minority. The editor Kazuko Fujimoto also

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published a series of interviews, Salt Eaters,6 which includes interviews with several

African American women in the United States, and also with Toni Cade Bambara, whose

novel gave the collection its title. This collection activated Japanese women’s interest

in and study of, black women.

What is of particular to the 1980s in Japan is the study of 19th-century African

American literature which began in earnest in that decade. Hisao Kishimoto’s essay

“Sutton Elbert Griggs: His Nationalism and Accommodationism”7 is the earliest close

study of Griggs’s four novels, Imperium in Imperio, Overshadowed, Unfettered, The

Hindered Hand, and Pointing the Way. 19th-century African American literature was,

until this time, an unexplored field in Japan although only one essay (Takao Kitamura,

“Beyond the Blues, I-XIV”)8 was written in 1969, only briefly referring to Griggs.

Hiromi Furukawa’s 1987 essay “Problems in Sutton E. Griggs’s Novels”9 is a result of

Furukawa’s further study. Atsuko Furomoto’s “A Poet with a Mask: A Note on Paul

Laurence Dunbar”10 was the first close study focusing only on Dunbar (the second is

Ouchi’s “On Paul Laurence Dunbar”11 in 1980), although there were a few essays only

referring to him. As for Chesnutt, before Seiji Kinugasa’s “Charles Chesnutt’s The

Marrow of Tradition”12 was written, the novelist was only briefly mentioned. Hiromi

Furukawa’s “Black American Literature at the Turn of the Century”13 is a representative

example of the pioneering study in Japan of the 19th-century African American writers.

So are Hisao Kishimoto’s essay “The Black Novelist Before the Civil War”14 and Hiroshi

Mitarai’s essay “Frank Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends: The Beginning of Black

Nationalism.”15 Among others, Tsunehiko Kato’s book The World of Black Women

Writers: Another Aspect of Modern America in Their Novels16 is a pioneering book-length

study of African American women writers, focusing on Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and

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Paule Marshall. Kato’s book provides a detailed plot summary of their novels and

greatly helps to cultivate Japanese readers’ interest in these early black writers.

JBSA entered on a new phase during the 1980s. After the first thirty years of

JBSA history were completed, the association celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its

foundation in 1984. It welcomed Senegalese film director and writer Sembène

Ousmane as a special guest at a JBSA monthly meeting on March 3, 1984 in Kyoto. The

30th anniversary annual conference, held in Kobe on June 30, 1984, features “Special

Session: Contemporary Afro-American and Asian-American Women Novelists” with

three speakers: Tsunehiko Kato’s “The Significance of Toni Morrison in the Works of

Contemporary Women Writers”; Atsuko Furomoto’s “‘Continuity’ and ‘Solidarity’: Alice

Walker’s Message”; and Teruyo Ueki’s “Maxine Hong Kingston: In Search of a New

Asian-American Image.” Also the 30th anniversary issue of Black Studies, published in

December 1984, has three overseas celebrating messages from Zeinabu Davis of the

African Activists Association, Bernice Alexander of the United States Southern Christian

Leadership Conference, and Jonathan A. Peters of African Literature Association. As

another activity besides African American studies, the African studies group held the first

meeting on September 16, 1984.

The first meeting of the African studies group resulted in the next year’s 31st

annual conference, held in Osaka on June 22, 1985, featuring a successful symposium on

“What Modern African Culture Means to Us” with four speeches: Shinjiro Kobayashi’s

“Ngugi wa Thiong’o: A New Man through Solidarity”; Yukihiko Kataoka’s “La Vie des

Femmes dans la Société Africaine: Quelques Réflexions Féministe d’après la Littérature

Africaine Moderne”; Gishin Kitajima’s “Mazisi Kunene and African Culture: Based on

His Ora-Literary Theory”; and Kenzo Tagawa’s “Kimbanguisme: Résistance sous la

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forme de prophétisme chrétien en Afrique colonial,” along with a commetary by Toru

Takahashi. After the annual conference, unfortunately Yoshitaka Nukina, one of the

leading JBSA founders and first president, died on October 14, 1985 at 74.

Expressing regret over the death of Nukina, the June 1986 issue of Black Studies

is a commemorative one of his death. The issue collects brief encouraging messages

from Barbara Christian, Angela Davis, Vincent Harding, June Jordan, Geta LeSeur,

Louisa Teish, and Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong. In the mid-1980s Alice Walker had quite a

serious impact on Japanese reader among other black women writers. When Japan had

a first-run showing of the film “The Color Purple” in 1986, Alice Walker’s work was

widely read among Japanese readers along with the film. The May 1, 1986 special issue

of A Tri-monthly of Cinema [Kinema Junpo] featured the film version of Walker’s The

Color Purple.17 The popular magazine is widely read among the young movie-goer

generation in Japan. Steven Spielberg’s other movies are especially popular and

influential to younger Japanese. As one can see from this, it is clear how deeply the

movie version and the novel itself stimulated Japanese’s interest in African American

culture.

Atsuko Furomoto’s book Afro-American Literature and Folklore18 is a rare study

of comparison between black writers such as Dunbar, Morrison, Hurston, Walker, and

Ellison, and folktales, music, and legends. Another contribution by Furomoto, translator

of Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, is her discovery of a Caribbean element in

Morrison and Marshall, discussed in one of her essays included in the book, “The

Perspective of the Caribbean: On the Treatment of Legends in Toni Morrison’s and Paule

Marshall’s Latest Novels.” Before her, no Japanese critic ever noticed a Caribbean

element in African American writers. She later spurred on the Caribbean studies in

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Japan by translating Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John and Lucy and writing an essay “Black

Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers.”19

The September 30, 1986 issue of American Literature [Amerika Bungaku],20 the

official bulletin for the Tokyo branch of the American Literature Society of Japan, also

featured “Black American Literature Today.” This special issue was devoted to the

proceedings of the symposium held at the regular meeting of the Tokyo branch of the

Society. The contributors discussed African American literature after Baldwin, African

American women writers after the 1960s, and African American theater after the 1970s.

One of them is Shuji Suzuki, a theater critic, who summarized a trend of African

American theater in the 1970s, examining Joseph Walker’s The River Niger, Ntozake

Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and

Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play. The Rising Generation [Eigo Seinen], one of Japan’s

foremost academic journals, featured a special number on today’s African American

women writers in 1987. This journal, one of the oldest in Japan, has been widely read

among college professors of English and literary critics in Japan, and has been influential

with the Japanese trend of British and American literary criticism. Among contributors

were Takeo Hamamoto generalizing the trend, Konomi Ara writing on Maya Angelou,

Atsuko Furomoto on Alice Walker, Yoshiko Okoso on Toni Morrison, and Hiroyasu

Yamada on Nikki Giovanni. Not only The Rising Generation [Eigo Seinen],21 but also

the May 2, 1987 issue of A Quarterly of New English and American Literary Studies

[Kikan Shin Eibei Bungaku]22 also featured a special number on Alice Walker. Since

the Richard Wright special issue of Negro Studies [Kokujin Kenkyu] in 1960,23 Alice

Walker is the second writer who was featured alone in the special issue of a Japanese

journal. Not any other black writers has been treated like this, not even James Baldwin

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nor Ralph Ellison.

When Sekio Koike’s study Slave Narrative: The United Sates, 1701-1865 [Dorei

Taikensha ni yoru Bungaku—Beikoku, 1701-1865] (Fukuoka: Omega Point Press, 1987)

was privately published in 1987 (reissued in 1993),24 the book should have come to public

notice but received scant attention. However, Koike, a specialist in slave narratives and

long-term JBSA member, holds a unique position among African American critics in

Japan. His large collection of published and unpublished slave narratives enabled him

to make a thorough study of the whole body of as many as seventy-three slave narratives.

Hiromi Furukawa’s 1989 study Afro-American Literary Study25 is his second book-length

study since 1973. His “Olauda Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life and the

Significance in the Times” is an essay where Equiano was for the first and last time

discussed except for Sekio Koike’s essays “Olaudah Equiano’s Autobiography”26 in 1974

and “Olaudah Equiano: The Prototypal Christian Abolitionist Transfigured from an

African Heathen”27 in 1979. Furukawa’s essay “The History of Black Studies in Japan”

in the volume is useful for an understanding how African American literature was

introduced to Japan.

On the other hand, the JBSA annual conference, held on June 27 and 28, 1987 in

Kyoto, has as a keynote speaker Lawrence H. Mamiya whose topic, “Black Christian

Churches: Their Important Roles throughout Black History,” along with other JBSA

members’ presentations on black music, the Caribbean culture, and American slavery.

In another way to celebrate the JBSA’s 30th foundation anniversary, the celebration edition

entitled Black Culture and Its Relevance to Us: An ‘Ark’ out into the 21st Century,28 a

collection of essays on African studies and African American literary studies, was

published from Mondosha Press in June 1987. The collection was based upon the essays

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presented at the 30th anniversary annual conference in 1984. The December 1987 issue

of Black Studies was published, collecting brief messages from Claude Clark, David

Dorsey, Gloria T. Hull, Elaine H. Kim, Leon F. Litwack, Lawrence H. Mamiya, Jerry W.

Ward, Jr., and Margaret B. Wilkerson.

During the 1980s and the 1990s black literary studies began to diversify into

several streams. Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall and then Tar Baby by

Toni Morrison attracted researchers into the Caribbean world. And the interest was

further fueled by the appearance of the immigrant writers from the Caribbean such as

Jamaica Kincaid in the middle of the 1980s and Edwidge Danticat in the early 1990s.

The study of the Caribbean writers then led them to the Caribbean immigrant writers in

the United Kingdom who appeared after World War II, that is, those of African descent

and Indian descent such as Caryl Phillips and V. S. Naipaul.

The 34th annual conference, held in Osaka in late June 1988, continues to take an

interest in African studies just like the 31st one, featuring a symposium on “Apartheid in

South Africa” with three presentations: “Alex La Guma and Apartheid” by Yoshiyuki

Tamada; “Religion and Apartheid” by Gishin Kitajima; and “Japan, Kenya, and Apartheid”

by G. C. Mwangi. The 1988 issue of Black Studies prints a brief saluting message from

Alexis Deveaux, who came to Japan for a lecture tour in Tokyo, Osaka, and Tokushima

between June 14 and 28, 1988.29

Besides the African studies group, another product of the diversification process

was the establishment of Asian American Literature Association (AALA) as an

independent Association in 1989. Most of its original members were active at JBSA

meetings and conferences, focusing on Asian Americans as their studies topic. Then

much later in 2005, Multi-Ethnic Studies Association (MESA) was established, which

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was born as a successor of JBSA Tokyo branch, whose initial meeting happened in 2000,

yet as an independent Association. As for the African American literary studies, the

study of Toni Morrison’s works has now acquired a position formerly held by that of

Richard Wright until late 1970s and a new light is now being shed upon relatively

unknown women writers in the Harlem Renaissance period. It should also be pointed

out that such diversification of study fields since the 1980s was greatly accelerated by the

increasing mobility of scholars across the national boundaries since the 1980s. During

this period, many members of JBSA began to participate in various international

conferences or stayed at various universities or research institutions, which helped them

update their knowledge in their fields or find new themes in their researches and find new

contacts and friends, which in turn contributed to the increase of scholars and writers

visiting Japan, often featuring the annual conferences as guest-speakers or keynote

speakers. From the late 1980s, as mentioned above, JBSA invited distinguished guests

almost every year at the annual conferences and at other opportunities: Lawrence H.

Mamiya of Religion in 1987; Alexis De Veaux, an African American woman poet from

New York in 1988; Johnnetta B. Cole, the first African American President of Spelman

College in 1989; and Gabriel Entiope from Martinique in 1990. Johnnetta Cole is a

guest speaker at the 35th JBSA annual conference, held in Kobe in late June 1989, giving

a keynote speech, “Race and Gender in My Life,” which was abstracted in the 1989 issue

of Black Studies published in June, also collecting brief messages from Nathan I. Huggins,

Ann Petry, Paule Marshall, and Gayl Jones.

As soon as the 1990s began, many more translations of African American writers’

works were published: Maya Angelou’s Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, in

1996; James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, in 1990; Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred,

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in 1991; Alex Haley’s A Different Kind of Christmas, in 1990; Virginia Hamilton’s Sweet

Whispers, Brother Rush, in 1992; Langston Hughes’s The Dream Keeper and Other

Poems, in 1994; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1995; Charles

Johnson’s Middle Passage, in 1995; Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, in 1993 and Kincaid

‘s Lucy, in 1993; Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, in 1990; Toni Morrison’s

Beloved, in 1990; Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, in 1992 and 1993;

Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy, in 1995; and Walker’s The Temple of My Familiar,

in 1990. In response to the latest trend of diverse minorities, the 36th JBSA annual

conference, held in Kobe in June 1990, opened with a special session, “Sound, Movement,

Pray: Dynamism in Caribbean Culture” with a keynote speech, “Quelques aspects de la

littérature carbéene” by Gabriel Entiope of Martinique College as well as five Japanese

speeches: “A General View on the Caribbean Sea Area” by Michiko Ishizuka;

“Cosmology among Dominican Farmers” by Nobukiyo Eguchi; “Oeah, Christianity,

Cult: Cosmology among Jamaican Black People” by Yoshiko Nagashima; “De la dance

des esclaves caribéens: forme de résistance” by Gabriel Entiope; “Social Commentary of

the Calypso” by Hiroyasu Yamada. Thus the Caribbean area studies began as a recent

trend among JBSA activities.

One of the characteristics of the literary criticism in Japan in the 1990s was that

scholars began to deal not only with the Caribbean studies but also with science fiction

as an academic subject. For that reason, among these publications mentioned above, the

translation of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred was noteworthy. Before then, the genre of

science fiction had been disregarded. The publication of Butler’s science fiction in

Japan helped to lead ordinary readers and literary critics in Japan to treat Butler and

Samuel R. Delany as academic subjects, who had until then been regarded as popular

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fiction writers. Takayuki Tatsumi’s essay “A Manifesto of Cyborg-Feminism: Samuel

Delany”30 illustrates this change well.

In the 1990s almost all of the important African American literature can be read

in Japanese. Tsunehiko Kato’s second book-length study Black American Women

Writers discusses Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Naylor. All of the major

African American women writers were studied in his two books from the late 1980s

through the early 1990s.

The 1990 monumental publication of Our Alice Walker: For All the Women on

the Earth32, edited by Kazuko Kawachi, is the first and only book-length collection of

translated and original critical essays on Walker in Japan. The boom in the study of

black women that Japan has experienced since the late 1970s has reached its climax with

this publication. Especially notable in the collection is Emiko Chikappu’s (an Ainu

woman, a minority in Japan) interpretation of The Color Purple.

The symposium “Are African American Women’s Writings Protest Literature?”

were held at the annual meeting of the Tokyo branch of the American Literature Society

of Japan in 1990. This is the second symposium since the 1986 “Black American

Literature Today” symposium of the same Society. The speakers were Atsuko Furomoto

on Octavia Butler, Kazuko Kawachi on Alice Walker, and Yoshiko Okoso on Toni

Morrison. All the presentations were published in American Literature [Amerika

Bungaku], an organ for the branch.33 Even though the organization is only a branch of

the Society, the symposium is well documented and disseminated throughout Japan. On

the other hand, the 37th JBSA annual conference, held in Kyoto on June 22 and 23, 1991,

features a keynote speech, “Socio-Political Concerns in Contemporary African Theatre”

by Oluremi Omodele, Professor at Osaka University for Foreign Studies. The Japan

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Afro-American Friendship Association was introduced at the conference for the first time.

Two years after the meeting of the American Literature Society Tokyo branch,

the 64th annual meeting of English Literary Association of Japan held a special session

“Today’s African American Women Writers” at Seinan Gakuin University, Kyushu in

May 1992. The speakers included Takeo Hamamoto presiding, Konomi Ara on women

writers and the South, Atsuko Furomoto on the Caribbean women writers, and Ikuko

Fujihira on Toni Morrison. Along with JBSA, the Association is one of the oldest and

most authoritative literary body with a membership of more than 8,000. It is not an

exaggeration to say that almost all of the college professors of English in Japan are

members of this Association. When the Association took up the subject of African

American women writers, it meant that the status of African American women writers

seemed important to all college professors and literary critics of American literature. In

particular, JBSA member Sekio Koike’s foundation in 1991 of a quarterly The Encounter

with God: American Slave Literature, 1701-1865 [Kami tono Sogu--Amerika Dorei

Bungaku no Ichitokushitsu, 1701-1865] deserves more attention. As mentioned above,

Koike, a specialist in slave narratives, devoted his private pamphlet-form quarterly only

to slave narratives. His project started in the early 1970s, and since then he has

continued to introduce slave narratives to the Japanese audience.

Bibliographies of major African American writers in Japan, with or without

annotations, fully appeared all together until 1992 in JBSA’s Black Studies and other

journals: Jean Toomer,34 Richard Wright,35 Alice Walker,36 James Baldwin,37 major

women writers,38 and Langston Hughes.39 The basic research material for the study of

African American writers was ready for Japanese scholars, almost all of whom are JBSA

members, and stimulated Japanese students of African American literature into more

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activity. Today many reviewers and critics have a tendency to specialize in specific

African American areas or writers and the same names often recur. To name a few,

Mitsuo Akamatsu on black theater, Hiromi Furukawa on the Japanese reception of

African American literature, Tadatoshi Saito on African American literary history, Sekio

Koike on slave narratives, Takao Kitamura and Hajime Kijima on Langston Hughes,

Hiroyasu Yamada on black poetry and music, Atsuko Furomoto on Afro-Caribbean

Writers, Tsunehiko Kato on black women writers, Juichi Mizuta and Noboru Matsumoto

on James Baldwin, Hisao Kishimoto on 19th-century African American literature, Takeo

Hamamoto, Toru Kiuchi, and Yoshiyuki Tamada on Richard Wright, Yoshiko Okoso on

Toni Morrison, and Kayoko Terayama on Jean Toomer. These specialists often include

comparisons of different African American authors within their essays, although many

also employ comparisons with European American or African authors.

In the compilation of these bibliographies, they have not listed reactions to

political, sociological, and historical studies, except those pertaining Frederick Douglass,

Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

They seem to warrant an exception for historical reasons, although they are political

leaders rather than literary figures. The use of “Negro,” “black” (capitalized or not),

“Afro-American,” and “African American” pertains to the Japanese author’s intentions

and to the historical usage of those terms.

JBSA still keep having an interest in the African studies by holding the 38th

annual conference in Kyoto in June 1992 with a keynote speech, “Peace Studies, Africa,

and Japan” by G. C. Mwangi of Shikoku Gakuin University. The 1991 issue of Black

Studies features Atsuko Furomoto’s Japanese translation of an interview with philosopher

Bob Higgins, conducted by Gayl Jones, and Keiko Ochiai’s obituary for Darwin T. Turner

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who died on February 11, 1991.40

When the unabridged version of the translation of The Autobiography of

Malcolm X41 was published in 1993, Spike Lee’s film “Malcolm X” was also put on the

screen. The autobiography, according to the publisher, coupled with the film, has

attained a sale of 80,000 copies since its publication. This is the first time that an African

American author’s book has been so widely read especially among the younger

generation in Japan. The 39th annual conference, held in Kyoto in June 1993, features a

keynote speech, “Japanese Influence on American Racial Policy” by Reginald Kearney

of Obirin College, along with a special session in response to the boom of Malcolm X,

“Malcolm X Reconsidered” with three presentations: “Malcom X and the Problem of The

Autobiography” by Takeo Hamamoto; “Black Culture and Malcolm X” by Hiroyasu

Yamada; and “Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Kazuko Nakajima.” The 1993

issue of Black Studies carries essays on Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and South Africa.

Then a drastic change happened in 1993 when Toni Morrison won a Nobel Prize

in literature as the first African American writer: at the American Literature Association’s

National Conference held immediately after it, a room for a panel on Toni Morrison’s

works was for the first time packed with audience. Furomoto and Kato who were the

moderators of the panel felt that at last the study of African American literature was

recognized as a legitimate field of study in American literature. As with the Morrison

studies, book after book followed in quick succession: Yoshiko Okoso’s Toni Morrison’s

Creation and Literature of Liberation;42 Ikuko Fujihira’s Toni Morrison’s Literature:

Patchwork Quilt of Carnival Colors,43 and Tsunehiko Kato’s The World of Toni Morrison:

In Search of the Unspoken Unspeakable.44

As cultural exchange between Japan and America, more African American

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writers as well as American scholars specializing in African American studies begin to

come to Japan. In 1994 at the 40th foundation anniversary of JBSA held in Kobe,

prominent guest-speakers were invited: Ronald T. Takaki, a pioneer in the ethnic studies;

Paule Marshall, a writer; and Ali Jimale Ahmed, a Somalian poet and a scholar. The

year 1995 falls on the 100th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s death, so the 41st JBSA

annual conference, held in Kobe in July, has a forum “For 100th Anniversary of Frederick

Douglass’s Death” with three presentations: “Right Is of No Sex…Truth Is of No Color:

Frederick Douglass and Women’s Right Movement” by Setsuko Miyai; “Frederick

Douglas and Religion in Slavery” by Koji Takenaka; and “Frederick Douglass in Plays”

by Mitsuo Akamatsu. A notable publication by JBSA members during this period

includes Minoru Suda’s African American Thought and Literature.45 Apart from

publications by JBSA members, the voluminous The Complete History of Africa [Africa

Zenshi],46 laboriously written by Kunio Nasu, a compiler of The African Almanac since

1971, was published.

Well-known African American writers and scholars still continue to come to

Japan in the 1990s. Ishmael Reed’s “From Totem to Rap: Literature across the

Americas,” whose transcript was published in translation in Black Studies (December

1996),47 is a keynote speech at the 42nd annual JBSA conference held in June 1996 in

Kobe. In 1997, as a reaction to the prevailing discourse concerning people of African

diaspora among Japanese scholars, a symposium “Transatlantic Voices: African

American, Caribbean, and African Black Novels in the 1990s” with three presentations:

Atsuko Furomoto’s “Paule Marshall, Daughters (1991) and the Technique of

‘Juxtaposition’; Shin Yamamoto’s “Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) and

Its Creolized Memories”; and Gishin Kitajima’s “Ben Okri, Astonishing the Gods (1995)

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and His Subjective Grasp of Reality” at the 43rd annual conference held in Kyoto in June

1997. Barbara Christian, a pioneer of Black women literary feminism, was a guest

speaker at the Kyoto Seminar at Ritsumeikan University in 1998 and JBSA members

played a key role in inviting her and held a panel on her. An significant publication

concerning the history and society of African Americans includes: Hayumi Higuchi’s

African Americans and the Industry in the North: The Formation of Racial Consciousness

between Two World Wars48 directs a new spotlight on African American political leaders

between World War I and II. The Harlem Renaissance was also considered another

neglected topic in Japan. Accordingly, “The Harlem Renaissance Reconsidered” with

four speeches: Yoko Mitsuishi’s “James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-

Colored Man and the Harlem Renaissance”; Hisao Kishimoto’s “The Harlem

Renaissance: The Problems of the Re-examination”; Noboru Yamashita’s “Jessie Fauset

Reconsidered”; and Yumiko Takema’s “Fire!!: Young Artists of the Harlem Renaissance”

at the 44th 1998 annual conference held in Kyoto in June 1998.

“The Black Liberation Movement in the 20th Century: Du Bois, Garvey, Padmore,

and Their Cultural Heritage in Our Times” is a new issue and session title at the 45th

annual JBSA conference held in Nara in June 1999 with three papers: Tsunehiko Kato’s

“Heritage of W. E. B. Du Bois and the role of the Black Intelligentsia”; Hiroyasu

Yamada’s “Garvey’s Movement in Its Early Years”; and Takashi Okakura’s “Pan-

Africanism and Black Liberation,” also featuring a keynote speech, Ronald Kent

Richardson’s “Race Men: Martin Delany, Alexander Crummell, and Edward Wilmot

Blyden Imagining the Racial Nation.” Publication by Japanese scholars went borderless

since it becomes easier for Japanese scholars to begin to publish books from American

and other foreign overseas publishers: Aoi Mori, a JBSA member, published Toni

Kiuchi 18

Morrison and Womanist Discourse (New York: Peter Lang, 1999).

As mentioned above, diverging from JBSA was Asian American Literature

Association, established in 1989 and Multi-Ethnic Studies Association, established in

2005, which originated from the first JBSA Tokyo branch’s monthly meeting in Tokyo

held at Aoyama Gakuin University on July 15, 2000. MESA members are specializing

not only in African American studies, but also in Asian American, Native American, and

other minority studies. The JBSA holds the 46th annual conference in Nara in June 2000,

featuring a special session: Reginald Kearney’s “One America: An Elusive Dream?” and

Gordon Mwangi’s “Du Bois’s Prophecy in the 21st Century: Focus on Britain and

Zimbabwe.”

As the age of globalization and the Internet progresses after 2000, JBSA goes

more and more international, continuing to invite more noticeable foreign writers and

scholars at monthly meetings and annual conferences. The 47th JBSA annual conference,

held in Nara in June 2001, for example, such as Selwyn Cudjoe of Wellesley College with

his keynote speech, “Caribbean Literature and Identity,” and Michael Lynch of Shimane

University (Kent State University) with his speech, “Richard Wright’s ‘The Man Who

Lived Underground’: A Key to His Evolving Vision.” In 2002, JBSA’s 48th annual

conference, held in Kobe in June, invited Keith Byerman of Inidiana State University

with a keynote speech entitled “Autoethnography,” dealing with autobiographies written

by African American scholars, such as Henry Louis Gates’s Colored People: A Memoir,

Michael Awkward’s Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir, and Robert B. Stepto’s Blues as the

Lake: A Personal Geography. The new trend stimulates Japanese scholars into being

aware of special elements in academic lives of African American scholars different from

white scholars.49 As globalization itself advances widely as a conference theme among

Kiuchi 19

Japan’s associations, JBSA’s 48th annual conference chooses “Black Literature and

Globalization” as a general conference theme, presenting three papers: Gishin Kitajima’s

“African Literature and Globalization, Reconciliation of Indigenous Culture with

Christianity in The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong’o”; Tsunehiko Kato’s “Caryl

Phillips’s ‘Crossing the River’ and Slave Trade and Slavery in Cambridge: Capitalist

Rationalism and Racism”; and Shizuyo Yoshioka’s “Translation and Compilation

Activities by Langston Hughes and Globalization.”

Except for a Tokyo branch’s meeting, JBSA usually and traditionally holds

annual conferences in the western part of Japan, such as Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe.

However, as JBSA members are no longer limited to the western part, annual conferences

begin to be held across the nation. In 2003, the 49th annual conference is held for the

first time in Eniwa, Hokkaido, a northern island. The important addition to the black

studies in Japan is Toru Kiuchi’s, Yoshinobu Hakutani’s, and Robert J. Butler’s The

Critical Response in Japan to African American Writers (New York: Peter Lang, 2003).

And the year 2004 marks the 50th anniversary of the foundation of JBSA,

inviting Keith Byerman of Indiana State University again and five other scholars

specializing in African American and Caribbean studies. The conference is held in

Kobe with a round table entitled “African American Language, Society, and Culture”

consisting of six presentations: “The Poetics Nature: Richard Wright’s Haiku, Zen, and

Lacan” by Yoshiobu Hakutani; “Most Worthy of the Prize: The Significance of Toni

Morrison and the Nobel Prize in Literature” by Wilfred Samuels; “W. E. B. Du Bois

Today” by Keith Byerman; “Recent Aspects of African American Studies: Lasting

Contributions and Future Consideration” by Marci Littlefield; “Unforgettable Voices

from the Caribbean” by Daryl Dance; and “Gospel Music: A Changing Beat: A Constant

Kiuchi 20

Theology” by Deborah Pollard. Allen Nelson’s “On the War as a Black Soldier” is

another keynote speech. On the other hand, Japanese JBSA member scholars hold an

anniversary symposium entitled “The Black Studies in the 21st Century: The Future of

the African, African American, and Caribbean Studies” featuring four speeches by

Tsunehiko Kato, Shin Yamamoto, Yoko Mitsuishi, and Kyoko Takami. JBSA also

published The World of Black Studies (Tokyo: Seiji Shobo Press, 2004) to commemorate

the 50th anniversary of its association. The year’s remarkable publication by JBSA

members includes Hiromi Furukawa’s and Tetsushi Furukawa’s Japanese and African

Americans.50

After 2005, one theme which underlay the recent conferences whose annual

topics and guest-speakers are listed in the conference programs in English on JBSA

website was to explore the roots of black studies in countries other than the United States

or Africa. The 51st annual conference, held in Kyoto in June 2005, features the special

session “Civil Rights Movement and the 21st Century” with a keynote speech, “The

‘History’ of Civil Rights Movement” by Ken Chujo (Obirin College), along with a

presentation of a film, “Civil Rights Movement” (1987), with a special session, “Civil

Rights Movement and Racal Problems: A Legacy of Civil Rights Movement in the Sally

Hemmings Issue” by Yoriko Ishida; “The Influence of Civil Rights Movement on Popular

Music: Integrationism and Separatism” by Yoshinao Hirao; “Gender Issue in Civil Rights

Movement: The Effect of Women-Participating Movement” by Reiko Ueda. For that

purpose, at the annual conference in 2006, Kitajima Gishin, former President of JBSA,

invited Lee Yu-chen from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica to make a keynote speech. A

notable publication in the year is Hitoshi Namekata’s Ernest J. Gaines, David Bradley,

Richard Wright: Narrative of Memory and Memory of Narrative (Tokyo: Nan’undo,

Kiuchi 21

2005).

The 52nd annual conference, held in Kyoto in late June 2006, features “Black

Studies from a Global Perspective” with a keynote speech, “Asianising African American

Studies” by Lee Yu-cheng, and another international session: “African American Studies

in the Global Perspective” with speakers Keith Byerman of Indiana State University forth

the third time, Loretta G. Woodard of Marygrove College, and Georgina Dodge of Ohio

State University. The year 2006’s important publications by JBSA members include

Shoshi Matsumoto’s Presents from Africa: Another World [Afurika kara no Okurimono—

Mo Hitotsu no Sekai] (Sapporo: Sapporo Kokusai Rentai Kenkyukai, 2006), Noboru

Matsumoto’s three books, African American Handy Encyclopedia [African American

Handy Jiten] (Tokyo: Nan’undo Press, 2006), Wood, Water, and Sky: From the Ethnic

Horizon [Ki to Mizu to Sora—Esunikku no Chihei] (Tokyo: Kinseido Press, 2006), and

(co-editors Junichi Kimizuka and Erika Udono) Hurston, Walker, Morrison: The Point

and Line that Solidify African American Women Writers [Hurson, Walker, Morrison—

African America jin Josei Sakka wo Tsunagu Ten to Sen] (Tokyo: Nanundo Phoenix,

2006).

The JBSA African studies group turns the 53rd JBSA annual conference, held in

Kyoto in late 2007, into an African studies one, selecting “Africa in Half a Century: What

We Can Learn from Them” as a conference topic, presenting four papers: “Memory, Past,

and Africa in the History of the World in Praise of Its 50th Anniversary of Its

Independence” by Katsuhiko Kitagawa, President of Japan African Studies Association;

“Africa Speaking of HIV/Aids: Film, Play, and Literature” by Machiko Ohike; “Ngugi

wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow and Pan-Africanism” by Shinjiro Kobayashi;

“Globalization and Africa: The Emergence of Africanness” by Shoshi Matsumoto. Two

Kiuchi 22

commentators are presented: G. C. Mwangi (Shikoku Gakuin University) and Gishin

Kitajima. A special talk is given: “Images of Africa in Contemporary African American

Fiction” by Keith Byerman (Indiana State University) for the fourth time. 2007 sees the

publication of a unique book, Michiko Yoshida’s Beloved (Tokyo: Minerva Shobo, 2007),

a historical study guide for students of Morrison’s novel.

JBSA members made their utmost exertions to invite Cornel West (at the

invitation of Azusa Nishimoto) and Caryl Phillips (at the invitation of Tsunehiko Kato)

to Japan prior to the 54th JBSA annual conference. “Peace and Wright” are key words

for the annual conference, held for the first time in Hiroshima in late June 2008, selecting

“Blacks Studies and Peace” as a general conference theme with a key note speaker:

Valerie Smith of Princeton University, “Civil Rights/Human Rights” and a special

session, “Black Studies and Peace: A Dialogue across the Border.” Another special

session for the 54th annual conference is one for the 100th anniversary of Richard Wright’s

birth in concert with identical overseas activities, such as Paris, Natchez, Mississippi, and

other places, consisting of three speeches: “Re-considering the Symbolism of the Furnace

in Native Son” by Masatsugu Oitate”; “Richard Wright’s Haiku, Zen, and the African

‘Primal Outlook upon Life’” by Yoshinobu Hakutani; “Richard Wright and the Culture

of Auto/Biography” by Maryemma Graham of University of Kansas; and a special talk,

“From Native Son to the Haiku: A Spiritual Journey in the Life of Richard Wright” by

Julia Wright, a daughter of Richard Wright. A notable publication in terms of black

British studies is Tsunehiko Kato’s The World of Caryl Philips: Black British Literature

Now [Caryl Phillips no Sekai—Black British Bungaku no Ima] (Tokyo: Sekai Shisosha

Press, 2008); and Konami Ara’s Ralph Ellison and Individuality [in English] (Tokyo:

Nan’undo, 2008).

Kiuchi 23

The year 2008 is also an important one in another way, marking the election of

Barack Obama as the first African American U. S. President. In response to this unusual

historical event, the topic of JBSA’s 55th annual conference, held in Kyoto in late June

2009, is immediately agreed upon “The Birth of a New American President: A

Background and the Meaning,” inviting Fanon Che Wilkins, whose topic is “From

Fractals To Facebook: Rethinking Black Studies in the Age of Obama,” presenting a

special screening of “The Victory Speech by Newly-Selected President Obama” (Nov.

2008) and “President Obama’s Inauguration Speech” (January 2009). Also presented is

“Perfect Storm: Obama Phenomenon and Black America New Era” by Misuzu Sato, a

Japanese journalist living in the United States. A significant publication by a JBSA

member includes Aoi Mori’s To Read Toni Morrison’s Paradise: African American’s

History and Artistic Creativity [Toni Morrison’s Paradise wo Yomu—African American

no Rekishi to Geijutsuteki Sozoryoku] (Tokyo: Sairyusha, 2009).

In 2010, JBSA’s annual conference moved to Okinawa for the first time, focusing

on the analogy between African Americans and Okinawa, Japan. The 56th annual

conference there, held in June, has a general topic, “Okinawa and Japan/World from a

Black Studies Perspective,” presenting three speeches: Peter Simpson’s “Okinawa and

Africa”; Shin Yamamoto’s “Okinawa and the Caribbean”; and Masatsugu Oitate’s

“Okinawa and America,” with a commentator, Makoto Niigaki. The March 2010 issue

of Black Studies is the “Post-Soul Aesthetic” special issue, carrying five essays by Toru

Kiuchi, Yoko Mitsuishi, Azusa Nishimoto, Shin Yamamoto, and Sachi Nakachi along

with Fumiko Sakashita’s translation of Nelson George’s chronology of Post-Soul culture.

The year also sees the publication of a unique book on the code-breaking in a Gospel

song: Tsutomu Masuko’s A Secret Code of a Gospel Song: A Secret Organization

Kiuchi 24

“Underground Railroad” and an Enigma of Runaway Slaves [Gospel no Ango—Himitsu

Soshiki “Chika Tetsudo” to Tobo Dorei no Nazo] (Tokyo: Shodensha, 2010).

Among JBSA members, by the way, the discourse has emerged concerning what

the newly-established definition of black studies would be clarified in general, because

the discipline of black studies is no longer explored from the view of the United States

alone but also from perspectives of Asia, Europe, and other areas since the twenty-first

century set about in the wake of the creation of new interdisciplinary studies. JBSA

members reached the conclusion and consensus that “it is an interdisciplinary academic

field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of concerning not only people

of African descent in the United States, but the entire people of African diaspora.”51

They understand that the field now includes scholars of African-American literature,

history, politics, religion and religious studies, sociology, and many other disciplines

within the humanities and social sciences. Programs and departments of African

American studies were first created in the 1960s and 1970s at San Francisco State College

and other institutions around the nation in subsequent years. Over forty years passed

since then and the field does not belong to the United States alone but to all scholars in

the world. In fact, the JBSA’s activities have lasted for almost sixty years, quite a few

scholars earned a Ph.D.in black studies in Korea and China, and the European-based

scholars specializing in so-called black studies formed the Collegium of African

American Research (CAAR), which was founded at the University of the Sorbonne

Nouvelle in 1992. As the CAAR Website says, the collegium is “a financially

independent, international, professional organization of African-American Studies and

Black Diaspora scholars from over 25 countries.”52 And then JBSA starts to reconsider

the meaning of black studies from viewpoints of Japan, Asia, and Europe, not of the

Kiuchi 25

United States.

To begin with, Japanese scholars specializing in African, African American, and

other minority studies, especially JBSA members, are well aware of the advent of the

globalization age since the twenty-first century began, so the topic of the 2011 JBSA

annual conference in Kyoto was agreed upon “Black Studies and Globalization,” and

scholars were invited not only from the United States but also from the United Kingdom

and Taiwan who participated in it. However, unfortunately due to the tsunami and

earthquake that hit the Northeastern Japan in March 2011, the 57th annual conference,

which was supposed to be held at the Tokyo area, had to move to usual Kyoto only three

months after the disaster. The conference selected “Black Studies in the Age of

Globalization” as a general. Owing to overseas support for the natural disaster in Japan,

JBSA was able to welcome four speakers: Nahum Chandler (University of California-

Berkeley, USA), “The Problem of the Centuries: Or, W. E. B. Du Bois and ‘The Problem

of the Color Line’ in the 21st Century”; John McLeod (University of Leeds, UK),

“Contemporary Black Writing of Britain: Beyond Race and Nation”; Amritjit Singh

(Ohio University, USA), “Challenges of Migration and Citizenship: African Americans

and Asian Americans”; and Lee Yu-cheng (Academia Sineca, Taiwan), “Doing Things

with African American Studies in Taiwan: Some Critical Reflections.” It is noteworthy

that Kumiko Tanaka’s Dwelling on James Baldwin (Tokyo: Eihosha, 2011) was

published, which shows that the author is still well read as far as black studies in Japan is

concerned.

Japanese scholars’ interest in Toni Morrison is steadily getting keener and keener

even twenty years after she won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993. One of the latest

examples is Michiko Okuno’s Toni Morrison: A Creative Conjurer [Toni Morrison—

Kiuchi 26

Sosaku no Majutsushi] (Osaka: Osaka Public University Joint Press, 2011). Because of

a lot of energy with time-consuming preparation for an international conference, JBSA

decided not to invite foreign scholars in 2012 but to turn their thoughts inward in

introspection. Accordingly, the general topic for the 58th annual conference, held in late

June 2012 in Tokyo, was unanimously decided as “How to Read Toni Morrison” in order

to reconsider Morrison from a Japanese perspective. It was presided over by Aoi Mori,

Meiji Gakuin University, with three speakers: Yuko Tokisato, “Make Me, Remake Me:

Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Earlier Works with a Reconsideration of Jazz”; Azusa

Nishimoto, “The Endless Work to Do Down Here in Paradise: Morrison after the

Reception of the Nobel Prize for Literature”; Keiko Miyamoto, “Call and

Response―Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Beloved, the Case of Kara Walker”; and a commentator

by Yoshiko Okoso, a well-known Morrison translator.

In 2013, continued from the 2011 discourse among JBSA member scholars

regarding the black studies from global perspectives other than the United States, JBSA

invites four Asians: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese scholars specializing in

black studies. Thus the 59th annual conference of JBSA in June 2013 in Chiba (next to

Tokyo) features a session, “Black Studies from Asian Perspectives,” welcoming Jade Lee

(National Kaoshiung Normal University, Taiwan), with a speech title, “‘Folds to Infinity

(Plis à l’infini)’: Black Studies in Taiwan”; Seongho Yoon (Hanyang University, Korea),

with a speech title, “What Does It Mean to Read African American Literature in Korea in

the Age of Transnationalism”; John Zheng (Mississippi Valley State University, U.S.A.),

with a speech title “An Overview of African American Literature Studies in China”; and

Tsunehiko Kato (Ritsumeikan University, Japan), with a speech title, “Black Studies from

a Japanese Perspective.” The respondent was Garcia Chambers (Toyo University,

Kiuchi 27

Japan), chaired by Shin Yamamoto (Yokkaichi University, Japan).

The year 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of JBSA’s foundation, continuously

focusing on “Black Studies from Global Perspectives Other Than the United States” with

a general topic, “Rethinking Black Studies from Global Perspectives: Historical Origins,

Developments and Present States” with keynote speeches: “Afrocentricity and Culture:

Challenging the Inhuman in Contemporary Ideas” by Molefi Kete Asante, Editor of

Journal of Black Studies, Temple University (U.S.A.); and “Looking Back, Looking

Forward: Commemorating Milestones and Charting A Future for Black Studies” by

James Peterson, Lehigh University. It is worthy to note that this is the first time that

the JBSA annual conference has been open to international scholars to present their papers

under the general theme: Kathryn Gines (Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A.), Tamara

Roberts (University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.), Rashida K. Braggs (Williams

College, U.S.A.), Richard K. Merritt (Luther College, U.S.A.), Sebastian Weier

(University of Bremen, Germany), Tazalika M.te Reh (TU Dortmund University,

Germany), Sarita Nyasha Cannon (San Francisco State University, U.S.A.), and Koen

Potgieter (Freie Universitat, Germany). To commemorate the 60th anniversary from the

Japanese viewpoint, JBSA also organized a special session, “Reconsidering the Civil

Rights Movement from (Trans-)Pacific Perspectives,” coordinated and presided over by

Fumiko Sakashita (Ritsumeikan University, Japan), with four speeches: “S. I. Hayakawa

and the Civil Rights Era” by Yusuke Torii, Setsunan University, Japan; “Reconsidering

the U.S. Military Occupation of Japan in the Context of African American History” by

Yasuhiro Okada, Nagoya University for Foreign Studies, Japan; “Yoriko Nakajima’s

Black Political Thought: Reasoning with the Long Movement Thesis” by Yuichiro Onishi,

University of Minnesota, U.S.A.; and respondent: Ayumu Kaneko, Meiji University,

Kiuchi 28

Japan. Latest publications regarding African American studies in Japan are no longer

limited to the Japanese audience: two good examples are books by Tsuchiya and Kiuchi.53

III

In the past thirty years there has been a steady increase of Japanese scholars specializing

in black studies not only among JBSA members but also non-member scholars. The

emergence of black women writers, especially Toni Morrison, in the early 1980s bears a

play in the increase. Similarly, in those days powerful new women writers was on the

rise in Japan. As women writers rose in the United States and Japan, the interest of the

Japanese black studies scholars moved from Wright, Baldwin, Ellison to Morrison,

Walker, and Hurston. It is also noticeable that Japanese scholars’ interest in 19th century

African American literature and culture deepened in the 1980s and that well-known

African and African Americans started to come to Japan to associate with Japanese

scholars although it was hardly possible for them to go abroad and for Japanese to go

outside of Japan in the 1970s. At the same time JBSA was helpful to stimulate the

African studies in Japan after the 30th anniversary of its foundation. Black studies

started to divide into some groups during the 1980s and the 1990s: African, Asian

American, Caribbean, and other minorities studies. Established as a branch of JBSA

were Asian American Literature Association (1989) and Multi-Ethnic Studies

Association (2005).

Characteristic in the 1990s is JBSA’s interest in African American science fiction

writers as well as in African American women writers. Basic tools for literature,

bibliographies and translations, are complete for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and

Kiuchi 29

Malcolm X as certain critics have a tendency to specialize in specific African American

areas or writers. Similarly, JBSA invite prominent African American writers and

scholars as guest speakers, such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Sembène Ousmane, Lawrence

Mamiya, Alexis De Veaux, Johnnetta Cole, Paule Marshall, Ishmael Reed, Barbara

Christian, and Ronald Takaki.

During the 2000s, as the age of globalization comes, more international

exchange takes place. Lee Yu-cheng, Caryl Phillips, Keith Byerman, Daryl Dance,

Wilfred Samuels, Yoshinobu Hakutani, Maryemma Graham, Julia Wright, Cornel West,

James Peterson, Molefi Kete Asante are invited to Japan as guest speakers. Among

JBSA members, there breaks out an influential opinion that it is black studies should be

explored from a global perspective, not from the United States one only, especially an

Asian perspective first, then from perspective other than the United States. The black

studies in Japan also respond to Post-Soul Aesthetic, a new trend in the United States.

2004 marks the sixtieth anniversary of JBSA’s foundation and the association reexamines

black studies from global perspectives other than the United States.

Notes

1. Tsunehiko Kato, “The History of Black Studies in Japan: Origin and

Development,” Journal of Black Studies 44 (2013): 829-45.

2. Ueki Teruyo, “The Perspective of Asian American literature,” Negro Studies 52

(June 1982): 9-11.

3. Kunie Iwahashi, “Creating a World of Fiction.” Asahi Journal 7 (25) (Jun. 14,

1985): 69-70.

4. Kazuko Saegusa, “The Prototype of a Woman.” Umi [The Sea] 155 (Mar. 1,

Kiuchi 30

1982): 269-70.

5. Kazuko Fujimoto, ed. The Same Generation of Women Writers: The Collection

of Black Women Writers in America [Onna tachi no Dojidai—Hokubei Kokujin Josei

Sakkasen] (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha Press, 1982-1983).

6. Kazuko Fujimoto, Salt Eaters [Shio wo Kuu Onna Tachi] (Tokyo: Shobunsha,

1982).

7. Hisao Kishimoto, “Sutton Elbert Griggs: His Nationalism and

Accommodationism, I, II” [in English], Bulletin of Soka University School of Liberal Arts

[Soka Daigaku Ippan Kyoikubu Ronshu] 6 (Feb. 1982): 57–65; 7 (Feb. 1983): 11–20.

8. Takao Kitamura, “Beyond the Blues, I-XIV: Literature American Negroes

Produced,” Korea Hyoron [Korean Review] 9 (80) (Nov. 1, 1967) to 11 (95) (Feb. 1, 1969).

9. Hiromi Furukawa, “Problems in Sutton E. Griggs’s Novels,” Kyoto Women’s

College English Literature Treatises [Kyoto Joshi Daigaku Eibungaku Ronso] 31 (Dec.

10, 1987): 19-36.

10. Atsuko Furomoto, “A Poet with a Mask: A Note on Paul Laurence Dunbar,”

Cariban 10 (Feb. 25, 1976): 9-21.

11. Giichi Ouchi, “On Paul Laurence Dunbar,” Waseda University General Studies

[Waseda Daigaku Kyoyo Shogaku Kenkyu] 61–63 (Mar. 1, 1980): 189–206.

12. Seiji Kinugasa, “Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition,” Negro

Studies [Kokujin Kenkyu] 45 (Jun. 20, 1973): 13, 14–16.

13. Hiromi Furukawa, “Black American Literature at the Turn of the Century, I, II,”

Bulletin of Ritsumeikan University Institute of Humanity Studies [Ritsumeikan Daigaku

Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyujo Kiyo] 37 (Mar. 20, 1984): 31–41; 45 (Mar. 15, 1988): 1–31.

14. Hisao Kishimoto, “The Black Novelist Before the Civil War, II” [in English],

Kiuchi 31

Bulletin of Soka University School of Liberal Arts [Soka Daigaku Ippan Kyoikubu

Ronshu] 3 (Mar. 1979): 55–64.

15. Hiroshi Mitarai, “Frank J. Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends: The Beginning

of Black Nationalism,” Annals of Kita Kyushu University Department of Foreign

Languages [Kita Kyushu Daigaku Gaikokugo Gakubu Kiyo] 58 (Oct. 30, 1986): 25–52.

16. Tsunehiko Kato, The World of Black Women Writers: Another Aspect of Modern

America in Their Novels [Amerika Kokujin Josei Sakka no Sekai—Shosetsu ni Miru Mo

Hitotsuno Gendai Amerika] (Osaka: Sogensha Press, 1986).

17. Kinema: A Tri-Monthly of Cinema [Kinema Junpo] 935 (May 1, 1986).

Special issue of the film of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.

18. Atsuko Furomoto, Afro-American Literature and Folklore [Amerika Kokujin

Bungaku to Folklore] (Kyoto: Yamaguchi Shoten Press, 1986).

19. Atsuko Furomoto, “Black Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers,” Griot 4

(Oct. 20, 1992): 199–205.

20. See American Literature [Amerika Bungaku] 46 (Sep. 30, 1986).

21. See Rising Generation [Eigo Seinen] 133 (1) (Apr. 1, 1987).

22. See Quarterly of New English and American Literary Studies [Kikan Shin Eibei

Bungaku] 18 (2) (May 2, 1987).

23. See Negro Studies [Kokujin Kenkyu] 12 (May 1960).

24. Sekio Koike, Slave Narrative: The United States, 1701-865 (Fukuoka: Omega

Point Press, 1987).

25. Hiromi Furukawa, Afro-American Literary Study [Afro-America Bungaku no

Kenkyu] (Kyoto: Kyoto Women’s College Press, 1989).

26. Sekio Koike, “Olaudah Equiano’s Autobiography.” Negro Studies [Kokujin

Kiuchi 32

Kenkyu] 46 (Jun. 20, 1974): 26–27.

27. Sekio Koike, “Olaudah Equiano: The Prototypal Christian Abolitionist

Transfigured from an African Heathen” [in English]. Kyushu American Literature

[Kyushu Amerika Bungaku] 20 (Jun. 1979): 8–13.

28. JBSA, ed., Noah’s Ark: Toward the 21st Century [Hakobune—21 Seiki ni

Mukete], (Tokyo: Mondosha Press, 1987).

29. Atsuko Furomoto, “Alexis De Veaux’s Stay in Japan.” Quarterly of New English

and American Literary Studies [Kikan Shin Eibei Bungaku] 19 (4) (Nov. 12, 1988): 43–

45.

30. Takayuki Tatsumi, “A Manifesto of Cyborg-Feminism: Samuel Delany,” Cyber-

Punk America [Saiba Panku: Amerika] (Tokyo: Keiso Shobo, 1988).

31. Tsunehiko Kato, Black American Women Writers [Amerika Kokujin Josei

Sakkaron] (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobo Press, 1991).

32. Kazuko Kawachi, ed., Our Alice Walker: For All the Women on the Earth

[Watashi Tachi no Alice Walker—Chikyujo no Subete no Onna Tachi no Tameni] (Tokyo:

Ochanomizu Shobo, 1990).

33. See American Literature [Amerika Bungaku] 52 (Apr. 20, 1991).

34. Isao Sekiguchi, “An Annotated Bibliography of Jean Toomer,” Negro Studies

[Kokujin Kenkyu] 41 [Jun. 26, 1971]: 21–24.

35. Mitsuko Shoji, “Bibliography of Richard Wright in Japan, 1940–1960,” Nihon

Women’s University Studies in English and American Literature [Nihon Joshi Daigaku

Eibei Bungaku Kenkyu] 13 (Mar. 1978]) 73–80; ; Toru Kiuchi, “The Critical Reception

of Richard Wright in Japan: A Checklist, 1940–1983,” Waseda Review 23 (Dec. 10,

Kiuchi 33

1985): 94–114.

36. Minoru Suda, “The Bibliography of Alice Walker in Japan” [in English],

Ritsumeikan University Foreign Literature Studies [Ritsumeikan Daigaku Gaikoku

Bungaku Kenkyu] 75 (Mar. 31, 1987): 101–13.

37. Toru Kiuchi and Midori Shigeyasu, “Baldwin in Japan: An Annotated Checklist,”

Bulletin of Aichi Shukutoku Junior College [Aichi Shukutoku Tanki Daigaku Kenkyu

Kiyo] 28 (Mar. 10, 1989): 23–56.

38. Toru Kiuchi and Midori Shigeyasu, “The Critical Reception of African

American Women Writers in Japan, I, II: An Annotated Bibliography,” Bulletin of Aichi

Shukutoku Junior College [Aichi Shukutoku Tanki Daigaku Kenkyu Kiyo] 30 (Nov. 15,

1991): 99–134; 31 (Jun. 1992): 1–32.

39. Toru Kiuchi, “The Critical Reception of Langston Hughes in Japan: A

Bibliographical Essay,” Nihon University Industrial Engineering Faculty Report B

[Nihon Daigaku Seisan Kogakubu Kenkyu Hokoku B] 25 (1) (Jun. 1992): 29–40.

40. See Black Studies [Kokujin Kenkyu] 61 (Dec. 1991): 22-30; 38.

41. Takeo Hamamoto, trans., The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Tokyo: Kawade

Shobo, 1993).

42. Yoshiko Okoso, Toni Morrison’s Creation and Literature of Liberation [Toni

Morrison no Sozo to Kaiho no Bungaku] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1996).

43. Ikuko Fujihira, Toni Morrison’s Literature: Patchwork Quilt of Carnival Colors

[Kanibal iro no Patchwork Quilt—Toni Morrison no Bungaku] (Tokyo: Gakugei Shorin,

1996).

44. Tsunehiko Kato, The World of Toni Morrison: In Search of the Unspoken

Unspeakable [Toni Morrison no Sekai—Katararezaru, Katarienu mono wo Motomete]

Kiuchi 34

(Tokyo: Sekai Shisosha, 1997).

45. Minoru Suda, African American Thought and Literature [African American no

Shiso to Bungaku] (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1994).

46. Kunio Nasu, The Complete History of Africa [Africa Zenshi] (Tokyo: Daisan

Bunmeisha Press, 1995).

47. Ishmael Reed, and Atsuko Furomoto, trans., “From Totem to Rap: Literature

across the Americas,” Black Studies 66 (December 1996): 35-38.

48. Hayumi Higuchi, African Americans and the Industry in the North: The

Formation of Racial Consciousness between Two World Wars [America Kokujin to

Hokubu Sangyo—Senkikan ni okeru Jinshu Ishiki no Keisei] (Tokyo: Sairyusha, 1997).

49. Toru Kiuchi, “A New Trend in African American Literature: Autocritography,”

Expressions [Kokusai Bunka Hyogen Kenkyu] 1 (May 2005): 33-45.

50. JBSA, ed., The World of Black Studies (Tokyo: Seiji Shobo Press, 2004).

51. See the JBSA website: http://home.att.ne.jp/zeta/yorozuya/jbsa/.

52. See the CAAR website: http://www.hope.ac.uk/caar/.

53. Kazuyo Tsuchiya (JBSA member), Reinventing Citizenship: Black Los

Angeles, Korean Kawasaki, and Community Participation (Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 2014); and Toru Kiuchi’s (JBSA member) and Yoshinobu Hakutani’s,

Richard Wright: A Documented Chronology, 1908-1960 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,

2014).