On October 3rd, 2008, a "Jōdai Bungaku in East Asian Classics" workshop entitled "The Foundation of Education in Premodern East Asia: Studying, and Studying with, Topical Encyclopedias" was held at Columbia University. An audience of faculty and graduate students from institutions including Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Heidelberg benefited from two stimulating and informative presentations by Prof. Kōnoshi Takamitsu and Prof. Saitō Mareishi, both from the University of Tokyo. Both professors used an innovative format, in which the professors ran a model class for groups of Columbia and University of Tokyo graduate students in front of audience members, who then had the opportunity to ask questions and make comments at the end of each presentation.

Prof. Konoshi's portion of the workshop was modeled on his famous "shiraberu jugyo": he led the students and audience through a whirlwind of primary and secondary sources as he traced the significance of the term "yoru no nishiki" (night brocade) from a famous Ki no Tsurayuki Kokinshū poem. This made richly clear how impossible it is to approach classical Japanese literature without an understanding of the importance of introductory texts like the Mengqiu and Wakan roeishu, their commentaries, and the network of circulating citations from leishu classified encyclopedias (not necessarily from original classical source texts) in which such works were embedded.

Prof. Saito led his students and the audience through an introduction to the history and structure of leishu, and then showed how much could be learned (in terms of concrete reading skills as well as general understanding of cultural and intellectual history) from careful reading of original passages, using as an example a section from the Tang dynasty Yiwen leiju.

The audience and participants came away from the dual presentations with a wealth of new perspectives on the links between premodern Japan and the wider East Asian culture, as well as invaluable concrete techniques that could be put to use in their own study and research. This workshop not only demonstrated much about the history of pedagogy in East Asia; it also was itself a highly educational experience for those who were lucky enough to attend. We hope that Professors Kōnishi and Saitō will be able to come to Columbia University again.

(Summary by Haruo Shirane, Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, Columbia University, Columbia University)