Admission fee free

Mermaids (siren mermaids), which are confusing entities, are indicators of various boundaries between humans and animals, sea and land, etc. An international research conference will be held to compare images and concepts of mermaid-like beings that are ubiquitous all over the world, including Okinawa, using approaches from various fields such as music, art, folklore, literature, etc., and also consider issues of gender and natural environment from a viewpoint. The dugong, which became the model for the mermaid legend, thinks through mermaids about migration, borrowing, re-possession, and fusion that occur due to cultural contact in Okinawa, which is also a symbol of the opposite of the construction of a new American military base.

●Morning session keynote speech
10:00 Opening Remarks Miyako Hanashiro (Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Crafts)

10:05 ～ 11:30 with consecutive French interpretation
“Concepts and Images of Sirens: From the Mediterranean to the North Sea”
Instructor: Jacqueline Leclerc Marx
(Western and Medieval Art History/Professor Emeritus, Brussels Free University)

11:30 ～ 12:10 Japanese
“Australian mermaids”
Instructor: Lucy Fraser
(Fairy tale research, Japanese and English-speaking literature and pop culture/University of Queensland Senior Lecturer)

●Afternoon session

13:30 ～ 14:00
“Irish and Scottish Seals and Mermaids”
Lecturer: Iwase Hisami (Folklore Research/ The Celtic Society of Japan)

14:00 ～ 14:30
“Prophetic Aliens/Forktail: The Mermaid and the Tsunami”
Lecturer: Tokuda Kazuo (Anecdotes and Folklore Studies/Professor Emeritus, Gakushuin Women's University)

14:30 ～ 15:00
“Where dugongs appear in Okinawa, from the sea to courts to children's books”
Lecturer: Yoshikawa Hideki (Anthropology/ Part-time lecturer at the University of the Ryukyus/Okinawa Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts Arts/ Environmental NGO)

15:10 to 15:40
“Representation of Sirens and Wildman”
Lecturer: Ogata Kiwako (Western Art History/Okinawa Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts Professor)

15:40 ～ 16:10
“Japan's mermaid as me over a sea”
Lecturer: Eriko Kogo (Japanese Modern Art History/Professor, Meisei University)

16:20 to 17:20
discussions

https://www.okigei.ac.jp/experience/workshop/w-2024/%e5%9b%bd%e9%9a%9b%e7%a0%94%e7%a9%b6%e9%9b%86%e4%bc%9a%e3%80%8c%e4%ba%ba%e9%ad%9a%e3%81%ae%e8%a1%a8%e8%b1%a1%e3%81%ae%e9%a0%98%e5%9f%9f%e6%a8%aa%e6%96%ad%e7%9a%84%e7%a0%94%e7%a9%b6%e3%83%bc%e7%a5%9e

https://x.gd/vcmaC