Menu

Writings & Speeches by Barbara Ruch

Speeches by Barbara Ruch

  • Remarks at the 15th annual concert Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage (March 8, 2020, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the Shinnyoji Ceremony Celebrating the Completion of the Restoration of Four Nuns’ Statues (April 23, 2019, Kyoto, Japan) (in Japanese) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the 13th annual concert Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage (March 18, 2018, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the 12th annual concert Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage (April 2, 2017, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the concert “Celebrating the Genius of Michio Miyagi (1894-1956)” (October 5, 2016, Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the 9th annual concert Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage (March 30, 2014, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the 8th annual concert Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage (March 8, 2013, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the Composers’ Workshop: New Music for Gagaku and Hōgaku Instruments (March 31, 2012, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the Japanese Sacred Court Music and Ancient Soundscapes Reborn Concert II: Glories of the Japanese Traditional Music Heritage (March 29, 2011, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View English speech PDF] [View Japanese speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the Composers’ Workshop (March 25, 2011, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at Ancient Soundscapes: New Echoes – A Symposium and Musicale celebrating composer Toshi Ichiyanagi and his Ensemble Origin (March 13, 2008, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Strings of Memory: The Biwa and Narrative Song in Medieval Japan (a pre-concert lecture at the Music From Japan concert, March 4, 2007, Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the concert Ancient Asian Harp Reborn “The Kugo” (February 15, 2007, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks at the Ono Gagaku Society Performance (November 30, 2006, The Riverside Theatre, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • Surviving the Centuries: The Seasonal Celebrations and Remembrance Rites of Japan’s Imperial Buddhist Nunneries (at the Communal Studies Association [CSA] Conference, September 29 – October 1, 2005, Harmony and Old Economy Village, PA) [View speech PDF]
  • One Mind/One Gender: Female Footprints that Mark the Buddhist Path (at the Conference on Buddhist Nuns in East Asia, May 2004, Hanmaum Seon Center, Seoul, Korea) [View speech PDF]
  • Remarks on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture (April 18, 1996, New York, NY, U.S.A.) [View speech PDF]
  • 「女性の出家と古典文学：日本と西洋 (Nuns and the Literary Canon: Japan and the West)」 (a public lecture at the 17th International Conference on Japanese Literature in Japan) (in Japanese with English summary) (November 12, 1993, at the National Institute of Japanese Literature, Tokyo, Japan) [View speech PDF]

Books by Barbara Ruch

Articles and Book Chapters Published

  • Three Haiku in red lights, Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2021, p. 46. [PDF not available]
  • 「自己防衛の鎖国から脱皮して」『邦楽ジャーナル』2018年7月号  “Jiko bōei no Sakoku kara dappi shite” in Hōgaku Journal, July 2018, pp.  18-20 [PDF not available]
  • 「雅楽の若木をニューヨークで育てる」『雅楽だより　第12号』“Gagaku no wakagi o nyūyōku de sodateru” (Nourishing the Growth of Gagaku in New York) in Gagaku dayori, January, 2008, Vol. 12, (In Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “A Place of their Own: Piety and Patronage in Japan’s Imperial Buddhist Convents” ICON, World Monuments Fund, Fall 2003, 22-25. [PDF not available] 
  • “Obstructions and Obligations,” “Prologue: Burning Iron against the Cheek: A Female Cleric’s Last Resort,” and “Woman to Woman: Kumano bikuni Proselytizers in Medieval and Early Modern Japan.” All in Engendering Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan.  Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002. [PDF not available] 
  • 「門跡尼寺文化の保存をめざして」『シルクロード No.33』“Monzeki amadera bunka no hozon o mezashite (Endeavors to Preserve the Unique Culture of Imperial Buddhist Convents in Japan) in Silkroad No. 33, Foundation for Cultural Heritage, Summer 2000, p. 10, (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Imperial Buddhist Convents in 21st-Century Japan,” JapanINFO, Consulate General of Japan in New York, December 1999. [PDF not available] 
  • “Forward” in Seasons of Sacred Celebration: Flowers and Poetry from an Imperial Convent, (General editor: Amy V. Heinrich) Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies / Weatherhill, 1998. [PDF not available] 
  • “Programs Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies”, New York: Columbia University Office of Publications, November, 1998. [PDF not available] 
  • “Transformations of a Heroine: Yokobue in Literature and History”, in Amy Vladeck Heinrich, ed., Currents in Japanese Literature: Translations and Transformations, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 99-116.  [PDF not available] 
  • 「中世文学と絵画」『岩波講座日本文学史　第6巻　15・16世紀の文学』”Chūsei bungaku to kaiga”, (Medieval Literature and Painting) in Iwanami kōza Nihon bungaku shi (The Iwanami History of Japanese Literature) Volume 6 (15th and 16th Century Literature), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996, VI, 295-322. (in Japanese) [PDF not available] 
  • “Introduction” to the reissue of Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, New York: Kodansha Globe, 1994, ix-xx. [PDF not available]
  • “Beyond Absolution: Enchi Fumiko’s The Waiting Years and Masks“, in Barbara Stoler Miller ed., Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective: A Guide for Teaching, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1994, 439-456.[View PDF]
  • “A Book of One’s Own: The Gossamer Years; The Pillow Book; and The Confessions of Lady Nijō“, in Barbara Stoler Miller ed., Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective: A Guide for Teaching. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1994, 404-419. [View PDF]
  • 「熊楠と御伽草子、そしてジェンダー」「御伽草子−文字と絵と物語と」『国文学―解釈と教材の研究』”Kumagusu to otogi zōshi, soshite jendaa”, (Kumagusu, Otogi zōshi, and Gender) in special issue “Otogi zōshi — moji to e to monogatari to” (Otogi zōshi — calligraphy, painting and story), in Kokubungaku — kaishaku to kyōzai no kenkyū (Japanese Literature: Studies in Interpretation and Teaching), Vol. 39, No. 1, January 1994, 30-35 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 『朝日選書　中世の光景』The following four items collected as “Rekishi ni uzumoreta josei tachi” are published in Chūsei no kōkei, Asahi sensho, volume 512, 1994, 306-320 (in Japanese). [PDF not available]
  • 「かざしの姫」『朝日新聞・中世の光景』”Kazashi no hime”, (Princess Kazashi) one of four articles in the series “Chūsei no kōkei” (The Medieval Scene) in Asahi Shimbun, Osaka, November 20, 1993, evening edition (in Japanese).[View PDF]
  • 「メディアの誕生」『朝日新聞・中世の光景』”Media no tanjō”, (The Birth of the Media) one of four articles in the series “Chūsei no kōkei” (The Medieval Scene) in Asahi Shimbun, Osaka, November 13, 1993, evening edition (in Japanese). [View PDF]
  • 「女性スター　乙前」『朝日新聞・中世の光景』”Josei sutaa Otomae”, (The Female Star, Otomae) one of four articles in the series “Chūsei no kōkei” (The Medieval Scene) in Asahi Shimbun, Osaka, November 6, 1993, evening edition (in Japanese). [View PDF]
  • 「ある尼僧の彫像」『朝日新聞・中世の光景』”Aru nisō no chōzō”, (The Statue of a Certain Nun) one of four articles in the series “Chūsei no kōkei” (The Medieval Scene) in Asahi Shinbun, Osaka, October 30, 1993, evening edition (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「女性の出家と古典文学：日本と西洋」“Josei no shukke to koten bungaku: Nihon to seiyō (Nuns and the Literary Canon: Japan and the West)”, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of Japanese Literature in Japan,  National Institute of Japanese Literature (Tokyo) 1993, 158-177 (in Japanese with English summary). [PDF not available] 
  • 「横笛の生と死」『図書6』”Yokobue no sei to shi”, Tosho 6, Iwanami shoten, 1992, 11-15 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Coping with Death: Paradigms of Heaven, Hell, and the Six Realms in Early Japanese Literature and Painting”, in James H. Sanford, William R. LaFleur and Masatoshi Nagatomi, Flowing Traces: Buddhism in the Literary and Visual Arts of Japan,  Princeton University Press, 1992, 93-130. [PDF not available] 
  • “Unheeded Voices; Winked-at Lives”, Rethinking Japan, edited by Adriana Boscaro, Franco Gatti, and Massimo Raveri,  Sandgate, England:  Japan Library Limited, 1991, Vol. I (Literature, Visual Arts, Linguistics), 102-109 [View PDF]
  • “The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan”, in The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume III (Medieval Japan), edited by Kozo Yamamura.  Cambridge University Press, 1990, 500-543. [PDF not available] 
  • 「日本文化と法華経をめぐって」『フォーラム』”Nihon bunka to Hokekyō o megutte” (Japanese Culture and the Lotus Sutra) (Dialogue in Japanese with Watanabe Hōyō), Forum (Tokyo:  Spring 1988) 15:104-109. (in Japanese) [PDF not available] 
  • “Painting-Recitation in Asian Traditions: Some Issues in the Role of Painting in Cultural Consensus Building”, Proceedings of the XXXI International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa, Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai, 1984. [PDF not available] 
  • “Otogi Zōshi,” Encyclopedia of Japan, Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1984 [PDF not available] 
  • 「海外に於ける絵解きの研究」『国文学：解釈と鑑賞』”Kaigai ni okeru etoki no kenkyū” (Research on Non-Japanese Etoki), Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to kanshō, October 1982, 155-169 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Of Cabbages and Kings”, a review article on Warlords, Artists, and Commoners, by George Elison and Bardwell L. Smith, Journal of Japanese Studies, Spring 1982, Vol. 8, No. 2, 369-382.
  • 「奈良絵本と貴賎文学−国民性のルーツを求めて」『御伽草子の世界』”Nara ehon to kisen bungaku — Kokuminsei no rūtsu o motomete” (Nara ehon as Literature for the High and Low: In Search of the Roots of Nationality), in Otogi zōshi no sekai, Nara ehon Kokusai Kenkyū Kaigi hen, Chief Editor, Barbara Ruch, Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1982 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「東西の飲酒橋−盃に映った日本の国際的スタンス」『比較文化の目』”Tōzai no ‘Inshubashi’ — sakazuki ni u tsutta Nihon no kokusai-teki sutansu”, reprinted in book form in Hikaku bunka no me, Pierre Brisard et al., Suntory Books, Tokyo, TBS-Brittanica, 1982, 43-54 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「美術・文術・魔術」『在外奈良絵本−中世近世絵巻絵草紙』”Bijutsu-bunjutsu-majutsu”, (Art, Literature and Magic) in Zaigai Nara Ehon — Chūsei kinsei emaki ezōshi, Nara ehon Kokusai Kenkyū Kaigi hen, Chief Editor, Barbara Ruch, Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1981 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「東西の飲酒橋−盃に映った日本の国際的スタンス」“Tōzai no ‘Inshubashi’ — sakazuki ni utsutta Nihon no kokusai-teki sutansu”, Suntory Quarterly 1980, No. 3, 42-49 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Nara Ehon — Rediscovered Treasures from Medieval Japan”, Okura Lantern, XVIII, 2, Summer 1980, 65-73. [PDF not available] 
  • 「地蔵とイエスの謎」『絵巻・新修日本絵巻物全集　月報No.29』”Jizō to Iesu no nazo”, (The Jizō and Jesus Conundrum) Emaki (Shinshū Nihon emakimono zenshū — Geppō, No. 29, Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, April 1980, 3-5 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「国民性のルーツとしての奈良絵本−国際的視座を求めて」『図説日本文化の歴史 月報 Vol.6』”Kokuminsei no rūtsu toshite no Nara ehon — Kokusai-teki shiza o motomete”, (Nara ehon — the Roots of National character as seen from an International Perspective) Zusetsu Nihon bunka no rekishi — Geppō, Vol. 6, Tokyo: Shōgakkan, 1980, 6-7 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「世界の中の御伽草子」『図説日本の古典　御伽草子　第13巻』”Sekai no naka no ‘Otogi zōshi'”, (Otogizōshi in a World Context) Zusetsu Nihon no koten (Otogi zōshi — Vol. 13), edited by T. Ichiko, Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1980, 181-189 (in Japanese) (Second edition, revised, 1988). [PDF not available] 
  • 「奈良絵本との出会い」『サントリー美術館 No.56』”Nara ehon to no deai”, Suntory Bijutsukan, No. 56 (August 1979) (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “In Search of Lost Treasures: Nara Ehon Abroad”, Nara Ehon from Outstanding Foreign Collections, edited by Barbara Ruch, Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1979, 57. [PDF not available] 
  • 「失われた財宝を求めて−海外所蔵奈良絵本」『海外所蔵奈良絵本』”Ushinawareta zaihō o motomete — Kaigai shozō Nara ehon”, Kaigai shozō Nara ehon, edited by Barbara Ruch, Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1979, 2-3 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “The Age of Miracles,” Japanese Illustrated Books and Manuscripts of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland, edited by Shigeo Sorimachi, Tokyo: Kōbunsō, 1979, 2-4. [PDF not available] 
  • 「奇跡の時代」『チェスター・ビーティー・ライブラリー蔵日本絵入り本及び絵本目録』”Kiseki no jidai”, Chester Beatty Library zō Nihon eiribon oyobi ehon mokuroku, edited by Shigeo Sorimachi, Tokyo: Kōbunsō, 1979, 10-13 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Parallels between Japanese and Irish Cultural History”, The Irish Times, April 27, 1978. [PDF not available] 
  • 「中世日本文学の謎：奈良絵本再現を求めて」『毎日新聞』”Chūsei Nihon bungaku no nazo: Nara ehon saigen o motomete”, Mainichi Shimbun, February 9, 1978 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「奈良絵本の謎解き」『日本経済新聞』”Nara ehon no nazotoki”, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, February 2, 1978 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • 「絵草紙を求めて」『太陽』”Ezōshi o motomete”, Taiyō, Winter 1977, 174-176 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Medieval Jongleurs and the Making of a National Literature”, in John W. Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, Japan in the Muromachi Age, University of California Press, 1977, 279-309. [PDF not available] 
  • “Histoire de Yokobue (Yokobue no sōshi) — Etude sur les recits de l’epoque Muromachi”, by Jacqueline Pigeot, Journal of Asian Studies, February 1977 (Review article). [PDF not available] 
  • Award-winning Haiku in Poetry Nippon, September 1977, Nos. 39 and 40, 5. [PDF not available] 
  • “Kakuichi’s Complaint: Homer and the Heike Hazards”, The Japan Interpreter, Vol. XI, No. 2, Autumn 1976, 229-236. [PDF not available] 
  • 「中世の遊行芸人と国民文学の形成」『室町時代：その社会と文化』”Chūsei no yūgyō geinin to kokumin bungaku no keisei”, in Muromachi jidai: Sono shakai to bunka, edited by T. Toyoda and J. S. Hall, Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1976 (in Japanese). [PDF not available] 
  • “Otogi zōshi”, Dictionary of Oriental Literatures, edited by Jaroslav Prusek, Prague: Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (London: Allen & Unwin), 1974. [PDF not available] 
  • “Tradition and Modernization in Japan”, edited by Donald H. Shively, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1971 (Book review). [PDF not available] 
  • “Medieval Japanese Literature: A Collection of Tales from Uji,” by D. E. Mills, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXXI, No. 1, November 1971, 161-172 (Review article). [PDF not available] 
  • “Origins of The Companion Library: An Anthology of Medieval Japanese Short Stories,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXX, No. 3, May 1971, 593-610. [PDF not available] 
  • “From Carnal Literature to Carnal Politics”, in Masao Maruyama, Thought and Behavior in Japanese Politics, edited by Ivan Morris, Oxford University Press, 1963, 245-267. [PDF not available] 
  • “Four Poems by Barbara Ruch”, in Japan: Theme and Variations, Chas. E. Tuttle Co., 1959