Thomas D. Conlan

Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies

Phone (207) 725-3507
Title Associate Professor
Department History
2nd Title Associate Professor
2nd Department ASIAN STUDIES
Work Location 101 38 College Street
E-Mail tconlan@bowdoin.edu
Thomas D. Conlan: Bowdoin College: Asian Studies and History

Spring 2010

  • The Emergence of Modern Japan (ASIAN 284)
  • Conquests and Heroes (ASIAN 285)
  • Advanced Independent Study in Asian Studies (ASIAN 401)

THOMAS CONLAN (Associate Professor, joint appointment in Asian Studies). Having studied Japanese history at the University of Michigan (BA 1986), Kyoto University, and Stanford University (Ph.D., 1998). He teaches courses that span the range of Japanese history and has received Fulbright and NEH fellowships for his research. Tom's scholarship focuses medieval Japanese history, and in particular the nature of warfare and the role of Buddhism and the state. He has published three monographs: In Little Need of Divine Intervention (Cornell, 2001); State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan (Michigan, 2003) and Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior (Amber Press 2008).

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EDUCATION:

Stanford University, Ph.D., History 1998
Major concentration:  Japan before 1600
Minor concentration: Japan since 1600
Kyoto University, faculty of letters, Ph.D. Program, History
Attended from April 1995 until September 1997
Stanford University, M.A., History 1992
The University of Michigan, 1989
B.A. History and Japanese, with Highest Honors

PUBLICATIONS:

Monographs

Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior. Amber Press 2008

State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan. Center of Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan, December 2003.

In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Cornell East Asia Series, August 2001 (Currently in third printing).  

Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior   State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan: Thomas Conlan   In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan

Forthcoming Articles

Instruments of Change: Organizational Technology and the Consolidation of Regional Power in Japan 1333-1600. John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth eds., War and State Building in Medieval Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming)

Myth, Memory and The Mongol Invasions of Japan.  Mino et. al., eds. Reinventing the Past: Archaism and Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture (Chicago: The Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago and Art Media Resources, Inc., forthcoming)

Traces of the Past: Documents, Literacy and Liturgy in Medieval Japan.  Gordon Berger, Andrew Goble, Lorraine Harrington, G. Cameron Hurst III, eds., Currents in Medieval Japanese History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey P. Mass (University of Southern California East Asian Studies Center: Figueroa Press, 2009), pp. 19-50. 

Warfare in Japan, 1200-1550.  Reuven Amitai, Anne Curry and David A. Graff, eds. The Cambridge History of War vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Published Articles

Thicker than Blood:  The Social and Political Significance of Wet Nurses in Japan, 950-1330.  Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 65.1 (June 2005), pp. 159-205.

The Culture of Force and Farce: Fourteenth-Century Japanese Warfare [pdfPDF].  Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Occasional Papers in Japanese Studies. No. 2000-01 (January 2000).

The Origins of Japan's Medieval WorldThe Nature of Warfare in Fourteenth-Century Japan: The Record of Nomoto Tomoyuki [ jstorlock]. The Journal of Japanese Studies 25.2.  (Summer 1999), pp. 299-330.

On the Nature of Warfare in the Fourteenth Century (Nanbokuchoki kassen no ichikosatsu), in "yama sensei taikan kinen ronsh" kai, ed., Nihon shakai no shiteki kozo kodai ch“sei (Kyoto:  Shibunkaku, 1997), pp. 417-439.

Largesse and the Limits of Loyalty in the Fourteenth Century, in Mass, ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World (Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 39-64.


Multimedia Projects

Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan Scrolls of the Heiji Disturbance
Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan Scrolls of the Heiji Disturbance

Book Reviews

Judith Fröhlich. Rulers, Peasants and the Use of the Written Word in Medieval Japan (Peter Lang).  Monumenta Nipponica 63.1 (Spring 2008), pp. 161-66.

Mikael S. Adolphson.  The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and SØhei in Japanese History (Honolulu: Univeristy of Hawai’i Press, 2007).  Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 68.1 (PDF) (June 2008), pp. 182-89.

Mikael Adolphson, Edward Kamens, and Stacie Matsumoto, eds.  Heian Japan: Centers and Peripheries. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007).  The Journal of Japanese Studies 34.2 (Summer 2008), pp. 467-71. 

Olaf G. Liden, Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan (Copenhagen:  Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002) Monumenta Nipponica 58.3 (Autumn 2003), pp. 412-14.

Lee Butler, Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, 1467-1680 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002) The Journal of Asian Studies 62.4 (November 2003), pp. 1239-40.

G. C. Hurst, Armed Martial Arts of Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) Monumenta Nipponica 54.1 (Spring 1999), pp. 162-65.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES:

Selected Presentations

Sovereign Authority and the Medieval Japanese State
Presented at “Text and Context: New Directions in Medieval Japanese Literary and Historical Studies” Bowdoin College, May 9, 2009

Judicial Function of Violence in Japan (1200-1598)
Presented at the “Faith, Law and Violence in Medieval Japan” panel at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Atlanta, April 5, 2008

Visualizing the Past Through the Mongol Scrolls        
Presented at the symposium “Reinventing the Past: Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture” Franke Institute University of Chicago, November 4, 2006

On War and Judicial Violence in Medieval Japan
Presented at the Symposium War and Politics in Medieval Japan, KyØto, March 16-18, 2006                                                           

Myth, Memory and the Mongol Invasions of Japan
March 1, 2006 (Emory University), September 22, 2006 (Brandeis College) March 18, 2008 (University of Pennsylvania) 

Adapting to Endemic War: Fourteenth Century Improvements in Arms and Armor
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego March 7, 2004

Courtly Archivists of Precedent and Political Authority in Japan 850-1350.
Presented at a Workshop on Experts and Expertise in Pre- and Early Modern Societies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. October 6, 2001

From Sovereign to Symbol: A Liturgy of Legitimation in Fourteenth Century Japan.
Presented at Reconstructing Medieval Japan: A Symposium in Honor of Jeffrey P. Mass Stanford University May 5, 2001

The Culture of Force and Farce: Fourteenth Century Japanese Warfare.
Presented at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University and The Donald Keene Institute, Columbia University. September 24, 1999 and March 20, 2000

The Role of Women and Weapons in Medieval Japanese Warfare.
Presented at a symposium of comparative medieval history at the University of San Francisco. April 14, 2000

In Little Need of Divine Intervention.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego. March 11, 2000

Innovation or Application?  The Role of Technology in War.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Boston. March 13, 1999

Largesse and the Limits of Loyalty: Lordly Obligations in the Age of Two Courts.
Presented at a symposium on Fourteenth Century Japan, Hertford College, Oxford University, England. September 2, 1994

Other Academic Activities:

Honors Theses Supervised

Chair, Asian Studies Program, Bowdoin College January 2004 - 2007

Mongol Invasions of Japan - 1274 and 1281
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/asian-studies/mongol-invasions/

Helped create a webpage about the Mongol Invasion Scrolls
http://bowdoin.edu/mongol-scrolls

Joined a Japan Foundation round table discussion, "On the past, present, and future of Japanese Studies" on July 8, 2002.  Published in Kokusai Koryu no. 97 (10.2002), pp. 68-79.  

Appeared on the National Geographic special Samurai: Behind the Blade (aired December 2, 2003) and the History Channel special Samurai (televised December 8, 2003). In addition, was interviewed by Newsday for an article about the Mongol Invasions of Japan (December 17, 2002) and appeared on the radio program "These Days" station KBBS, San Diego, December 4, 2003. Have also been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the LA Times, and the Sacramento Bee concerning the warrior culture of Japan

SELECTED ACADEMIC AWARDS:

2001-02                  National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
2001-02                  Fulbright Research Grant
1999, 2001, 2004     Freeman Fellowship
1989                      Phi Beta Kappa

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Conceptions of law, justice, and feuding; Buddhism and medieval political ideologies; international relations and ethnic identity; military, social, cultural and institutional history

LANGUAGES:

Japanese (fluent)
Proficiency in Classical Japanese and Classical Chinese (kanbun)
Paleography (ability to decipher handwritten Japanese documents and texts)