True Songs is a record of a series of performances by a group of Japanese artists during the years since the triple disasters of March 11, 2011. Taking inspiration from the classic work by Miyazawa Kenji Night on the Milky Way Train, the event combines song, oral narrative, and spoken word performance. The group has taken the show throughout Japan, from Fukushima to a railroad car in Kyoto. One of the artists, Suga Keijiro, will be in attendance.

In the wake of the triple disasters of March 11, 2011 which devastated the Tohoku region of Japan with a massive earthquake, an enormous set of tsunami, and the catastrophic failure of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, both Japanese and foreign observers struggled to make sense of these events.  Bestor examines some ways in which Japanese culture frames disasters, and based on fieldwork in Tohoku in 2011 and 2012, how local meaning-making unfolds.

Dr. Bestor earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University and is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies  at Harvard University. His books include: Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society (edited with Victoria Bestor and Akiko Yamagata, 2011), Doing Fieldwork in Japan (2003), and Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World (2004).

The Anthropology Graduate Student Association (AGSA) invites you to join the Department of Anthropology for our 13th annual Distinguished Lecture Series featuring cultrual anthropologist Dr. Thedodore Bestor. This event is free, and open to all.