Sachi Schmidt-Hori
Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture
I am interested in liteary and pictorial representations of gender, sexuality, and class in pre-seventeenth-century Japanese narratives as well as analyzing the modern metanarratives thereof. My first book, Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Narratives (University of Hawai`i Press, 2021) is on medieval chigo monogatari (Buddhist acolyte tales), which often depict romantic relationships between Buddhist priests and adolescent boys. These tales challenge a host of normative and moral standards we--academics, non-academics, the far-right, the far-left, and beyond--internalize, including such ideas as "sexual orientation," "transgenerational sex," and "sexual agency." A detailed review of my book for general audience is available for free: https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133
Contact
Department(s)
Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages
Education
- M.A. University of Washington, Seattle
- PhD University of Washington, Seattle
Selected Publications
Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives (Honolulu: The University of Hawai`i Press, 2021). https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/tales-of-idolized-boys-male-male-love-in-medieval-japanese-buddhist-narratives/
"Yoshitsune and the Gendered Transformations of Japan's Self-Image." The Journal of Japanese Studies 48, no. 1 (2022): 93–121. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/846898
"The Erotic Family: Structures and Narratives of Milk Kinship in Premodern Japanese Tales." The Journal of Asian Studies 80 no. 3 (2021): 663-681. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/erotic-family-structures-and-narratives-of-milk-kinship-in-premodern-japanese-tales/AA975FF6926858B4E78A3A2B9ABC5574.
"The Boy Who Lived: The Transfigurations of Chigo in the Medieval Japanese Short Story Ashibiki." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 75, no. 2 (2015): 299–329. The Boy Who Lived: The Transfigurations of "Chigo" in the Medieval Japanese Short Story "Ashibiki" on JSTOR
HONORS & AWARDS
Honorable Mention, the Kenneth B. Pyle Prize for Best Article for “Yoshitsune and the Gendered Transformations of Japan’s Self-Image” (the prize honoring the founding editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies, given annually for a JJS research article published in the previous year), 2023. https://depts.washington.edu/jjs/kenneth-b-pyle-prize-for-best-article-i...
Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Washington, 2009 ($ 7,000; annual campus-wide teaching award given to two out of approximately 1,500 graduate teaching assistants).
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Washington, 2003.