Meiji Gakuin University, which has one of the better film studies programs in Japan, will be holding its annual film symposium this Saturday (June 21) at the Shirogane Campus in Tokyo. This year's topic will be "Women's Action in Japanese Cinema," with papers on such topics as Misora Hibari (who often dressed as a man in her films), Oryu (Fuji Junko's character from the Hibotan Bakuto yakuza series), Yasuda Michiyo (now Okusu Michiyo), Shihomi Etsuko, pinky violence, etc. It starts at 10 am in Room 2301. Here is the announcement in Japanese.
The Meigaku symposium has been a feature in the Tokyo film studies scene for over a decade, and several of the symposia have resulted in books. The first book, for instance, was on Mizoguchi (I have a piece in that), and others have been on Ri Koran, Yoshida Kiju, Yamaguchi Momoe, etc. I'm still hoping they put out a book from the Nikkatsu Action symposium: it was a lot of fun doing a talk on stage with Shishido Jo!