Brief History of Japanese Civilization

David Lurie, Associate Professor of Japanese History and Literature at Columbia University, specializes in the literary, cultural, and intellectual history of premodern Japan. His research concerns the development of writing and literacy; the history of linguistic thought; and Japanese and comparative mythology. His first book, Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing (2011), treated the advent of Japanese inscription and the early development of literature and other modes of writing.

Suzanne Gay is Professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College. Her research interests include the social and economic history of medieval Japan, with a particular emphasis on the role of commoners in history. Her monography, THE MONEYLENDERS OF LATE MEDIEVAL KYOTO, was published by University of Hawaii Press in 2001. She is currently working on the history of two merchant families of medieval Kyoto, and her next project will focus on commerce and pilgrimage in the Oyamazaki area southwest of Kyoto.