Sachi Schmidt-Hori
Associate Professor
Appointments
Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture
Area of Expertise
Pre-17th century Japanese language and literature,
East Asian Sociolinguistics,
Gender, sexuality, and negatiations of power,
Translation,
Pedagogy
Biography
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
Education
M.A. University of Washington, Seattle
PhD University of Washington, Seattle
Taught Courses
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
"The New Lady-in-Waiting Is a Chigo: Sexual Fluidity and Dual Transvestism in a Medieval Acolyte Tale." Japanese Language and Literature 43, no. 2 (2009): 383–423. The New Lady-in-Waiting Is a Chigo: Sexual Fluidity and Dual Transvestism in a Medieval Buddhist Acolyte Tale on JSTOR
"Non-Binary Genders in the Genji, the New Chamberlain, and Beyond." Book chapter for the Norton Critical Edition on The Tale of Genji (edited by Dennis Washburn, W. W. Norton, 2021). https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393933987
"Symbolic Death and Rebirth into Womanhood: An Analysis of Stepdaughter Narratives from Heian and Medieval Japan." Japanese Language and Literature 54, no. 2 (2020): 448–475. https://jll.pitt.edu/ojs/JLL/article/view/94
シュミット堀佐知・編『なんで日本研究するの？』（東京：文学通信、２０２３）。
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-…
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.
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