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Staff Profiles

Dr Philip Garrett

Lecturer in Japanese History

Background

I read for a BA in Japanese Studies at Oxford University, with periods of study at Kwansei Gakuin University and Osaka University of Foreign Studies. For my M.St. at Oxford I wrote about the wave of provincial discontent and rebellion which emerged in the 10th century and was epitomised by the rebellions of Taira no Masakado and Fujiwara no Sumitomo. I then moved to Cambridge to study for a PhD in Medieval Japanese History, investigating the relationship between the Shingon Buddhist temple complex Kōyasan and the monks and warriors of northern Kii Province. 


I teach on Japanese history, the history of Asia, and Buddhism.

I am a member of the Ideas and Beliefs and Landscape research strands, and of MEMS and Asian Studies Faculty Research Groups.

I am currently the Newcastle University representative on the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee.


Areas of expertise

  • Medieval Japan
  • Buddhism


Consultation Hours / Office Hours are available on the Staff Contacts and Office Hours page on the HCA Canvas Community.

Facebook: @DrPhilipGarrett 

Twitter: @DrPhilipGarrett

Google Scholar

Academia.edu

Teaching

Main teaching areas:

In most years I teach on some of the following modules, and sometimes contribute to others:


HCA1003: Global Middle Ages

Module Leader: I organise the module and contribute the content on Central and East Asian history


HIS1100 Evidence and Argument 

Seminar Leader, Viewpoints on the Meiji Restoration. This group studies the history and historiography of the Meiji Ishin in nineteenth century Japan, examining different ideas and opinions of the nature and significance of the Restoration.


HIS2309 East Asia from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

Module Leader: This module introduces students to major faiths and intellectual traditions of East Asia, including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. It examines the core beliefs and debates within these traditions, as well as their connections to social and political contexts.


HIS2301 Communication in the Medieval World, from Europe to Asia: Prayer, Poetry, Pictures, and Travel

Contributor: This module will approach key themes in the medieval history of Europe and the Middle East through the motif of communication. By investigating the context and content of medieval communication, we will be able explore a range of social, political and religious relationships: within families and communities, between rulers and ruled, between past and present, and between the temporal and spiritual worlds.


HIS3351 Buddhism and Society in Medieval Japan

Module Leader: This Special Subject proceeds from the premise that there was no such thing as 'religion’ in medieval Japan, and at the same time that there was no activity or organisation in medieval Japan which was not ‘religious’. The module explores the permeation of Buddhist thought and institutions through Japanese society in the late classical and early medieval periods, with a focus on the interwoven functions and authority of the ‘trifunctional elite’ of civil, military, and monastic authority in the Kamakura period. We will take a multidisciplinary approach to developing our understanding of the period, drawing together study of religion, philosophy, and ritual with human (and sacred) geography, institutional and legal history. 


HIS3020 Writing History: Semesters 1 and 2 

Dissertation supervisions. Research ideas on Japanese history are particularly welcome.

Research

My research at Newcastle concerns provincial life in medieval Japan, sacred space, belief, and organisational control. I have also previously collaborated with the research group QuakeRecNankai (a collaboration between the Geological Survey of Belgium, the Universities of Tokyo, Ghent, Liège, and Cologne, and AIST) in the field of historical tsunami research, crossing the boundaries between History, Landscape, and the geological and geographical sciences. 


Recent Conference Papers and talks

"Walking the Path: Amano, Kōyasan, and the chōishimichi trail in the Kamakura period" invited lecture, Oxford Brookes University, Feb. 2024.

"The Sacred (and economic) geography of Medieval Kii" Mapping Medieval Japan Workshop, University of Southern California, Feb. 2022.

"Networks of Meaning in the Mountains: the Amano Nagatokoshū in Medieval Japan", Archaeology Research Seminar, Newcastle University, Sept. 2020.

"Mountain gods, Cosmic Buddhas, and local grudges in early medieval Japan", invited lecture, Oriental Museum, Durham University, Feb. 2020.

"City of Gods: Understanding Kōyasan's Medieval Geography", at Palace Cities 2019, Budapest, Mar. 2019

"Holy Horses! The Amano Shrine and the Sacred and Political Control of the Kōyasan Mountain Domain", invited lecture, SOAS, Nov. 2018

"Ritualising Law and Loyalty in early medieval Kōyasan land", at Buddhism and Ritual Performance in Medieval Japan, McGill University, Montreal, Sept. 2018.

"Kōyasan (Japan) as an Urban Agglomerate Focused on a Religious Institution" as part of the multi-panel theme "Medieval Palace-Cities in Japan, Europe, and the Middle East", International Medieval Congress 2017, University of Leeds.

"Kami, Kinship, and Sacred Space at the Shingon Buddhist monastic complex Kōyasan in medieval Japan" invited lecture, Buddhist Studies Lecture Series, University of Ghent, Belgium, Mar. 2017.

"Sacred space and political influence in medieval Japanese temple land", MedLAB research forum, Newcastle University, Oct 2016.

"As Below, so Above: the institutional organisation of Kōyasan and estate society in the medieval period" at the British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS) Annual Conference, Sept. 2015, SOAS.

"Current status of palaeoseismic research along the Nankai Trough, Japan" - Ed Garrett, Philip Garrett, Osamu Fujiwara, Vanessa Heyvaert, Masanobu Shishikura, Marc De Batist, Yusuke Yokoyama. Poster presented at the Geological Society Arthur Holmes Meeting on Tsunami Hazards and Risks, London, Sept. 2015.

"Geological evidence for historical and older earthquakes and tsunamis along the Nankai Trough, Japan" - Ed Garrett, Marc De Batist, Vanessa M.A. Heyvaert, Aurélia Hubert-Ferrari, Osamu Fujiwara, Yusuke Yokoyama, Helmut Brückner, Philip Garrett, and the QuakeRecNankai Team. Conference Poster presented at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly 2015. 

"Progress in paleoearthquake and paleotsunami research along the Nankai Trough following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake" - Ed Garrett, Osamu Fujiwara, Vanessa M.A. Heyvaert, Marc De Batist, Yusuke Yokoyama, Helmut Brückner, Philip Garrett, Evelien Boes, Yosuke Miyairi, and the QuakeRecNankai team. At International Quaternary Union Congress, Nagoya, July 2015.

“Arson, Murder and Lawsuits: border disputes and community conflict in medieval Kii” at the British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS) Annual Conference, Sept. 2012, UEA.

“Crime on the Estates: Monastic Authority in Medieval Japan” at International Medieval Congress 2012, University of Leeds

“Arson, Murder and Lawsuits” at Reassessing the Shōen System: Society and Economy in Medieval Japan (2012), University of Southern California. To be published as a chapter in the forthcoming book.

Book Reviews

Review of Kaner, Ayers, Pearson and Wrenn (eds.) The Archaeology of Medieval Towns: Case Studies from Japan and Europe in Current World Archaeology, Vol. 109, Oct/Nov. 2021.

Review of Adolphson and Commons (eds.), Lovable Losers: The Heike in Action and Memory, Japanese Language and Literature, Vol. 50, No. 2, Oct. 2016.

Publications