Borders, Thresholds, Barriers in Japan

Borders, thresholds, barriers have multiple meanings: social, literary, political, philosophical, economic, religious. Movements come to a halt at them or start from them, are slowed down, diverted, or break through; developments peter out or enter a new phase, some involuntarily, others consciously accompanied and brought into a certain form. Boundaries can be found, but more often they are set. Thresholds and barriers in the literal sense are such designs of boundaries, they should be passable, but also restrict movement, enable their monitoring and regulation. Borders, thresholds, and barriers are also locations and occasions for pausing, reflecting, and expressing what is at stake in the movement or its prevention, or even the space that is included or excluded and its possibilities.

Borders, thresholds, and barriers are the subject of discussion in fields from migration and economic policy to poetry, from anthropology to art history, and gained new salience recently as matters of public health.

Our workshop, itself an attempt to overcome language barriers as well as the boundaries of different research fields and methods, would like to explore the differences as well as their interrelationships and thereby create new connections.

Image : Hakone no seki (barrier station)

Source : Wikicommons