Legends in Stone and Story: The Mongol Invasions in Japan’s Memoryscape

Please join The Australian Society for Asian Humanities for the 2025 A. R. Davis Memorial Lecture, to be delivered by Professor Li Narangoa.

How does Japan remember the Mongol invasions of the 13th century? This talk explores how these events have been commemorated and reimagined across centuries, in monuments along Kyushu’s coast, in festivals that celebrate divine winds and local heroism, and in history textbooks that frame the invasions for new generations of students. By tracing these layers of memory, the talk highlights how legend, ritual, and education intertwine to sustain and reshape collective understandings of the Mongol invasions. In doing so, it considers how Japan’s “memoryscape” blends myth and history, shaping not only national identity but also public engagement with the past.

Li Narangoa is Professor of Asian History at The Australian National University and founding director of the ANU Mongolia Research Institute. Her research spans modern Japanese and Mongolian history, memory, and cultural encounters across Asia.

Organised by the Australian Society for Asian Humanities, supported by Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney. The A. R. Davis Memorial Lecture is held annually to commemorate A. R. Davis, Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Sydney and an important scholar for Asian Studies in post-war Australia.

This event is also available online. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/ARDavis2025

Image: Utagawa (Gountei) Sadahide, "Defeat of the Mongols in the Western Sea", 1863.