Editors' Note

We are pleased to announce the new Kenneth B. Pyle Prize for best article in JJS. The prize honors the founding editor of JJS (who himself is a recent contributor to the journal's pages) and will be awarded annually for a JJS research article published in the previous year.

For 2020, the Kenneth B. Pyle Prize is awarded to Alice Y. Tseng for the article entitled "Imperial Portraiture and Popular Print Media in Early Twentieth-Century Japan," published in the summer 2020 issue and online at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/761141. A $250 prize is included with this award.

The selection committee also awards honorable mention to Seong Un Kim for "Performing Democracy: Audience Participation in Postwar Broadcasting," published in winter 2020 and online at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/746930.

The selection committee commends Tseng's study for its innovative use of photographic material, whereby it sheds new light on its central subject—the Taisho emperor and the changing characteristics of imperial portraiture during his reign—in a context both local to Japan and also global, with comparison to the parallel uses of portraiture elsewhere in Asia (Siam and China) as well as Western Europe. The article is exemplary in the way that it speaks to a readership that crosses disciplines within and beyond Japan studies.

Articles eligible for this prize are evaluated for their contribution to supporting the JJS mission of promoting the highest-quality scholarship through publication of empirical and interpretive work on Japan. Consideration is given to efforts to contextualize specialized research findings in ways that articulate their importance for the wider field of Japan studies. Mary Alice Haddad, Edward Kamens, and Marcia Yonemoto served on the 2020 selection committee.

For more information about the prize and how to contribute to the prize fund, please visit our website: http://depts.washington.edu/jjs/kenneth-b-pyle-prize-for-best-article-in-jjs/