Japanese

Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University

Profiles

Associate Professor NII Yoko

Affiliations :

Discover True Authenticity
in a Genuine Environment

My research explores the cultural intersections between China and the West. Consequently, half of my historical research has been conducted in mainland China and Taiwan, and the other half in France and the United Kingdom. While this may sound like an exciting, globe-trotting lifestyle, the reality is rather unglamorous. I spend my entire day in silence at a library desk, simply transcribing historical archives.
Even in Paris, the "City of Light," I confine myself to the library from dawn until dusk, often going without lunch. By the time I leave, I am too exhausted to visit any museums or galleries. Eating out is not something I can do casually, so my daily routine usually involves picking up bread, cheese, tomatoes and baby leaf salad that are ready to eat after washing, along with a few apricots and apples from the supermarket, and eating them in my hotel room while watching television.
And yet, despite eating the same thing for breakfast as the night before, and despite my aching eyes and lower back, I am sometimes overcome by an inexpressible joy. It comes to me in that beautiful, historic wooden library, when my hands rest upon a 300-year-old, leather-bound book filled with handwritten text.
Discovering true authenticity in a genuine environment. I believe there is no luxury quite like it.

  • Research, History
  • Books, papers, etc.
  • Courses
    Chinese Thought (Introductory Reading); Chinese Thought (Special Lecture); Chinese Thought (Advanced Seminar)
    Personal History
    Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music. Completed M.A. programs at the Graduate Schools of J. F. Oberlin University and The University of Tokyo. Subsequently completed the Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of The University of Tokyo and received a Ph.D. in Literature.

    Served as Project Assistant Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo; JSPS Research Fellow (PD); and Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Daito Bunka University. Appointed to the present position in April 2026.

    From 2007 to 2009, studied at the Institute of Qing History, Renmin University of China, as a senior research student under a Chinese Government Scholarship.
    From April to December 2014, conducted research as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (Taiwan).
    Field
    Intellectual history
    Research Subject
    Sino-Western intellectual interactions; Intellectual history of translations
    Keywords
    Christian missionaries in China; Chinese intellectual history (esp. 16th -20th centuries); Sinology; International Chinese Studies
    Affiliation
    Association for Studies of Chinese Society and Culture; Historical Society of Japan; The Institute of Eastern Culture; The Society for the History of Western Learning in Japan; The Historical Science Society of Japan; The Sinological Society of Tohoku
    Database of Researchers Information
    https://www.r-info.tohoku.ac.jp/ja/6ec3164a4764ab0672e48f07cef5f603.html
  • Books
    （単著）『イエズス会士と普遍の帝国―在華宣教師による文明の翻訳―』名古屋大学出版会、2017年。
    （共著）Europe and China : science and the arts in the 17th and 18th centuries, World Scientific, 2012.
    （共著）『宣教と適応―グローバル・ミッションの近世―』名古屋大学出版会、2020年。
    （共著）『世界哲学史』第５巻、筑摩書房、2020年。
    （共著）『近代日本と西洋音楽理論――グローバルな理論史に向けて』音楽之友社、2025年。
    （共著）『フランス・アカデミーの時代』名古屋大学出版会、2026年。
    Academic Papers
    「明清時期漢文西學書在明治日本的流傳」、『西學東漸研究』 第11輯、2022年。
    Awards
    The 44th Tōhō Gakkai Award.
    The 35th Grand Prix of the Shibusawa-Claudel Prize.
    The 40th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities.

Research

Japanese