Japanese

Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University

Profiles

Professor ARIMITSU Hideyuki

Affiliations :

Studying medieval Britain; Watching the contemporary UK; Contemplating the future of Japan

It should not be hard for the people of an Eastern island nation to feel affinity towards an island nation of the West, that is, to the United Kingdom. At least for me it was easy; while in elementary school, I was overwhelmed by the songs of The Beatles and fell in love with British rock. However, when I went to study in Scotland, one of the four countries comprising the UK, I promptly discovered that several banks there released bank notes different from the ones used in London. Starting with that surprise, I began to notice more and more of the unusual, mysterious aspects of the United Kingdom. All of them I treasure, because they remind me that things are not as self-evident as we tend to think. Speaking of surprises — the unexpected outcome of the Brexit referendum is still fresh in my memory. Now, it occurs to me that one of the keys to understanding the UK can be found in its medieval past, and so I made a point of investigating it as a researcher. On the other hand, I am convinced that it is equally important to observe various sides of contemporary Britain. I believe that doing so will allow us to contemplate the past, the present, and the future of our own country.

  • Research, History
  • Books, papers, etc.
  • Courses
    European and American History (General Lecture); European and American History (Introductory Reading); European and American History (Special Lecture); European and American History (Seminar); etc.
    Personal History
    Received a B.A, in Occidental History at the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo
    Completed the doctoral program (without a doctoral degree) in Occidental history at the Graduate School of Humanities, University of Tokyo

    Career:
    Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Kochi University
    Research Fellow, University of Glasgow (MEXT Fellowship Program for Japanese Scholars and Researchers to Study Abroad)
    Current position
    Degree
    Ph.D. (Literature)
    Field
    European History (mainly the history of England in the Middle Ages)
    Research Subject
    “The Norman Empire” and local communities;
    Epistolary exchange and communication in medieval Europe;
    Peoples of the British Isles and national consciousness
    Keywords
    England; Great Britain; Middle Ages
    Affiliation
    The Historical Society of Japan; The Society for the Study of Occidental History; The Japan Society for Medieval European Studies; Tohoku Historical Society; The Kochi Kainan Society for Historical Research; The French-Japanese Society for Historical Sciences (Société franco-japonaise des Sciences historiques)
    Database of Researchers Information
    http://db.tohoku.ac.jp/whois/detail/2a2485b10778b6af6325fb55fe0efc24.html
  • Books
    『11～13世紀「ブリテン諸島史」におけるネイションの諸相』、刀水書房、2013
    Academic Papers
    「イングランドの『東北』史」、『東北史を開く』、柳原敏昭編、山川出版社、2015
    「中世ブリテン諸島史における統合と共生の諸相」、『ヨーロピアン・グローバリゼーションと諸文化圏の変容に関する研究』、東北学院大学オープン・リサーチ・センター、2012
    「続・ネイション・アドレス考」、『文化』第74巻３・４号、2011、1-14
    "Memories and communications in the medieval Irish Sea world," in East-Asian Journal of British History, vol. 1, 2011, 55-62
    "Liebermann Library in Tokyo," in English law before Magna Carta: Felix Liebermann and Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Eds. Stefan Jurasinski, Lisi Oliver and Andrew Rabin, Brill, 2010, 27-42

Research

Japanese