Japanese

Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University

Profiles

Table of Contents

Humane Studies

Course Group Department Position Name Research Theme
Japanese Culture Japanese Literature Professor SATO Nobuhiro Comparative literature studies focusing on modern Japanese literature and especially on modern poetry;
Translation of literary works
Professor SAKURA Yoshiyasu Analysis of expressive structure and special characteristics of Japanese literary works contextualized within the history of Japanese culture and literacy
Associate Professor YOKOMIZO Hiroshi Literature of the Heian period;
Medieval court literature in Japan
Assistant Professor KAWACHI Satoko Spread and reception of printed media in local communities in contemporary Japan
History of Japanese Thought Professor SATO Hiroo
Associate Professor KATAOKA Ryu History of thought in East Asia of the early modern period (1995-present);
East Asia in search of public philosophy and theory of life (2009-present);
Reconsidering pacifism and theory of spirituality in modern East Asia (2015-present)
Assistant Professor OKAYASU Noriyuki
Sinology Chinese Language and Literature Professor SATAKE Yasuko Describing and explaining the appeal of Chinese classical literature
Associate Professor TSUCHIYA Ikuko Textual analysis of Chinese plays
Associate Professor YATA Naoko
Associate Professor MA Xiaodi Poetry, poets, and society of the Tang period
Chinese Philosophy Professor MIURA Shuichi Various aspects of the three religions ― Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism ― in early modern China;
Neo-Daoism;
Imperial examination system for civil servants during the Ming dynasty
Associate Professor SAITO Tomohiro History of thought in medieval China (2005-present)
Assistant Professor OZAKI Junichiro
Indian Culture Indology and History of Indian Buddhism Professor SAKURAI Munenobu Esoteric funeral rituals in India and Tibet;
Luyipada School in Esoteric Buddhism
Assistant Professor MATSUMURA Yukihiko
Western Culture English Literature Professor OKOCHI Sho English romantic literature;
History of English thought in the 18th century;
Modern critical theory
Associate Professor ONUKI Takashi
Associate Professor TINK James Early modern English literature, including works by Shakespeare and Milton;
English poetry and poetics;
English literature in the 20th century
English Linguistics Professor KANEKO Yoshiaki Syntax-Semantics Interface;
The Performative Hypothesis in the context of the Minimalist Program
Professor SHIMA Etsuro Operation of movement (1992-present);
Tense phenomena (2000-present);
Ellipsis in natural languages (2002-present)
Assistant Professor NAKASHIMA Takanori
German Literature Professor MORIMOTO Koichi Philosophy of communication (previously the main line of research);
Developing narrative experience theory based on comparative media studies (current research project)
Professor SHIMAZAKI Satoru Historical development of grammatical categories;
Tense theory;
Point of view in Japanese and German languages;
The Song of the Nibelungs as romance fiction;
Authorship in popular literature;
Reception of European culture in Japan
Professor NARROG Heiko Grammaticalization; semantic change; modality
French Literature Professor ABE Hiroshi Intervention of subjectivity in Japanese, French and English sentences without information;
Desirability and subjectivity in language;
Contrastive analysis of temporal and spatial deixis in French and Japanese novels;
Free indirect speech and fictional speech acts;
Grammaticalization of spatial concepts; etc.
Professor IMAI Tsutomu Research project funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI): Cultural-historical analysis of Paul Valéry’s letters (Category C, 2014-2016)
Associate Professor KUROIWA Taku Research project funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI): “Subsequent use and development of the prosodic structure principles found in Arnoul Gréban’s Mystère de la Passion” (Category C; 2017-2019)
Associate Professor MEVEL Yann Samuel Beckett’s and Marguerite Duras’ ouvre;
Contemporary French literature, in particular literary works by Pierre Michon and authors published by Les Éditions de Minuit;
Assistant Professor ISHIDA Yuki
Philosophy Philosophy Professor NAOE Kiyotaka Phenomenological inquiry into human behavior (1985-present);
Philosophy and ethics of technology (1985-present)
Associate Professor OGIHARA Satoshi Ancient philosophy;
Analytic ethics
Associate Professor HARA Saku The issue of executability of interactive science communication;
Theoretical basis for research integrity
Associate Professor KIDO Atsushi
Ethics Professor TOSHIMA Kiyoshi
Associate Professor MURAYAMA Tatsuya 1. Modal notions (contingency, possibility, necessity) in French philosophy in the late 19th and early 20th century;
2. Historical and analytical inquiry into the meaning of life
Assistant Professor ENDO Kenju

Linguistic Studies

Course Group Department Position Name Research Theme
Linguistics Linguistics Professor GOTO Hitoshi Vocabulary description based on corpus linguistics (contemporary Japanese, contemporary English, Esperanto, etc.);
Languages in translingual communication (Latin, English, Esperanto, etc.)
Professor KOIZUMI Masatoshi 1) Field-based cognitive psycholinguistic study of the discourse-processing mechanisms of OS-type languages;
2) Study on pragmatic inferences
Associate Professor KIYAMA Sachiko Age-related changes in pragmatic language processing;
Field-based cognitive neurolinguistics
Japanese Linguistics Japanese Linguistics Professor SAITO Michiaki Various aspects of Japanese lexicon and lexicology;
Word formation and word-formation studies
Professor KOBAYASHI Takashi 1) Dialectological study of Japanese language history;
2) Dialectological aspects of interjections and onomatopoeia in verbal communication;
3) Dialects of the Tohoku disaster area and restoration of the region
Professor ŌKI Kazuo History of Japanese grammar;
Japanese language history;
Japanese grammar;
History of Japanese linguistics
Associate Professor KODA Naomi Structure of spoken and written discourse;
Conversation analysis
Assistant Professor TSAI Hsun-chieh
Applied Japanese Linguistics Applied Japanese Linguistics Professor SAITA Izumi Development of web-based Japanese language teaching materials;
Japanese language teacher education
Associate Professor TANAKA Shigeto Connections between gender-based inequality and family system;
Time-use analysis;
Application of information technology in social sciences;
Scientific knowledge formation process;
Scientific knowledge and public opinion and policy
Associate Professor OGAWARA Yoshiro Japanese language education methods

Historical Studies

Course Group Department Position Name Research Theme
Japanese History Japanese History Professor YANAGIHARA Toshiaki Comparative historical research of the periphery regions (Tohoku and South Kyushu) in medieval Japan;
Study of historical materials related to medieval Japan;
Development of historical studies in Tohoku region before and during the Second World War;
Tohoku University before and during the Second World War
Professor ADACHI Hiroaki Modern and contemporary Japan and Asia;
Spatial policy and national planning in pre- and postwar Japan, and their implementation on the local level;
Development of the mobilization system in Japan during World War II
Associate Professor HORI Yutaka Structural study of the Emperor’s authority (1997-present);
Japanese religions in East Asia (1995-present)
Associate Professor KAGOHASHI Toshimitsu Early modern Japanese history;
History of local communities in the early modern period;
Rural history;
History of Japanese clans
Archaeology Professor AKOSHIMA Kaoru Analysis of stoneware pottery (especially methods of use-wear analysis);
Processual Archaeology (archaeology as anthropology)
Associate Professor KANOMATA Yoshitaka Application of use-wear analysis (traceology) as a research method of prehistoric archaeology;
Establishing the chronology of Palaeolithic sites in Tohoku region;
Comparative cultural analysis of periods of the earliest pottery
Asian History East Asian History Professor KAWAI Yasushi Chinese aristocracy in the period from Wei-Jin to Sui-Tang dynasties
Associate Professor ONO Koji Chinese bureaucracy and the imperial examination system for civil servants in Ming and Qing periods
Assistant Professor MITA Tatsuhiko
European and American History European and American History Professor ARIMITSU Hideyuki “The Norman Empire” and local communities;
Epistolary exchange and communication in medieval Europe;
Peoples of the British Isles and national consciousness
Associate Professor ASAOKA Zenji Russian agricultural communities under the New Economic Policy (NEP)
Art History Eastern and Japanese Art History Professor NAGAOKA Ryusaku History of Japanese sculpture;
The cult of Śarīra (Buddhist relics) and plastic arts in Pan-Asia;
Philosophy of Buddhist Art
Associate Professor SUGIMOTO Yoshihisa
Assistant MIURA Yukihide
Aesthetics and Western Art History Professor OZAKI Akihiro My main goal as a researcher is to find ways to address crucial issues of today within my field of study. I also would like to make sure that Humanities on the whole make contribution to the society.
Assistant YAMADA Kyoko
(Italian) Associate Professor FONGARO Enrico 「ファンタズマタの世界」−西田幾多郎における美学と時間論」(research funded by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C (KAKEN); principal investigator, 2017-19);
「感情の媒介的機能に定位した、よき共同的な生の構想」(research funded by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B (KAKEN); co-Investigator (principal investigator – Noe Keiichi), 2017-present);
“The Surface of the Present - Ontology and Time in the Philosophy of Nishida Kitaro” (research funded by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C (KAKEN); principal investigator, 2014-16)
[Partner Course] Comparative Cultural History Professor TERAYAMA Kyosuke
[Cooperating Lecturer] Museum studies Professor
( Tohoku University Museum) 		FUJISAWA Atsushi

Human Sciences

Course Group Department Position Name Research Theme
Sociology Sociology Professor HASEGAWA Koichi 1. Study of social change focusing on social conflicts and social movements;
2. Systematization of environmental policies;
3. Comparative sociological study of decision-making processes in adopting nuclear energy, energy, and climate change policies;
4. Reconstructing the history of sociology in Japan from the perspective of public sociology
Professor NAGAI Akira Jürgen Habermas’ social theory;
Structural change processes in rural communities;
Sociological research of medical care systems in rural communities
Professor KOMATSU Takeaki Meta-research of the social systems theory;
Sociological research of risk and knowledge/non-knowledge
Behavioral Science Behavioral Science Professor SATO Yoshimichi Social change (1982-present);
Mechanisms of trust (1992-present);
Social class and inequality (1985-present)
Professor KIMURA Kunihiro Quantitative research on social attitude and belief formation;
Numerical study on unintended consequences of social decision-making;
Experimental research on questionnaire-filling behaviours
Professor HAMADA Hiroshi Examining social phenomena through mathematical models;
Integrating mathematical models with statistical models
Associate Professor NAGAYOSHI Kikuko Major factors and mechanisms of discrimination development
Psychology Psychology Professor GYOBA Jiro Pattern recognition; figure-ground perception; visual completion; visual illusions; face and body perception; multimodal integration; picture classification; affective space perception; semantic differential (SD) method; etc.
Professor ABE Tsuneyuki Research on the physicality of emotions;
Psychological functions of everyday behavior;
Salivary cortisol measurement;
Social meaning of face;
Ecological functions of the sense of smell;
Disaster and the emergent norm theory
Professor SAKAI Nobuyuki Psychology of eating (including psychology of sensation and perception, biological psychology, health psychology, etc.);
Chemical sensing system (sense of taste, sense of smell, somatic senses, etc.) from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience
Associate Professor TSUJIMOTO Masahiro Mutual aid in local communities;
Life history research;
Nikkei communities in South America
Associate Professor ARAI Takashi
Assistant Professor SAITO Godai
Human Culture Cultural Anthropology Professor NUMAZAKI Ichiro Economic Development and Sociocultural Change in Taiwan (1986-present);
Culture and human rights (1991-present);
Gender and violence (2000-present);
History of American anthropology (2010-present)
Associate Professor KAWAGUCHI Yukihiro Family and kinship, religion, and migration in East Asia (particularly in China)
Religious Studies Professor KIMURA Toshiaki Natural disasters and religion;
Modern transformations of folk belief;
Indonesian society and religion
Associate Professor YAMADA Hitoshi
Associate Professor TANIYAMA Yozo Application of sutra chanting, prayers and other religious practices as methods of stress relief
[Partner Course] Science and Technology Society Professor
(Center for Northeast Asian Studies) 		ASUKA Jusen
Associate Professor
(Center for Northeast Asian Studies) 		ISHII Atsushi

Others

Belong Position Name Research Theme
In charge of Foreign Students Professor TAKAHASHI Akinori Publishing culture in the Edo period;
History of cultural exchange
Associate Professor CRAIG Christopher Modern Japanese farming villages (2006-present)
Colonialism (2016-present)
Assistant Professor KOPYLOVA Olga Transmedia storytelling (as well as similar development of other types of content) within popular culture, its specifics and potential;
Fan culture, international fandom, and fiction-based transmedia projects;
Media mix as a specific type of transmedia franchise
Computer Room
Practical Religious Studies Professor SUZUKI Iwayumi
Professor KIMURA Toshiaki (Joint Posting)
Professor TAKAHASHI Hara Religious specialists and mental health care
Associate Professor TANIYAMA Yozo (Joint Posting)
Assistant Professor OHMURA Tetsuo Religion and acceptance of one’s own and others’ mortality;
Rinshoshukyoshi training;
Religious culture of Guatemala
Inter-Graduate School Doctoral Degree Program on Science for Global Safety Assistant Professor MATSUZAKI Rumi

Research

Japanese