Introduction of Major Institutions

Academy of Korean Studies

The Academy of Korean Studies (AKS), located on the outskirts of Seoul
and overlooking Mt. Cheongye, is the preeminent institution for research andpostgraduate training in the field of Korean Studies in Korea. In 2008 AKS
celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its founding with a solemn ceremony
held to mark its maturity as an institution and to renew the vision andmandate underlying its establishment in 1978. The founding mission of AKS,
an institution of enduring importance to the life of the nation, was to enhance
Korea’s understanding of itself and to discover the cultural essence of thecountry in order to further national cohesion. This overriding vision wasevident in the speech of President Park Chung-hee on the occasion of theinauguration of AKS on June 30, 1978, in which he emphasized the need tocreate a new national culture, anchored in the Korean tradition, in order tosupport economic development and propel the nation forward on the path ofmodernization and national reconstruction.
The AKS Act organized AKS into two mutually intertwined and empowered divisions for research and postgraduate teaching: a Directorate of
Research, comprising various research institutes undertaking research andpublication, and a Graduate School of Korean Studies, comprising various
departments teaching MA and PhD students. From the very outset, AKS

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engaged some of the most distinguished Korean scholars in Korea’s postwar
history, including Professor Kim Cheol-jun, a scholar of international renown
in the field of early Korean history; Professor Yi Gi-yeong, a noted
Buddhologist; Professor Ryu Seong-guk, a leading exponent of Korean
Confucianism; and Professor An hui-jun, a Harvard-trained art historian.
The first major fruit of AKS’s various initiatives was the 28-volume
Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, containing contributions from 3,801 scholars
and covering the entire spectrum of Korean history and culture. In 2001 thedigital edition EncyKorea was published on CD-ROM and DVD. Other publications of monumental significance include the following works in Korean:
Collections of Korean Oral Literature (85 vols.), Collections of Korean
Dialects (9 vols.), Compilation of Historical Materials of Korean Education,
Ritual Texts of the Late Joseon Period, Compilation of Materials on RitualProtocol of the Joseon Period, Collected Materials on Modern andContemporary Korean History (20 vols.), The Korean Translation andAnnotation of Samguk sagi [History of the Three Kingdoms], The Korean
Translation and Annotation of Samguk yusa [Memorabilia of the Three
Kingdoms], The Korean Translation of the Writings by Yi I, Collection ofMaterials on Korean Studies (44 vols.), Collection of Old Texts (90 vols.), and
A Fresh Understanding of Contemporary Korean History (27 vols.). The total
number of AKS publications in its thirty-four years of existence exceeds one
thousand volumes. AKS also publishes three journals: Jeongsin munhwa[Korean Studies] and Jangseogak [The Court Library] (in Korean) and The
Review of Korean Studies (in English).
The graduate program in Korean studies, carried out by the Graduate
School of Korean Studies, is an internationally recognized center foradvanced study in the Korean humanities and social sciences. It has trained
approximately 650 MA students and 370 PhD students, including nearly 200
foreign students. The Graduate School is staffed by 60 faculty members who
train specialists on Korea in a wide range of disciplines appropriate to theever-increasing economic and political importance and growing soft power of
Korea.
The current organization of the Academy of Korean Studies is given
below.
The Graduate School of Korean Studies
The Graduate School of Korean Studies offers an MA in 16 disciplines,
and a PhD in 15 disciplines, clustered in the humanities, the social sciences,
cultural and art studies, and international Korean studies. This last area is the
only faculty with a mandate for offering courses in English. All international
students are granted a full tuition waiver, and approximately 60 percent of allIntroduction of Major Institutions

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foreign students receive a monthly stipend of 750,000 won and airfare for one
round trip.
Directorate of Research
The Directorate of Research runs such research institutes as the Institutefor East Asian History, the Institute for Modern Korea, the King Sejong
Institute of Leadership, the Institute for Linguistic and Literary Studies, theInstitute for Culture and Religion, the Institute of Korean Community, and theInstitute of Overseas Korean Studies.
Jangseogak Archives“Jangseogak” ( 藏書閣 ) refers to the holdings of the Joseon dynasty. These
precious volumes of great importance for the study of the history and cultureof the Joseon dynasty were transferred to the Academy of Korean Studies in
1980. The Jangseogak Archives hold the Uigwe (Royal Protocols of the Joseon
Dynasty) (490 volumes covering 287 areas) and Dongui bogam, a medical text
(25 volumes). The international significance of these works is evident in theirrecognition by the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.
Korean Studies Promotion Service (KSPS)The Korean Studies Promotion Service was established at the initiativeof the Ministry of Education and Science to promote Korean studies worldwide. Some of the major programs of KSPS are the Overseas Leading
University Program for Korean Studies grant, which selects leading Koreanstudies centers in the world and provides generous funding for research,
events, scholarships, and other projects. The Laboratory of Korean Studies,
another ambitious program, seeks to sponsor, promote, and coordinate interdisciplinary research on Korea by scholars in the West.
Center for Knowledge and Information
Some of the major long-term projects that the Center for Knowledge andInformation has undertaken are the compilation of the Encyclopedia of Local
Korean Culture (in Korean), which investigates the unique characteristics ofeach local region in the country, and the Augmented Encyclopedia of Korean
Culture (in Korean), which will be completed in 2017 and will include 5,300
multimedia features in 86,000 entries. Digitalization of Korean-studies materials is another major task that AKS has been slowly but steadily carryingout.
The Academy of Korean Studies has also been running a successful AKS
Fellowship Program for Korean Studies, to provide international scholars anddoctoral candidates with an opportunity to pursue their research in Korea, and100

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the AKS Summer Institute for International Students, to cultivate young
minds capable of advancing Korean studies.

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Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences,
National Tsing Hua University
To promote research in the humanities and social sciences, early in 2007
the Ministry of Education of Taiwan proposed a forward-looking plan tosupport five universities with resources, in establishing centers for thispurpose. After strict examination and evaluation, the National Tsing Hua
University in Hsinchu was permitted to set up a Research Center for
Humanities and Social Sciences 人文社會研究中心 (RCHSS) in September ofthe same year.
Tsing Hua University has a glorious tradition in the humanities, with many
famous authors, historians, and linguists. Scholars like Chen Yin-ke 陳 寅 恪and Chao Yuen-ren 趙元任 once taught and did research for a long time on its
beautiful campus. Although the scale of its scholar community is smaller now,some scholars in specific fields have published many important works andpossess rather high international reputations.
RCHSS resides in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsing
Hua University, and its purpose is to promote research and disseminate theresults as widely as possible. At present, the center has one director, two

Figure 1.
The president of Tsing Hua University
and other top scholars uncovered thetablet of RCHSS.

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vice-directors, one executive committee, one advisory committee, and administrative staff. The director is Huang Yi-long, chaired professor in the Instituteof History and academician in Academia Sinica.
According to the center’s policy, invited scholars are free of teaching
duties during their stays, so that they can concentrate on research. Since its
establishment, the center each year has hosted six to twelve eminent research
fellows or promising postdoctoral fellows from around the world staying at
the center at least six months. Many well-known international scholars—suchas Noam Chomsky (MIT, U.S.), Craig Clunas (Oxford, UK), Benjamin Elmen(Princeton, U.S.), Susan Naquin (Princeton, U.S.), Leonard Blussé (Leiden,
Neth.), Timothy Brook (Oxford, UK) —have visited Tsing Hua University,
giving short-term series of lectures or joining cosmopolitan forums sponsoredby the center.
To further the exchange of ideas and opinions between invited scholars
and teachers at Tsing Hua University, it is the custom of the Monsoon Asia
Project to hold regular academic talks every one or two weeks during eachsemester. As of June 2012, seventy-eight talks covering various subjects andsundry regions have taken place.
The center also seeks to strengthen academic talent by finding promising
junior professors of Tsing Hua University with the help of senior scholars’valuable experience and suggestions. Toward this end, the center has set up amentoring system for several years. To date, this system has offered nearly ahundred professional consultations that have facilitated junior faculty
members’ future arrangements and linked them up with senior scholars.
Many innovative and creative individual and joint projects are supported
by RCHSS at Tsing Hua University. Especially worth noting is its
Multiculturalism of Monsoon Asia Project. The term “monsoon Asia” is ageographical concept covering most of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East
Asia. In traditional times, the nations of this part of Asia influenced by the

Figure 2.
The office of the
RCHSS at Tsing
Hua

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monsoon formed a regional system to trade goods, exchange talent, andspread various kinds of culture and ideas. Owing to the complicated culturaland social interactions of this area, the chief task of this program is to integrate Tsing Hua and invited scholars working in such diverse research fields
as history, linguistics, sociology, and anthropology. The main goal is toprovide synthetic perspectives and profound understandings of monsoon Asia
through innovative interdisciplinary methods and perspectives.
An important indicator of a top university is the publication of influential
academic books. World-class universities such as Cambridge and Harvard all
have university presses. To extend its influence, RCHSS has cooperated with
Tsing Hua University Press in the publication and distribution of significant
monographs. Under a peer-review system, some high-quality books have been
published and well received in their respective academic communities.
The center also encourages participation in international conferences. Eachyear dozens of professors and postgraduate students get conference subsidies,and some of them even earn awards for best presentation.
Social concerns are an important focus of RCHSS at Tsing Hua University.
One of the center’s goals is to play the role of a think tank so as to be asource of positive change in Taiwan society. With this goal in mind, thecenter has held, at Tsing Hua University every year, forums focusing on
Taiwan’s social welfare, societal risks, and economic developments.
In sum, in the past few years RCHSS at Tsing Hua University has createdan excellent academic environment for scholars and postgraduate students.
Among other endeavors, it has published peer-reviewed monographs,
purchased electronic databases, instituted a weekly scholarly talk, hosted
international workshops, and conducted annual reviews of its programs.
The Ministry of Education of Taiwan has supported several centers at
different universities, and has appraised them several times since 2007.
Among them, the RCHSS at Tsing Hua University has always obtained the

Figure 3.
The College of
Humanities and Social
Sciences of Tsing Hua at
Hsin-chuIntroduction of Major Institutions

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highest evaluation, reflecting the successful efforts of the center. In June 2012
the RCHSS at Tsing Hua University applied for a new extension of its
support. If this extension is approved, the center will continue its present
programs and focus on support for research in the social sciences in the nextstage of its development. Scholars specializing in economics, science andtechnology law, technology management, and finance will be invited to thecenter. Eligible scholars are encouraged to apply for research appointments at
Tsing Hua University, a superb research environment. For more information,
see http://rchss.nthu.edu.tw/.
Yu Po-ching
Post-doc, Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University

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Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Now over a decade old, the Asia Research Institute (ARI) was establishedin 2001 as a university-level institute and also as a strategic initiative of the
National University of Singapore. ARI can be distinguished from other institutes in the region in that it undertakes basic, interdisciplinary, and innovative
research on Asia in the humanities and social sciences; it is not a think tank

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directly committed to policy analysis.
Research at ARI is undertaken in eight research clusters:• Asian Cultural Studies• Asian Migration• Asian Urbanisms• Changes in Families in Asia
• Religion and Globalization in Asian Contexts• Science, Technology, and Society• Open Cluster• Metacluster: Asian Connections
Each research cluster provides a community for collaborative and individual research. The Open Cluster allows for research on topics outside of theresearch foci of the six main clusters. The Asian Connections Metacluster,reflecting a new paradigm in the study of Asia, promotes research exploring
connections, convergences, and comparisons in Asia. Its goal is to understandAsia through concepts, paradigms, and theories based on wider and interconnected Asian experiences, rather than through those formulated on the basis ofbilateral understandings between an Asian society and the West.
Each cluster recruits a research leader—typically, professors at the
National University of Singapore, who are then jointly appointed at a faculty
and the institute—and a wide range of researchers, including research
fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants. Visitors from otherinstitutions play an important role in the life of the institute: each year, ARI
welcomes around sixty visiting academics, who spend up to a year
researching and taking part in the institute’s activities. Researchers can use all
the facilities of the university and conduct fieldwork. Postgraduate students at
the National University of Singapore may also be affiliated with the institute.
At any given time, ARI employs over sixty academic staff members,housed primarily at the Bukit Timah campus of the University. It is quite
diverse in terms of disciplines and geographic origins. Thus, ARI’sresearchers have been trained as anthropologists, lawyers, sociologists, historians, linguists, musicians, and scientists, to mention only a few fields.
Scholars at ARI study the cultures and civilizations of all parts of Asia, fromTurkey to Papua. Current visitors at ARI include academics from Australia,
India, Canada, and Sweden.
This meeting of minds creates a synergy that leads to a level of academic
engagement rarely seen in the region. With the support of its administrative
staff, ARI can facilitate a wide range of academic events. These include
reading and study groups, multiple weekly seminars presented by institutemembers and visitors, conferences and workshops (over twenty of these were
held in 2012), and public lectures. For seven years, ARI has organizedIntroduction of Major Institutions

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Graduate Fellowships and a Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies, inwhich over one hundred graduate students from the region participate eachyear. These events demonstrate the substantial human resources that ARI
possesses, as well as the special contribution it can make to Asian studies in
the region.
In the area of publications, ARI facilitates a Working Paper Series—which
provides a means for swift and wide online dissemination of peer-reviewed
research papers, many of which are subsequently published elsewhere—aswell as aiding in the publication of a number of other regular book series andjournals. To date, over 250 books have been published by researchers while at
ARI, together with countless journal articles, special journal issues, and edited
works.
To give a sense of the breadth and depth of the work done at ARI, provided
below is a brief sample of some activities from mid-2012:• In July 2012, at the first in the ARI Asia Trends series of public lectures,the visiting scholar Mayfair Yang of the University of California at
Berkeley presented a discussion of the ritual economy and religious
revival in the coastal Chinese city of Wenzhou, explaining the city’s
remarkable economic success in terms of its historical and religious
traditions. Other recent events that draw on the juxtaposition of religion,
migration, history, and urban development include the “Doing Asian
Cities” workshop, organized in June in tandem with the Max Planck
Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and the“Intercity Networks and Urban Governance in Asia” conference held inMarch.
• Members of the Cultural Studies Cluster; the Science, Technology, andSociety Cluster; and the Open Cluster have recently collaborated in aseries of events and publications relating to social activism and the new
media. In April 2012, the “Modes of Activism and Engagement in the
Chinese Public Sphere” conference attracted contributions from many
international academics, many of which will be published in a special
journal issue. This was followed by an interdisciplinary workshop,“Social Media and Cross-Border Cultural Transmissions: Technologies,
Policies, Industries.” The 2012 Intra-Asia Roundtable, an invitation-only
event that facilitates high-level discussion between influential academics,
had the theme of “Methodological and Conceptual Issues in Cyber
Activism” as its subject.
• In the arts, the Asian Connections Metacluster and the Cultural Studies
Cluster at ARI collaborated with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
and the Asian Civilizations Museum to organize a workshop in
November titled “Rethinking the Asian Century with the Arts,” which

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aimed to assess the role that the arts have played in shifts in the balanceof power across the entire region of Asia. This was interestingly juxtaposed with the Kuo Pao Kun International Conference, held in
September, which considered the contributions of Kuo Pao Kun (1939–
2002), the prominent Singaporean dramatist, art activist, and public intellectual.

While these three groups of events and publications merely scratch thesurface of the work done by ARI, they serve to demonstrate a few of themany ways in which the institute is fulfilling its vision to be a world-leading
hub for research on Asia.
ARI welcomes applications to be a visitor, researcher, or postdoctoral
fellow at the institute, and also invites participation in its events. Further
information about the institute and its staff, as well as its many publications,
may be found on the ARI website: http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg.
Jonathan Benney
Research Fellow, Asia Research InstituteIntroduction of Major Institutions

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Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The Institute of Modern History 近 代 史 研 究 所 of the Chinese Academyof Social Sciences, formally established on May 1, 1950, is a national
research organization dedicated to the study of modern Chinese history. It
traces its history back to the Historical Research Office of the Yan’an
Academy of Marxism-Leninism. In 1946 this research office became theHistorical Research Office of Beifang (Northern) University. In 1948 Beifang
University and North China United University combined to form North China
University, and at that time the office became the Historical Research Officeof the Department of Research of North China University. In April 1949 theHistorical Research Office, along with all of North China University, moved
from Zhengding County in Hebei Provence to its present site in Beiping(later Beijing), namely, No. 1 Dongchang Hutong, Wangfujing Street.
No. 1 Dongchang Hutong was originally the site of the Eastern Depot(Dongchang), an imperial special investigative agency of the Ming dynasty(1368–1644), whence the hutong derives its name. Late in the Qing period(1644–1911), the Ming History Institute was located here for a time, and later
this site became the official residence of the Zhili governor-general Rong Lu.
Early in the Republican period (1912–1949), it served as the residence of the
Republican vice president and president Li Yuanhong. From July 1946 to
December 1948, Hu Shi lived here for more than two years. The buildings at
No. 1 Dongchang Hutong were originally in the traditional style of four-sided
enclosed courtyards (siheyuan), but to accommodate the needs of a research
institute, in 1981 a nine-storey research building, with a total floor space of108

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7,600 square meters, was constructed on the site.
The Institute of Modern History—taking historical materialism as its
guiding light and working in a rigorous, objective, and creative manner—
seeks to deepen our understanding of modern Chinese society and to provide
historical references for promoting socialism with Chinese characteristics andaiding in the resurgence of the Chinese people. The institute primarily studies
Chinese history from 1840 to 1949—covering politics, the economy, diplomacy, thought, culture, and society—but also studies the history of Hong
Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
The first director was Fan Wenlan, the famous Marxist historian.
Thereafter, the institute was led by Liu Danian, Yu Shengwu, Wang
Qingcheng, Zhang Haipeng, Bu Ping, and Wang Jianlang, the present
director. At present the institute has research departments for the study of late
Qing political history, Republican-period history, Sino-foreign diplomatic
history, economic history, the history of thought, cultural history, revolutionary history, Marxist theory of history, and Taiwanese history. In addition,
there are editorial offices, such as the Office for Compiling and Translating
Historical Data of Modern China（《近代史资料》）and the editorial offices of《近代史研究》(Modern Chinese History Studies), Journal of Modern Chinese
History, and《抗日战争研究》(Journal of Studies of China’s War of Resistanceagainst Japan). The institute also has a library, an information-technology
office, and research centers for the study of Taiwanese history, modern
Chinese thought, and the history of modern Chinese society.
At the beginning, the institute had a staff of only 30 individuals. By theearly 1960s, its staff had increased to 160 individuals. During the Cultural
Revolution, the institute was forced to suspend its programs. After 1978 theinstitute entered a new phase of development, with its staff reaching a peak of
250 individuals. After 1990 many of its researchers either left or retired,leaving a present-day staff of 130 individuals.
Over the course of its existence of more than half a century, the Instituteof Modern History has produced a considerable number of talented historicalresearchers, among them, Fan Wenlan, Liu Danian, Luo Ergang, as well as Jin
Yufu, Wang Chongwu, Shao Xunzheng, Nie Chongqi, Zhang Guogan, andRong Mengyuan—names bringing much credit to the institute. Such talented
researchers have benefited from the institute’s superb research environment
for modern Chinese history. With a rich collection of books, the institute is
not only domestically and internationally well known as a center for researchmaterials in modern Chinese history, but also has a superb scholarly traditionand excellent research environment. Monographs published by the institutehave received much attention in academic circles. Such published works
include《中国通史》(A History of China throughout the Ages),《中国近代史稿》

Introduction of Major Institutions

109(A Preliminary History of Modern China),《 帝 国 主 义 侵 华 史 》(A History ofImperialistic Invasions of China),《沙俄侵华史》(A History of Czarist Russia’s
Invasions of China),《中华民国史》(A History of Republican China),《十九世
纪的香港》(Hong Kong in the Nineteenth Century),《中国复兴枢纽――抗日战争的八年》(A Turning Point in the Resurgence of China: The Eight-Year War
of Resistance against Japan),《 中 国 新 民 主 主 义 革 命 史 长 编 》(An Extended
History of China’s New Democratic Revolution),《中国近代通史》(A Complete
History of Modern China), and 《 近 代 中 国 文 化 转 型 研 究 》 (Studies inTransformations of Modern Chinese Culture). Research presently being
carried out at the institute cover a range of topics important for both the institute and the nation, including studies of Taiwanese history, a history of thepeople’s War of Resistance against Japan, a history of Republican China’s
foreign diplomacy, a comprehensive history of modern Chinese thought, anda history of modern Chinese society and economy.
The institute has established a Department of Modern History in the
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and accepts
master’s and doctoral students, as well as postdoctoral researchers.
A postdoctoral mobile research station was set up in 1993. To date, twentyseven postdocs have left the station to become a core part of China’s capacity
for research in modern Chinese history. At present, the researchers serving as
advisors to postdocs at the mobile research station are Wang Jianlang, Wang
Chaoguang, Zhang Haipeng, Geng Yunzhi, Liu Xiaomeng, Zheng Dahua, Li
Changli, Yu Huamin, Ma Yong, Cui Zhihai, and Zuo Yuhe.
Contact concerning the postdoctoral mobile research station: Xi Weirong
Address: Personnel Department,
Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, No. 1
Dongchang Hutong, Wangfujing Street, Beijing 100006, China
Phone no.: +86-10-65257246
Fax no.: +86-10-65257246
E-mail: rsc-jd@cass.org.cn

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Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo

The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia ( 東洋文化研究所 ) is a research
institute attached to The University of Tokyo. Established in 1941 as theInstitute of Oriental Culture, it was the University’s first institute for thehumanities and social sciences, and since then has provided a platform for abroad spectrum of research in Asian Studies. The geographical area studied at
the institute ranges from Egypt to the Korean Peninsula, to Japan. In eachregion within this vast scope, we conduct studies using disciplines as varied
as politics, economics, religion, history, archeology, literature, and art. The
institute has produced many outstanding scholars, including laureates of suchhonors as the Order of Cultural Merit and the Japan Academy Award. The
institute was given its current English name in 2009 to reflect its central
mission of addressing regional and global issues firmly grounded in Asia.
Consisting of six departments (divided mainly according to regional focus),
Office of International Academic Cooperation, and the Research andInformation Center for Asian Studies (RICAS) (serving as a nationwide open
research center), the institute promotes cutting-edge research in all the fields
within its scope.

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Organization

Department of Pan-Asian Studies
The Department of Pan-Asian Studies covers a broad spectrum of researchon Asia in the humanities and social sciences in fields such as political
economy, political science, human geography, cultural anthropology, andcomparative thought. It emphasizes networking with colleagues abroad, especially in Asia, as it develops collaborative schemes of research and communication in Asian studies.
Department of East Asian Studies (I)The Department of East Asian Studies (I) deals with East Asia as a whole,including China, Korea, Japan, and occasionally Vietnam, employing methodologies in the social sciences and history to understand the dynamics of theregion from antiquity to the present.
Department of East Asian Studies (II)The Department of East Asian Studies (II) is oriented towards the humanities in the fields of thought, religion, literature, and art.
Department of South Asian Studies
The Department of South Asian Studies covers the geographic region fromSoutheast Asia to the Indian subcontinent. The department has been consolidated into a research organization studying the politics, political economy,sociology, and culture of the area in both the past and present.
Department of West Asian Studies
The Department of West Asian Studies covers the geographical area
stretching from Afghanistan to Turkey and Egypt, the so-called Near andMiddle East, and Inner Asia. The department attempts to understand this vast
area in an interdisciplinary manner through the study of its political,
economic, cultural, and social characteristics.
Department of Pioneering Asian Studies
The Department of Pioneering Asian Studies is a new department established in 2011 with the objective of promoting new methods of study not
constrained by traditional disciplinary boundaries. The institute is strongly
committed to further developing this department.
Office of International Academic Cooperation
This office was established in 2001 to promote international academic
exchange across the field of Asian studies. It is in charge of editing the112

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International Journal of Asian Studies.
Research and Information Center for Asian Studies
RICAS was established in 1999 to replace the Asian Studies Documents
Center, which had existed since 1966. In addition to carrying on the samerich and varied activities focusing on East Asia as undertaken by the previous
center, RICAS has also enlarged its regional purview to include Asia in its
entirety. Its “Asian Source Studies” consists of three sections: the longstanding “Comparative Studies of Written Sources,” a newly revised section“Artifacts and Visual Sources,” and, as of 2009, a newly added section“Social Information on Asia.”
Publications
The institute issues three journals, publishes a variety of books, andcompiles a database.
東洋文化研究所紀要 (Memoirs of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia)

Published twice a year, this journal contains scholarly articles by theinstitute’s research staff and affiliated members. The first volume waspublished in 1943. A total of 161 issues have been published as of March
2012. Tables of contents may be found at http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/kiyou.html.

東洋文化 (Oriental Culture)

This journal, edited by the institute’s research staff, began as a quarterly
journal, but is now published annually, with each issue devoted to a particular
topic. Its predecessor, 東洋文化研究 (Oriental Culture Review), ran from no. 1(1944) to no. 11 (1949). In 1950 a new series was initiated with the present
name and format, and 91 issues have been published so far. Tables ofcontents are available at http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/bunka.html.

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International Journal of Asian Studies
The International Journal of Asian Studies, sponsored by this instituteand published by Cambridge University Press, is an international and interdisciplinary English-language periodical publishing research on Asia,
primarily in the social sciences and humanities. The first issue was publishedin January 2004. It consists of both themed and general issues, and ispublished twice a year.
Books
The Institute publishes several monographs every year and, as of March
2012, has published sixty-six volumes. A list of books published by the institute can be perused at http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/index.html.
Databases
RICAS supports the compilation of databases. Its digital archives include,
among others, アジア古籍電子図書館 (Electronic Library of Asian Antiquarian
Books), デジタルアーカイブ：インド史跡調査団 (Digital Archive: Mission for
Indian History and Archaeology), and データベース：世界と日本 (Database:
The World and Japan). (See http://ricas.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng/database/index.
html.)
Library
The institute’s library specializes in Asian Studies and contains over
670,000 books and 7,100 periodicals (as of March 2012). Its collection ofChinese books, which is well known internationally among Sinologists, is oneof the three best collections in Japan and includes numerous rare and valuable books. The library has books and periodicals in Chinese, Korean, Arabic,
Turkish, Persian, Indonesian, and Sanskrit. Library collections include the Oki
Collection, the Kuraishi Collection, and the Daiber Collection, among others.

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Tōyō Bunko (The Oriental Library)

Initial Stage Leading to the Founding

The establishment of the Tōyō Bunko, a research library for Asian studies,is related closely to the introduction by the Meiji government in the 1870s
and 1880s of the scientific method of historiography from the West. Three
research arms were required for such objective: an academic journal operated
by a scholarly community in the field; a repository for materials upon whose
basis new scientific inquiry could be developed; and a university with curriculum that could give students training in new methodologies. While all threebranches facilitated rise of the genre of Japanese history in 1889, those forthe field of Asian studies lagged behind for two decades. The Research
Department of the Association of Oriental Learning (東洋協会調査部) wasestablished in 1908 with The Journal of Oriental Learning (東洋学報). Thisjournal was incorporated into the Tōyō Bunko when the Library was established in 1924. The curriculum for Asian studies was developed in 1907
(Kyoto University) and in 1910 (Tokyo University), respectively. The creationof a repository of sources for the Asian studies field was thus widely
welcomed.

Founding

The Tōyō Bunko Foundation is a legal foundation that operates a researchlibrary for Oriental Learning (Asian Studies). It was officially founded by
Iwasaki Hisaya (1865-1955), CEO of Mitsubishi, Ltd., on November 19th,
1924. Hisaya provided the infrastructure (grounds, buildings, and bookIntroduction of Major Institutions

115

stacks) and the financial and organizational wherewithal to promote andrealize the Foundation’s goals. At that time, Hisaya donated two worldrenowned treasures to the library as the cornerstone of the holdings: Dr.
George Earnest Morrison’s (1862-1920) exhaustive collection (24,000 vols.)of books, manuscripts, and other materials in Western languages that are vitalfor inquiry into Asia at large, and the Iwasaki Collection (38,000 vols.),
containing old and rare books and manuscripts tracing the history of printing
culture in Japan and its neighbors. Contained in the latter are five national
Japanese treasures and seven important cultural properties.

Development

Since its inauguration, the library’s activities have been divided into three
departments: the research department, the library department, and the generalaffairs department. Major projects of the research department are to promote,publicize, and disseminate the results of research done using the documents
held in the library. Seven annual serials (either in Japanese or in European
languages) are in print now. Of these, The Journal of Oriental Learning inJapanese (vols. 1~94) and Memoirs of the Research Department of the
Oriental Library in European Languages (vols. 1~69) boast a history that dates
back to the library’s founding. Monograph publications include the Tōyō
Bunko Monograph series (nos. 1~75) in Japanese, and the Tōyō Bunko
Research Library series (nos. 1~14) in European languages. In addition, theAsian Studies Lecture Series (held biannually in spring and fall) represent
some of the activities sponsored by the research department of the library forthe general public.
The successive acquisitions by Tōyō Bunko of books and materials either
through additional purchases or through donations have increased the numberof holdings of the library from about 100,000 volumes at its start to about amillion currently. Besides the Morrison and Iwasaki Collections mentioned
above, the library’s widely-known collections include the Korean Sources(Maema Kyōsaku, 1924 and 1942; and Shidehara Taira, 1941); theKawaguchi Tibetan Buddhist Scripture Collection (Kawaguchi Ekai, 1940);
the Umehara Archeological Collection (Umehara Sueji, 1964); the Tsuji
Indological Collection (Tsuji Naoshirō, 1979); the Enoki Collection (Enoki
Kazuo, 1997); and the Yamamoto Collection (Yamamoto Tatsurō, 2001).
Cataloguing of these holdings is the responsibility of the library department.
They have issued a total of forty-seven catalogues so far, excluding thosepublished by some research committees housed within the library.

Post-War Infrastructure Reconstruction

With the end of World War II the US General Headquarters (GHQ)116

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announced that large Japanese cartels would be dissolved. The Tōyō Bunko
Foundation, whose infrastructure had been funded mainly by the Iwasaki
family during the pre-war period, was in danger of being closed. However,things began to look up after Shidehara Kijurō became the Director-Generalin 1947. As a result of negotiations between him and Kanamori Tokujirō, thehead of the National Diet Library, a contract was signed the next year thatrecognized the Tōyō Bunko Foundation’s ownership of the library holdings,
while eight National Diet Library employees were dispatched to theFoundation to operate the reading room and the stacks, which were from thattime on to be designated the “Tōyō Bunko Branch of the National Diet
Library” (the contract was valid to 2009). Concurrently, financial aid for
publication and library acquisitions of the Foundation from the Ministry of
Education, which began in 1948, gradually increased. In addition, it was
during 1953 to 1958 that financial support from the Harvard-Yenching
Institute was given to the Foundation. Meanwhile, with further financial
support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Modern China ResearchCommittee was set up in 1956. By the 1960s research as well as the library
activities of the Tōyō Bunko were fully restored. Meanwhile, the Tōyō Bunko
Foundation in the late 1960s through 1990s began to concentrate seriously on
restoring physical infrastructure because the old building was crumbling, andspace for stacks had become too limited for new acquisitions.

New Building, New Museum, and International Exchange

Through the overall financial support of the Mitsubishi enterprise group,building restoration and equipment renewal was completed in January, 2011.
The new seven-story building houses in it offices, stack areas, a readingroom, a lecture room and a museum of 200 square meters for the exhibition

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of holdings. In conjunction with this event, scientific cooperation agreements
were concluded with the École française d’Extrême Orient (1999), theHistory and Language Research Center of Academia Sinica (2006), and theHarvard-Yenching Institue (2010). Another activity the Foundation iscurrently engaged in is Web Information Services. Starting in 1996, theFoundation began providing various databases containing bibliographic andfull text information about the library’s holdings. An online search engine has
been added to our website, which also provides constantly updated information about its activities. cf .URL: http: //www.toyo-bunko. or.jp/
Shiba Yoshinobu
Executive Librarian

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Center for the Study of Asian Cultures, Kansai University

The Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies applied for a grant forthe project entitled “Formation of a Hub for Construction and Utilization ofArchives of East Asian Cultural Materials”, and was duly awarded a Strategic
Research Base Development Program Grant in 2011 from the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). To conduct this118

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project, the Institute applied for a grant to MEXT, as it did also for a project
entitled “Broadcasting and intake of information on East Asian Cultures”(project for advanced scientific research by private universities / project foradvancement of academic frontiers), which was carried out from 2005 - 2009by the Center for the Study of Asian Cultures. Building on the results andacclaim of this project, the Institute hopes to further develop the field of East
Asia Cultural research within the Institute, and establish a presence for theInstitute as a unique hub for academic research.
The Kansai University Library and other institutions within Kansai
University are home to a large and diverse collection of academic resources
for the study of East Asian culture up to the first half of the contemporary
period. The objective of this project is to digitalize these resources and createa public archive accessible to a broad range of researchers from Japan andoverseas. To carry out this task, three teams will be assembled to conduct thefollowing projects, with each team archiving different types of material.

Sub-project 1: Study of the archiving of “Collection Materials”

Here, “Collection Materials” indicates private collections and the likehoused in the libraries of Kansai University. The majority of these materials
are books, though there are also letters and images. Accordingly, the work
involved in this sub-project will not be limited to preparation of an inventory;
rather, it will entail seeking out an ideal structure for the archive based on anunderstanding of the contents in their entirety.

Sub-project 2: Study of the archiving of scattered material sets

Through the research on China and collaborative research on Asia
conducted by this institute to date, we have discovered the locations of relevant and related materials scattered around various locations in Japan andoverseas, and have gathered such materials to some extent. The “scatteredmaterial sets” referred to above indicates sets of materials that form aIntroduction of Major Institutions

119summary of a given research theme. Given the large discrepancy in thewhereabouts and quality of the materials in question, a major issue is to findthe optimal format for the archive, taking into account the diversity of thecontent.

Sub-project 3: Study of the archiving of materials linked to geographic
information

A vast amount of photographs and literature (including paperwork) is
compiled by researchers in the course of field surveys. Furthermore, researchmaterials concerning interaction between cultures of different countries
contain a great deal of spatial information in the form of maps, traveler’s
journals and the like. One objective of this project is to investigate thearchiving of materials such as the above that have clear links with geographical information.

Publication of a “Bibliography”

To archive the abovementioned three academic resources, it will not be
sufficient simply to arrange and publicize digital photos of the various materials. It will also be necessary to create what would in a book would betermed “annotations” that provide a detailed breakdown of the nature andcharacteristics of the materials in the archive. Only once this has beenachieved will it be possible to make full use of the archive as an academic
resource. Accordingly, the characteristics of each item in the archive will be
investigated at research meetings, and the items will be annotated appropriately. As the archiving work proceeds, these annotations will be made available to the public.

Unification project: The various aspects and uses of East Asian culturematerial archives

While one aim of this project is to build individual archives, another isto propose ways to organize, publicize and use diverse materials stemmingfrom research on East Asian Culture. For this purpose, an overarching unification project will be carried out in addition to the sub-projects in order toinvestigate theories of material handling and archiving that lead to an allencompassing archive. Moreover, we will be looking to communicate withdomestic and overseas research institutes conducting similar archiving projects with the intention of establishing an international “Archive Consortium”
that promotes collaboration in archiving.
This large-scale project will involve not only resuming the activities of
the Center for the Study of Asian Cultures, which is in the Institute ofOriental and Occidental Studies, but also enlisting the assistance of 18 full-120

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time faculty members affiliated to the departments of culture and foreign
languages in addition to 8 collaborating researchers from Japan and overseas.
We expect to encounter many challenges as we attempt to create a richarchive over the next five years, and hope we can look forward to your kindunderstanding and support.