Agenda

Interview

1. Please provide a brief outline of your training and scientific activity.

I obtained all my bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Tokyo. When I was an
associate professor at Osaka University, the university sent me as a visiting scholar to the University of
Groningen and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I am currently a professor
at Waseda University, both undergraduate and graduate course.
My research topic is a multilingual study about the history of relations between Japan and foreign countries
mainly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a particular focus on the Tensho Embassy to Europe,
which is an envoy to the Pope. They left Nagasaki, Japan in 1582, visited Rome and Venice in 1585, and
returned to Japan in 1590.

2. Please state your reasons for choosing Venice and the Department for your research and teaching stay.

Research on the Tensho Embassy to Europe in modern Japan was begun with Iwakura Tomomi's visit to
Venice in 1873. He viewed the relevant documents at Archivio di Stato di Venezia, and his host, Guglielmo
Berchet, published the results of his research in 1877. Therefore, I have been to Venice and the archives a
number ot times and chose Venice for this ocasion as my starting point to visit the many cities where the
embassies visited to collect relevant historical materials there. In addition, most of the relevant historical
materials are written in European languages, and they need to be interpreted from both Japanese and
European perspectives, which is why I chose this Department. On the other hand, I hope to build
relationships with staff and students of Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea as well.

3. Have you ever had a research collaboration with the teaching staff of Department of Linguistics and
Comparative Cultural Studies in the past?

Although there is an agreement between our universities, and I am personally acquainted with several
faculty members and students, we have never collaborated on research. Rather, I hope to build a
cooperative relationship during this stay.