Transcript Japanese Studies in Belgium - The European Institute for Asian

Japanese Studies in
Belgium
A Short History
W.F. Vande Walle, Professor of Japanese Studies
University of Leuven
The Satsuma Chair
 Mr. Adachi Mineichirō, Ambassador of Japan in Belgium
 The Japanese national committee of “l'Œuvre international de
Louvain” had donated about 3,000 Japanese books
 Satsuma Jirôhachi, Baron Satsuma, who had previously made his
intention known to Baron Descamps, professor at the University of
Louvain/Leuven and vice-chairman of the Belgian Senate.
Satsuma Chair
 Its first incumbent was Father Pierre Charles SJ (1883-1954), a
professor at the Gregorian University of Rome. A leading figure in
what is commonly called the “Louvain missiological school.”
 The general subject of Professor Charles's lectures through the years
may be epitomized as the contacts between Europe and Japan,
especially during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
the Institut Orientaliste
 Etienne Lamotte: scholar of Buddhism
 In 1963, a course of modern Japanese. The new position was first
filled by his former student Hubert Durt.
 Hubert Durt: a Buddhist scholar, editor-in-chief of the Hōbōgirin, an
encyclopaedia of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, compiled and
published under the auspices of the Ecole Française d’Extrême
Orient.
Japanese Studies at the University
of Leuven
KU Leuven
Four-year program of Far Eastern
Studies
 W. Vande Walle entrusted with the Japanese language course, which
at first was to comprise two years.
 In 1979 a third level was added.
 In 1981 W. Vande Walle was appointed assistant professor with
tenure in charge of Japanese studies.
 In 1986, when a fully-fledged and independent four-year program of
Japanese Studies was founded, which over the years has attracted an
increasing number of students.
Second Chair
 1995 the department established a second chair to teach and research
subjects related to present-day Japan.
 Dimitri Vanoverbeke was appointed to the chair.
 At present the Japanese section at the University of Leuven has ten
persons on its staff, although some of them only part-time.
Japanese Studies at the University of
Louvain-La-Neuve
 In 1982: Institut des Langues Vivantes, "Langue et civilisation
Japonaises," taught by Marc Heremans.
 In 1981: Japan-Europe Economic Research Center (JERC),
 In 1990 the center was incorporated within the Center for Asian
Studies, directed by Michelle Schmiegelow-Lauwers, professor at
the Department of Political and Social sciences.
Japanese Studies at the University of
Ghent
 1958: Institute of Oriental, East-European and African Studies
 Three sections, one of them being the section of Far Eastern Studies
(Sinology and Japanology).
 Daniel Ellegiers appointed professor to take charge of all courses,
both in Sinology and Japanology.
 Pol Vanden Broucke (d. 2004: philological study of doctrinal and
ritual texts of the Japanese esoteric school of Shingon.
 Incumbent professor of Japanese Studies: Andreas Niehaus, special
interest in the history of martial arts.
Other Institutes
Japanese Language and Japan-Related Courses
University of Brussels (Université Libre de
Bruxelles)
 two-level course in Japanese, taught by Daniel Ellegiers starting in
1962, until it was discontinued in 1978.
 New start in 2016
University of Liège
 1991: Jean Englebert, professor of architecture at the University of
Liège, set up an interfaculty and interdisciplinary centre known as
CEJUL (an acronym for Centre d’Etudes japonaises de l'Université
de Liège).
 The staff includes Andreas Thele, a specialist in Japanese
comparative thought. His main interest is the influence of
Confucianism on Japanese philosophy, and the interaction between
thought and writing.
 Michiko Takagi teaches Japanese at the centre of adult education.
Belgian Japanologists Abroad
 Hubert Durt, a long-time editor of Hōbōgirin, and professor of
Buddhist Studies at the International College for Postgraduate
Buddhist Studies in Tokyo.
 Robert Duquenne, who like Durt studied with Etienne Lamotte, and
is equally a long-time contributor to the Hōbōgirin, continues
working for this long-haul project. Both scholars represent the
excellent tradition of Buddhological scholarship founded by la
Vallée-Poussin and Lamotte.
Congregation of the Immaculate Heart (CICM)
 Originally founded in the nineteenth century for the purpose of
converting China, the Congregation of Scheut only started its
activities in Japan in earnest in 1950
 scholarly study of Japanese language, culture, history, religion or
society. They include Joseph Spae, Jozef Jennes, Joseph Goedertier,
Willem Grootaers, Joseph Deroo, Wim Michiels, Frans Uyttendaele,
Jan Van Bragt, and Jan Swyngedouw.
Joseph Spae (1913-1989)
One-time student of Lamotte, was one of the first Western scholars to
publish a study of the Tokugawa period philosopher Itō Jinsai.
The work was well received and is still referred to in scholarly
publications and reviews.
He was the founder and first director of the Oriens Institute for
Religious Research, founded in Himeji in 1955 and transferred to
Tokyo in 1959.
He edited and published many books, by himself and others, on
interreligious dialogue.
Jozef Jennes (1902-1999)
authored one of the first studies on the influence of Flemish prints upon
Indian, Chinese and Japanese art, as well as a history of the Catholic
Church in Japan, which is still a basic work for anyone venturing into
this field.
Others
 Joseph Goedertier (1907-1982) and Wim Michiels (1927-2007)
compiled a historical and biographical dictionary of Japan,
 while Frans Uyttendaele (1923-2009) published a number of Dutch
translations of novels written by Japanese Catholics, including
Chinmoku (Stilte), the world-famous novel by Endō Shūsaku, and
Biruma no tategoto (De harp van Birma) by Takeyama Michio.
 Joseph Deroo (1932-2001) will be remembered for his kanji
scholarship. For twenty-nine years he was a faculty member at the
Franciscan Institute of Japanese Studies in Tokyo, where he taught
aspirants to Japanese literacy how to master the Chinese characters,
until retiring from teaching duties there in 1997.
Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, in
Nagoya
 Jan Van Bragt (1928-2007) was during many years director of the
Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, in Nagoya. His research
mainly concentrated on the encounter between Eastern and Western
religious philosophy and religiosity, including mysticism.
 One of his colleagues at the same institute was Jan Swyngedouw, a
sociologist of religion, who defines his research topic more
narrowly as Japanese religion and contemporary social changes.
Willem Grootaers (1911-1999)
 National Language Research Institute: compilation of a linguistic
atlas of Japan.
 The Linguistic Atlas of Japan, which included 300 maps in six
volumes, published between 1966 and 1975.
 Watashi wa Nihonjin ni naritai [I want to become a Japanese]. 1964
[2nd ed., 1966; 3rd ed. 1969]
 Soredemo yappari Nihonjin ni naritai [I still want to become a
Japanese]. 1999.