The Research Institute for Oriental Cul­tures
GAKUSHUIN UNIVERSITY

The Research Institute for Oriental Cul­tures was established in 1952 in accordance with the spirit of Yoshishige Abe, former president of Gakushuin, who be­lieved that studying the Orient with new ide­als and wider visions is one of the most impor­tant tasks for not only the Japanese but also all of humankind. Since then, the institute has been acting as a centre of East Asian studies for 60 years. The institute is currently con­ducting research on East Asia, mainly Korea and China.

Project Research

Internal research staffs are participating in the projects as researchers, and external specialists are participating as guest researchers.  In addition to general research projects which study history, ideology, politics, law, education or language in East Asia, we also engage in Gakushuin University’s Oriental Culture Archives Project, which study Chinese classics and Korean materials kept in Gakushuin University.

Publications

The institute issues an annual, “Journal of Asian Cultures”, which covers not only the research works of the institute but also the latest and eminent researches by external researchers. The institute also issues “Occasional Papers” and “Series of Gakushuin University Asian Culture Studies”  that cover research works of the finished proj­ects. Furthermore, we reprinted The Veritable Records of the Chosŏn Dynasty, which is one of the main his­torical sources regarding Korean history.

Lectures

The institute holds ‘Lectures on Oriental Culture’ three times a year, which counts up to 80 times now. Recently we con­ducted sessions on the ‘Reconsidering the situation of Korean Peninsula’ and ‘Characters and Media in Ancient China’.

Collections

We hold approximately 30,000 books and materials regarding East Asia. In particular, the ‘Yuho Collection’ contains im­portant materials   on the Government-General of Chosen. Moreover, we possess various materials that are useful in studying the history and culture of East Asia, e.g., the pictures and postcards of Colonial Korea and Manchuria, the ‘Isono Collection’ related to Inner Mongolia, the rubbed copy of Gwang­gaetowangstele, and the photocopy of Silla Village Documents. And we have abundant electronic data, such as the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database and the “Siku Quans­hu” CD-ROM.

Contact

(Open hours : Weekdays 9:30-16:30 Saturday 9:30-11:30)