Japanese Studies Teaching Staff
Professor Richard Bowring
Contact Information
Email: rb101@cam.ac.uk
Tel: 01223 335889
Current Position
Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies,
East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge.
Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Biographical Details
I studied Japanese here at Cambridge from 1965–68, when the number of students interested in the subject was very small indeed. I then left to work in airline management for two years, but returned to work on Mori Ogai, obtaining my PhD in 1973. After three years in Japan, I obtained my first teaching post at Monash University in Melbourne (1976–78), moved to Columbia University (1978–79) and then to Princeton University (1979–84). I returned to Cambridge in 1984. Since that time I have worked to build a strong group of scholars and teachers in Japanese studies. My interests have shifted over the years from Meiji all the way back to Heian. I am now on my way back again.
Education
| 1968 | BA Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge (Japanese, 1st class) |
| 1973 | PhD Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge (Japanese) |
| 1973-75 | Leverhulme Studentship |
| 1975-76 | Japan Foundation Fellowship, Tōkyō University |
| 1980-81 | Japan Foundation Professional Fellowship, Kyōto University |
| 1985 | Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge |
| 1987 | Japan Foundation Professional Fellowship, Keiō University |
| 1995-97 | British Academy Research Readership |
| 1997 | Litt.D, University of Cambridge |
| 2000 | Master, Selwyn College, Cambridge |
| 2000 | Honorary Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge |
Research Interests
Classical Japanese Language and Literature
Japanese Grammar
Japanese Religion and Thought: Buddhism, Shinto, Neo-Confucianism, Kokugaku
Current Projects
My present research involves the long-range history of Japanese religion and thought. The first volume of this history was published in 2005 and I am now embarking on the next volume, which takes me into the Tokugawa period. One of the main challenges will be to synthesize work already done on Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism and Shinto into a coherent narrative.
I am able and willing to supervise postgraduate work in the fields of Japanese literature, religion and intellectual history.
Publications
| Books |
|
| 2005 | The Religious Traditions of Japan 500–1600 (Cambridge University Press) |
| 2002 | (with H. Laurie) Cambridge Intermediate Japanese (Cambridge East Asia Institute) |
| 1998 | ed. Fifty years of Japanese at Cambridge 1948–98 (Privately published) |
| 1996 | The Diary of Lady Murasaki (Penguin Classics) [substantial revision of 1982 book] |
| 1993 | (with P. Kornicki) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan (Cambridge University Press) |
| 1992 | (with H. Laurie) An Introduction to Modern Japanese, 2 vols (Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002, paperback 2004) |
| 1988 | Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji, Landmarks of World Literature series (Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1991, second rev. ed. 2004) |
| 1982 | Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs (Princeton University Press, reprinted 1985, paperback 1985, Italian trans. 1985) |
| 1979 | Mori Ōgai and the Modernization of Japanese Culture (Cambridge University Press) |
| Articles in Journals and Books |
|
| 2006 | ‘Fujiwara Seika and the Great Learning’, Monumenta Nipponica 61.4: 437–57 |
| 1998 | ‘Preparing for the Pure Land in Late Tenth-Century Japan’, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 25.3-4: 221–57 |
| 1995 | ‘Kyōto as cultural crucible: women, poetry and nature in the tenth century’, in Kyōto: A Celebration of 1,200 years of History (SOAS, Japan Research Centre and Japan Soc. of London), pp. 7–17 |
| 1993 | ‘Buddhist translations in the Northern Sung’, Asia Major, 3rd series, vol. 5.2 (1992): 79–93. |
| 1992 | ‘The Ise monogatari: a short cultural history’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52.2: 401–80 |
| 1991 | ‘An amused guest in all: Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935)’, in H. Cortazzi and G. Daniels, eds. Britain and Japan 1859–1991: Themes and Personalities (Routledge), pp. 128–36 (Japanese tr. 1998) |
| 1988 | Articles on ‘Genroku culture’ and ‘Nō’, and short entries on ‘Futabatei Shimei’, ‘Lafcadio Hearn’, ‘Ihara Saikaku’, ‘Mishima Yukio’, ‘Mori Ōgai’, ‘Murasaki Shikibu’, ‘Nagai Kafū’, ‘Natsume Sōseki’, ‘Shiga Naoya’, ‘Taiheiki’, ‘Takizawa Bakin’, and ‘Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’, Ainslee T. Embree, ed., Encyclopedia of Asian History (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons) |
| 1985 | ‘Japanese from the outside, reading in’, The Cambridge Review 106: 68–70 |
| 1984 | ‘The female hand in Heian Japan: a first reading’, New York Literary Forum 12.13: 55–62 (reprinted in The Female Autograph, Chicago U. P., 1987) |
| 1981 | ‘Japanese diaries and the nature of literature’, Comparative Literature Studies 18.2: 167–74 |
| 1978 | ‘Ōgai ni okeru genjitsu to geijutsu’, in K. Takeda, ed., Mori Ōgai: rekishi to bungaku (Meiji Shoin), pp. 73–88 |
| 1975 | ‘The background to “Maihime”’, Monumenta Nipponica 30.2: 167–76 |
| 1974 | ‘Louis L. Seaman to Mori Gun’ikan’, Hikaku bungaku kenkyū 26 |
| 1974 | ‘Hon’yaku no gendai ni tsuite’, Ōgai zenshū geppō 27 |
| Translations |
|
| 2004 | Mori Ōgai, ‘Nakajikiri’, in T. Rimer, ed., Not a Song Like any Other (University of Hawai’i Press), pp. 42–45 |
| 1994 | Mori Ōgai, ‘Kinka’ and ‘Mōsō’, in T. Rimer, ed., Youth and Other Stories (University of Hawai’i Press), pp. 167–81, 259–73 |
| 1984 | Watanabe Minoru, ‘Style and point of view in the Kagerō nikki’, Journal of Japanese Studies 10.2: 365–84 |
| 1977 | Mori Ōgai, ‘Okitsu Yagoemon no isho’, in D. Dilworth and T. Rimer, eds, The Historical Works of Mori Ōgai, vol 1 (University of Hawai’i Press), pp. 17–22 |
| 1975 | Mori Ōgai, ‘Maihime’, Monumenta Nipponica 30.2: 151–66 (reprinted in 1994) |
| 1974 | Mori Ōgai, ‘Utakata no ki’, in Monumenta Nipponica 29.3: 247–61 |
