Japanese
Department of Japanese Kanbun Instruction and Research Program, Nishogakusha University

An International Research Project Based on Kanbun Sources to Reconstruct a View of Japanese Culture

 
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"Ca' Foscari" University of Venice, Italy

Overseas Core Leader: Aldo Tollini

During the week of March 3rd to the 7th, the Department of East Asian Studies of the "Ca' Foscari" University of Venice held its second intensive course in kanbun kundoku. It was deemed a great success by all 18 participants who included teachers and specialists in Japanese studies as well as master's degree students. This is the second year that Prof. Machi Senjur. and Prof. Yamabe Susumu have come to Venice to give lectures on kanbun kundoku.

The intensive course in kanbun kundoku consisted in a total of 15 hours of lesson, which were the prosecution of last year intensive course, apart for the first day, Monday, when special lessons were given to update people joining this year for the first time.

Prof. Machi gave lectures on texts mainly of Edo period on a wide range of themes, like traslations of medical text from European sources, or Confucian and historical texts, while prof. Yamabe was mainly engaged in the didactical field, concentrating on teaching the linguistic strategies of kundoku.

In this way, the intensive course was helpful in a double sense: that of learning the linguistic aspects of kundoku and that of appreciating examples of texts written in kanbun.

Having seen the success of this course, we strongly hope that they will be able to come again next year, and we are hoping to establish a tradition of an even more active collaboration between Nisho Gakusha University and "Ca' Foscari" University of Venice in the years to come. With this in mind, we opened up participation in the course to specialists from other Italian universities and from foreign institutions for the first time. The Department of East Asian Studies aims at establishing a regular course in kanbun kundoku which will start next year with the help and active collaboration of Prof. Machi and Prof. Yamabe. In addition, the Department of East Asian Studies would like to become one of the few institutions in Europe where kanbun studies are carried out with the help of Japanese institutions, first among which is Nisho Gakusha University.

The Department of East Asian Studies in the person of its Director and all the teaching staff engaged in Japanese studies are very grateful to Nisho Gakusha University, and in particular to those who are engaged in the COE program, for the generous contribution aimed at enhancing the quality of Japanese studies in our University and for their effort to promote kanbun kundoku study.

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Department of Japanese Kanbun Instruction and Research Program, Nishogakusha University