Kaizuka Shigeki

Kaizuka Shigeki ( Japanese 貝 塚 茂樹 ; born May 1, 1904 in Tōkyō ; died February 9, 1987 in Kyoto ) was a Japanese sinologist.

Live and act

Kaizuka Shigeki was born the son of Ogawa Takuji (小川 琢 治; 1870-1941), a geographer and engineer of the Geological Survey of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. One of his brothers was Ogawa Yoshiki (小川 芳 樹; 1902–1952), an engineer, other brothers were the physicist and Nobel Prize winner Hideki Yukawa and Ogawa Tamaki (小川 環 樹; 1910–1993), who studied Chinese literature. Kaizuka studied Sinology under Naitō Konan and others at Kyōto University . There he became a professor in 1949.

In 1928, after completing his studies in Kyoto, Kaizuka accompanied his teacher, the sinologist Kano Naoki, to Beijing. After his return he became a researcher at the "Kyōto Institute for the Culture of East Asia" (東方 文化 学院 京都 研究所, Tōhō bunka-gakuin Tōkyo kenkyūjo). In 1945 he adopted his wife's family name - Kaizuka.

Kaizuka is valued for his studies that emphasized the importance of historical material such as the "oracle bones", bronzes, stone inscriptions and other archaeological material. He arranged the approximately 3,000 fragments of oracle bones that are in the "Institute for Humanistic Studies" of the University of Kyoto.

In 1963 Kaizuka received the Mainichi Culture Prize for his work on the " Hundred Schools ". In 1984 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and was awarded the Order of Culture in the same year .

Works are u. a.

• "Development of the history of ancient China" (中国 古代 史学 の 発 展, Chūgoku kojidai-shigaku no haben)
• "The Spirit of Ancient China" (中国 古代 の 精神, Chūgoku kojidai no seishin)
• "Confucius" (孔子, Kōshi)
• "Chūgoku no kojidai kokka" (中国 の 古代 国家)
• " Hundred schools " (諸子 百家, shoshi hyakka)
• "Mao Zedong" (毛 沢 東 伝, Mō Takutō den)
• "China of Ancient and New China" (古 い 中国 と 新 し い 中国, Kojidai Chūgoku to atarashii Chūgoku)

His collected writings were published under the title "Kaizuka Shigeki chosaku-shū" (貝 塚 茂樹 著作 集) from 1976 to 1978 in ten volumes.

Remarks

1. ↑ Today "Institute for the Culture of East Asia of the University of Kyoto" (京都 大学 人文 科学 研究所, Kyōto daigaku jimbun-kagaku kenkyūjo)

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Kaizuka Shigeki . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 715.

Web links

• Biographies Kaizuka Shigeki in the Kotobank, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kaizuka is the family name, Shigeki the first name.