Klaus Vollmer (Japanologist)

Klaus Vollmer (born June 9, 1959 in Bremen ) is a German Japanologist . He teaches as a professor at the Japan Center of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1978 and training as a qualified librarian (FH) , Vollmer studied Japanese studies , modern German literature , religious studies , history and sinology at the University of Hamburg from 1982 to 1988 . After graduating as Dr. phil. in 1993, he first completed a stay as a visiting professor at Osaka City University . After his habilitation in 1997, he was deputy professor in Duisburg and Munich, where he has held the chair of Japanese Studies since 1998. From 2000 to 2006 he was the first chairman of the Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF), and since 2008 he has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo .

research

After Vollmer had initially dealt with the representation of various professional groups in the literature of the Japanese Middle Ages for his dissertation, he subsequently began to also publish works on contemporary Japan. One of them, an essay on the rice crisis in the mid-1990s, was awarded the 1996 research prize of the Tamaki Foundation ( University of Vienna ) for social science research on contemporary Japan.

He finally wrote his habilitation thesis on the subject of the ban on killing and meat consumption in Japan . The prohibition of killing, taboos and notions of purity are still a focus of his research work, whereby he repeatedly takes up the problem of burakumin , as well as discrimination and marginalization in Japanese society in general.

His other teaching and research focuses include the cultural and social history of premodern and modern Japan, modern representations of Japan and Japanese history, the European reception of Japan since the mid-19th century, Japanese Buddhism , but also the premodern literary history of Japan, especially Waka and Setsuwa .

Fonts (selection)

• Professions and their "ways" in medieval Japan. An introduction to their social history and literary representation using the example of Tôhoku'in shokunin utaawase. OAG, Hamburg 1995. ISBN 3-928463-55-1 .
• "A bad harvest and its consequences - observations and marginal notes on the 'rice crisis' of the early 1990s", in: Manfred Pohl (Ed.): Japan 1994/95. Economy and politics. Hamburg, Institute for Asian Studies 1995. pp. 162–197.
• Poetry competition of professions. A Japanese scroll from the Sieboldiana collection (Bochum) - edition, translation and commentary. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 1995. ISBN 3-447-03725-3 (together with Roland Schneider and Christine Mitomi).
• Ban on killing and eating meat in Japan. A cultural-historical sketch based on selected documentary and literary sources. Hamburg 1997 (habilitation thesis).
• Sins of the word. Festschrift for Roland Schneider on his 65th birthday. OAG, Hamburg 2004. (Ed., Together with Judit Árokay ).
• Ecology and Environmental Policy in Japan and East Asia. Transnational Perspectives. Environmental Policies and Ecological Issues in Japan and East Asia. Transnational Perspectives. Munich, Iudicium 2006. (Ed.)

Web links

• Prof. Dr. Klaus Vollmer on the website of the Japan Center of the LMU Munich.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dataset on Klaus Vollmer in the catalog of the German National Library.
2. ↑ About us ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the German Institute for Japanese Studies. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Prof. Dr. Klaus Vollmer on the website of the Japan Center of the LMU Munich.