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Japanese Resources

These resources related to Chinese studies in Japan were compiled for the Chinese History Research Seminar at the Johns Hopkins University. Hyperlinks are provided where available and are indicated in bold type.

Print Resources
Online Resources

Print Resources

  • 東洋学文献類目 
    • (Tōyō gaku bunken ruimoku): an annual listing of articles in major journals, arranged topically, compiled and published by the scholars at the Institute for Humanistic Studies at Kyoto University 人文科学研究所Jimbunkagaku kenkyūjō  or 人文研 Jimbunken.  There is a searchable on-line version of this resource.  It is not complete, however and requires a certain amount of patience as the search process can be very slow.  Search in a Chinese font set.
  • 史学雑誌
    • Shigaku zasshi: The May issue (#5) annually contains review articles for fields defined by geography and chronology.  This is a useful way to find out what has been published in Japanese in a field like “modern Chinese history” or “medieval European history” in a given year.  The articles tend to be comprehensive—and quite dry.  Late Imperial China (and before that, Ch’ing-shih wen-t’i), formerly featured translations of the Shigaku zasshi review articles for Ming and Qing History by Joshua Fogel.  Chinese translations can still be found in 中国史研究动态, always a year later than the original Japanese version (eg. they published 2005 年日本的明清史研究 in 2007).  Please note that中国史研究动态 also provides an annual review of Chinese scholarship on Ming-Qing history.  Shigaku zasshi has been published since 1889.
  • 東洋史研究
    • The journal Tōyō shi kenkyū, published since 1935, maintains a running bibliography of recent publications, both monographs and articles, published in every issue—arranged by Japanese pronunciation of the name of the journal in which the article appears.  
  • 中国史研究入門
    • Chūgoku shi kenkyū nyūmon—2 volumes, edited by Yamane Yukio 山根幸夫. This was the basic textbook for starting graduate students in Chinese history and as such provides a nice overview of the field and as it has been conceived of and taught.  It can also serve as a finding guide to the secondary literature in defined subfields.  This book has been translated into Chinese, supplemented with information about Taiwan-based scholarship, and published in five volumes under the title 中國史研究指南, edited by 高明士.  Volume 4 contains Ming-Qing and Volume 5 covers the 20th century.  For a similar, but more recent work, in Japanese see 中国歴史研究入門Chūgoku rekishi kenkyū nyūmon, edited by Tonami Mamoru, Kishimoto Mio, and Sugimoto Masaaki 礪波護, 岸本美緖, 杉山正明.  
  • You may also wish to consult Historical Studies in Japan, 1973-1977, and its successor volumes, Historical Studies in Japan 1978-1982, and Historical Studies in Japan, 1983-1987. 
  • For a quick introduction to representative Japanese scholarship from the early 1980s in English translation, look at Linda Grove and Christian Daniels, eds, State and society in China : Japanese perspectives on Ming-Qing social and economic history, Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1984.  Chinese translations of articles by leading Japanese scholars have been compiled into a multi-volume collection under the title 日本學者研究中國史論著選譯 and published by Zhonghua shuju in the 1990s. 
  • 中国社会経済史語彙
    • Chūgoku shakai keizai shi goi, edited by Hoshi Ayao.  This is a very useful scholarly dictionary of terminology encountered in research on Chinese social and economic history.  The definitions are, of course, in Japanese.
  • アジア歴史事典
    • Ajia rekishi jiten, 10 volumes with Romanized index.  First published in 1959, it remains useful for quick identifications. 
  • Morohashi Tetsuji 諸橋轍次, Dai kanwa jiten 大漢和辞典 is the gold standard Classical Chinese dictionary.  It covers more ground than its competitors. Compounds are unfortunately arranged by Japanese pronunciation and definitions are given in Japanese, but it remains essential. 
  • Aoyama Sadao’s Chūgoku rekidai chimei yoran 中国歴代地名要覧, published in 1965, is a useful guide to historical place names as they changed over time. 
  • John Timothy Wixted, Japanese Scholars of China: A Bibliographic Handbook Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992 provides guidance on the pronunciation (and thus Romanization) of Japanese scholars’ names.  This is more specific to our field than the small paperback dictionary Japanese Names:  A Comprehensive Index by Characters and Readings published by Weatherhill.  To some extent, this problem has been alleviated by the inclusion of furigana in the on-line catalogue of the Tokyo University Library.
  • For an index of Japanese publications on Chinese philosophy, philology, and literature check the 「学界展望」 column in the newsletter of the Japanese Society for Chinese Studies, which can be found on the society’s home page.

Online Resources