ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The Institute is a research organization specializing in the humanities and social sciences. It was established in 1929 for sinological studies under the name of Kyoto Institute, the Academy of Oriental Culture (renamed the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1938), and was restructured in 1949 by incorporating the Institute of Humanistic Studies (founded in 1939) and the Institute of Occidental Studies (formerly Deutsches Forschungsinstitut founded in 1934, restructured under this name in 1946). The primary purpose of the Institute is to promote the systematic study of the world's cultures and societies. In April 2008, the Institute moved into the Yoshida campus.
Until the end of March 2000, the Institute comprised twenty research sections. Since April 2000, those sections have been reorganized into the following five Research Divisions:
(1) Cultural Research Methodologies/ History of life forms and human culture;
(2) Cultural Processes/ Cultural transmission and media studies;
(3) Cultural Representation/ Oriental archaeology and sciences;
(4) Cultural Composition/ Oriental history and philology;
(5) Cultural Interrelationships/ Cultural mobility and interaction studies
There are also the Documentation and Information Center for Chinese Studies (DICCS), the International Research Center (IRC; inaugurated on April 2006) and the Research Center for Modern and Contemporary China (RCMCC; inaugurated on April 2007).
For convenience these Divisions and the DICCS are grouped into two Departments: Humanities (Divisions 1, 2 & 5/ formerly the Department of Japanese Studies and Department of Occidental Studies) and Oriental Studies (Divisions 3, 4 & the DICCS/ formerly the Department of Oriental Studies). Interdisciplinary studies constitute the main research activity of the Institute. The staff members of the Institute, including 21 Professors, 19 Associate Professors, 18 Assistant Professors, 1 Research Associate, 1 Visiting Professor, 2 Visiting Associate Professor, and 2 Visiting Research Scholars, are involved in research seminars as well as their own research.(As of Oct.1.2008.) Because international exchanges relating to advanced studies in classics and history, as well as field surveys, are regarded as important, the Institute accepts from abroad approximately 25 researchers each year.
The Institute has carried out scientific group surveys in China (1939-44), Central and Western Asia (1955, 1959-67), Eastern Africa (1958, 1961-65), South-Western Europe (1967-72), and the Middle East and Eastern Europe (1977-82). During the last two decades, however, overseas surveys have become more specialized and diversified, ranging from international archaeological surveys in Southern China to searches for surviving Vedic texts in Southern India.
The Institute houses more than 505,000 books, a collection mainly composed of about 304,000 Chinese classics and sinological works, books on early-modern to 20th-century Japanese history, books on French social thought and history in the 18th and the 19th centuries, and European books on Japan. In addition, the Institute has a collection of Chinese Yin Dynasty oracle bone and tortoise shell inscriptions, and various archaeological materials collected from China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, including folios of stone rubbings and photographs.
Until the end of March 2000, the Institute comprised twenty research sections. Since April 2000, those sections have been reorganized into the following five Research Divisions:
(1) Cultural Research Methodologies/ History of life forms and human culture;
(2) Cultural Processes/ Cultural transmission and media studies;
(3) Cultural Representation/ Oriental archaeology and sciences;
(4) Cultural Composition/ Oriental history and philology;
(5) Cultural Interrelationships/ Cultural mobility and interaction studies
There are also the Documentation and Information Center for Chinese Studies (DICCS), the International Research Center (IRC; inaugurated on April 2006) and the Research Center for Modern and Contemporary China (RCMCC; inaugurated on April 2007).
For convenience these Divisions and the DICCS are grouped into two Departments: Humanities (Divisions 1, 2 & 5/ formerly the Department of Japanese Studies and Department of Occidental Studies) and Oriental Studies (Divisions 3, 4 & the DICCS/ formerly the Department of Oriental Studies). Interdisciplinary studies constitute the main research activity of the Institute. The staff members of the Institute, including 21 Professors, 19 Associate Professors, 18 Assistant Professors, 1 Research Associate, 1 Visiting Professor, 2 Visiting Associate Professor, and 2 Visiting Research Scholars, are involved in research seminars as well as their own research.(As of Oct.1.2008.) Because international exchanges relating to advanced studies in classics and history, as well as field surveys, are regarded as important, the Institute accepts from abroad approximately 25 researchers each year.
The Institute has carried out scientific group surveys in China (1939-44), Central and Western Asia (1955, 1959-67), Eastern Africa (1958, 1961-65), South-Western Europe (1967-72), and the Middle East and Eastern Europe (1977-82). During the last two decades, however, overseas surveys have become more specialized and diversified, ranging from international archaeological surveys in Southern China to searches for surviving Vedic texts in Southern India.
The Institute houses more than 505,000 books, a collection mainly composed of about 304,000 Chinese classics and sinological works, books on early-modern to 20th-century Japanese history, books on French social thought and history in the 18th and the 19th centuries, and European books on Japan. In addition, the Institute has a collection of Chinese Yin Dynasty oracle bone and tortoise shell inscriptions, and various archaeological materials collected from China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, including folios of stone rubbings and photographs.