Kyoto

The Kyoto Centre, Japan

Head : Christophe Marquet
École française d'Extrême-Orient
Kitashirakawa bettô-chô 29, Sakyô-ku
606-8276 Kyoto, Japan
Tel: +81 75 701 0882 Fax: +81 75 701 0883
〒606-8276 京都市左京区北白川別当町29
efeo.kyoto@gmail.com

The EFEO in Kyoto was established as a permanent research centre in 1968 by Jacques May (1927–2018), a specialist in Indian Buddhism, following a visit by the French sinologists Léon Vandermeersch, André Lévy, and Michel Soymié who had conducted research for several years at Kyoto University in the first half of the 1960s.

The mission of this centre, currently headed by Christophe Marquet, an art historian specializing in Japan, is to develop and promote research on ancient and modern Japan in the humanities and social sciences. Initially housed in the Zen monastery of Shōkokuji, north of the former Imperial Palace, the EFEO consolidated its presence in Kyoto in 2014 with a new research centre. The architecture of the centre, which is remarkable in terms of its environmental and architectural qualities, was awarded a prize by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.

As a research institution, the site is equipped with an extensive library specializing in classical studies and Asian religions. This collection, which has been built up since the 1960s, includes many works in Asian languages (mainly Japanese and Chinese) inherited from Etienne Lamotte (1903–1983), Anna Seidel (1938–1991), and Hubert Durt (1936–2018), as well as a collection of Japanese art history bequeathed in 2022 by Christophe Marquet.

Designed to become a regional hub in East Asia, within the network of the eighteen EFEO centres and in partnership with Japanese universities, it is an international meeting place for the study of Asian civilizations. Since 2003, EFEO Kyoto has been in partnership with the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, and the EFEO’s director is also a visiting professor there. The centre houses the office and library of the Italian School of East Asian Studies (ISEAS). The centre also maintains close links with Tōyō Bunko (Oriental Library, Tokyo), the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto), the French Institute for Research on Japan (Maison franco-japonaise, Tokyo), and the French Institute of Japan, which has a branch in Kyoto.

Together with their colleagues in Tokyo, the centre's researchers have collaborated with a number of French and Japanese institutions. In Japan, in addition to the institutions mentioned above, links have been forged with several universities in Kansai that offer programs in architecture. Martin Nogueira Ramos, who is engaged with Japanese colleagues in research on the Catholic presence in the archipelago, has developed projects on the social history of religion. Christophe Marquet is currently conducting research on the folk arts of the Edo period, in collaboration with colleagues at Kyoto Seika University and the Otsu City Museum of History, as well as with the Bungei Material Laboratory at Jissen Women's University in Tokyo.

The EFEO Centre in Kyoto organizes numerous colloquia and seminars in partnership with local and international institutions. Since 2002 the centre has organized the monthly Kyoto Lectures, a series of lectures in the field of Asian studies. This program is organized in partnership with the ISEAS and the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University. In 2014, the EFEO launched a new annual lecture series entitled the “Anna Seidel Memorial Lecture.” This series, which was created on the occasion of the inauguration of the EFEO's new centre in Kyoto, invites several internationally renowned scholars working on East Asian religions.

From the outset, the Kyoto Centre, in collaboration with the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, the Japan Academy, and the Maison franco-japonaise, has been responsible for editing the Hōbōgirin, an encyclopedic dictionary of Buddhism begun in 1926 by Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935) and Paul Demiéville (1894–1979). The centre also publishes Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie. The journal has offered special issues on East Asian religions since its establishment in 1985. The journal endeavors to reach a wide audience of researchers working on Asia through its bilingualism (French/English), and plays a coordinating role between French and international research.