Tokyo

The Tokyo Centre, Japan

Head: François Lachaud
Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient
Tōyō bunko
Honkomagome 2-28-21, Bunkyō-ku
Tôkyô 113-0021, Japan
Tel./Fax : + 81 050-3704-8994
francois.lachaud@efeo.net

Founded in 1994, the EFEO Centre in Tokyo is hosted by the Tōyō bunko (The Oriental Library), the most important library dedicated to Asian studies in Japan and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The two institutions signed an agreement which aims to facilitate academic exchanges, including the exchange of scholarly documentation and publications as well as the organization of joint research programs and seminars.

Besides storage facilities for its collections, the Tōyō bunko includes a reading room, research rooms, a museum and a restaurant. The office of the EFEO Centre is located on the seventh floor of the main building.

Current research programs:

• Literati networks, monks, and collectors in Edo Japan (1603-1867) 
• International exchanges in modern East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Russia) - especially the "discovery" of Buddhism in Western sources (1550-1850)
• Early modern Japanese art history and aesthetics

The centre is associated with the research team ‘Systems of thought and practices: diffusion, adaptation, exchange'. Researches conducted at the Tōkyō centre focus on Japanese artistic, religious, and intellectual history in the Edo period (1603-1867) and on international exchanges in East Asia and Eurasia during the modern era.

Moreover, the Centre is also in charge of the editorial work of The Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, in cooperation with its editorial board, François Lachaud in Tokyo, Christophe Marquet (Kyoto Centre), Élisabeth Chabanol (Seoul Centre), Luca Gabbiani (Paris).

The EFEO Centre in Tokyo aims to facilitate Franco-Japanese exchanges in the humanities and social sciences. Besides its main association with the Tōyō bunko, collaboration agreements have been concluded with the Institute of Asian Cultures (IAC) at Sophia University, the Centre for Area Studies (CAS) at Keio University, and the Department of Humanities and Sociology at Tôkyô University.

The Centre receives EFEO fellowship holders, graduate students, and visiting scholars for periods of research in Japan. Starting in the fall of 2017, a research seminar will focus on significant works belonging to the Morrison Collection, the main body of Toyo Bunko Library at the time of its official founding, and the object of various commemorative events for its centennial in 2017.