François Lachaud


Keywords

 

Japanese religions (Buddhism, vernacular religions); Art history; Diplomatic exchanges in early modern and modern East Asia/Eurasia


I- Buddhism and Vernacular Religion in Modern and Contemporary Japan


F. Lachaud studies the acculturation process of Japanese Buddhism and the birth of 'vernacular religion'–as the notion was developed in Fennoscandian folkloristics) from the late mediaeval period to modern times–. Drawing on intensive field work in the Tōhoku region and in Hokkaidō as well as on religious texts and images and local archives, he explores –mostly through a Buddhist lens – the relations between landscape and religious identities in northern Japan and imaginative appropriations of Buddhism in the shaping of vernacular religious practices. in connection with this research F. Lachaud studies the redefinition of 'Buddhist images' and 'Buddhist worship' in the works of the Yanagi Muneyoshi (1889-1961), the 'founding father' of the Japanese Arts & Crafts Movement.   

II-The Ōbaku Zen School (1650-1868): Buddhism and Chinese learning in Edo Japan

Françoois Lachaud studies the Ōbaku Zen current introduced in Japan in the latter part of the 1650s and its major contribution the the Zen Renaissance of the eighteenth century but also to the re-sinisation of Japanese culture in a period when the country had entered a long period of voluntary seclusion. The far-reaching impact of the Ōbaku current deeply transformed mid- to late-Edo culture from the visual arts to erudition, and popular religion (especially the cult of Mazu but also of other 'Daoist' deities). Conversely, Japan’s unique geopolitical situation in the broader East Asian context created during the eighteenth century a ‘Golden Age’ of antiquarianism, collecting, and networking in Japan bringing together Zen monks, antiquaries, eccentrics, painters, virtuosos, collectors, and connoisseurs. 


III-Japan at the crossroads: cross-cultural exchanges in East Asia (1600-2000)

Since the mid-2000s, François Lachaud's research explore cultural interactions between Western, Eurasian, and East Asian empires during the early modern and modern era. A first volume co-edited with Dejanirah Couto and sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Empires éloignés /Distant Empires (Paris: 2010) examined ‘encounters’, both real and fictitious, between Japan and, through the legacy of the Jesuits, in the West between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century – a time when Japan was experiencing a period of official isolation. A companion volume, Empires en Marche/Empires on the Move (co-edited with Dejanirah Couto) explores patterns of cultural exchange between China and Western countries during the same period. A third volume, D'un empire, l'autee/Empire to Empire (EFEO, 2021) focuses of the beginning of Franco-Japanese relations (co-edited with Martin Ramos). A fourth volume co-edited with Michela Bussotti on bilingual dictionaries and lexicons in East Asia: Interpreting Empires. Multilingual Dictionaries and Lexicons in East Asia (EFEO, 2023) focuses on Western attemps to master East Asian languages from missionary projects to secular orientalism. 


François Lachaud
François Lachaud

Directeur d'études

Bouddhisme et civilisation japonaise
Buddhism and Japanese Civilization


22, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris
Tél : +33 01 53 70 18 60
Fax : +33 01 53 70 87 60
francois.lachaud@efeo.net