Japanese

Overview

First taught at Edinburgh in 1976, Japanese Studies has developed to encompass a thriving postgraduate research programme covering a wide spectrum of interests in history, politics, and the performing and literary arts.

Join the Japanese programme offered by The University of Edinburgh and undertake a project comprising research assignments and a 15,000-word dissertation under the guidance of an experienced and well-published supervisor.

We have particular strengths in:

• Japanese performing arts, both traditional (especially Japanese drama of the Tokugawa period), and contemporary
• Japanese/Chinese relations
• media and politics
• the history of Japanese religion (especially Zhenyan or Shingon Buddhism)
• the Meiji period
• traditional and modern Japanese literature
• the Japanese empire

Facilities

Based in the Main University Library, the Centre for Research Collections is unique in the UK, bringing together a collection of more than 400,000 rare books, six kilometres of archives and manuscripts, and the University’s collections of art, historical musical instruments and other objects.

Notable collections include the East Asian Studies Collection of some 50,000 print and digital resources, of which 5,000 are in the Japanese language. We also have a specialised collection of Japanese journals and reference works.

As a research student here, you will be based at the heart of the University of Edinburgh in a world-leading festival city with a thriving East Asian cultural scene.

Many important collections are a short walk from our buildings, including those in the National Library, Museum and Galleries of Scotland.