Emeritus Professor

ARIGA Yoshitaka


Curriculum Vitae

1963, March Graduated from Tohoku University, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Eastern Art History
1963, April-1965, March Assistant, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
1967, July-1979, March Associate Specialist, Fine Arts Division, Cultural Properties Protection Commission
1979, April-July Senior Specialist, Fine Arts Division, Cultural Properties Department, Agency for Cultural Affairs
1979, August-1982, March Chair, Department of Public Relations, Nara National Museum
1982, April-1987, April Chair, Department of Information Management, Research Center for Buddhist Art, Nara National Museum
1987, May-1989, March Senior Specialist, Fine Arts Division, Cultural Properties Department, Agency for Cultural Affairs
1989, April-1990, March Chief Senior Specialist, Fine Arts Division, Cultural Properties Department, Agency for Cultural Affairs
1990, April-2000, March Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
2000, April-2004,March Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
2004, April-Present Emeritus Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University


Research Themes and Content

(1) Heian Period Buddhist Painting

The development of Heian butsuga, (Heian period Buddhist painting), can be elucidated by approaching it from the angles of iconography, technical expression, and patterns of belief and ritual. The Heian period is one in which Buddhist painting, along with deriving from Nara period painting styles, also enthusiastically makes use of paintings styles of middle and late Tang period China, gradually changing to suit the Japanese cultural climate and the sensibilities of Japanese people, and at last producing a unique Japanese painting style. The patterns of cultural reception, transfiguration, formation, and establishment witnessed over the approximately 400 years of the Heian period can be seen in Japanese history, and elucidating the stylistic development of Heian Buddhist painting is one of the keys to understanding Japan's painting history.

(2) Special Qualities of Japanese Painting

What are the special qualities of Japanese painting, and by what method can we come to know them? If one can extract the special features held in common by the paintings of the periods when unique Japanese painting styles were established\Buddhist painting of the Heian period, Momoyama wall and screen painting, and decorative paintings of the Rinpa school\then perhaps these can be called the "Japanese proprieties" in Japanese painting, which in turn can perhaps be asserted to be unique among the art of the world.

(3) Overview of the History of Japanese Painting

How have Japanese indigenous "Shinto" thought and sensibility and its foreign "Buddhist" thought and sensibility been reflected in the "form and color" of Japanese art? In particular, how this can be surveyed in the aspect of the spirit (shoho jisso) of the Lotus Sutra?


Chief Publications

" The Painting of Juntei Kannon in the Tokyo National Museum", Kokka, No. 1030, 1980, January.

"Speculation on the Cast Bronze Plaque with Line-engraved Zao Gongen", Kokka, No. 1094, 1986, June.

Basic Knowledge for the Appreciation of Buddhist Painting, Shibundo, 1991, May.

"The Image of Manjusri Owned by the Museum Yamato Bunkakan", Yamato Bunka, No.92, 1994, September.

Japanese Art, No. 373, Cut-Gold and Coloring, Shibundo, 1997, May.


Department of Eastern and Japanese Art History, Tohoku University@/@Faculty Last Updated July 30, 2008