Name: Nagaoka Ryusaku

Curriculum Vitae

03/1986 Withdrew from Advanced Doctoral Candidacy, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
04/1986-03/1989 Assistant, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
04/1989-06/1994 Researcher, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties
07/1994-03/1998 Senior Researcher, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties
04/1998-03/2000 Associate Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art History, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
04/2000-10/2005 Associate Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art History, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
10/2005- Professor, Department of Eastern and Japanese Art History, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University


Research Themes

(1) The Study about gCreating a Sculpture by On-tameh

The sculpture made by a motivation of "for someone" is called "creating a sculpture by On-tame". From this point of view, one can consider the reason for making Buddhist sculptures and inquire how they were expressed as a result.


(2) Religious Sculptures and Human Beings

Human beings make sculptures for some purpose, and the sculpture functions in accordance with its purpose. In case of a religious sculpture, the function must be on a religious context and the first one is to help human beings to believe. Thinking how Buddhist sculptures and the sculptures modeled founder of religious sect operate on human beings for their belief, one can consider the meaning of expressino. This is a study about function of sculptures.


(3) Responses and Representation

gResponsesh (Kanno) is the Buddhist way of thinking that Buddha would response if people have a chance for good, applying a Chinise traditional thought; gBest truthfulness penetrates everything.h (Chuyo). Then, grepresentaionh (Hyosho) is the meaning of substitutes for something. Buddha shows people an evidence of response through the representaion of Buddhist sculptures as a substitute for Buddha, and China and Japan had some spaces where it was easy to make responses. In brief, the space where a Buddhist sculpture was put was also the one where response was hoped. In such awareness of the problems, one can consider the space where Buddhist sculptures ware put. This is a study about environment of Buddhist sculptures..


Chief Publications

gePatterns of Formf in Buddhist Sculpture and Their Transmission: A Study of Early Heian Bodhisattva Sculptureh, (Parts 1,2), Bijutsu Kenkyu, Nos. 351, 352, 1992, January, February.

gThe Topology of the Standing Image of Yakushi-Nyorai of Jingoji: The Mountain and Yakushi in the Early Heian Periodh, Bijutsu Kenkyu, no.359, 1994, March.

World Art History, Eastern Art Volume 5, Five Dynasties, Northern Song, Liao, Western Xia, Joint Publication, Shogakukan, 1998, December.

gFiguring Buddhist Statuary?Investigations of Buddhist Statuary Surrounding Matsudaira Sadanobuh, The Establishment and Development of the Study of Art History in Japan (Research Report on Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (1) Survey), 2001, March.

gSeiryoji Sakyamuni Image and the Northern Song Social Backgroundh, Kokka, No. 1269, 2001, July.