On the afternoon of September 25, the Department of Japanese at FAH welcomed Professor Hiroshi Sano (Kyoto University) as a guest lecturer. Professor Sano studies the history of the Japanese language and he is especially known for his research on Man’yōshū, the oldest poetry anthology in Japan. He gave the lecture on “The ‘Impermanent beauty’ in Japanese Literature” to about 70 students who are majoring in Japanese.
Taking the different time concepts as the backbone of the discussion, Professor Sano focused on the ancient Japanese literary works, Man’yōshū (『万葉集』, 8th century), Kokin waka shū (『古今和歌集』, 10th century) and Hōjōki (『方丈記』, 13th century), and introduced the process of the establishment of the concept of “Impermanent beauty” from the perspectives of lexicon and stylistics. Although the lecture contains abstract and complex philosophical elements, Professor Sano gave the lecture in simple terms with visual illustrations.
Participants are second to fourth-year students. During the question-and-answer session, Professor Zhong Yijiang gave some brief explanations about the lecture and introductions for related cultural background in Chinese, which helped students deepen their understanding for the lecture. A fourth-year student and two second-year students asked Professor Sano questions during the question-and-answer session and after the lecture respectively.
This guest lecture held by the Department of Japanese was with both rigorous academic content and refreshing appreciation of classical Japanese poetry. The good interaction between professors and students also contributed to the successful event.
