Carmen Blacker OBE FBA (13 July 1924 – 13 July 2009) was a British Japonologist. She was a lecturer in Japanese at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Life

Blacker was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

in 1924. Her parents were Carlos Paton Blacker and Helen Maud (born Pilkington). By the age of 12 she had a book about Japanese grammar. In 1942 she began attending the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ...

(SOAS) in London, from where she was recruited by the codebreakers at the

Government Code and Cypher School Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

. She left because she saw no benefit in the work, for which she was paid two pounds a week because she was a young woman. She met the Orientalist and

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were t ...

at Bletchley Park, and he inspired her to study Chinese in her spare time.Carmen Blacker FBA
In 1944 she arranged to receive lessons in Japanese from Major General Francis S. G. Piggott.P. F. Kornicki, ‘Blacker, Carmen Elizabeth Deidre (1924–2009)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Jan 2013; online edition, May 201
accessed 28 Nov 2015
/ref> After graduating from SOAS in 1947 she began her studies at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

. In 1952 she began visiting Japan. In 1955 she was appointed an assistant lecturer at the

and in 1958 she became University Lecturer in Japanese Studies. She visited Japan in the summer vacations to study

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, staying with Osaragi Jiro in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, where she practised

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technical ...

. She also became interested in

shugendō is a highly syncretic religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local ...

. Her book ''The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan'' (1975) was a result of these visits and was partly based on her extensive fieldwork, during which she participated in

Kaihōgyō The ("circling the mountain") is an ascetic practice performed by Tendai Buddhist monks. The practice involves walking a route on Mount Hiei (the location of the Tendai school headquarters), the longest of which takes 1000 days to complete; all ...

and

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

life in Japan. Blacker was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1989. She was awarded the Minakata Kumagusu Prize in 1998.Obituary Carmen Blacker
''Japan Times'', retrieved 27 November 2015 Blacker was a member of the

Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore. It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...

, and served as its President from 1982 to 1984. As President she delivered two addresses: “The Exiled Warrior: The Legend and its Ramifications in Japan” and “Minakata Kumagusu: A Neglected Japanese Genius”. She married her longtime partner, the Chinese scholar

Michael Loewe Michael Arthur Nathan Loewe (born 2 November 1922) is a British Sinologist, historian, and writer who has authored dozens of books, articles, and other publications in the fields of Classical Chinese as well as the history of ancient and ear ...

, in 2002. She had met Loewe at

. Blacker died in a nursing home in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

on 13 July 2009, her 85th birthday.

Works

* ''The Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi'', 1964 * ''The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan'', three editions 1975, 1986, 1999 * ''Ancient Cosmologies'', 1975 * ''Divination and Oracles'', 1981 * ''The Straw Sandal'', translation of a novel by

Santō Kyōden Santō Kyōden (山東京伝, 13 September 1761 Edo – 27 October 1816) was a Japanese artist, writer, and the owner of a tobacco shop during the Edo period. His real name was Iwase Samuru (岩瀬醒), and he was also known popularly as Ky� ...

, 2008

Collection of essays about Blacker's life and work

Carmen Blacker, Scholar of Japanese Religion, Myth and Folklore: Writings and Reflections
', edited by

Hugh Cortazzi Sir Arthur Henry Hugh Cortazzi, (2 May 1924 – 14 August 2018) was a British diplomat. He was also a distinguished international businessman, academic, author and prominent Japanologist. He was Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Japan ...

, Folkestone, Kent: Renaissance Books, 2017 (since made an imprint of Amsterdam University Press).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacker, Carmen 1924 births 2009 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British Japanologists Fellows of the British Academy People from Kensington Presidents of the Folklore Society

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

British expatriates in Japan Bletchley Park people