Herbert Paul Varley (February 8, 1931 – December 15, 2015) was an American

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, and

Japanologist , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, History of Japan, history, ...

. He was an emeritus professor at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and Sen Sōshitsu XV Professor of Japanese Cultural History at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Career

Among other interests, his research focused on the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

and

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

in the

history of Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Japanese Paleolithic, Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the fi ...

Selected works

In an overview of writings by and about Varley,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

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lists roughly 38 works in 124 publications in 6 languages and 8,208 library holdings. :''This list is not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to it.'' * 1967 -
''The Onin War; history of its origins and background with a selective translation of the Chronicle of Onin.''
New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

. * 1968 -
''A Syllabus of Japanese Civilization.''
New York: Columbia University Press. * 1971 -- ''Imperial Restoration in Medieval Japan.'' New York: Columbia University Press.
OCLC 142480
* 1973 -
''Japanese Culture: a Short History.''
New York: Prager
OCLC 590531
* 1980 -
''A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa''
New York: Columbia University Press. * 1994 -
''Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales.''
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. * 2000—Japanese Culture. 4th Edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Honors

* Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays With Rosette, 1969.Columbia University, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Faculty Profiles
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Notes

References

* Mass, Jeffrey P. (1995)
''Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese History.''
Stanford: Stanford University Press.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varley, H. Paul 1931 births 2017 deaths Columbia University faculty American Japanologists Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class American historians