was a Japanese historian of China and professor emeritus at

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 underg ...

Career

Ichirō Inaba graduated from the

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

Graduate School of Letters in 1966. He studied under Ichisada Miyazaki, and his doctoral thesis was on official historians of the

Six Dynasties Six Dynasties (; 220–589 or 222–589) is a collective term for six Han-ruled Chinese dynasties that existed from the early 3rd century AD to the late 6th century AD, between the end of the Eastern Han dynasty and the beginning of the Sui ...

. Following graduation, he lectured at a university for a year and two months before landing an assistant job at

Ritsumeikan University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, that traces its origin to 1869. In addition to its main campus in Kyoto, the university also has satellite campuses in Ibaraki, Osaka and Kusatsu, Shiga. Today, Ritsumeikan University is known as one o ...

, where he taught Chinese Historical Thought and Pre-Modern Chinese History after 1977. In October 1978, he visited China with a group of historians and archaeologists. He was promoted to full professor in 1979, and a year later he joined the School of Humanities at

. He stayed there for over two decades before retiring in 2005.

Works

Inaba's research focused on the historical and economic views of Chinese statesmen, historians and philosophers, including

Sang Hongyang Sang Hongyang ( Chinese: ; c. 152–November 80 BC) was a prominent official of the Han dynasty, who served Emperor Wu of Han and his successor Emperor Zhao. He is famous for his economic policies during the reign of Emperor Wu, the best know ...

Sima Guang Sima Guang (17 November 1019 – 11 October 1086), courtesy name Junshi, was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer. He was a high-ranking Song dynasty scholar-official who authored the ''Zizhi Tongjian'', a monumental work of history. B ...

Mozi Mozi, personal name Mo Di, was a Chinese philosopher, logician, and founder of the Mohist school of thought, making him one of the most important figures of the Warring States period (221 BCE). Alongside Confucianism, Mohism became the ...

Mencius Mencius (孟子, ''Mèngzǐ'', ; ) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, often described as the Second Sage () to reflect his traditional esteem relative to Confucius himself. He was part of Confucius's fourth generation of disciples, inheriting ...

, Xunzi,

Han Fei Han Fei (233 BC), also known as Han Feizi, was a Chinese Legalist philosopher and statesman during the Warring States period. He was a prince of the state of Han. Han Fei is often considered the greatest representative of Legalism for th ...

, Yuan Jue, and Zhang Xuecheng. He wrote a chapter for ''Chinese Medieval History Research'' (中国中世史研究, Kyoto University Press, 1970) and contributed several entries to the western reference book ''A Sung Bibliography'' (French: ''Bibliographie des Sung'', The Chinese University Press, 1978). His own books include ''Chinese Historical Thought: A Study of Jizhuanti'' (中国の歴史思想―紀伝体考, Sobunsha, 1999) and ''A Study of the History of Chinese Historiography'' (中国史学史の研究, Kyoto University Press, 2006), which collected his papers from several decades. He also authored a travel photography book titled ''Traveling in Jiangnan: Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai'' (江南旅情―蘇州・杭州・上海, U-Time, 2005), featuring photos from the

Jiangnan Jiangnan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. The region encompasses the city of Shanghai, the southern part of Jiangsu ...

region of China.

Death

In 2017, Inaba died from acute

subdural hematoma A subdural hematoma (SDH) is a type of bleeding in which a collection of blood—usually but not always associated with a traumatic brain injury—gathers between the inner layer of the dura mater and the arachnoid mater of the meninges surrou ...

Ikoma, Nara is a Cities of Japan, city in the northwestern end of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. It was founded on November 1, 1971. As of September 1, 2023, the city has an estimated population of 117,259, with 51,478 households. It has a p ...

. He was 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inaba, Ichirō Historians of China 1936 births 2017 deaths Kyoto University alumni Japanese sinologists 20th-century Japanese historians 21st-century Japanese historians People from Osaka Academic staff of Kwansei Gakuin University Academic staff of Ritsumeikan University