Tomio Mizokami (; born 1941) is a professor Emeritus of

Osaka University The , abbreviated as UOsaka or , is a List of national universities in Japan, national research university in Osaka, Japan. The university traces its roots back to Edo period, Edo-era institutions Tekijuku (1838) and Kaitokudō, Kaitokudo (1724), ...

, Japan. In 2018, he was conferred the

Padma Sri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January ...

by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony on 2 April 2018, for his contribution to the fields of literature and education.

Education

He was born in 1941 in Kobe, Japan. In 1965, he graduated from the Department of Indian studies at Osaka University of Foreign Studies. During 1965–1968, he studied

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

and Bengali in Vishva Bharati. He became a research assistant in 1968 at the Hindi Department of Osaka University of Foreign Studies. In 1972, he earned his PhD from the Department of Modern Indian Languages at the University of Delhi. In 1983, Mizokami did his PhD from

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

on Language Contact in Punjab-A sociolinguistic Study of Migrants' Language.

Career

Between June and August 1994, he taught Punjabi at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in Berkeley as part of their summer intensive course. He retired as a professor of Indian languages at the Osaka University, Japan. Post his retirement, he has been a professor Emeritus at the same university since 2007, teaching Foreign Studies. His language proficiency includes English, Hindi, Punjabi, bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Asamiya, Marathi,Kashmiri, Sindhi, Tamil, German, and French. He translated ''

Japji Sahib ''Japji Sahib'' (, pronunciation: ) is the Sikh thesis, that appears at the beginning of the '' Guru Granth Sahib'' – the scripture of the Sikhs. ''Jap'' is the original name of the prayer and to show respect, it is called ''Jap ji Sahib''. I ...

,'' a Sikh prayer into Japanese, and he is the first Japanese-Punjabi researcher.

Awards

In 2018, he was conferred the

by then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony on 2 April 2018 for his contribution to the fields of literature and education.

Publications

* 1977 - ''“Bilingualism in Punjab - A Case Study in Lyallpur City'' - “Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, Vol. XXVI, No. 2 * 1980 - ''“Linguistic Outline of Fatehabad” & “Sociolinguistic Change among Migrants in Jalandhar,”'' Rural-Urban Migration And Pattern of Employment in India, Osaka * 1981 - ''PUNJABI Asian and African Grammatical Manual No.13e'', Tokyo * 1983 - ''Introductory Punjabi'', Tokyo * 1983 - ''Punjabi Reader'', Tokyo * 1984 - ''Language Contact in Punjab'' Sociolinguistic Study of the Migrants’ Language New Delhi, Bahri Publications * 1985 - ''Practical Punjabi Conversation'', Tokyo * 1985 - ''Basic 1500 Punjabi Vocabularies'', Tokyo * 1989 - ''”Some Orthographical Problems in Punjabi,” A Computer-assisted Study of South-Asian Languages Annual Report No.1'', Tokyo * 1992 - ''“Punjabi” & “Lahnda”, World Languages Dictionary'', edited by Eiichi Chino, Takashi Kamei & Rokoro Kouno, Sanseido, Tokyo * 2004 - ''“Status of Research in Bangla and Punjabi Literatures in Japan,”'' pp 323-335 * 2004 - ''“Language Teaching and Cultural Interchange through the medium of Hindi Drama,”'' pp 341-348, Imaging India Imaging Japan: A Chronicle of Reflections on Mutual Literature, Edited by Unita Sachidanand & Teiji Sakata, Manak Publications, Delhi

Translations

* Translated

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also known as ('Father Nanak'), was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is t ...

's ''Japji Sahib'' composition into Japanese * Translated ''The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices'', by Owen Cole & Piara Singh Sambhi, into Japanese

References