Professor Yuzo Mizoguchi: personal remembrance
Takeshi HAMASHITA
Sadly, Professor Yuzo Mizoguchipassed away on 13 July 2010.
Professor Mizoguchi (literally) changed the way we look at China and Asia from intellectual history’s point of view. He combined historical context with contemporary changingChina and Asia by tracing historical continuity of basic principle in society through the idea of ‘gong: public’ and ‘si: private’. On ideas of Asia, one of the most important characteristics of the discussion by Professor Mizoguchi is the observation of changing Asia from within as a whole in the renewed historical perspectives of the intellectual world.
There arescholars who knew Professor Mizoguchi better than I did, since his academic career spanned over half a century.Professor Sun Ge introduced and discussed whole area both intellectual history and historiography done by Professor Mizoguchi. Professor Sun Ge has discussed thoroughly almost all of works done by Professor Mizoguchi and pointed out the important theme on Japan and Asia by arguing the contexts of Japanese perception of Asia over time (Sun 1998, 2001, 2002). I believe we will have a solid and comprehensive review on Professor Mizoguchi’s many and lasting scholarly contributionsby Professor Sun Ge soon.
Here, I will confine my discussion within introduction on a part of Professor Mizoguchi’s arguments by dividing into three sections. They are, firstly, discussion on Asian Perspectives (Ajia kara kangaeru), secondly on discussion by scholars on Asia, China and Japan, and thirdly on continuing agenda to be discussed further.
Author’s biography
Takeshi Hamashita is research fellow of Oriental library at Tokyo, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University and currently Professor and Dean at the School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Sun Yat-sen University at Guangzhou. His research fields are: socio-economic history of modern China, regional history of East Asia, overseas Chinese studies, Ryukyu and maritime tributary history. Main works are: Economic History of Modern China: Chinese Maritime Custom and Open Port Market Zones (Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University, 1990), Tributary System and Modern Asia (Iwanami shoten, 2002), China, East Asia and Global Economy: From Regional and Historical perspectives (Routledge, 2008).