100 Years of Japanese Studies at the University of Warsaw
100 Years of Japanese Studies at the University of Warsaw

Author(s): Ewa Pałasz-Rutkowska
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Japanese Studies at the University of Warsaw; Wiesław Kotański; Japanese culture; cooperation with Japan; University of Tokyo; Polish researchers; Japanese lecturers
Summary/Abstract: This paper was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japanese Studies at the University of Warsaw. The author presents the history of the academic program and the people who created it. The beginnings date back to 1919, when, after Poland had regained its independence, Bogdan Richter, a graduate of Oriental Studies in Leipzig, launched Japanese language classes as a part of a language course at the University of Warsaw. Thanks to a donation from Baron Mitsui Takaharu, the Seminar on Chinese Studies was created in 1934. Its formation offered a possibility to conduct lectures on Japanese culture, and over the years those classes expanded into a proper university program. Formally, Japanese Studies were established after WWII by Professor Wiesław Kotański. He was the first Japanologist in Poland – a linguist, religious studies scholar, translator of Japanese literature and, above all, a tireless researcher of sources of Japanese culture. The development of Japanese Studies at the University of Warsaw was also greatly aided by all the subsequent employees – both researchers and teachers of the Japanese language. The most important among them is Sensei Okazaki Tsuneo, who has been teaching at the University of W arsaw for fifty years.

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