Mikael Adolphson, Associate Professor of Japanese History
Ancient and medieval Japan, social and political history of religious institutions.
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Brought up in Kalmar, Sweden, where he used a thirteenth century castle as his playground, Professor Adolphson has been a historian as long as he can remember. After graduating from high school in the late (and joyful) 1970s, he went to Lund's University, where he graduated with a B.A. in History in 1984. A premodernist, he was inspired by the similarities between medieval Europe and Japan to focus his attention on pre-1600 Japan. He spent two years studying Japanese at Stockholm University before receiving a scholarship from the Japanese Education Ministry in 1986. During the next two and a half years he lived in Kyoto and Osaka while studying at Kyoto University under the guidance of Professor Oyama Kyohei. In 1989, he entered Stanford University's Ph.D. program with Professor Jeffrey P. Mass as his mentor. Returning to Kyoto University in the spring of 1992 for dissertation research, he also worked for the Japan Volleyball Association as an interpreter. He resumed at Stanford in the fall of 1993 and finished his dissertation two years later. Before coming to Harvard in the fall of 1999, Professor Adolphson taught Japanese and East Asian History at the University of Oklahoma for four years.
Current Courses
Freshman Seminar: Sin and the City: Historical tales of Kyoto. Spring 2006
Photos and Article about Freshman Seminar Trip, Spring 2003
Harvard Crimson Article on Freshman Seminar Trip, Spring 2003
Japanese History 111a. Ancient and Medieval Japan. Fall semesters.
Japanese History 119. The History and Historiography of Ancient and Medieval Japan. Spring 2003
Japanese History 211. Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Japanese Historical Sources. Fall 2002
Historical
Study A-14. Japan: Tradition and Transformation. Spring semesters.
Current Projects
Centers and Peripheries in Heian Japan. A collaborative project focusing on the first three centuries of the Heian age (794-1185). Based on papers given at a Conference held at Harvard University, June 11-13, 2002, a conference volume is currently being edited for publication.
The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Religious Forces in Premodern Japan. A study of the origins, developments and imagery of armed religious forces.
Recent Publications
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The Gates of Power is an analysis of relations among Buddhist temples and Japan's courtier and warrior elites from the late eleventh to the late fourteenth centuries. Focusing in particular on three of Japan's most powerful temples Enryakuji, Kofukuji and Koyasan), this study puts conflicts involving religious institutions into a socio-political setting, reflecting a cooperative rulership that lasted for three centuries. |
"Kôfukuji in the Era of Retired Monarchs," in Capital and Countryside in Early and Classical Japan, edited by Joan Piggott (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press). Adaptation and translation of Motoki Yasuo's "Insei ki no Kôfukuji ni tsuite." Forthcoming.
"Warrior Monks (Sôhei)," in Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia. Ed., Thomas Green (ABC Clio: Santa Barbara, 2001), 659-664.
"Enryakuji - an Old Power in a New Environment," in The Origins of Japan s Medieval World, edited by Jeffrey P. Mass (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997)