Motoko Katakura Explained

Motoko Katakura
Birth Name:Motoko Shintani
Birth Date: 17 October 1937.
Birth Place:Nara, Nara
Nationality:Japanese
Occupation:Cultural anthropology (Middle Eastern Studies)
Known For:the first woman director of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (May 2005)
Notable Works:"Bedouin village: a study of a Saudi Arabian people in transition" (1977)[1]

(née Niiya, 17 October 1937 - 23 February 2013)[2] was a Japanese anthropologist who specialized in the Islamic world.

Early life

Born in Nara Prefecture in Japan, she moved to Kanagawa Prefecture and finished high school in 1956. She was admitted to Tsuda College as an English Language major and studied abroad during her senior year to graduate in 1962.[3] She earned her Master of Letters in 1968 at the Chuo University Graduate School,[3] and conducted research at Columbia University between 1971 and 1972 as a Visiting Research Fellow.[3]

Islamic world and multicultural studies

Katakura's main field of study was focused on the Islamic world including bedouin, and multicultural studies. In late 1960s she visited bedouin camps in Saudi Arabia for her first field research in Islamic culture, while the Katakuras lived there.Abdur-Rahim Al Aḥmadī was the best supporter for Katakura's field work in Saudi Arabia since the early stage of her research in late 1960s. He witnessed that Katakura went into the nomad society of Wadi Fatima (western Saudi Arabia) and lived among those people for a period, and she visited them several times over the years.[4] Katakura proceeded on-site research while winning the trust and affection of those people, observing the cultural heritage of their society.Working as a lecturer at her alma mater Tsuda College between 1973 and '74,[3] she obtained PhD. of Geology at Graduate School of University of Tokyo, faculty of Science in 1974.[3] Promoted as an associate professor, she continued working at Tsuda College,[3] and her hard work and tenacity on research and field work was rewarded when she published the survey results in her first book under the title of "Bedouin Village" in 1977.She appreciated the contribution and support Abdur-Rahim Al Ahmadi had offered her, and asked him writing the preface to the Arabic version of that title.

Among academic circles

With thorough academic papers followed the first book, she proofed that scientific values and her challenges in cultural anthropology was confirmed. Katakura started to extend the basis of her research during and after her tenure as a lecturer at University of Tokyo between 1975 and 1977,[3] that Katakura gave lectures at International Christian University for the term of 1975/76 and 1977/78.[3] Her teaching career extended at Tsuda College in 1978 to 1981. At the National Ethnographic Museum in Osaka she researched the Islamic world and multicultural studies including bedouin and desert culture in 1981 to 1993 at National Museum of Ethnology as a professor,[3] where she became a professor emeritus in later years.

For multiculture studies, she actively researched abroad on many offers such as a visiting professor at University of British Columbia (1985 - 1986), a Visiting Research Fellow at Research Center for Arabian Literature (1987 - 1988).[3] [5] Coming back to Japan, she was a professor at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (1989 - 1993).[3] [6] Kunio Katakura was appointed the Ambassador to Iraq and spent years over there during the early part of Gulf War. In Japan, in May 1990, the Japanese Association of Arid Land Studies was founded with Katakura as the first vice director.It was in 1993 when Katakura professed at Chuo University at the Faculty of Policy Studies which started the same year,[7] before she was nominated and became the director of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in May 2005. The director of that Center had been succeeded from Takeshi Umehara to Hayao Kawai and Tetsuo Yamaori, all who were past professors at the center, and Katakura filled her post as the first woman director without former tenure with them. Following her retirement in 2008, she became a professor emeritus at the center.

Episodes

She was married to Kunio Katakura[8] and lived overseas as a wife of a diplomat. In the United States of America, they made acquaintance with Hisashi Owada who was also a diplomat, and she recalled many times that she and her husband met his daughter Masako, the future Crown Princess of Japan during those years. During the early part of the Gulf War, she was on her research in Japan, while her husband was appointed in Iraq.

Katakura applied hiragana transcription when she got married and changed her family name to Katakura. A fortune teller advised Katakura that there were no problem to apply kanji to both her first and maiden name, or Motoko Shintani. However, the combination of both her first name and married name in kanji did not show good omen. Based on that advice, she transcribed her first name in kana rather than in kanji. On the first day at the National Museum of Ethnology as a professor, it was not quite comfortable for her to find her name inscribed in kanji only on the nameplate to her office, as she confessed in her essay.[9]

Katakura Motoko died on 23 February 2013 at the age of 75.[2] [10]

Motoko Katakura Foundation for Desert Culture

To honor Katakura Motoko's passion for her research, Motoko Katakura Foundation for Desert Culture was inaugurated on 7 November 2013,[11] with her husband Katakura Kunio as the Councilor chairperson.[12] It was a part of their aim to honor the desert culture which was yet to be popular in Japan, and they presented the first "Yutorogi Prize" to Mr and Mrs. Tadashi Nagahama of for their continued effort and dedication to desertification control activities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, for over twenty years. The Nagahamas had met Katakura in 1990, and she had encouraged them over the years and left a will to include them as a recipient.

Awards and prizes

Committee membership

Affiliated academic societies

Projects

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: Katakura, Motoko. Bedouin village: a study of a Saudi Arabian people in transition. The modern Middle East series. 8. Tokyo. University of Tokyo Press. 784944344. ja. 1977.
  2. Web site: Katakura Motokosan ga shikyo: moto kokusai nihon bunkasenta- shocho. the Nikkei. Dr.Motoko Katakura passed away: former director of the International Japanese Culture Institute. ja. 4 March 2013. 27 February 2017.
  3. Web site: KATAKURA Motoko - Researcher - researchmap . 28 February 2017.
  4. In early 1980s her husband was appointed as the Japanese ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and Katakura revisited her field of research in the desert of Wadi Fatima (western Saudi Arabia).
  5. Ibunka kankyo ni okeru musurimu ― Kanada ni okeru arabu musurimu shakai no keisei. Muslims in a Non-Islamic Environment ―With Focus on Arab Musulims in Canada. Katakura. Motoko. Research Report. 12. Osaka. 681–726. 0385-180X. National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. 15 February 1988.
  6. Ibunka kankyo no arabu musurimu ― Bankuba no ejiputojin musurimu no jireikenkyu. Muslims in a Non-Islamic Environment ―A Case Study of Egyptian Community in Vancouver, Canada. Katakura. Motoko. Research Report. 14. Osaka. 821–889. 0385-180X. National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. 19 March 1990.
  7. Web site: KATAKURA Motoko. 1 February 2011. 1 March 2017.
  8. Kunio Katakura later took on Professor of International Relations at Daito Bunka University.
  9. Book: Katakura, Motoko. Sabaku e nobiyakani. Chikuma shobo. 9784480853905. 672666966. 1987.
  10. Web site: Fuho, tsuito. Obituaries - Memorial. The Japan Society for Comparative Study of Civilizations. 1 March 2017.
  11. The official foundation day is 7 November 2013, with inauguration reception on 23 February 2014 with the honorable guest Abdur-Rahim Al Aḥmadī who had been the best supporter for Katakura's field work in Saudi Arabia. On 1 August 2014 the Foundation onened its website, and published its first newsletter on 5 November 2014.
  12. The founding members of Motoko Katakura Foundation for Desert Culture included the representative director Hiroshi Nawata, the Councilors Hiroshi Umemura, Masako Otsuka and Kunio Katakura (chairperson), board members as Shun Ishiyama, Mitsuko Watanabe, Naoko Kawata, Misao Gunji, Ryuichi Hara and Kanako Kodama. Toshiko Masumoto was the auditor.
  13. Received for: Book: Arabia nōto: Arabu no genzō wo motomete. Katakura. Motoko. ja. Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai. NHK Books. 356. 834537173. 1979.
  14. Web site: 第8期役員 (2005年11月19日~第26回大会の前日まで）. Board members, term 8 (between 19 November 2005 and a day before the 26th assenbly. The Japan Society for Comparative Study of Civilizations. 25 January 2006. ja. 1 March 2017.
  15. Nihon sabaku gakkai 2013-nendo dai-24-kai gakujutsu taikai, hyogiinkai, soukai kiji (somu hokoku). Reports:fy2013 - the 24th Symposium, Board of directors' meeting, General assembly (Office of General Affairs. OASIS: News and Communications . 23. 1 (No.82 June 2013) . The Japanese Association for Arid Land Studies. ja. June 2013.
  16. Web site: Society Directory of Japan. Science Council of Japan. ja. 1 March 2017.
  17. The 4th and 5th Vice President. The joint fund of and Motoko Katakura supports the maintenance and management of the website for Collegium Mediterranistarum. Guidance. Collegium Mediterranistarum. ja. 1 March 2017.
  18. Hitobito no chichukai sekai. People and the Mediterranean world. Katakura. Gakushikai Kaihō . 2012 . 4 (895). 19–23. ja. 5183430368. July 2012.
  19. Revised in 2000 by the Japan Institute of International Affairs.
  20. Revised to paperback as: Book: Arabia noto. Katakura. Chikuma gakugei bunko. 9784480087263. ja. 54735000. Chikuma shobo. 2002.
  21. The original title: Book: Cole, Donald Powell. Nomads of the nomads, the Āl Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter. Worlds of man (Aldine Publishing Company). 9780202011172. 1365896. Chicago. Aldine Publishing Company. 1975. registration.
  22. Revised to paperback. Book: "Ido bunkako": Isuramuno sekaiwo tazunete. Katakura. Dojidai raiburari. 9784002603506. 674441357. Iwanami shoten. 1998.
  23. Translation original: Book: Teach yourself Islam. Maqsood. Ruqaiyyah Waris. Teach yourself world faiths. 9780340859681. 721886205. London . Hodder & Stoughton. 2003.
  24. Revised to paperback. Book: Yutorogi: isuramu no yutakana jikan. Dojidai raiburari. Iwanami shoten.

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